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THE Survey of Palestine was actually commenced at the end of the year 1871. Preliminary reconnaissances of parts of Palestine had been previously made by Captain Anderson, R.E., and Captain Warren, R.E., and the Ordnance Survey of the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, with the line of levels from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, and from Jerusalem to Solomon’s Pools, had been executed by Major Wilson, R.E.

It was by the advice of these experienced explorers that the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund undertook the Survey of Western Palestine, to the scale of one inch to the mile, the object being the complete examination of the whole country, with an amount of accuracy approaching that of Ordnance work.

The officer to whom this great work was entrusted was Captain Stewart, R.E., and his staff consisted of Sergeant Black and Corporal Armstrong, R.E.; Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake was also appointed as linguist and archæologist to the expedition.

The work met with a most serious check at its commencement. Captain Stewart, arriving in the most unhealthy time of the year, and engaged in a most unhealthy part of the country, while measuring the base line, was struck down with fever and invalided home. The Committee then honoured me with the offer of the command, as his successor, and I was instructed to proceed as soon as possible to Palestine.

In the meantime the little party, under the care of Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake, pursued its labours, and carried the Survey up the country to Jerusalem, and thence to Nâblus, accomplishing in the first half of 1872 about 500 square miles. This work has since, under my direction, been re-examined, and the excellent character of this part of the map reflects the highest credit on the zeal and care of the two surveyors, who, though ignorant of the language and unaccustomed to the style of work required, yet succeeded in recovering everything of value in the district; nor does it less reflect credit on the tact and judgment of my lamented friend Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake, on whom devolved the arduous task of organising and managing the infant expedition.

I reached Palestine on the 8th of July, 1872, and from that date, until the 1st October, 1875, the work was pushed on with scarcely any interruption, except during my absence for four months in 1874, when I returned to England to recruit my health, which was seriously impaired by the hardships encountered in the Jordan Valley.

After the attack on the party at Safed in 1875, the work was suspended for a year. When I left Palestine four-fifths of the Survey was completed, and the remaining fifth was happily carried out during the year 1877 under the command of Lieutenant Kitchener, and the great map now extends over 6000 square miles, from Dan to Beersheba, and from Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.

Palestine is thus brought home to England, and the student may travel, in his study, over its weary roads and rugged hills without an ache, and may ford its dangerous streams, and pass through its malarious plains without discomfort.

This work was thus carried out by a party never stronger than five in number as regards Europeans, and was completed in little over five years in the field. The account given of the country will, I hope, be more complete than anything of the kind yet attempted for any Eastern land.

The results of the Survey are published as follows: First, a map in twenty-six sheets to the scale of one inch to the statute mile. Secondly, a reduced map engraved on copper to the scale of 660 yards to the inch.

The one-inch sheets are each accompanied by a memoir containing all the information collected by the Survey Party. Section A gives a geographical and topographical account of the country included in the sheet. Section B is an archæological description of the ruined sites. Section C includes the ethnographical notes and the local traditions of the district. The text of this memoir, with exception of Sections A and B, for sheets 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, has been my work, under the editorship of Mr. G. Grove and Colonel C. W. Wilson, R.E. The nomenclature of the Survey, including about 9000 Arabic names, has been arranged in indexes for each sheet, and edited by Professor E. H. Palmer. The memoir will contain information which I have at various times carefully abstracted from more than fifty standard works, including Egyptian, Samaritan, and Talmudic writings, the early Christian Itineraries, and the mediæval chronicles, besides the Bible narrative, and the works of Josephus and other classical authorities.

It is evident that so great a work requires some general résumé, to bring it within the reach of the general public, who might not read the memoir, or would fail to obtain from it any very vivid idea of Palestine, or of the discoveries made there during the execution of the Survey.

The present volume is intended to supply this want, and to form a popular introduction to the work of the Survey Party.

The main object of the Survey of Palestine may be said to have been to collect materials in illustration of the Bible. Few stronger confirmations of the historic and authentic character of the Sacred Volume can be imagined than that furnished by a comparison of the Land and the Book, which shows clearly that they tally in every respect. Mistaken ideas and preconceived notions may be corrected; but the truth of the Bible is certainly established, on a firm basis, by the criticisms of those who, familiar with the people and the country, are able to read it, not as a dead record of a former world or of an extinct race, but as a living picture of manners and of a land, which can still be studied by any who will devote themselves to the task.

The study is threefold. It includes the minute investigation of the detailed topography of the Bible. Former explorers have done much in this respect; but it may be claimed for the Survey that the new discoveries are almost as numerous as all those of former travellers put together.

The second branch is that of archæology. The Survey includes a complete examination of the ancient condition of the country. The old cultivation is traced by the wine-presses, olive-presses, ruined terraces, and rude garden watch-towers. The ancient sites are recognised by their tombs, cisterns, and rocky scarps. Thus we are entitled to draw conclusions as to the ancient cultivation, climate, and water-supply of Palestine, in Bible times.

The third branch is the study of the people. To this I offer a contribution in the chapters devoted to the peasantry and to other inhabitants of Palestine. I trust they may serve to show how rich a field of inquiry is opened to the student among the ancient indigenous population of the Holy Land.

In concluding these remarks, I would say a few words on the subject of identification. What is an identification? It is the recovery of an ancient historic site, still known to the natives under its original name, or a modification of that name, though unknown to Europeans. It is evident that the requisites for a satisfactory identification are—first, the suitability of the position to all the known accounts of the place; second, the preservation of all the radical parts of the name; third, in the case of the loss of the name, we require definite indications—such as measured distances, or some connection with existing buildings, or relative position to known sites. The site must show traces of antiquity, and the name must be placed beyond the suspicion of being of recent or spurious origin; the correspondence of the modern and ancient titles must, also, not be merely apparent, but must be radically exact. Failing these requirements, no identification will stand the criticism which is now brought to bear on newly-proposed discoveries.

A second question is intimately connected with this subject—namely, the authority of Christian tradition. We should not underrate this valuable means of tracing ancient and sacred sites, which has, we may hope, handed down to us the positions of such holy places as the Grotto of Bethlehem, and Jacob’s well at Shechem; nor lay aside tradition because it is tradition, disregarding one of the few ways of settling the locality of places which were quite as sacred in the fourth century as they are now.

On the other hand, a careful and minute inspection of the fourth-century writings cannot but lead to one conclusion: that Christian tradition can be taken only as an indication, not as an authority. Unsupported by other evidence, the tradition is not, in itself, sufficient to fix any site as authentic; yet most valuable hints may often be obtained by a study of these early descriptions of the land.

We may take as an example the famous Onomasticon of Eusebius and Jerome. We are now able to point out, on the map, almost every place, the position of which is clearly defined in the Onomasticon by measurement, or by reference to neighbouring places; for in almost every case the name still exists, and these places number about 200 in all.

There is thus no question that the land was thoroughly well known to Jerome and Eusebius; but when we turn from their facts to their theories, we find that the confusion is hopeless; the places proposed as identical with those noticed in the Bible are quite as often impossibly guessed as correctly fixed. In fact, the early fathers too often jumped at conclusions, and, in the fourth century, there were no critics to contradict them. This view may be supported by any number of instances. In the cases of Shiloh and Bethhoron, the sites mentioned are those now accepted. In those of Nob and Ajalon, Jerome’s identifications are not in any way capable of being reconciled with the Scripture narrative. Thus it is only as regards personal acquaintance with ancient Palestine fifteen centuries ago, that the Onomasticon has any real value.

The observations which apply to this work—the earliest and ablest of the Christian descriptions of Palestine—apply with equal force to all succeeding accounts; and few writers would attempt to justify the wild theories of the mediæval chroniclers, whose identifications, in many cases, contradict alike the Biblical accounts, and the views of the earlier Byzantine pilgrims.

With a single exception, Christian tradition regarding sacred places cannot be traced back earlier than the fourth century—the exception is the Grotto of Bethlehem. But Christian sites appear often to be fixed by Jewish tradition: and when such is the case, their reliability is evidently increased, their history being carried back to an earlier source. This latter really reliable class of traditions is distinguished by the fact that the Jewish or Samaritan, and generally the Moslem traditions point, in such cases, to the same spots venerated by the Christians. The sites of the Temple, and of Jacob’s well, with Joseph’s tomb, the sepulchres of the Patriarchs, and of Joshua, Phinehas, and Eleazar, are pointed out at the same spots by Jew, Christian, and Moslem; and there is every reason to suppose these to be authentic traditions.

It is, therefore, by consent of evidence that the true and indigenous origin of a tradition may be tested. Where this consent does not exist, it is to the Jewish and indigenous, rather than to the later Christian tradition, that we should turn, as the latter must evidently be in such cases of foreign origin.

This distinction will be carefully observed in the following pages; and, by pointing out the cases in which there is a general consent of the Jewish, Moslem, and Christian traditions, it is hoped that everything of real value preserved by tradition will be finally selected.

C. R. C.

Christmas, 1877.

TENT WORK IN PALESTINE.