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ADINA, the writer of the following letters, was the only child
of Manasseh Benjamin, who, though an Israelite of the tribe
of Judah, was a native of the Græco-Romano city of Alexandria.
His ancestor was the learned David Esdras Manasseh, one of the
Septuaginta (or LXX) appointed by Ptolemy Philadelphus in the
year B. C. 277 to translate the Bible from the original Hebrew
tongue into Greek. Esdras, with his companions, having accomplished
this important work, was invited by the king to remain in
Egypt, where he died at an advanced age, holding an office of
trust and honor. His descendants for five generations were
eminent men, and shared the confidence of the rulers of Egypt,
under whom they accumulated riches which were finally inherited
by Manasseh Benjamin, a man not unworthy of so eminent an
ancestry. He was revered in Alexandria for his integrity,
wisdom and rank, as well as for his learning and wealth, and was
honored with the friendship of the Roman Pro-consul, Rufus
Lucius Paulinus. His love and veneration for the land of his
fathers, for the Holy City and Temple of Jehovah, were not
lessened by his nativity as an Egyptian Jew, and as he had been
in his youth sent to Jerusalem by his father, to be educated in the
laws of Moses, so he resolved that his daughter should share the

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same privileges, be taught as bessemed a Jewish woman, and the
inheritress of his name and wealth.

After a tedious journey of seventeen days by the way of Gaza,
the lovely Adina at length came in sight of the walls and tower
of the city of Zion. The caravan halted upon the ridge, and the
Jewish travellers composing it alighted and prostrated themselves
in adoration before the city of David, and the mountain of
Moriah, made sacred by the footsteps of Abraham. The maiden
unveiled and bowed her head with sacred awe. It was her first
sight of Jerusalem—the city of her fathers, the place of her
parent, which, from her earliest childhood, she had heard speak
with the profoundest reverence. As she gazed upon it, she
thought of Isaac, who had been bound upon an altar on yonder
height, now glittering with walls overlaid with marble and gold;
of Isaiah, who had been sawn asunder in the gloomy valley at
her feet; of David and his glory; of Solomon and his wisdom;
of the host of Prophets who had trod its streets or wandered upon
its hills. Rapidly her memory brought to her mind the history of
the mighty past, of the sieges the city had withstood against the
Assyrians, the Persians, the Egyptians, and the nations of the
earth; of the carrying away into captivity of her countrymen;
of the demolition of its walls and of its Temple; and its rebuilding
by Ezra. But most of all she dwelt with holy fear upon the
thought that the presence of God, of Jehovah, had dwelt there
century after century, visibly, in unbearable Fire, within the
inner sanctuary of the Temple; and that there He had spoken
with man, as it were, face to face. She thought also of the Ark of
the Covenant, of the Tables of Stone, of Aaron's budded rod, and
of the brazen serpent which were laid up in the Temple; and her
heart beat with emotion such as she had never felt before. Lower,
and with more awful veneration, she bent her head in grateful
reverence to Him who had so distinguished above all nations her
nation, above all cities the city of her fathers and of the Prophets!
Then she raised her eyes in pride that she was a Jewess, and

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looked around proudly upon the noble landscape which, in her
imagination, it seemed must be as familiar to the eyes of angels as
to men, so closely had Heaven connected itself with that chosen
spot.

The Arabs, her attendants, had also bowed and kneeled in the
presence of the sacred towers; but it was in honor of Abraham
and the patriarchs, their ancestors through Ishmael, who they
believed lay with Isaac and Jacob in sepulchres upon Mount Zion.

Adina's proud glance around was arrested by the sight of a
cohort of soldiers that came galloping up the ridge from the city,
with a glittering eagle carried in advance.

“The Romani! The Romani!” cried the guides, and rising
from their knees they remounted in haste, and used every exertion
to leave the road open to the approaching troop of horse. An
Israelitish muleteer, a few rods below in the path, who could not
get out of the way soon enough, was over-run and thrown to the
ground, and the cavalcade swept onward to the summit of the
hill, disregarding him.

The cheek of Adina paled at this sight, but it was not from
fear. All her pride died away in her heart; and she forgot the
glory of the past, in the sense of the present degradation. In the
first exultation of her emotions at fastening her eyes upon Jerusalem,
she had forgotten that the land of the Prophets and of kings
anointed by God, was now a conquered Roman province. But
the sight of the Roman cohort brought this painful reality to her
mind, and veiling her face, she was overcome by the deepest
sadness.

The troops passed her and her escort like a whirlwind of war,
with ringing spurs, jingling bits, clashing shields, and the noise of
the tramp of five hundred hoofs. She could no longer gaze upon
the city with joy and pride. The words of Jeremiah rose to her
lips:

“How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a
cloud in his anger! Is this the city that men call the perfection of

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beauty, the joy of the whole earth? The Lord has cast us off
from being a nation, and the name of Israel is remembered no
more!”

Tears, free and bountiful, relieved the fullness of her heart, and
like a true daughter of Jerusalem, she mourned over the departed
glory of her people.

Once more they rode on, winding down around a hill covered
with tombs, one of which was pointed out to her by a Jewish
Rabbi, under whose care she was journeying, as that of the
prophet Jeremiah. Leaving this tomb on the left, they crossed a
small valley, green and beautiful with groves, fountains and terraces,
and thronged with a mixed multitude, both men and
women, who seemed to be enjoying a promenade there, outside the
city walls; there were also booths arranged on one side of the
shady walk, where merchants from all parts of the earth were
selling. The Rabbi accounted for this concourse by informing her
that they had arrived at Jerusalem on a great feast day. Avoiding
this multitude they moved on their way to the right, and
ascended a low eminence from which Jerusalem, in another point
of view, burst upon them in all the splendor of its still unconquerable
magnificence; for with all its vicissitudes of misfortune, in
wars, sieges and desolation, the Jerusalem of the Romans was still
a majestic metropolis, and, in a great degree, meriting its appellation
of the “Queen of the nations.”

“How beautiful!” exclaimed Adina, unconsciously reining up
her camel.

“Man cannot destroy the city of God,” said the Rabbi, with
haughty confidence. “She will stand forever.”

“Point out to me, good Rabbi Ben Israel, the prominent places!
What is that frowning castle beyond the Temple which looks so
strong and warlike?”

“That is the `City of David,' the castle of the kings! It protects
the Temple and town. David fortified himself in it, and so
did the noble Maccabees. It was built by Melchisedec, the first

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king of Jerusalem, and the friend of our father Abraham. It is
now garrisoned by a thousand Roman soldiers.”

The Jewish girl sighed, and then her eyes being attracted by a
graceful tower which the sunbeams of the west burnished like
gold, she inquired what it was.

“The one with the palm growing by its side and nearly as
lofty?” asked the Rabbi, who seemed to take pleasure in gratifying
the curiosity of his lovely protegé.

“Yes, the same.”

“That is David's Tower. Upon it David's watchman stood
when he was looking for tidings from Absalom; and the wood
you see far to the north-east is the `wood of Ephraim,' wherein
Prince Absalom was slain.”

“And what palace is that which the setting sun lights up so
brilliantly, as if it were covered with plates of silver?”

“That is the palace of the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate,
who reigns in Jerusalem as a king. But why do you shudder?”
he asked, as he beheld her change countenance; but following the
direction of her eyes to their right, he beheld, not far distant,
a score of crosses bristling upon a small eminence opposite the
city-gate; and two of the crosses held bodies nailed to them,
while a guard of soldiers and a crowd of people stood near
looking on and watching the writhings of the victims. The
groans and execrations of one of them distinctly reached the ears
of Adina.

“That is the Hill of Calvary, daughter,” said the Rabbi, with a
look of outward indifference. “It is where the Romans execute
their malefactors. Two have suffered to-day. It is a cruel punishment,
not so mild as stoning to death; but the Romans have
little feeling. Let us ride on.”

On the left they wound round the wall of a garden that seemed
to be open to the public, as in some places the enclosure was
thrown down. Several persons were seen within, walking up
and down, or reclining under the shade of olive trees.

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“That is Solomon's garden, now called Gethsemane,” said the
Rabbi; “it is now like all the royal woods, desolate.”

“Yet beautiful in its desolation. How majestically the walls
of the Temple rise heavenward, seen from this valley! What
noble hill, partly covered with trees, is this behind the garden?”

“Olivet, also a portion of the king's gardens in the days of
Israel's glory. The village beyond it is Bethlehem!”

“What, the Bethlehem of Judah, out of which the prophet
says shall come a Ruler over Israel?”

“The same; and we look one day to have that prophecy fulfilled.
It cheers us with the assurance that Jerusalem shall not
forever be trodden down of the nations, but one day have a king
and governor of the royal seed of David.”

“And do any of the family of David now exist?” asked Adina,
fixing her eyes earnestly upon the bearded face of the Rabbi.

“Yes, or the prophecy could not be accomplished. But they
are, as far as known, poor and humble; but I have no doubt that
in some part of the world among the nations, exists some of the
sacred stock who are reigning princes, as Daniel and Joseph
reigned in Persia and Egypt, from whence they shall come as
conquerors to rule over Israel.”

“How then can they spring from yonder little village of Bethlehem?”
asked the maiden.

The Rabbi looked a little embarrassed, and was about to make
some reply to this difficult question, when their road was blocked
up by a flock of sheep, mingled with a drove of cattle, being
driven into the city for the altars of sacrifice. It was with some
delay they made their way through these obstacles and came to
the gate of Damascus. Here they were detained by the Roman
guard and made to show their passports, and to pay thirty sesterces
for every camel, and half as many for each mule in the
caravan.

The scene in the streets was quite bewildering to Adina, who
had been journeying so many days through a desert; but as the

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dwelling of the relations of her father was near the gate, she was
soon in the arms of her friends, who, though they had never seen
her before, received her affectionately, as much for her father's
sake, who had commended her to their protection, as for her own
prepossessing loveliness.

Just entering her seventeenth year, the daughter of the rich
Alexandrian was in the prime of female charms. Her hair was
an auburn brown, long, and shining like gold; her face oval, and
transparently olive in its color, tinted with the least perceptible
roseate; her eyes large, and of the most splendid light and glory
of expression; her nose straight and finely outlined, and her
mouth exquisitely shaped with an expression of heavenly sweetness.

Having been kindly welcomed, and finding every preparation
made for her comfort and happiness, she gave a few days to repose,
and then, on the return of the caravan, addressed the following
letter to her father. This letter was followed by many others, all
of which it is our intention to give to the reader, as they are written
at a period the most interesting of any other of which history
takes record. The first letter is dated, according to the Jewish
chronology, three years before the crucifixion of our Savior.

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