onquered Jerusalem
in 1187, and the third crusade was inaugurated, which resulted in
securing the right to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem free from taxes. The
power of the Crusaders was now broken. Another band assembled at
Venice in 1203 to undertake the fourth crusade, but they never entered
Palestine. The fifth effort was made, and Frederick, Emperor of Germany,
crowned himself king of Jerusalem in 1229, and returned to his native
land the next year. The Turks conquered Palestine in 1244 and burned
Jerusalem. Louis IX. of France led the seventh crusade, another failure,
in 1248. He undertook it again in 1270, but went to Africa, and Prince
Edward of England entered Palestine in 1271 and accepted a truce for ten
years, which was offered by the Sultan of Egypt. This, the eighth and
last crusade, ended in 1272 by the return of Edward to England. In 1280
Palestine was invaded by the Mamelukes, and in 1291 the war of the
Crusaders ended with the fall of Acre, "the last Christian possession in
Palestine." Besides these efforts there were children's crusades for the
conversion or conquest of the Moslems. The first, in 1212, was composed
of thirty thousand boys. Two ship loads were drowned and the third was
sold as slaves to the Mohammedans.

In 1517 the country passed to the control of the Ottoman Empire, and so
remained until 1832, when it fell back to Egypt for eight years. The
present walls around Jerusalem, which inclose two hundred and ten acres
of ground, were built by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1542. In 1840
Palestine again became Turkish territory, and so continues to this day.
The really scientific exploration of the land began with the journey
of Edward Robinson, an American, in 1838. In 1856 the United States
Consulate was established in Jerusalem, and twelve governments are now
represented by consulates. Sir Charles Wilson created an interest in the
geography of Palestine by his survey of Jerusalem and his travels in
the Holy Land from 1864 to 1868. Palestine was surveyed from Dan to
Beer-sheba and from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the years from 1872
to 1877. The Siloam inscription, the "only known relic of the writing *
* * of Hezekiah's days," was discovered in 1880. The railroad from Jaffa
to Jerusalem was opened in 1892. Within the last ten years several
carriage roads have been built. Protestant schools and missions have
been established at many important places. The population of the city is
now about f