shoemakers and doctors. They were all
accustomed to work with their hands, and they were prepared to do, not
only whatever hard work was to be done in their own colony, but also to
do any jobs for their neighbours, wherever their superior skill might be
employed. They were strong, patient, sober, devout, and they entered on
their work with lofty but calm enthusiasm. One branch settled at Jaffa,
on the ruins of an American colony which had been led there by a Mr.
Adams, and which ended in sad disaster. Another has settled "under the
shadow of Mount Carmel," about a mile out of Haifa, and a third near
Jerusalem. Besides settling in these places, some of the girls were
prepared to go out as servants, with results, in some cases, that cannot
be detailed. The first batch of these colonists settled near Nazareth in
1867, and all died of malarious fever.[60] But the German colonists were
not daunted by preliminary disaster, and they have been since battling
with the difficulties of the situation with a patient energy bordering
on heroism.

Mr. Oliphant visited the colonies at Jerusalem and Haifa, and after
describing the streets and gardens and homesteads created by German
industry, he adds, "The colonists have scarcely any trouble in their
dealings with the Government."

Captain Conder, who spent much time among the colonists, gives a more
realistic picture. He says--

"The Turkish government is quite incapable of appreciating their
real motives in colonization, and cannot see any reason beyond a
political one for the settlement of Europeans in the country. The
colonists have therefore _never obtained title-deeds to the land
they have bought_, and there can be little doubt that should the
Turks deem it expedient they would entirely deny the right of the
Germans to hold their property. Not only do they extend no favour
to the colony, though its presence has been most beneficial to the
neighbourhood, but the inferior officials, indignant at the
attempts of the Germans to obtain justice, without any regard to
'the customs of the country' (that is, to bribery), have thrown
every obstacle they can devise in the way of the community, both
individually and collectively."[61]

The two most successful agricultural enterprises in Palestine are those
of Bergheim and Sursuk, and as these are often referred to with a view
to induce Englishmen to embark capital in simila