H eadlines
Letter from 1834 on US Diplomatic Visit to
Holy Land Surfaces at Jerusalem Auction
I SR AEL
ASAF SHALEV | JTA.ORG
A DETAILED ACCOUNT of
one of the earliest American
diplomatic voyages to Palestine
has surfaced as part of an
upcoming auction in Jerusalem.

The account appears in a
handwritten letter from one
of the passengers of the USS
Delaware, a U.S. Navy ship that
visited the Mediterranean Sea
in 1834 and made a stop at the
port town of Jaffa, then under
the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

Sent from the Spanish island
of Menorca and addressed to
Circleville, Ohio, the four-page
letter describes several histori-
cally significant moments in the
sailing ship’s journey, including
a stop in Palestine and a visit
with the first American diplomat
stationed in the region.

According to Kedem Auction
House, the letter’s existence was
entirely unknown to scholars
who study the history of the
Holy Land and U.S. diplomacy
in Palestine. The anonymous
collector who spotted the letter
and realized its importance
usually focuses on the history
of the Israeli postal service. That
person bought the item from
another collector who had
been holding it as an artifact of
relevance for U.S maritime and
postal history.

“This letter is of great
importance to both the history
of American Jewry as well as
to the history of the State of
Israel,” Kedem CEO Meron
Eren said in a statement. “It’s
amazing to read, if only to
learn about relations between
the United States and Palestine
at the time.”
The passenger
who authored the letter, Lewis
Woofley, describes traversing
much of the Mediterranean
on an eastbound route along
the coasts of France, Italy
and Greece with stops at
various islands. Eventually,
the sailing ship reached the
port of Alexandria in Egypt.

Well-versed in the geography
of antiquity, Woofley is thrilled
at the sight of various ruins,
noting locations mentioned in
ancient folklore.

An extended stop in Egypt
allowed Woofley and other
passengers of the USS Delaware
to venture inland where they
had an encounter with the local
ruler, Mohammad Ali. Known
today as the founder of Egypt,
Ali was busy fashioning a
modern nation out of the ancient
kingdom when this audience of
Western visitors arrived.

“We rowed once [sic] the bay
to his palace, where we were
received by him seated on his
divan in one corner of the room,”
Woofley wrote. “He did not rise
to meet us, but kept his crossed-
legged position reclining his
head and motioning us to be
seated. Coffee was handed us
in fine china goblets resting on
golden stands.”
During the conversation,
the “good-natured” Pasha, as
Woofley refers to him, displayed
a charisma that apparently won
over his visitors.

“The Pasha is one of the
most interesting men, in many
respects, of the age,” Woofley
writes. “The changes that he has
introduced among his subjects,
the improvements that he has
made and is still carrying on in
Egypt are immense.”
From Egypt, the ship sailed
northeast along the coast until
reaching the shores of the
Holy Land. This is how excited
Woofley was on the morning of
arrival, according to the letter:
“The Holy Land! Palestine! The
feelings, the reflections, the
ecstasies, you may more readily
imagine than I describe.”
An American diplomat
stationed in Palestine, David
Darmon, boarded the ship and
briefed the visitors on what
conditions to expect when
they disembark. Darmon
was a French Jew who served
as a consular agent, the first
American representative in the
area. Little is known about him,
which makes the discovery of
the letter significant.

Woofley was excited to make
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but
Darmon delivered some news
that seemed to quash that
possibility. Palestine was in
an “unsettled state.” Darmon
shared news of bad roads,
bandits and a dangerous plague
gripping the area.

“What a pity!” Woofley
writes. “After having come so
far and being so near to it —
Like Moses, we are only to be
permitted to see the Promised
Land but not to enter it.”
Kedem expects the letter to
fetch a price of between $2,000
and $4,000, with the proceeds
going to an anonymous seller. l
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The first page of a newly
discovered letter written by a
passenger of the USS Delaware
in 1834, following one of the first
American voyages to Palestine
Courtesy of Kedem Auction House,
Jerusalem via JTA.org
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MAY 13, 2021
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