Tpr George Cassidy (Seville), 4^th Light Horse Regiment: The following is a letter to his mother that was published in The Lilydale Express –

‘You will know by this note that I am not yet numbered among the slain; although we’ve had a fairly rough time with ‘Jacko’. You ask me to give you a description of the country, which I will endeavor to do, but remember that I am not an Ashmead Bartlett.

To start from the beginning, from the canal out to El Arish is simply a waste stretch of plain sand, with an occasional oasis of palm trees and sometimes water. The atmosphere there is light and pure, and very healthy and comfortable in cool weather, with about one cloud annually to be seen in the sky. During the summer the sand, which reflects the heat, is very hard on the eyes.

The place is inhabited mostly by Bedouins. They are long thin, wiry fellows, with sharp features and very, dark sneaky eyes. They are most treacherous, always on the move, and quarrelling amongst themselves, and would not hesitate to draw a bead on anyone whose pockets might yield something.

The country changes between there and Gaza, where the soil is the best and would grow anything, and is said to be the home of wild flowers. They grow a lot of barley and wheat, also prickly pear (cactus) which is always the hedging around the homes of mud and there is very little passage way between – just wide enough to ride through without getting too many of the prickles in legs and arms. This prickly pear grows very high and yields fruit similar to that of our own pear (Queensland). It does not spread like ours nor even is it so prickly, but to the untrained eye it appears identical.

From Gaza to Jaffa and around Beersheba the country is mostly small hills and wadis (waterways large and small), and in spring time blooms with barley and wheat and sometimes a bit of tobacco. Jaffa, Ramleh, and Ludd change the scene. The first place where we saw Jews was in Dieran, in a bit of a depression which keeps it from view when approaching. The place seems so snug and comfortable, with all the grapes, lemon, and orange groves after so long on the barren desert.

The Jews are a clean people. Their houses, painted white, with red roofs show up attractively among the green trees. Jaffa, Ramleh, and Ludd are all peopled with Jews. Jaffa on the sea coast, looks best, and on the sea front side the houses are built on a gradual slope, and from the coast they look very pretty. After leaving Jaffa, the coastline turns due north and the country is flat for about ten miles inland and then come the great Judean ranges, south-west approximately, to the west of Beersheba.

The hills are precipitous and rough, and the ascent was accomplished on our hands and knees, with a spell every fifty yards or so and the descent on that portion of the anatomy which fits so nicely into an armchair. Little villages of Bedouins, nestling on the hills in most impossible places, make the bird’s eye view picturesque. The Bedouins here are different; they speak differently, and are different in complexion-three parts black and one part white, but much the same in build and character. Even occasionally one strikes a white one.

The boundary of the two kingdoms which were formed by the splitting up of the ten tribes of whom you read in the Bible was about there. Later on there was no need for a boundary because the tribes from the Jerusalem side realised their strength and just hopped in and conquered the whole turn-out. Jerusalem is about fifteen or twenty miles from the foothills of the range and just about the summit. A road leads up to Jerusalem through these hills, and anyone travelling along can get his fill of scenery. It is hard to understand why they built the holy city there, but perhaps they thought it could not be approached by invading armies; but that has long since been proved wrong.

From Jerusalem to Jericho the hills drop, and until the Jordan valley is reached the britches is used. Coming off the range into the valley, you overlook the Dead Sea and the River Jordan. The valley runs north to the Sea of Galilee and is about fifteen miles wide. I did not really see much of Jerusalem except riding through, but I found it to be a much bigger place than I judged it to be by the photos I have seen. The place is quite busy, and business goes on just as if there were no war on, except that the military swell the traffic a little.

Its churches are rare samples of architecture, especially the Russian, which has golden domes and great spires standing high above the beautiful trees which surround it. Where the zigzag road runs out into the Jordan valley you come right on to Jericho, a one-time beautiful city, now composed mostly of mud huts. West from Jericho stands the Mount of Temptation, on the flat top of which stands a big wall, built high and strong. The difficulty of procuring a new pair of breeches prevented me from making the ascent, therefore I don’t know what might be inside the walls.

On the side of this hill and about half way up, where it is most precipitous, a monastery is built into the rock. A path leads up to it from the northern side. In this so-called monastery is the stone on which Jesus sat for forty days and forty nights. The monks in this place could speak English, but pressure of work and a dash of laziness prevented me from obtaining what information they had to impart. The Sodom and Gomorrha mob dwelt about here, and Lot’s wife insisted on looking back and became a pillow of salt. Someday I may collect sufficient energy to speak further parables’.