ia and Egypt had been conquered by the Arabs, and the
famous cities of Jerusalem and Alexandria were filled with teachers
of the new faith. The Mohammedans had conquered Spain and were pressing
by Persia towards India.

What deep root their preaching took in these parts is still evident.
Still the weary fight between the two religions continues.

The first traveller of note through this distracted Europe was a
Frenchman named Arculf, a Christian bishop. When he had visited the
Holy Land and Egypt his ship was caught in a violent storm and driven
on to the west coast of Scotland. After many adventures Arculf found
himself at the famous convent of Iona, made welcome by an Irish monk
Adamnan, who was deeply interested in Arculf's account of his
wanderings, and wrote them down at his dictation, first on waxed
tablets, copied later on to parchment. How tenderly the two monks dwell
on all the glories of Jerusalem. "But in that beautiful place where
once the Temple had been, the Saracens now frequent a four-sided house
of prayer, which they have built, rudely constructing it by raising
boards and great beams on some remains of ruins, which house can hold
three thousand men at once." And Arculf draws on the waxed tablet the
picture of some church or tomb to make his narrative clearer to his
friend Adamnan.

Perhaps the most interesting part of all the travels is the account
of the lofty column that Arculf describes in the midst of Jerusalem.

"This column," he says, "as it stands in the centre of the heaven,
shining straight down from above, proves that the city of Jerusalem
is situated in the middle of the earth."

Arculf's journey aroused great interest among the newly converted
Christians of the north, and Willibald, a high-born Englishman,
started off in 721 to explore farther. But the road through Europe
was now full of danger. The followers of Mohammed were strong, and
it required true courage to face the perils of the long journey.
Willibald was undaunted, and with his father and two brothers he sailed
from Southampton, crossed to France, sailed up the Seine to Rouen,
and reached Italy. Here the old father died. Willibald and his brothers
travelled on through "the vast lands of Italy, through the depths of
the valleys, over the steep brows of the mountains, over the levels
of the plains, climbing on foot the difficult passes of the Alps, over
the icebound and snow-capped summits," till they arrived at Rome.
Thence