TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.
Ignatius Pallme, a Bohemian by birth, it would appear, undertook the journey to Kordofan, on commission, for a mercantile establishment at Cairo, in the hope of discovering new channels of traffic with Central Africa. In the pursuit of his object, he sojourned longer in the country than any European before him; the information he furnishes respecting the present state of this province of Egypt in particular, and of the Belled Soudan in general, may, therefore, be considered the most authentic in existence at the present time. That few travellers have visited these countries, and subjected the information they were enabled to collect to print, may be deduced from the facts, that scarcely one-half of the places mentioned in the work before us are to be found on the most recent maps; and that in referring to the literature on these countries, for making a comparison between Pallme’s opinions and those of other authors, many difficulties were experienced, and many researches proved ungratified. The original is characterised by an ingenuous and unassuming style; and it has been my chief endeavour to paraphrase the text as closely as compatible with the two languages. Those idiomatic constructions which may be met with in the translation, are owing to this strict adherence to the original; but I have at least the consolation of knowing that the loss by solecism may be considered as gain in authenticity—the chief object of the undertaking. Pallme’s orthography has been generally followed as regards Arab terms, excepting where the same words are familiar to the public in a different garb, or where they are to be found otherwise spelt, in at least two accredited English authors; for it was impossible to furnish the certain literation, as the Arab character is not affixed to the original text.
The Translator.
London,
May 1st, 1844.