PREFACE.
IF the desire of literary fame were the chief motive for submitting to public notice the following sheets, the writer is not so far blinded by self-love, as not to be conscious of having failed of his object. The simple narrative of a journey is perhaps as little a proper source of reputation for elegance of composition, as a journey of the kind described is in itself of the pleasures of sense. But the present, from various circumstances, comprehends so small a portion of what might be expected from the observations of several years, that he has been often disposed to give it a different title.
The retrospect on the events of his life which are briefly mentioned in the ensuing pages, offers him a mixed sensation. The hopes with which he undertook the voyage, even without being very sanguine, contrasted with the disappointment with which he now sits down to relate its occurrences, allow him little satisfaction from what has been executed. He feels, however, some confidence of not experiencing severe censure when his design shall be understood. The work is not offered as elaborate or perfect. The account of Dar-Fûr fills up a vacancy in the geography of Africa; and of a country so little known, the information obtained should not be estimated by its quantity, but by its authenticity. Sitting in a chamber in Kahira or Tripoli, it is easy to give a plausible account of Northern Africa, from Sennaar and Gondar to Tombuctoo and Fez. It would not be difficult even to sanction it by the authority of the Jelabs. These people are never at a loss whatever question is asked them, and if they know not the name of the place inquired for, they recollect some other place of a name a little resembling it in sound, and describe what they never heard of by what they know. With regard to manners they are as little to be relied on. Ask but a leading question, and all the miracles of antiquity, of dogheaded nations, and men with tails, will be described, with their situation, habits, and pastimes.
But their descriptions, when given without the smallest appearance of interested views, if verified on the spot, are constantly found defective or erroneous.
The writer is aware, that when the length of the time he passed in Dar-Fûr is considered, the short account here given will appear, to persons accustomed to the busy scenes of Europe, but very imperfectly to fill up the void. Confiding, however, that those of more reflection and experience in travelling, will be better pleased with a short and clear narrative of what really happened, than by frivolous anecdotes or remarks, inserted merely to swell the size of the volume, he has contented himself with extracting from his journal the principal occurrences during his residence there, and giving them the connection required; at the same time omitting nothing that could any way contribute to throw light on the state of the country, or character of the inhabitants.
A more creative imagination would have drawn more animated pictures; a mind more disposed to observation would have collected more facts and incidents; and a more vigorous intellect would have converted those facts and incidents into materials of more interesting and more striking investigation. The descriptions would have been more impressive, and the deductions more profound.
The present work has the merit of being composed from observations made in the places and on the subjects described. But the praise of fidelity, the only one to which the writer lays claim, cannot be received till another shall have traced his footsteps.
With respect to Egypt a greater number of persons may be found who are qualified to decide, and there is not the same reason for suspension of judgment.
Without pretending to any extraordinary sources of information, the writer hopes, that what is here said will afford some little satisfaction to those who wish for the latest information concerning that country. He arrogates not to himself the praise of augmenting greatly the sum of knowlege already to be found in books; but very widely dispersed, and within the reach of comparatively few persons.
Innumerable books have been written on Egypt, but none of them, in our language, can pretend to a popular plan. Those of Pococke and Norden are most known to ourselves—valuable works for all that concerns the antiquities, and they are by no means superseded. The form and price, however, at this time keep them out of the hands of the greater number.
Niebuhr’s writings require not an additional testimony of their value; but the professed object of his voyage was Arabia; and the account of Egypt is only incidental.
Volney and Savary are in the public hands, and no attempt shall be made to influence its judgment of their works. The talents of the former are well known; but he saw the East with no favourable eye; and his manner in speaking of Egypt will be found materially different from that here adopted.
Of Syria the Author could expect to say little that is new, after the numberless descriptions which have already been published, and he has accordingly used great rapidity in his narrative.
In Kahira, the sources of information are few and scanty. A traveller may remain there many months, without finding his ideas of the country, or its inhabitants, much more clear or precise.
The Europeans, there immured as prisoners, may be reasonably excused for hastening their commercial advantages, and, whenever unengaged by that object, for amusing themselves in trying to forget the place in which their ill fortune has obliged them to reside. Those who are found there, with every disposition to accommodate strangers, and receiving them always with complacency and kindness, are yet, with few exceptions, not of the order of men most able to generalize their ideas, and avail themselves to the utmost of the information which accident throws in their way.
The Greeks, whose inquisitive turn, and more intimate connexion with the people at large and with the government, make them more familiar with characters and occurrences, rarely represent things as they really are, but as they feel them, or would have them to be. Where their report is not entirely imaginary, their portraits are like those of Lely, all adorned with nicely-combed locks and a fringed neckcloth. They mark no character, but as it appears to their prejudices; give no history that is not interlarded with their own fables; and describe no place but in the vague and superficial manner that satisfies their own ignorance.
The Copts who, it might be supposed, would be accurately informed of all that relates to the government and history of the country, have no sentiment of antient glory, and are wholly immersed in gain or pleasure.
Settled in the composure of ignorance, they cannot conceive the motive of minute inquiries; and timid and reserved, they fear to discover even what they know.
The more liberal among the Mohammedan ecclesiastics, may be safely consulted for what concerns literature and the laws, and some few of them are communicative; but in general they despise strangers, and do not readily answer questions not of the most ordinary occurrence. On the whole, the most intelligent and communicative among the people of Kahira are the Mohammedan merchants, of a certain rank, who have visited various parts of the empire, and who have learned to think that all wisdom is not confined to one country or one race of men; and who having been led to mix, first by necessity and then by choice, with various nations, preserve their attachment to their own persuasion, without thinking all the rest of mankind dogs and accursed.
The general design of the Writer, as will be seen in the sequel, was of such a nature, that, without being extremely sanguine, he might have hoped to execute a considerable part of it. His prospects the first year were darkened by an unexpected disappointment on his arrival at Assûan; concerning which he may say, without any disposition to complaint, that he felt it severely. Another winter furnished him with a little more information and more experience: but still, as he afterwards unfortunately discovered, by no means all that was necessary to his purpose.
He might have appeared in Dar-Fûr as a Mohammedan, if he had known that the character was necessary to his personal security, or to his unrestrained passage; but, from the accounts he received in Kahira, among the people of Soûdan no violent animosity was exhibited against Christians. The character of the converts to Mohammedism, among the black nations, was, according to the general voice of the Egyptians who travelled among them, mild and tolerant. A disposition so generally acknowleged, that the more zealous among the latter are little scrupulous in honouring them with the appellation of Caffre. His surprise therefore was not inconsiderable at finding, on his arrival, that an unbeliever in the infallibility of the Korân was more openly persecuted, and more frequently insulted, than in Kahira itself.
The information received, previously to his departure in 1793, taught the writer to expect, from having chosen the route of what is called the Soudân Caravan, the choice of a free passage to Sennaar, which would, without much doubt, have secured him an entrance into Habbesh, under the conduct of the Fungni, who trade there: for the Fûrian monarch, had his favour not been withdrawn in consequence of false insinuations, would readily have accorded a safe-conduct through Kordofân, which was all that circumstances required. The being removed a few weeks journey too far to the Westward, was no objection, when he reflected on the confusion then reigning at Sennaar, and that in proportion as the road he took was indirect, the less suspicion would be entertained of him as a Frank, the greater experience he must acquire among the people of the interior, and the more easily he might be suffered to pass as a mere trader.
He had been taught, that the expeditions in quest of slaves, undertaken by the people of Fûr and its neighbourhood, extended often forty or more days to the Southward. This, at the lowest computation, gave a distance of five degrees on a meridian, and the single hope of penetrating so much farther Southward than any preceding traveller, was worth an effort to realize. He owns, he did not then foresee all the inconveniences of being exposed, on the one hand, to the band of plunderers whom he was to accompany, and on the other, to the just resentment of the wretched victims whom they were to enthral. Perhaps those very evils were magnified greatly beyond their real value by the Fûrians to whom he applied, and who were predetermined not to allow him to pass.
Another inducement to this route was, that part of it was represented to lie along the banks of the Bahr-el-abiad, which he had always conceived to be the true Nile, and which apparently no European had ever seen. To have traced it to its source was rather to be wished than expected; but he promised himself to reach a part of it near enough to that source, to enable him to determine in what latitude and direction it was likely to exist. It is unnecessary to observe, that, had either of these objects been realized, much interesting matter must have occurred in the course of the route. He could not in the sequel discover that the armed expeditions of the Fûrians extend to any high reaches of the Bahr-el-abiad.
Another object, perhaps in the eyes of some the most important of the three, was to pass to one or more of the extended and populous empires to the Westward. Africa, to the North of the Niger, as is certified from the late discoveries, is almost universally Mohammedan; and to have been well received among one of the nations of that description, would have been a strong presumption in favour of future efforts. He expected in that road to have seen part of the Niger, and even though he had been strictly restrained to the direct road from Dar-Fûr through Bernou and thence to Fezzan and Tripoli, an opportunity must have offered of verifying several important geographical positions, and observing many facts worthy remembrance relative to commerce and general manners; or, if those designs had entirely failed, at least of marking a rough outline of the route, and facilitating the progress of some future traveller.
So fixed was his intention of executing some one of these plans, that near three years of suffering were unable to abate his resolution; and the pain he endured at being ultimately compelled to relinquish them, had induced him to neglect the only opportunity that was likely to offer of personal deliverance, till the destitution of the means of living roused him from his lethargy; and the ridicule of his Mohammedan friends, who, fatalists as they are, yield to circumstances, instructed him that to despair was weakness and not fortitude; and that the frail offspring of hope, nursed by credulity, and not by prudence, marks the morbid temperament of the mind that conceived it.
The following papers would perhaps have been something less imperfect, if what was originally committed to writing had been altogether within the reach of the writer, when he began to prepare them for publication. Two accidents, however, both equally unforeseen, rendered abortive his hope of compensating in some measure for the general failure in his design, by greater exactness and detail as to the particulars of what he had actually seen.
The losses he had sustained in Soudân, were not very important, comprising only some specimens of minerals, vegetables, and other cumbrous materials, which he designed to have brought with him. On his arrival in Kahira, he thought it would be an impediment, in his journey through Syria, to transport all he possessed thither, and therefore caused the greater part of his baggage to be sent to Alexandria; among which were copies of such papers as he thought least unfit for the use of a third person. In the number he regrets a register of the caravans which had arrived in Kahira from Fûr since the year of Hejira 1150, containing an account of their numbers, and many other curious particulars; copied from a book belonging to the shech of the slave-market in Kahira.
A kind of general itinerary, in the hand-writing of a Jelab of his acquaintance, containing the roads of Eastern Africa.
A vocabulary of the Fûrian language, compiled by himself.
Some remarks on natural history.
List of names of places both in Egypt and Fûr, written by an Arab.
The detail of particulars relating to the time and manner of his observations in Astronomy, with other remarks tending to illustrate the geography of his route.
To return to a few considerations on the present intercourse between Egypt and Abyssinia.
Towards the close of the year 1796, I was told by the Coptic patriarch, that for the preceding nine years or more, no communication had taken place between Egypt and Abyssinia. Two men pretending to be priests of that country, came in 1793 to Kahira, but it was afterwards discovered that they were either not Abyssins, or fugitives, and without authority or commission. The interception of their intercourse by land might be caused by the unsettled state of Sennaar and Nubia. Slaves from Abyssinia are usually brought by the Red Sea from Mâsuah to Jidda, and many of them are sold in Mecca, though but few reach Kahira by way of Cossîr and Suez. Gold sometimes comes to market by the same route, and the Abyssins are thence supplied with such foreign commodities as they stand in need of.
To the slaves of Habbesh no very marked preference is shewn in Egypt. They are more beautiful than those of Soudân; but the price of the two kinds, cæteris paribus, is nearly the same.
A priest of the Propaganda, a native of Egypt, and consequently possessing every advantage of language and local knowlege, during my absence to the Southward, had endeavoured to penetrate into Abyssinia. Having reached Sennaar, he was dissuaded by the people of that city from attempting to proceed. Unmindful of their representations he prosecuted his journey, but was assassinated between Sennaar and Teawa.
The Propagandists had a single missionary, a native of Habbesh, at Gondar, and styled Bishop of Adel, but concealing himself under the exterior of a physician. In 1796, the order at Kahira told me that they had received no authentic intelligence concerning him during several years preceding.
At Suez, March 1793, I met an Armenian merchant, who had formerly traded to Abyssinia, and seemed a man of intelligence. He told me that he was at Gondâr while Bruce was there, and that Yakûb was universally talked of with praise. This merchant narrated of his own accord the story of shooting a wax-candle through seven shields; but when I asked him if Bruce had been at the Abyssinian source of the Nile, he affirmed that he never was there. He observed that Bruce had been appointed governor of Râs-el-Fîl, a province in which Arabic is spoken. My informer added, that the Abyssins were a gross ignorant people, and often ate raw flesh.
In Dar-Fûr a Bergoo merchant, named Hadji Hamâd, who had long resided in Sennaar, and was in Bruce’s party from Gondar to Sennaar, said that Yakûb had been highly favoured in the Abyssinian court, and lived splendidly. He was often observing the stars, &c. Both my informers agreed that he had been governor of Râs-el-Fîl; and both, that he had never visited the Abyssinian source of the Nile, esteemed the real one in that ignorant country.
An Englishman under the name of Robarts came to Alexandria in 1788, and after a short stay proceeded to Kahira. His intention was, it is said, to have penetrated into Abyssinia by way of Massuah. While at Kahira he applied repeatedly to the Coptic Patriarch for a letter from him to the head of the Abyssin church; with which the latter, under various pretences, constantly refused to furnish him. He continued at Kahira several months, and afterwards found his way to Moccha. Repeated attempts were made by him to execute his projected voyage to the opposite territory, but all without success. The persons from whom I received this information, and who, as would seem, derived it from his own authority, assured me that he had encountered almost insurmountable obstacles, and been obliged to submit even to personal indignities. They allowed too that this gentleman was far from being unqualified for the enterprize, in judgment, experience, or physical force. The same persons acquainted me that he had afterwards advanced to the Mogul peninsula, and had accompanied the British troops, during two campaigns, against the usurper of Mysore, in various parts of the peninsula. He even returned to Alexandria after the treaty of Seringapatam; and at that place, being attacked by an acute disease, breathed his last in the Franciscan convent there established. More authentic and interesting materials respecting this traveller, may possibly have reached this country. Yet I thought it not improper to mention these few particulars, which may tend to illustrate the nature of a voyage to Abyssinia.
The errors in African geography are numerous, and proceed from various causes. Among those causes, however, are particularly to be enumerated,
That the same province has often one name in the language of that province, and another in Arabic. Of the places called indiscriminately Fertît by the Arabs, each little district has an appropriate name.
Again, the name of a small province is occasionally taken for a large one, and vice versâ. Bahr is applied to a great lake, as well as to a river. Dar is a kingdom, and is sometimes applied to a village, and often to a district.
Fûr seems to be an Arabic name, signifying in that tongue a Deer; and, it may be conjectured, has been applied to that people in the same sense as Towshân, a hare, is by the Turks to the natives of the Greek islands—from the rapidity of their flight before the Mohammedan conquerors.
Nothing can well be more vague than the use of the word Soudan or Sûdan. Among the Egyptians and Arabs Ber-es-Soudan is the place where the caravans arrive, when they reach the first habitable part of Dar-Fûr: but that country seems its eastern extremity; for I never heard it applied to Kordofân or Sennaar. It is used equally in Dar-Fûr to express the country to the West; but on the whole seems ordinarily applied to signify that part of the land of the blacks nearest Egypt.
An innovation as to the orthography of some proper names, it is supposed, will not appear affected or improper, when the reason is explained; as Kahira, Damiatt, Rashîd, for Cairo, Damietta, Rosetto. It is of some use in appellatives to approximate to the pronunciation of the natives, and there can be as little reason for receiving Arabic names through the medium of the Italian, as for adopting the French way of writing Greek ones, as Denys for Dionysius, and Tite-Live for Titus Livius. Kahira and Rashîd have each of them their proper meaning in Arabic.—In Italian they have no meaning. The only rule observed has been, to bring back proper names to the original pronunciation, as far as might be done without obscurity.
Where a circumflex has been put over a vowel it is to denote its length, or something exotic in the enunciation. An approach to systematic regularity would have been attempted in expressing Arabic words by Roman letters, but the author freely owns that no rule, at once general in its use and simple and easy enough to be remembered, has yet occurred to him. He has therefore added the original word, wherever it could in any degree tend to illustration or precision.
The word Turk is never applied to signify a professor of Mohammedism, an indefinite mode of designation, that occasions perpetual confusion in speaking of the affairs of the East. The design was, to confine that term to the natives of Europe and Asia Minor. Arab is applied equally to the inhabitants of Syria, Egypt, and the coast of Barbary, as well as to those of Arabia Proper, whether villagers or wanderers. The wandering tribes are however more frequently marked by the terms Bedouin and Muggrebin.
The orthography of the word Calif conveys no idea of the strong guttural letter with which it commences; it is therefore here written Chalîf, or more properly Chalifé. He is no stranger to the Turkish word Bek or Beg; but as those whose enunciation of that language is esteemed most correct, but faintly articulate the consonant which terminates it, he has retained the common orthography Bey. In general, the original language is esteemed the criterion of spelling; and if the same word be occasionally spelled in two different ways, it is only because they are both equally near to that original.
Weights and Measures.
- One oke of Kahira = four hundred drams.
- One rotal = one hundred forty-four drams.
- One rotal silk of Syria = two hundred twenty-nine and a half drams.
- The Cantar is rotals = 102 — 105 — 110 — 120 — 130, variable according to the commodity.
Jewels, Gold, and Silver.
- One kerât = 4 grains.
- One dram or dirhem = 16 kerâts.
- One mitkâl = 24 kerâts.
- One wekîé = 8¼ drams.
Measure of Cloth, &c.
- Pike of Constantinople, called Draa Stambuli, Arab.; Turk. Hindazi, is used for selling cloth and silk. It amounts to twenty-seven inches.
- Pike of Kahira, used for other articles = eighteen inches.
CONTENTS.
| [CHAP. I.] | |
| ALEXANDRIA. | |
| Antient wallsand ruins — The two ports — Reservoirs — Vegetation — Antiquities —Population — Government — Commerce — Manufactures — Anecdote ofrecent history. | Page 1 |
| [CHAP. II.] | |
| SIWA. | |
| Attempt to penetrate to the Temple ofJupiter Ammon — Route and provisions — Animals of the desert —Occurrences on the road — Description of Siwa — Antient edifice —Intercourse with other countries — Produce and manners — Attempt topenetrate farther into the desert — Return. | 14 |
| [CHAP. III.] | |
| FROM ALEXANDRIA TO RASHID. | |
| Abu-kîr — Fertility of the country —Description of Rashîd — Journey to Terané — Fué, Deîrut, andDemenhûr. | 30 |
| [CHAP. IV.] | |
| TERANE AND THE NATRON LAKES. | |
| Government of Terané — Carlo Rossetti— The trade in natrôn — Manners — Journey to the Lakes —Observations there — Remarks on natrôn — Coptic convents and MSS. —Proceed to Kahira. | 36 |
| [CHAP. V.] | |
| KAHIRA. | |
| Topography — Government of Kahira andof Egypt — Pasha and Beys — Mamlûks — Birth, education, dress,arms, pay — Estimate of their military skill — Power and revenue ofthe Beys — The Chalige — The NILE — Mosques, baths, and okals —Houses — Manners and customs — Classes of people — Account of theCopts. | 45 |
| [CHAP. VI.] | |
| KAHIRA. | |
| Commerce — Manufactures — Mint —Castle and well — Misr-el-Attîké and antient mosque — AntientBabylon — Fostat and Bûlak — Jizé — Tomb of Shafei — Pleasure-boats— Charmers of serpents — Magic — Dancing girls — Amusements ofRamadân — Coffee-houses — Price of provisions — Recent history ofEgypt — Account of the present Beys. | 74 |
| [CHAP.VII.] | |
| KAHIRA. | |
| Brief abstract of the history ofAfrica in general, and Egypt in particular, under the domination ofthe Arabs. | 93 |
| [CHAP. VIII.] | |
| UPPER EGYPT. | |
| Design to penetrate into Habbesh orAbyssinia — Voyage on the Nile — Description of Assiût — Generalcourse of the Nile — Caverns — Kaw — Achmîm — Painted caverns —Jirjé or Girgi — Dendera — Antient temple — Kous — Topography ofUpper Egypt — El-wah-el-Ghîrbi — Situation of the Oasisparva. | 120 |
| [CHAP. IX.] | |
| UPPER EGYPT. | |
| Thebes — Site and antiquities —Painted caverns — Their discovery and plan — Manners of the peopleof Thebes — Isna — Fugitive Beys — Antiquities — Rain — Assûan orSyené — Obstacles to farther progress — Return to Ghenné. | 134 |
| [CHAP. X.] | |
| JOURNEY TO COSSÎR ON THE REDSEA. | |
| Inducements and danger — Route —Account of Cossîr — Commerce — Return by another route — Graniterocks, and antient road — Marble quarries — Pretended canal —Earthen ware of Ghenné — Murder of two Greeks, and subsequentreport of the Author’s death. | 143 |
| [CHAP. XI.] | |
| OCCURRENCES AT KAHIRA. | |
| Arrival of the Pasha — Death ofHassan Bey — Decline of the French factory in Kahira — Expulsion ofthe Maronite Christians from the Custom-house — Riot among theGaliongîs — Obstructions of the canal of Menûf — Supply of fish inthe pools of Kahira — Expedition of Achmet Aga, &c. | 151 |
| [CHAP. XII.] | |
| ANTIENT EGYPTIANS. | |
| Their persons, complexion,&c. | 159 |
| [CHAP. XIII.] | |
| JOURNEY TO FEIUME. | |
| Tamieh — Canals — Feiume — Roses —Lake Mœris — Oasis parva — Pyramids — of Hawara — of Dashûr — ofSakarra — of Jizé, or the Great Pyramids — AntientMemphis — Egyptian capitals. | 167 |
| [CHAP. XIV.] | |
| JOURNEY TO SINAI. | |
| Route — Suez — Ships andship-building — Trade — Scarcity of water — Remains of the antientcanal — Tûr — Mountains of red granite — Description of Sinai —Eastern gulf of the Red Sea — Return to Kahira. | 175 |
| [CHAP. XV.] | |
| JOURNEY TO DAR-FÛR, | |
| A KINGDOM IN THE INTERIOR OFAFRICA. | |
| Design to penetrate into the interiorof Africa — Difficulties — Caravan from Soûdan or Dar-Fûr —Preparations — Departure from Assiût — Journey to El-wah —Mountains — Desert — Charjé in El-wah — Bulak — Beirîs — Mughes —Desert of Sheb — Desert of Selimé — Leghéa — Natrôn spring —Difficulties — Enter the kingdom of Fûr — Sweini — Detention —Representations to the Melek — Residence — New difficulties —Villany of Agent — Sultan’s letter — Enmity of the people againstFranks — El-Fasher — Illness — Conversations with the MelekMisellim — Relapse — Robbery — Cobbé — Manners — Return toEl-Fasher — The Melek Ibrahim — Amusements — Incidents — Audienceof the Sultan Abd-el-rachmân-el-Rashîd — His personal character —Ceremonies of the Court. | 180 |
| [CHAP. XVI.] | |
| DAR-FÛR. | |
| Residence with the Melek Mûsa —Dissimulation of the Arabs — Incidents — Return to Cobbé —Endeavours to proceed farther into Africa — Constrained to exercisemedicine — Festival — Punishment of Conspirators — Art of theSultan — Atrocious conduct of my Kahirine servant — At length anopportunity of departure is offered, after a constrained residencein Dar-Fûr of nearly three years. | 216 |
| [CHAP. XVII.] | |
| DAR-FÛR. | |
| Topography of Dar-Fûr, with someaccount of its various inhabitants. | 234 |
| [CHAP. XVIII.] | |
| DAR-FÛR. | |
| On the mode of travelling in Africa —Seasons in Dar-Fûr — Animals —Quadrupeds — Birds — Reptiles and insects — Metals and minerals— Plants. | 246 |
| [CHAP.XIX.] | |
| DAR-FÛR. | |
| Government — History — Agriculture —Population — Building — Manners, Customs, &c. | 276 |
| [CHAP. XX.] | |
| DAR-FÛR. | |
| Miscellaneous remarks on Dar-Fûr, andthe adjacent countries. | 305 |
| [CHAP. XXI.] | |
| MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS. | |
| Psoropthalmia — Plague — Small-pox —Guinea worm — Scrophula — Syphilis — Bile — Tenia — Hernia —Hydrocele — Hemorrhoides and fistula — Apoplexy — Umbilicalruptures — Accouchemens — Hydrophobia — Phlebotomy — Remedies —Remarks — Circumcision — Excision. | 314 |
| [CHAP. XXII.] | |
| FINAL DEPARTURE FROMKAHIRA, AND JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. | |
| Voyage down the Nile to Damiatt —Vegetation — Papyrus — Commerce — Cruelty of the Mamlûk government— Voyage to Yaffé — Description of Yaffé — Rama —Jerusalem — Mendicants — Tombs of the kings — Bethlehem —Agriculture — Naplosa — Samaria — Mount Tabor. | 351 |
| [CHAP. XXIII.] | |
| GALILEE — ACCA. | |
| Improvements by Jezzâr — Trade —Taxes — White Promontory, and River Leontes — Tyre — Seide —Earthquake — Kesrawan — Syrian wines — Beirût — Anchorage —Provisions — River Adonis — Antûra — Harrîse — Tripoli — Ladakia —Journey to Aleppo, or Haleb. | 366 |
| [CHAP. XXIV.] | |
| OBSERVATIONS AT HALEB. | |
| Sherîfs and Janizaries — Manufacturesand commerce — Quarries — Price of provisions — New sect — Journeyto Antioch — Description of antient Seleucia — Return toHaleb. | 384 |
| [CHAP. XXV.] | |
| JOURNEY TO DAMASCUS. | |
| Entrance of the Hadjîs — Topographyof Damascus — Trade and manufactures — Population — Observations onthe depopulation of the East — Government and manners of Damascus —Charitable foundations — Anecdotes of recent history — Taxes —Price of provisions — Sacred caravan. | 394 |
| [CHAP. XXVI.] | |
| Journey from Damascus to Balbec —Syriac language — Balbec — Recent discoveries — Zahhlé —Printing-office — Houses of Damascus — Return to Aleppo. | 405 |
| [CHAP. XXVII.] | |
| Journey from Aleppo towardsConstantinople — Route — Aintâb — Mount Taurus — Bostan —Inhabitants, their manners and dress — Kaisarîa — Angora — Wallsand antiquities — Angora goats — Manufactures — Topography —Journey to Ismît — Topography — General remarks concerning Anatoliaor Asia Minor. | 410 |
| [CHAP. XXVIII.] | |
| Observations at Constantinople —Paswân Oglo — Character of the present Sultan — State of learning —Public libraries — Turkish taste — Coals — Greek printing-house —Navy — Return to England. | 419 |
| [CHAP. XXIX.] | |
| Comparative view of life andhappiness in the East and in Europe. | 425 |