From Canea I sailed for Rhodes, and there met my books; I then proceeded to Castelrosso, on the coast of Caramania, and was there credibly informed that there were very magnificent remains of ancient buildings a short way from the shore, on the opposite continent. Caramania is a part of Asia Minor yet unexplored. But my illness increasing, it was impossible to execute, or take any measures to secure protection, or do the business safely, and I was forced to relinquish this discovery to some more fortunate traveller.
Mr Peyssonel, French consul at Smyrna, a man not more distinguished for his amiable manners than for his polite taste in literature, of which he has given several elegant specimens, furnished me with letters for that part of Caramania, or Asia Minor, and there is no doubt but they would have been very efficacious. What increased the obligation for this kind attention shewn, was, that I had never seen Mr Peyssonel; and I am truly mortified, that, since my arrival in England, I have had no opportunity to return my grateful thanks for this kindness, which I therefore beg that he will now accept, together with a copy of these travels, which I have ordered my French bookseller to forward to him.
From Castelrosso I continued, without any thing remarkable, till I came to Cyprus; I staid there but half a day, and arrived at Sidon, where I was most kindly received by Mr Clerambaut, brother-in-law to Mr Peyssonel, and French consul at this place; a man in politeness, humanity, and every social quality of the mind, inferior to none I have ever known. With him, and a very flourishing, well-informed, and industrious nation, I continued for some time, then in a weak state of health, but still making partial excursions from time to time into the continent of Syria, through Libanus, and Anti Libanus; but as I made these without instruments, and passed pretty much in the way of the travellers who have described these countries before, I leave the history to those gentlemen, without swelling, by entering into particular narratives, this Introduction, already too long.
While at Canea I wrote by way of France, and again while at Rhodes by way of Smyrna, to particular friends both in London and France, informing them of my disastrous situation, and desiring them to send me a moveable quadrant or sextant, as near as possible to two feet radius, more or less, a time-keeper, stop-watch, a reflecting telescope, and one of Dolland’s achromatic ones, as near as possible to three-feet reflectors, with several other articles which I then wanted.
I received from Paris and London much about the same time, and as if it had been dictated by the same person, nearly the same answer, which was this, That everybody was employed in making instruments for Danish, Swedish, and other foreign astronomers; that all those which were completed had been bought up, and without waiting a considerable, indefinite time, nothing could be had that could be depended upon. At the same time I was told, to my great mortification, that no accounts of me had arrived from Africa, unless from several idle letters, which had been industriously wrote by a gentleman whole name I abstain from mentioning, first, because he is dead, and next, out of respect to his truly great and worthy relations.
In these letters it was announced, that I was gone with a Russian caravan through the Curdistan, where I was to observe the transit of Venus in a place where it was not visible, and that I was to proceed to China, and return by the way of the East Indies:—a story which some of his correspondents, as profligate as himself, industriously circulated at the time, and which others, perhaps weaker than wicked, though wicked enough, have affected to believe to this day.
I conceived a violent indignation at this, and finding myself so treated in return for so complete a journey as I had then actually terminated, thought it below me to sacrifice the best years of my life to daily pain and danger, when the impression it made in the breasts of my countrymen seemed to be so weak, so infinitely unworthy of them or me. One thing only detained me from returning home; it was my desire of fulfilling my promise to my Sovereign, and of adding the ruins of Palmyra to those of Africa, already secured and out of danger.
In my anger I renounced all thoughts of the attempt to discover the sources of the Nile, and I repeated my orders no more for either quadrant, telescope, or time-keeper. I had pencils and paper; and luckily my large camera obscura, which had escaped the catastrophe of Ptolometa, was arrived from Smyrna, and then standing before me. I therefore began to cast about, with my usual care and anxiety, for the means of obtaining feasible and safe methods of repeating the famous journey to Palmyra. I found it was necessary to advance nearer the scene of action. Mr Abbot, British consul for Tripoli in Syria, kindly invited me, and after him Mr Vernon, his successor, a very excellent man, to take up my residence there. From Tripoli there is a trade in kelp carried on to the salt marshes near Palmyra. The Shekh of Cariateen, a town just upon the edge of the desert, had a contract with the basha of Tripoli for a quantity of this herb for the use of the soap-works. I lost no time in making a friendship with this man, but his return amounted to no more than to endeavour to lead me rashly into real danger, where he knew he had not consequence enough to give me a moment’s protection.
There are two tribes almost equally powerful who inhabit the deserts round Palmyra; the one is the Annecy, remarkable for the finest breed of horses in the world; the other is the Mowalli, much better soldiers, but fewer in number, and very little inferior in the excellence of their horses. The Annecy possess the country towards the S. W. at the back of Libanus, about Bozra down the Hawran, and southward towards the borders of Arabia Petrea and Mount Horeb. The Mowalli inhabit the plains east of Damascus to the Euphrates, and north to near Aleppo.
These two tribes were not at war, nor were they at peace; they were upon what is called ill-terms with each other, which is the most dangerous time for strangers to have any dealings with either. I learned this as a certainty from a friend at Hassia, where a Shekh lives, to whom I was recommended by a letter, as a friend of the basha of Damascus. This man maintains his influence, not by a number of forces, but by constantly marrying a relation of one or both of these tribes of Arabs, who for that reason assist him in maintaining the security of his road, and he has the care of that part of it by which the couriers pass from Constantinople into Egypt, belonging to both these tribes, who were then at a distance from each other, and roved in flying squadrons all round Palmyra, by way of maintaining their right of pasture in places that neither of them chose at that time to occupy. These, I suppose, are what the English writers call Wild Arabs, for otherwise, though they are all wild enough, I do not know one wilder than another. This is very certain, these young men, composing the flying parties I speak of, are truly wild while at a distance from their camp and government; and the stranger that falls in unawares with them, and escapes with his life, may set himself down as a fortunate traveller.