1829.] [ 449 ] 



MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. 



Burckhardfs Travels in Arabia, 2 vols. 



8vo. i 1029 Poor Burckhardt has been 



dead these twelve years ; and the travels 

 described in the volumes before us were ex- 

 ecuted in the years 1814 and 1815. For 

 the procrastination in publishing, the pos- 

 sessors of his papers are of course responsi- 

 ble. Every body knows he was employed 

 by the African Association to prosecute dis- 

 coveries in the interior of Africa ; but his 

 general history may not be so well known 

 by every body. He was the son of a Swiss 

 gentleman, and educated in Germany. The 

 family property had suffered by the French 

 Revolution ; and young Burckhardt, on his 

 return from Germany, found it necessary to 

 look out for some means of gaining his own 

 livelihood. In the year 1806, then in his 

 twenty-second year, he came to England 

 with no very definite views ; but, luckily, 

 being furnished with a letter of introduction 

 from Professor Blumenbach to Sir Joseph 

 Bankes, he was kindly received by the lat- 

 ter, and had the entree granted him to that 

 gentleman's well-known and far from vmuse- 

 ful public parties. Here he naturally be- 

 came acquainted with the African Associa- 

 tion and its views ; and this, as it happened, 

 at a period when Nicholls was known to be 

 dead, and Horneman despaired of, and the 

 society anxious to enlist new adventurers. 

 The opportunity jumped with his humour 

 and his desire of employment. He was 

 young, and active, and ardent ; and, as to 

 any other qualifications, he felt within a 

 power to acquire thenr all. Without hesi- 

 tation he offered his services, which were, 

 upon due inquiry, gladly accepted by the 

 society ; and steps were immediately taken 

 to qualify him for the undertaking. The 

 wisdom of the members determined upon 

 sending him to Cambridge, to study Arabic 

 and attend lectures on practical science and 

 medicine-: — what a place, by the way, to go 

 to for such purposes ! There also he as- 

 sumed the Oriental dress, let his beard 

 grow, and, in the intervals of his learned 

 labours, took long marches on foot, bare- 

 headed, in the heat of the sun (when he 

 could get it to shine), and constantly slept 

 on the ground, and lived on vegetables and 

 water. 



Thus drilled for about a twelvemonth — 

 having, it may be presumed, drained the 

 breast of his Alma.Mater, he was despatch- 

 ed to Aleppo, for the purpose of perfecting 

 his Arabic, and familiarizing himself still 

 further with eastern manners. After two 

 years he wa« to go to Cairo, and from thence, 

 with the Fe/.zan caravan, to Mourzouk ; and 

 from thence, again, by whatever means he 

 might, to penetrate into the interior. To 

 •irrangc in one country, and execute in 

 another, arc two different tilings ; and it is 

 not to be wondered at that IJurckhardt 

 lound it convenient or necessary to deviate 



M.M. Netv Series VoL.VlII. No. 46. 



from his instruction?. At Aleppo, however, 

 he arrived, and at Aleppo he remained some 

 months ; but he was of too active and rest- 

 less a temperament to abide long in one 

 spot ; he was, besides, impatient to try 

 his wings and the efficiency of his acquire- 

 ments. From Aleppo, accordingly, before 

 he thought of setting out for Egyjit, he 

 made divers excursions ; one to Palmyra, 

 another to Damascus, a third to Libanus 

 and Anti-Libanus. Starting finally for 

 Egypt, he passed through the country of 

 Decapolis and Nazaretli, and, coasting 

 along the Jordan and the eastern sliore of 

 the Dead Sea, at length reached Cairo. 

 From Cairo, after making the necessary 

 preparations, he proceeded up the NUe 

 nearly to Dongola ; and, in a second ex- 

 cursion, quitting the Nile a little above 

 Thebes, lie struck boldly into the Nubian 

 Desert ; till, at the distance of some six 

 hundred miles, he reached the bank of the 

 Astroborus, flowing into the Nile, in the 

 latitude of 18° ; and from thence he stretch- 

 ed across the country to Suakin, on the Red 

 Sea. The Arabian port of Djidda lies 

 nearly opposite to Suakin ; and circum- 

 stances had determined him to visit Arabia, 

 and smvey, if possible, the Hadjaz — that is, 

 the sacred country, comprising Meccr. and 

 IMedina, and how much more nobody seems 

 to know — under the disguise of an Egyp- 

 tian gentleman of decayed fortunes. The 

 volume before us describes this tour in Ara- 

 bia — a description particidarly acceptable, 

 because it concerns a country accessible to 

 none but Mahometans, or such as profess, 

 like Burckhardt, and are believed to be 

 true disciples of the Prophet. His purpose 

 was especially to visit Jlecca and Sledina, 

 and go through the ceremony of the " pil- 

 grimage ;" and, for tliis purj/ose, he as- 

 sumed the cliaracter of a hadj, or pilgrim, 

 relying upon his long and now thorough ac- 

 quaintance with eastern manners for escap- 

 ing detection. 



At Djidda, which, though at a dis- 

 tance of forty or fifty mUes, may be consi- 

 dered the port of IMecca, Burckhardt ar- 

 rived with but two or three dollars in his 

 pocket, and scarcely a rag on his back ; and 

 his letter of credit, addressed to a merchant 

 there, was refused payment, on the ground 

 of its being of so old a date — he had left 

 Cairo eighteen months. In this exigency, 

 he sold his slave for a present resource ; and 

 hearing that Mahomed All, whom he had 

 known at Cairo, was encamped at Tayf, 

 about 100 miles in tlie interior, prosecuting 

 the Wallaby war, he despatclied a messen- 

 ger, sohciting assistance — begging him, In 

 plain Knglisli, to discount a bill ; but, be. 

 fore his messenger returned, he luckily 

 found a person who was remitting money to 

 Cairo, and who, in a manner sin;,'ularly 

 confiding, took his bill upon the English 

 3M 



