XS Traoels through Turin' , 



fcience would not have ceafed to reproach me, had fny com- 

 panion, after mv departure, terminated his career at a dif- 

 tance from his friend and fellow traveller. 



During the time I refided at Bagdad waiting for the per- 

 fecl: re-eftablifliment of C. Bruguiere's health, I employed 

 myfclf in collefting different materials for a hiftory of our 

 travels. I have feen the ruins of Seleucia, Ctefiphon, the 

 fite formerly occupied by the celebrated Babylon ; the towers 

 called thofe of Nimrod, which neither time nor the hand of 

 man has been able entirely to deftroy, and which ftill excite 

 the admiration of travellers. 



I had in Egvpt and Syria obfcrved the Arabs, that nation 

 fo fmgular, and refpecting whom travellers have fpoken fo 

 differently. I had ftudied their manners, their cuftonis, and 

 the form of their government. It ftill remained for me to 

 live among them, to travel with them, to frequent their 

 tents, and to receive from their hands fimple, frugal, and 

 wholefome food. 



As particular circumftanccs obliged me at Bagdad to ex- 

 ercife the fimftions of a phyfician, 1 readily embraced that 

 opportunity of feeing the interior part of the Mahometan 

 habitations, and of becoming ac(|uainted with the ftate of 

 their harems, and the women fliut up in them. No traveller, 

 perhaps, has been able to colleft, in this refpeft, fo many 

 lingular anecdotes. 



We departed from Bagdad on the ift of May 1797, in- 

 company with a caravan deftined for Aleppo. We remained 

 f^xtv-five days on the banks of the Euphrates, and in the 

 defert employed our time in preparing plants, coIlccTtmg in- 

 fects, fkinning; birds and quadrupeds, and in making obfer- 

 vations on the Arabs ; the climate, foil, and produftions of 

 thefe countries. We made only a fliort ftay at Aleppo, 

 where we found a letter from C. Aubert Dubavct, in which, 

 after fome compliments on account of our conduct, he rcr 

 quefted we would return by the fliorteft route to France. 



This 



