Egypt and Perfia. I j 



■ This invitation was perfeftly agreeable to our wifhes ; but 

 U was indifpenfably neceflary that we fhould pafs through 

 Conftantinoplc. Could we leave behind us a fcattered col- 

 lection, the fruit of five years labovir and obfervations, ex- 

 pofed to the dangers of the fea and of dilapidation? Is it not 

 certain that objefts of natural hiftory, almoft all of a perifh- 

 ablc nature, muft be taken care of during quarantines by 

 hands accuftomed to manage them ? How eafily might 

 manufcripts have been carried avi'ay ? We had left fome 

 boxes under the care of a merchant at Conftantinoplc, and 

 others in an apartment of the ambaflador's palace. There 

 was a great number at Scio, and fome at Latakia. We 

 confidered it as our dutv to unite the whole, and to convey 

 them all to Paris ouri'elves, in order that it might be feen, 

 on our arrival, whether wc had accompliflied the views of 

 g^overnment, and whether we had not deceived the expefta- 

 lions of the learned. 



We wrote to the ambaffador to make him acquainted with 

 the motives which induced us to take the way of Conftanti- 

 noplc. We wrote, at the fame time, to the confuls of 

 Tripoli and Cyprus, begging them to inform us when the 

 flrft fliip failed for the Archipelacro ; after which we repaired 

 to Latakia, where we found only a wretched Venetian ihip, 

 in which the conful advifed us not to embark, as the Alge- 

 rincs, for fome time palt, had infuhed the flag of that ex- 

 piring republic. We then rcfolved to proceed to Cvprus, 

 and to traverfe that ifland, though in the molt dangerous 

 feafun ; to repair afierwards to tiie coaft of Caramania, and 

 to proceed thence to Conilantinoplc, by croffing Afia 

 Minor. This journey vvas one of the moft interelting wc 

 undertook, both in regard to natural hiflory and the in- 

 formation we collected refpecling llie manners of the Turks, 

 in a country little known, little frequented, and yet fo 

 worthy of attention. 



We arrived at Conftantinople in the end of Oiftobcr, ami 

 fliould have departed thence iji the Sericufe, fome time afi«^r, 



had 



