MEMOIR OP BURCK11ARDT. 81 



Burckhardt's first employment, on reacli ing Egypt, 

 was to draw up a detailed account of his journey, 

 which he soon afterwards transmitted to the Asso- 

 ciation. As he was now on the borders of the 

 region which was the more immediate object of his 

 researches, it was desirable that he should be pre- 

 pared for setting out towards the countries of the 

 Niger as early as an opportunity might occur. It 

 happened, at the moment of his arrival, that a 

 small caravan was on the point of returning from 

 Cairo, by Timbuctoo, into some of the northern 

 districts of tLe Great African Desert : and this was 

 precisely the route in which it was intended he 

 should commence his travels. But it was not thought 

 advisable, until he had recovered from his fatigues 

 and got his plans better arranged, to risk his own 

 hopes and those of the Association upon such a pre- 

 carious chance of success as this caravan would have 

 afforded. Unless a prospect offered, in every respect 

 favourable, it was not deemed prudent that he should 

 enter upon his undertaking until a residence of seve- 

 ral months in Egypt had made him familiar with a 

 dialect and a system of manners and of policy dif- 

 fering considerably from those to which he had been 

 accustomed in Syria. These were his own senti- 

 ments ; and the committee in London entirely coin- 

 cided in his views, that nothing was more to be 

 avoided than the hazarding of his personal safety, 

 together with the success of his mission, by the 

 rash step of a hasty and ill-prepared departure. 



The delay thus occasioned in his expedition to 



