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TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



religions agree, is therefore of itfelf a fufficient proof, with- 

 out other, of the Divine authority of the fcripture. 



Mahomet prohibited all pork, and wine ; two articles 

 which rauft have been, before, very little ufed in Arabia. 

 Grapes, here, grow in the mountains of Yemen, but never 

 arrive at maturity enough for wine. They bring them 

 down for this purpofe to Loheia, and there the heat of the 

 climate turns the wine fourbefore they can clear it of its faeces 

 fo as to make it drinkable ; and we know that, before the 

 appearance of Mahomet, Arabia was never a wine country. 

 As for fwine, I never heard of them in the peninfula, of 

 Arabia, (unlefs perhaps wild in the woods about Sana,) and 

 it was from early times inhabited by Jews before the com- 

 ing of Mahomet. The only people therefore that ate fwine's 

 flefh mull have been Chriftians, and they were a feci: of lit- 

 tle account. Many of thefe, however, do not eat pork yet, 

 but all of them were, opprefled and defpifed every- where, 

 and there was no inducement for any other people to imi- 

 tate them. 



Mahomet then prohibiting only what was merely neu- 

 tral, or indifferent to the Arabs, indulged them in that to 

 which he knew they were prone. 



At the feveral conversations I had with the Englifh mer- 

 chants at Jidda, they complained grievoufly of the manner 

 in \.-hich they were opprefled by the iherrifFe of Mecca and 

 his officers. The duties and fees were increafed every voyage; 

 their privileges all taken away, and a moft deflruclive mea- 

 fure introduced of forcing them to give prefents, which was 

 only an inducement to opprefs, that the gift might be the 



greater 



