INTRODDCTION". 3J 



have been investigated, its ancient ruins examined, 

 and its present condition described ; so far at least 

 as came within the range of tlieir own observation, 

 or could be gathered from their converse with the 

 natives. The recent war with the Wahabees opened 

 up new channels of discovery, by affording to seve- 

 ral Europeans attached to "the Egyptian army an 

 opportunity of penetrating farther into the Arabian 

 deserts than had been deemed prudent or practicable 

 by solitary travellers. The survey which these 

 expeditions enabled them to make has illustrated 

 many curious and doubtful points, and brought 

 us acquainted with extensive pastoral tracts little 

 known, and almost totally unexplored by strangers ; 

 for the knowledge of which v.'e had to depend on 

 Arabian authors, often very incorrect ; or on the 

 Greeks and Romans, who described these immea- 

 surable wilds chiefly from fanciful and exaggerated 

 reports.* 



The early pilgrims from Europe and Africa, who 

 annuaUy visited the grand temple at Mecca, had 

 neither means nor leisure for observation ; they per- 

 formed their devotions, and, however enlightened as 

 to their spiritual prospects, returned at least entirely 

 ignorant of the country. The Crusaders jnet the 

 Saracens only as enemies in the field of battle, where 

 they found them enthusiastically brave, often gene- 

 rous in the hour of victory, and always faithful to the 

 laws of honour and hospitality. The French and 

 Portuguese, by their several expeditions to the Red 

 Sea and the Persian Gulf in the 16th and 17th cen- 

 turies, made geographers acquainted with little more 

 than the coasts, on some parts of which they had 

 effected temporary settlements. 



* The pen of Herodotus once celebrated this country, and 

 might have supplied many defects in its early history. But the 

 •work has long since perished in the wreck of classicat learning ; 

 and the loss is the more to be regretted when we reflect on what 

 he has done for the antiquities of EJgj'pt 



