INTRODUCTION. xiii 



of thofe Arabian manufcripts, an immenfe collection of 

 which were every day perifhing in the dud of the efcurial, 

 and was indulged with feveral converfations of Mr Wall, 

 then minifter, every one of which convinced me, that the 

 objections to what I wiflied were founded fo flrongly 

 in prejudice, that it was not even in his power to remove 

 them. 



All my fuccefs in Europe terminated in the acquisition 

 of thofe few printed Arabic books that I had found in Hol- 

 land, and thefe were rather biographers than general hiflo- 

 rians, and contained little in point of general information. 

 The uudy of thefe, however, and of Maracci's Koran, had 

 made me a very tolerable Arab ; a great field was opening 

 before me in Africa to complete a collection of manufcripts, 

 an opportunity which I did not neglect. 



After a year fpent at Algiers, conftant conversation with 

 the natives whilft abroad, and with my manufcripts within 

 doors, had qualified me to appear in any part of the conti- 

 nent without the help of an interpreter. Ludolf* had af- 

 fured his readers, that the knowledge of any oriental lan- 

 guage would foon enable them to acquire the Ethiopic, and 

 I needed only the fame number of books to have made my 

 knowledge of that language go hand in hand with my at- 

 tainments in the Arabic. My immediate profpect of fetting 

 out on my journey to the inland parts of Africa, had made 

 me double my diligence'; night and day there was no re- 

 laxation from thefe ftudies, although the acquiring any 



fingle 



* Ludolf, lib. i. cap. ij> 



