THE ARABIAN RACE. 



245 



will appear the more extraordinary, after counting in a fast-sailing 

 ship, the weary days consumed in traversing a third of the circum- 

 ference of the globe. Moreover, so far as regards travelling facilities, 

 the above journey might have been made a thousand years ago ; and 

 as readily perhaps, as at that period one from Rome to London. 



b. Ai'ahs of the Mediterranean. 



I am now enabled, without deviating much from a strict classifica- 

 tion of the people met with, to give a connected account of my second 

 Voyage. 



I left Boston on the 11th of October, 1843, in the barque Stamboul ; 

 and after a voyage of about twenty-five days, we entered the harbour 

 of Gibraltar. Here we remained for the greater part of a day ; but 

 owing to some formalities in the port-regulations, I was debarred from 

 landing; and from seeing, in all probability, some of the countrymen 

 of the above-mentioned Barbary Arab. I am not aware that I sub- 

 sequently came in contact with more than one ; a recluse from 

 Algiers, who had taken up his residence at the cataract of the Nile. 

 As, however, Barbary Arabs are continually passing through Egypt 

 with the Mecca caravans, I may have fallen in with individuals 

 without distinguishincT them. 



In November, we arrived at Malta ; where I remained three weeks, 

 waiting for a passage to Tripoli ; but the prospect of further delay, 

 induced me to abandon my intention of visiting that place. The little 

 intercourse between the inhabitants of the northern and southern 

 shores of the Mediterranean, seems a surprising circumstance to a 

 stranger from the United States; especially when it is considered, that 

 this little, is chiefly carried on through Gibraltar and Malta. The 

 identity in language, has contributed to throw the traffic into the 

 hands of the Maltese ; numbers of whom, are now settled around the 

 southern and eastern borders of the Mediterranean. 



On my subsequent visit to Malta, I was better prepared to distin- 

 guish the many coincidences with the customs of the Arabs; as in the 

 style of architecture, in the female dress, and in the fashion of early 

 marriages. Also, in the four-pronged anchors, such as I had seen 

 used in the Indian Ocean ; where, moreover, I had been reminded 



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