XI INTRODUCTION. 



private individuals, and are now for sale, it 

 might be considered a violation of the at- 

 tentions which I often received, to state 

 unnecessarily the dimensions, contents, or 

 the assay of their lodes, although the cli- 

 mate and the general features of the country 

 are, of course, public property. 



During my journeys I kept no regular 

 journal, for the country I visited was either 

 a boundless plain, or desert mountains; but 

 I occasionally made a few rough notes, de- 

 scribing any thing which interested or amused 

 me. 



These notes were written under great 

 variety of circumstances, sometimes when I 

 was tired, sometimes when I was refreshed, 

 som-etimes with a bottle of wine before me, 

 and sometimes with a cow's-horn filled with 

 dirty brackish water, and a few were writ- 

 ten on board the packet. 



