xviii PREFACE. 
defpair was weaknefs and not fortitude ; and that 
the frail offspring of hope, nurfed by credulity, 
and not by prudence, marks the morbid tempera- 
ment of the mind that conceived it. 
The following papers would perhaps have been 
fomething lefs imperfed, if what was originally 
committed to writing had been altogether within 
the reach ol the writer, when he began to prepare 
them for publication. Two accidents, however, 
both equally unforefeen, rendered abortive his hope 
of compen fating in fome meafure for the general 
failure in his delign, by greater exadlnefs and detail 
as to the particulars of what he had actually feen. 
The loffes he had fuftained in Soudan, were not 
very important, comprifing only fome fpecimens of 
minerals, vegetables, and other cumbrous materials, 
which he defigned to have brought with him. On 
his arrival in Kahira, he thought it would be an 
impediment, in his journey through Syria, to tranf- 
port aU he poffeffed thither, and therefore caufed the 
greater part of his baggage to be fent to Alexan- 
dria; 
