131 
since they left me my other effects, and my astronomi- 
cal instruments. Their menaces and bad conduct to the 
Turks are only the consequences of their resentment 
and hatred to that nation; the name of which alone suf- 
fices to rouse them to a fury. 
This unfortunate journey gave me, however, an idea 
of the Desert of Medina, and a tolerably correct know4 
ledge of the geographical position of the city itself, 
which, according to the reckoning of the roads, and 
other information that I had taken at Djideida, as well 
as at the place where we were stopped, I found to be 
2° 40' to the east of Jenboa, and almost under the same 
parallel of latitude; so that if Medina is placed upon the 
meridian of Mecca, there will be hardly a minute of * 
time, or a quarter of a degree difference. 
We bent our way to the west. I hoped to be able to 
replace the plants which I had been obliged to throw 
away, but we did not follow the same route; and when 
the caravan stopped at four o'clock in the morning, I 
found myself in a vast barren valley, where I met with 
only half a dozen plants, not very remarkable. 
The thermometer marked 28°* of Reaumur at noon, 
in the shade. 
There was in this caravan, the new Cadi of Constan- 
tinople, destined to Medina, with whom I was in par- 
ticular friendship during my stay at Mecca. I became 
acquainted at the same time with the Tefterdar or Trea- 
surer, and the principal people employed in the temple 
at Medina. 
They informed me that the Wehhabites had destroy- 
ed all the ornaments of the sepulchre of the Prophet, 
and that there remained absolutely nothing; that they 
* 94£> Fahrenheit* 
