Being absent at a distant settlement when that event happened, 
I was commissioned to sell the effects oh the deceased, and to 
purchase the ring at any price: a number of Europeans and na- 
tives, some attracted by its real value, but more by its imaginary 
virtue, attended the sale; and as I had not mentioned my com- 
mission when the ring was put up, it was already advanced far 
beyond the price of such a jewel, either for its size or lustre; when, 
as the o:enlleman had died worth a considerable fortune, and had 
only one child to enjoy it, I thought it proper to declare my 
friends resolution to purchase it at all events. The company were 
only hurt at my having kept silence so long, and unanimously 
declared that he only ought to have the ring, for whom it was in- 
tended by its late owner: loo soon, alas! it came into my posses- 
sion, as a testamentary legacy from one of the best of men, and 
dearest of friends; and has been ever since my constant com- 
panion. 
The three divisions of Arabia were conquered and commanded 
by Mahomed himself: Abubekir, his immediate successor, assumed 
the title of caliph, or vicar to the prophet; which continued in 
that line for several generations. Jo Europe, and among the 
Asiatic Christians, his disciples were generally called Saracens; 
and, under that appellation, in less than a century from the de- 
cease of the successful impostor, they spread his religion from the 
Atlantic ocean to India and Tartary; and his successors reigned 
in Syria, Persia, Egypt, Africa, and Spain. 
The establishment of the religion of Abraham and Ishmael, 
the great progenitors of the Arabians, was no doubt the principal 
design of Mahomed, as J have already mentioned; lie wished, at 
