The Association having had the good fortune to obtain the services of a man of Mr. Burckhardt's education and talents, resolved to spare neither time nor expense in enabling him to acquire the language and manners of an Arabian Mussulman in such a degree of perfection, as should render the detection of his real character in the interior of Africa extremely difficult.

• It was thought that a residence in Aleppo would afford him the most convenient means of study, while his intercourse with the natives of that city, together with his occasional tours in Syria, would supply him with a view of Arabian life and manners in every degree, from the Bedouin camp to the populous city. While thus preparing himself for the ultimate object of his mission, he was careful to direct his journeys through those parts of Syria which had been the least frequented by European travellers, and thus he had the opportunity of making some important additions to our knowledge of one of those countries, of which the geography is not less interesting by its connexion with ancient history, than it is imperfect in consequence of the impediments which modern barbarism has opposed to scientific researches. After consuming near three years in Syria, Mr. Burckhardt, on his arrival in Egypt, found himself prevented from pursuing the execution of his instructions, by a suspension of the usual commercial intercourse with the interior of Africa, and was thus during the ensuing five years, placed under the necessity of employing his time in Egypt, and the adjacent countries, in the same manner as he had done in Syria. After the journeys to Egypt, Arabia, and Mount Sinai, which have been briefly described in the Memoir prefixed to the former volume of his travels, his death at Cairo, at the moment when he was preparing for immediate departure to Fezzan, left the Association in possession of a large collection of Manuscripts, concerning the countries visited by their Traveller in these preparatory journeys, but of nothing more than oral information as to those to which he had been particularly sent.'

We remarked upon our first glance at the map prefixed to the volume, that the Editor, under whose inspection it was constructed from Burckhardt's materials, has inserted in it the ancient names of places; and in justification of this part of his plan, we are judiciously referred to the celebrated work of Reland upon Sacred Geography. Much indeed is still wanting to elucidate this most interesting subject. Burckhardt, though abounding in every species of general information, was not qualified by ancient learning to illustrate the antiquities of the countries through which he travelled. But those countries. have been lately visited under more favourable circumstances, by a gentleman peculiarly qualified for an examination of ancient inscriptions, the most faithful of geographical evidences, and for elucidating the ancient geography of the Decapolis, and its adjacent districts; a branch of investigation attended with singular difficulties, many of which arise from the ambiguity of the ancient authorities. We refer to Mr. W.

Bankes. But we must not render imperfect justice to Burck-. hardt. He deserves well of science, for having adjusted the sites of many places in the Haouran, such as Scythopolis, Hippus, Abila, Gerasa, and Amathus; and sacred geography owes him much for having ascertained the situation of many Hebrew cities in the once populous but now deserted region, formerly known by the names of Edom, Moab, Ammon, and the country of the Amorites.

Our Traveller's chief geographical discoveries may be thus summed up: the country between the Dead Sea and the gulf of Ælana; the extent, conformation, and detailed topography of the Haouran; the site of Apameia on the Orontes, a flourishing city under the Macedonian Greeks; the site of Petra, which gave the name of Arabia Petræa to the surrounding territory; and the general structure of the peninsula of Mount Sinai, with many new facts in its geography,-one of the most important of which is, the extent and form of the Atlantic gulf, hitherto omitted, or erroneously delineated in maps. Before Burckhardt, the existence of the long valley known by the names of El Ghor and El Araba, was scarcely suspected. This prolongation of the valley of the Jordan, which completes a longitudinal separation of Syria for 300 miles, from the sources of that river to the eastern branch of the Red Sea, is an important feature in sacred geography; for it indicates that the Jordan once discharged itself into the Red Sea, and confirms the truth of that great convulsion, described in Genesis, which converted into a lake the fertile plain occupied by the cities of Adma, Zeboin, Sodom and Gomorrah, and changed all the valley southward of that district into a sandy desert. The sites also of the Greek cities of Larissa and Apameia, have been now for the first time scientifically examined; and the large lake, together with the modern name of Famia, which for so long a time have occupied a place in the maps of Syria, may henceforth be erased.

'Although,' says the Editor, Mount Sinai, and the deserts lying between that peninsula and Judæa, have not, like the latter country, preserved many of the names of Holy Scripture, the new information of Burckhardt contains many facts in regard to their geography and natural history, which may be useful in tracing the progress of the Israelites from Egypt into Syria.

The bitter well of Howara, fifteen hours southward of Ayoun Moussa, corresponds as well in situation as in the quality of its water, with the well of Marah, at which the Israelites arrived after passing through a desert of three days from the place near Suez where they had crossed the Red Sea.

The Wady Gharendel, two hours beyond Howara, where are

wells among date-trees, seems evidently to be the station named Elim, which was next to Marah, and at which the Israelites found "twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees."* And it is remarkable that the Wady el Sheikh, and the upper part of the Wady Feiran, the only places in the peninsula where manna is gathered from below the tamarisk trees, accord exactly with that part of the desert of Sin, in which Moses first gave his followers the sweet substance gathered in the morning, which was to serve them for bread during their long wandering;t for the route through Wady Taybe, Wady Feiran, and Wady el Sheikh, is the only open and easy passage to Mount Sinai from Wady Gharendel; and it requires the traveller to pass for some distance along the sea-shore after leaving Gharendel, as we are informed the Israelites actually did on leaving Elimt.

The upper region of Sinai, which forms an irregular circle of thirty or forty miles in diameter, possessing numerous sources of water, a temperate climate, and a soil capable of supporting animal and vegetable nature, was the part of the peninsula best adapted to the residence of near a year, during which the Israelites were numbered, and received their laws.

About the beginning of May, in the fourteenth month from the time of their departure from Egypt, the children of Israel quitted the vicinity of Mount Horeb, and under the guidance of Hohab, the Midia nite, brother in law of Moses, marched to Kadesh, a place on the frontiers of Canaan, of Edom, and of the Desert of Parán or Zin!|| Not long after their arrival," at the time of the first ripe grapes," or about the beginning of August, spies were sent into every part of the cultivated country, as far north as Hamah. The report which they brought back was no less favourable to the fertility of the land, than it was discouraging by its description of the warlike spirit and preparation of the inhabitants, and of the strength of the fortified places: and the Israelites having in consequence refused to follow their leaders into Canaan, were punished by that long wandering in the deserts lying between Egypt, Judæa, and Mount Sinai, of which the sacred historian has not left us any details, but the tradition of which is still preserved in the name of El Tyb, annexed to the whole country ; both to the desert plains, and to the mountains lying between them and Mount Sinai.

In the course of their residence in the neighbourhood of Kadesh, the Israelites obtained some advantages over the neighbouring Cañaanites, but giving up at length all hope of penetrating by the frontier which lies between Gaza and the Dead Sea, they turned to the eastward,

+ Exod. Chap. 16. ‡ Numbers Chap. 10 et seq. and C. 33, Deut. C. 1. Numbers Chap. 33, v. 10, 11. Numbers C. 13. Deut. C. 1. ¶ Numbers C. 21.

with the view of making a circuit through the countries on the southern and eastern sides of the lake. Here, however, they found the difficulty still greater. Mount Seir of Edom, which under the modern names of Djebal, Shera, and Hesma, forms a ridge of mountains, extending from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba, rises abruptly from the valleys El Ghor and El Araba, and is traversed from west to east by a few narrow Wadys only, among which the Ghoeyr alone furnishes an entrance that would not be extremely difficult to a hostile force. This perhaps was the " high way," by which Moses, aware of the difficulty of forcing a passage, and endeavour. ing to obtain his object by negotiation, requested the Edomites to let him pass, on the condition of his leaving the fields and vineyards untouched, and of purchasing provisions and water from the inhabitants.* But Edom "refused to give Israel passage through his border," and "came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand." The situation of the Israelites was therefore very critical. Unable to force their way in either direction, and having enemies on three sides, (the Edomites in front, and the Canaanites and Amalekites on their left flank and rear,) no alternative remained for them but to follow the valley El Araba southwards, towards the head of the Red Sea. At Mount Hor, which rises abruptly from that valley, "by the coast of the land of Edom," Aaron died, and was buried in the conspicuous situation which tradition has preserved as the site of his tomb to the present day. Israel then "journeyed from Mount Hor, by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom,"§ "through the way of the plain from Elath, and from Eziongeber," until "they turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab, and arrived at the brook Zered." It may be supposed that they crossed the ridge to the southward of Eziongeber, about the place where Burckhardt remarked, from the opposite coast, that the mountains were lower than to the northward; and it was in this part of their wandering that they suffered from the serpents, of which our traveller observed the traces of great numbers on the opposite shore of the Ælanitic gulf. The Israelites then issued into the great elevated plains which are traversed by the Egyptian and Syrian pilgrims, on the way to Mekka, after they have passed the two Akabas. Having entered these plains, Moses received the Divine command, "You have compassed this mountain long enough, turn you northward."-" Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir, and they shall be afraid of you."¶ The same people who had successfully repelled the approach of the Israelites from the strong western frontier, was alarmed now that they had come round upon the weak side of the country. But Israel was ordered "not to meddle" with the children of Esau, but "to pass through their coast" and to buy meat and water from them for money," in the same manner as the caravan of Mekka is now supplied by the people of the same moun

Numbers C. 20. Deuter. C. 1. † Numbers C. 20. ‡ Ibid. § Numbers C. 21. Deuter. C. 2. Ibid.

tains, who meet the pilgrims on the Hadj route. After traversing the wilderness on the eastern side of Moab, the Israelites at length entered that country, crossing the brook Zered in the thirty-eighth year from their first arrival at Kadesh Barnea," when all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host."* After passing through the centre of Moab, they crossed the Arnon, entered Ammon, and were at length permitted to begin the overthrow of the possessors of the promised Land, by the destruction of Sihon the Amorite, who dwelt at Heshbon. The preservation of the latter name, and of those of Diban, Medaba, Aroer, Amman, together with the other geographical facts derived from the journey of Burckhardt through the countries beyond the Dead Sea, furnishes a most satisfactory illustration of the sacred historians.' Preface, pp. 12-16.

After an interesting tour from Damascus into the countries of the Libanus and Anti-Libanus, having been detained at that city on his return for more than a fortnight by indisposition, Mr. Burckhardt, in November 1810, began to prepare for a journey into the Haouran, as soon as he had recovered his health. Having obtained the requisite passports, he assumed the dress of the Haouran people with a keffic and a large sheep-skin over his shoulders, put a spare shirt into his saddlebag, a pound of coffee-beans, two pounds of tobacco, and a day's provender of barley for his horse.

6

I then joined,' says this enterprizing Traveller, a few Fellahs of Ezra, of one of whom I hired an ass, though I had nothing to load it with, but my small saddle-bag; but I knew this to be the best method of recommending myself to the protection of my fellow travellers; as the owner of the ass necessarily becomes the protector and companion of him who hires it. Had I offered to pay him before setting out merely for his company on the way, he would have asked triple the sum I gave him, without my deriving the smallest advantage from this increase, while he would have considered my conduct as extraordinary and suspicious. In my girdle I had eighty piastres (about £4. sterling) toge ther with a watch, a compass, a journal book, a pencil, a knife, and a tobacco purse. p. 52.

Ezra is one of the principal villages of the Haouran: it contains about 150 Turkish and Druse families, and about 50 of Greek Christians. It was once a flourishing city, its ruins being between three and four miles in circumference. The inhabitants live in the ancient buildings, which are in complete preservation, and built of stone, as are all the houses in the Haouran from Ghavarib to Boszra. This substantial mode of building prevails not only in the ancient public edifices which Mr. Burckhardt observed in those districts, but in their private

* Deuter C.2. † Numbers. C. 21. Deuter. C. 2.