The reader is, therefore, earnestly requested not to close the book without glancing through the Appendix in question, where he will find, among other attractive pieces, the following choice morceaux to repay his attention:-Some fragments of letters from the late Mr. Burckhardt to myself, sent to me from Egypt and Arabia, full of the most friendly professions and assurances.—Portions of a paper shortly afterwards circulated among others, and without my knowledge, by the same Mr. Burckhardt, full of the most infamous aspersions on my character; citing as his authority for many of the facts, a gentleman who positively denies, in writing, having ever made many of the assertions imputed to him! — Letters of Mr. William John Bankes, addressed to me in Syria, after we had travelled together for a considerable time, acknowledging the superiority of my activity in writing, and the greater accuracy of my judgment in observing, as compared with his own; admitting his having read my notes, and expressing a hope that I should not be ashamed to see my name associated with his in any joint literary undertaking. — A Letter from the same individual, sent from Thebes at a subsequent period, insinuating that I had never written any notes of my own at all; and stating my ignorance to be such that I could not even copy a Greek inscription, and did not know a Turkish building from a Roman one!—A Letter from Mr. Henry Bankes, senior, to Mr. Murray the bookseller, cautioning him against publishing any thing of mine on Syria, as his son was soon expected in England; and desiring that my work should be suppressed, until his son could get his materials on the same country published before me!-A Letter from Mr. William Gifford, the editor of the Quarterly Review, to Mr. Murray, acknowledging that my manuscript was interesting and

important in some degree, but recommending him to retrench forty or fifty pages of my volume, under the pretence of its containing blasphemy of so powerful and influential a nature, that it would not be safe to put it even into the hands of the printers, as they, he supposed, had souls to be saved as well as other men, and could not read it without being inevitably corrupted, and thus becoming subject to everlasting damnation! adding, however, that with all this, he rather wished the work to be published.—A Letter from the Lord Bishop of Calcutta, acknowledging the perusal of several portions of the work, (the whole of the manuscript being placed in his hands for revision,) without objecting to the use of any expressions, except that of the word "supernatural" instead of "miraculous," in alluding to some scriptural event.-A Letter from the Rev. Dr. Burder, a celebrated author and Christian Divine, characterising the very same volume, which Mr. William Gifford declared to be too full of blasphemy to be trusted even in the hands of the printers, as the very best book of Travels he had ever met with on the country of which it treated, and one that could not fail to stand high in that class of literature to which it belonged. — The article from the Quarterly Review itself, in which not a single proof of blasphemy is fairly established against this alleged magazine of “infidelity and obscenity," though the forty or fifty pages that Mr. Gifford had advised to be blotted out, to prevent the eternal perdition of the printers, had neither been obliterated nor retrenched. And lastly, a Reply to the calumnies of Mr. Burckhardt, Mr. Bankes, and the Quarterly Review, as well as to various writers in India who followed in their steps, and whose continued aspersions were no doubt greatly instrumental in provoking that hostile feeling on the part of the

government of India, by which I was so unjustly, without a trial or a hearing, banished from that country, while I was proceeding in an action for damages against those slanderers, in the Supreme Court of Justice at Calcutta ; when, no justification being in the slightest degree proved, damages were awarded against them accordingly.

These remarkable documents, placed as they are in illustrative juxtaposition, will, it is hoped, reward the attention of even the most indolent and indifferent; and it is, therefore, with a view to lessen the chances of their escaping the reader's attention, that I advert to them so pointedly in the Preface; again repeating my urgent request, that he will examine the evidence therein developed, for himself, and let it have its due weight on his mind, in estimating the real merits of the question.

I pass from this subject, to advert to a few of the more prominent circumstances connected with the preparation of the present volume, and on which I desire to found my claim to some degree of indulgence for any imperfections which it may be supposed to display.

The notes of the journey, copious as they were in their original form, were taken under all the disadvantages of Asiatic travelling, which are now so well known as to require little more than a bare mention to be immediately understood. They continued in this state, from the period of their being first made in 1816, up to the moment of my quitting India in 1823. The same may be said of the sketches, which were rude and

a

imperfect even at first, as I never pretended to greater skill in this, than the capacity to preserve a general idea, in outline, of remarkable buildings and striking views, and never intended these for any thing more than to assist my memory in preserving more accurate recollections of the scenes to which they related. It must be evident, however, that after a lapse of seven years, (my mind, during that period, being wholly engrossed with pursuits of so different a nature, that these had never any share whatever in my thoughts,) the difficulty of retouching, enlarging, and filling up, either the one or the other class of such materials, must be extremely great. With this conviction, I preferred not attempting it to any extensive degree; and though I feel that this will be considered a defect in the estimation of those who desire to see all works sent from the hands of their authors in the most polished state; yet, to those who value Books of Travels chiefly for the vivid freshness and reality of the descriptions, and the rigorous fidelity with which impressions received on the spot are preserved, I am also persuaded that this roughness and boldness of the original picture will be far more acceptable than a more highly polished tablet, in which the spirit might have been refined away by too much care in the subsequent retouching.

The original notes were put into form for publication, with such slight emendations only as the connection of the narrative required, on my late voyage from India to England; and, as I was then altogether without books of reference connected with the countries to which these notes relate, there are much fewer illustrations and quotations from older writers in the present volume than in the former one. The abundance of these was urged by

some, indeed, as giving the Travels in Palestine too learned and heavy a character for a volume aiming at popularity. Such a defect (if indeed it be one), will not at least be observable in the present; though I have not wholly overlooked the interest which such illustrations, when sparingly and appropriately given, possess even for the general reader, and have accordingly introduced them where they appeared to me most required.

way.

The map of Syria, with the route pursued by me through it, has been constructed by Mr. Sydney Hall, from the manuscript journals of my track, and from the numerous sets of bearings and distances taken by me at almost station of note on the every It will be found to include a considerable number of places, the names of which are entirely new, and the positions of which occupy points that were hitherto blank in our best maps of the country in which they are situated.

The Vignettes at the head of the Chapters were drawn partly from rude sketches made on the spot by myself; partly from written descriptions of particular scenes, carefully noted in sight of them, and afterwards embodied into form; and in a very few instances from portions only of the beautiful views of Casas, in the western parts of Syria; which will still be new to the greatest number of English readers. These last, however, do not amount to more than six out of the twenty-eight which the present volume contains.* They are all appropriately illustrative of the

* They are those at Chapters 1. 20. 21. 23. 26. 27.;—and are thus purposely indicated to prevent misrepresentation.