Travels through Arabia and Other Countries in the East

...of introducing certain details original: "particulars" which I could not have otherwise included in the account of my travels without interrupting the progress of the narrative too frequently. The reader will also be better entertained when presented with a sketch illustrating the features of the country as well as the people who inhabit it.

I would have liked to add a brief summary original: "compend" of the history of this unique original: "singular" nation. However, I found this impossible. In the East, there are no libraries and no men of deep learning original: "erudition"—resources that a traveler could find with great ease in Europe. Yet, there are ancient Arabic historians; but copies of their works are very rare, as I learned in Cairo original: "Kahira" and Mocha original: "Mokha". It would be of great importance, however, to examine those authors who are still unknown in Europe. I am convinced the search would hardly be pointless. Those works would shed new light on several eras original: "epochs" in the history of ancient nations (A).

NEWBURYPORT 1894 PUBLIC LIBRARY

CHAPTER II.

Arabia, strictly speaking original: "properly so called", is that great peninsula formed by the Red Sea original: "Arabic Gulph", the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulf. The ancients seem