[FN#1] "Remembering .

. . . Reason," afterwards altered by the author to "much disliking, if fact must be told, my impolitic habit of telling political truths, (in 1851 I had submitted to the Court of Directors certain remarks upon the subject of Anglo-Indian misrule:

I need hardly say that the publication was refused with many threats), and not unwilling to mortify my supporter (his colleague, Colonel W. Sykes), refused his sanction, alleging as a no-reason," et seq. [FN#2] The vagrant, the merchant, and the philosopher, amongst Orientals, are frequently united in the same person. [FN#3] In a communication made to the Royal Geographical Society, and published in the 24th vol. of the Journal, I have given my reasons for naturalising this word. It will be used in the following pages to express a "hill water-course, which rolls a torrent after rain, and is either partially or wholly dry during the droughts." It is, in fact, the Indian "Nullah, or Nala." [FN#4] "In provinciis Arabum, ait Ibn Haukal, nullus dignoscitur fluvius, aut mare quod navigia ferat." This truth has been disputed, but now it is generally acknowledged. [FN#5] A French traveller, the Viscount Escayrac de Lanture, was living at Cairo as a native of the East, and preparing for a pilgrimage when I was similarly engaged. Unfortunately he went to Damascus, where some disturbance compelled him to resume his nationality. The only European I have met with who visited Meccah without apostatising, is M. Bertolucci, Swedish Consul at Cairo. This gentleman persuaded the Badawin camel men who were accompanying him to Taif to introduce him in disguise: he naïvely owns that his terror of discovery prevented his making any observations. Dr. George A. Wallin, of Finland, performed the Hajj in 1845; but his "somewhat perilous position, and the filthy company of Persians," were effectual obstacles to his taking notes. [FN#6] No one felt the want of this "silent friend," more than myself; for though Eastern Arabia would not have been strange to me, the Western regions were a terra incognita. Through Dr. Norton Shaw, Secretary to the Royal Geographical Society, I addressed a paper full of questions to Dr. Wallin, professor of Arabic at the University of Helsingfors. But that adventurous traveller and industrious Orienta1ist was then, as we afterwards heard with sorrow, no more; so the queries remained unanswered. In these pages I have been careful to solve all the little financial and domestic difficulties, so perplexing to the "freshman," whom circumstances compel to conceal his freshness from the prying eyes of friends. [FN#7] "Then came Trafalgar: would that Nelson had known the meaning of that name! it would have fixed a smile upon his dying lips!" so says the Rider through the Nubian Desert, giving us in a foot note the curious information that "Trafalgar" is an Arabic word, which means the "Cape of Laurels." Trafalgar is nothing but a corruption of Tarf al-Gharb-the side or skirt of the West; it being the most occidental point then reached by Arab conquest. [FN#8] In Arabic "Ras al-Tin," the promontory upon which immortal Pharos once stood.

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