And lord Rector of the MARISCHAL college, Aberdeen.

I do not parade your name, my dear Colonel, in the van of this volume, after the manner of that acute tactician who stuck a Koran upon his lance in order to win a battle.  Believe me it is not my object to use your orthodoxy as a cover to my heresies of sentiment and science, in politics, political economy and-what not?

But whatever I have done on this occasion,-if I have done any thing,-has been by the assistance of a host of friends, amongst whom you were ever the foremost.  And the highest privilege I aim at is this opportunity of publicly acknowledging the multitude of obligations owed to you and to them.  Accept, my dear Colonel, this humble return for your kindness, and ever believe me,

The sincerest of your well wishers,

Richard F. Burton.

[FN#1] These omitted notes and appendices have all been restored to the present Edition. [FN#2] The brother-in-law, Barakat J’rayj’ray, has since that time followed suit:  educated at the Jesuit college of Mu’allakah (Libanus) he has settled as a Greek Catholic priest at the neighbouring town of Zahleh. [FN#3] In 1811. [FN#4] Captain Sadlier is not mentioned, as his Frankish dress prevented his entering the city. [FN#5] The orthography of Eastern words has been revised for this Edition by Mr. Leonard C. Smithers, from Sir R. F. Burton’s Ms. Corrections, and in accordance with the orthography of Sir Richard’s most recent Oriental Work, “The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night.”

[p.1]Part I.

AL-MISR

CHAPTER I.

To Alexandria.

A few Words concerning what induced me to a Pilgrimage.

In the autumn of 1852, through the medium of my excellent friend, the late General Monteith, I offered my services to the Royal Geographical Society of London, for the purpose of removing that opprobrium to modern adventure, the huge white blot which in our maps still notes the Eastern and the Central regions of Arabia.  Sir Roderick I. Murchison, Colonel P. Yorke and Dr. Shaw, a deputation from that distinguished body, with their usual zeal for discovery and readiness to encourage the discoverer, honoured me by warmly supporting, in a personal interview with the then Chairman of the then Court of Directors to the then Honourable East India Company, my application for three years’ leave of absence on special duty from India to Maskat.  But they were unable to prevail upon the said Chairman, the late Sir James Hogg, who,[FN#1] remembering the fatalities which of late years have befallen sundry soldier-travellers in the East, refused his sanction, alleging as a reason[FN#1]

[p.2]that the contemplated journey was of too dangerous a nature.  In compensation, however, for the disappointment, I was allowed the additional furlough of a year, in order to pursue my Arabic studies in lands where the language is best learned.