COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY BAYARD TAYLOR REVISED BY THOMAS STEVENS NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 1898 Copyright 1881, 1892, by CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY NEW YORK...

The continuance of Bayard Taylor’s Library of Travel in the popular favor is one of the accepted facts of the literary world.  So much so, indeed, that a revision of his works on the part of another is to be permitted only on certain conditions of reserve, and by reason of events that have transpired since the death of the distinguished traveller. Travellers and authors die; but the tribes, nations, and races visited by them continue on, making war or peace, changing frontiers, setting up or pul

Sketch of Arabia: Its Geographical Position, and Ancient History . The Peninsula of Arabia, forming the extreme southwestern corner of Asia, is partly detached, both in a geographical and historical sense, from the remainder of the continent.  Although parts of it are mentioned in the oldest historical records, and its shores were probably familiar to the earliest navigators, the greater portion of its territory has always remained almost inaccessible and unknown. The desert, lying between Syria

Early Explorers of Arabia . When the habit of travel began to revive in the Middle Ages, its character was either religious or commercial, either in the form of pilgrimages to Rome, Palestine, (whenever possible), and the shrines of popular saints, or of journeys to the Levant, Persia and the Indies, with the object of acquiring wealth by traffic, the profits of which increased in the same proportion as its hazards.  From the time of Trajan’s expedition to Arabia, (in A.D. 117) down to the sixte

Niebuhr’s Travels in Yemen . In 1760 the Danish government decided to send an expedition to Arabia and India, for the purpose of geographical exploration.  The command was given to Carsten Niebuhr, a native of Hanover, and a civil engineer.  Four other gentlemen, an artist, a botanist, a physician, and an astronomer, were associated with him in the undertaking; yet, by a singular fatality, all died during the journey, and Niebuhr returned alone, after an absence of nearly seven years, to publish

Burckhardt’s Journey to Mecca and Medina . Burckhardt , to whom we are indebted for the first careful and complete description of the holy cities of Arabia, was a native of Lausanne, in Switzerland.  After having been educated in Germany, he went to London with the intention of entering the English military service, but was persuaded by Sir Joseph Banks to apply to the African Association for an appointment to explore the Sahara, and the then unknown negro kingdoms of Central Africa.  His offer

Wellsted’s Explorations in Oman . Perhaps the most satisfactory account of the interior of Oman—the southeastern portion of Arabia—has been given by Lieutenant Wellsted.  While in the Indian Navy he was employed for several years in surveying the southern and eastern coasts of Arabia.  Having become somewhat familiar with the language and habits of the people, he conceived the idea of undertaking a journey to Derreyeh, in Nedjed, the capital of the Wahabees, which no traveller had then reached. 

Wellsted’s Discovery of an Ancient City in Hadramaut . While employed in the survey of the southern coast of Arabia in the spring of 1835, Lieutenant Wellsted was occupied for a time near the cape called Ras el-Aseïda, in Hadramaut, about one hundred miles east of Aden.  On this cape there is a watch-tower, with the guardian of which, an officer named Hamed, he became acquainted; and on learning from the Bedouins of the neighborhood that extensive ruins, which they described as having been built

Burton’s Pilgrimage . Captain Richard F. Burton , the discoverer of the great Lake Tanganyika, in Central Africa, first became known to the world by his daring and entirely successful visit to Medina and Mecca, in the year 1853, in the disguise of a Moslem pilgrim.  Although his journey was that of Burckhardt, reversed, and he describes the same ceremonies, his account supplies many deficiencies in the narrative of his predecessor, and has the merit of a livelier and more graphic style. Burton’s

Palgrave’s Travels in Central Arabia: From Palestine to the Djowf . Mr. William Gifford Palgrave , son of Sir Francis Palgrave, the historian, performed, in 1862–63, a journey in Arabia, which gives us the first clear and full account of the interior of the country, including the great Wahabee state of Nedjed, the early home of Arabian poetry and also of the famous Arabian breed of horses.  Mr. Palgrave’s qualifications for the undertaking were in some respects superior to those of either Burckh

Palgrave’s Travels—Residence in the Djowf . The elder of the two cavaliers who welcomed the travellers proved to be Ghafil-el-Haboob, the chief of the most important family of the Djowf.  Ghafil, and also his companion, Dafee, invited the travellers to be his guests, and the former, it afterward appeared, had intended that they should reside in his house, hoping to make some profit from the merchandise which they might have brought.  They felt bound, at least, to accompany him to his house and p

Palgrave’s Travels—Crossing the Nefood . “ Our way was now to the southeast, across a large plain varied with sand-mounds and covered with the ghada-bush, already described, so that our camels were much more inclined to crop pasture than to do their business in journeying ahead.  About noon we halted near a large tuft of this shrub, at least ten feet high.  We constructed a sort of cabin with boughs broken off the neighboring plants and suitably arranged shedwise, and thus passed the noon hours

Palgrave’s Travels—Life in Ha’yel . “ At our first appearance a slight stir takes place.  The customary salutations are given and returned by those nearest at hand; and a small knot of inquisitive idlers, come up to see what and whence we are, soon thickens into a dense circle.  Many questions are asked, first of our conductor, Djedey’, and next of ourselves; our answers are tolerably laconic.  Meanwhile a thin, middle-sized individual, whose countenance bears the type of smiling urbanity and pr

Palgrave’s Travels—Journey to Bereydah . Another stage of our way.  From Gaza to Ma’an, from Ma’an to the Djowf, from the Djowf to Ha’yel, three such had now been gone over, not indeed without some fatigue or discomfort, yet at comparatively little personal risk, except what nature herself, not man, might occasion.  For to cross the stony desert of the northern frontier, or the sandy Nefood in the very height of summer, could not be said to be entirely free from danger, where in these waterless

Palgrave’s Travels—Journey To Ri’ad The Capital Of Nedjed . Two roads lay before us.  The shorter, and for that reason the more frequented of the two, led southeast-by-east through Woshem and Wady Haneefah to Ri’ad.  But this track passed through a district often visited at the present moment by the troops of ’Oneyzah and their allies, and hence our companions, not over-courageous for the most, were afraid to follow it.  Another road, much more circuitous, but farther removed from the scene of m

Palgrave’s Travels—Adventures in Ri’ad . “ Barakat and myself stopped our dromedaries a few minutes on the height to study and enjoy this noble prospect, and to forget the anxiety inseparable from a first approach to the lion’s own den.  Aboo-’Eysa, too, though not unacquainted with the scene, willingly paused with us to point out and name the main features of the view, and show us where lay the onward road to his home in Hasa. We then descended the slope and skirted the walls of the first outly

Palgrave’s Travels—His Escape to the Eastern Coast . “ For a foreigner to enter Ri’ad is not always easy, but to get away from it is harder still; Reynard himself would have been justly shy of venturing on this royal cave.  There exists in the capital of Nedjed two approved means of barring the exit against those on whom mistrust may have fallen.  The first and readiest is that of which it has been emphatically said, Stone-dead hath no fellow .  But should circumstances render the bonds of death

Palgrave’s Travels—Eastern Arabia . “ Our stay at Hofhoof was very pleasant and interesting, not indeed through personal incidents and hair-breadth escapes—of which we had our fair portion at Ri’ad and elsewhere—but in the information here acquired, and in the novel character of everything around us, whether nature, art, or man.  Aboo-’Eysa was very anxious that we should see as much as possible of the country, and procured us all means requisite for so doing, while the shelter of his roof, and

Lady Blunt’s Pilgrimage to Nejd . In 1878–79, sixteen years after Palgrave’s journey, Lady Anne Blunt, with her husband and several native servants, accomplished a journey, which, in many respects was more remarkable than the exploits of any of their predecessors.  Whereas Palgrave and others had travelled in disguise, believing it impossible to penetrate into the interior otherwise than as mussulmans, the Blunts made no pretences of the kind, but went as European travellers, desirous of seeing

[59]   The inscription, which is copied in Lieutenant Wellsted’s work, appears to be in the Himyaritic character.  If any translation of it has ever been made, the compiler is unable to say where it can be found. [201]   “The Na’ib” was a Persian official, despatched by the Persian pilgrims to lay before Feysul, the ruler of Nedjed, a statement of the extortions to which they had been compelled to submit at Bereydah.  He was thus equally under Aboo-’Eysa’s charge, and his company was rather an a