Bibliotheque Orientale, printed at Paris in 1697: a book too well known among the Learned to need any farther account of it. There are many Obfervations, without doubt, befides those I have made, that may be collected from other Travellers, which I have had no opportunity of perufing; and even thefe I have mentioned I have not examined with fuch accuracy, as to render a review of them by others ufelefs; not to say, there are many other things that have occurred to me in reading them, befides those I have fet down, which I have chofen to pafs over in filence, for want of fufficient precision in thofe Authors, and of the means of determining those matters with greater exactnefs from other Writers, or from Conversation with those that have vifited thefe countries. An opportunity of frequently converfing with fuch could not fail, affuredly, of furnishing the curious enquirer with many farther particulars, and the want of fuch an aid may be found but too fenfibly in the following papers; there is, however, on the other hand, one advantage that arifes from this want, and that is, my readers are more effectually fecured, than they might otherwife be, from the danger of being impofed upon by a mifunderstanding of facts, from an over-eagernefs to accommodate them to fuch interpretations of the Scriptures, as on other accounts might appear probable. Here the illuftrations that are proposed, are given us without any defign of this nature, fo nothing of this can produce any mifrepresentations in thefe writers; the only difficulty to the collector is, not to overlook, in fuch a multitude of particulars, thofe circumstances that that may be happily applied to the giving light to obfcure paffages. The making ufe of that variety of Authors, which I have given an account of, has occafioned what may a little perplex some of readmy ers, and perhaps give difguft to more: I mean the orthographical variations, which will be found in thefe papers, fuch as Bafhaw, Bafha, Baffa, Pafha, Bassa, Pacha, which are different ways of fpelling the title of a great Eaftern Officer, made ufe of by the different Authors of which I have been giving the catalogue; Sheck, Shekh, Sheik, Cheikh, are in like manner the words they make ufe of to denote a person of eminence among the Arabs; the fame may be obferved in other cafes. I could not avoid this in the extracts I have given from thefe Travellers, if I gave them with exactnefs, which I endeavoured to do; nor in my after Obfervations without, in a fort, taking upon me to decide which was the most proper way of forming these, and other Eastern names, into English words, which I by no means think myfelf qualified to do, and for that reason I generally, if not always, make ufe of those terms that the Author I laft cited thought fit to employ, my fpeculations relating to Eastern customs, not Eastern terms, and the manner of transfufing them with the greatest propriety into our language. The perufing of Travels is to most people a very delightful kind of reading: but as Gentlemen that publifh accounts of this kind to the world, feldom think of illustrating the Scriptures; as thofe that have made obfervations of this nature content themselves with propofing a very few; as large collections of thefe writers are very expensive; and, after all, numbers of ufeful things will will be found to have been paffed over in filence by them all; and as most readers will not exercife patience enough to make thefe difcoveries in their reading authors of this fort; I have been led to imagine, that the publishing fome obfervations of this kind, and especially if formed into a regular feries, could not well fail of being acceptable to the Public, if executed in any tolerable manner. How far thefe papers anfwer fuch an idea, I must leave to my candid and good-natured reader to determine. I have at leaft endeavoured to obey the precept which a Gentleman in elder life, to whose inftructions I paid great deference, gave me at my firft fetting out in a course of studies-Make every kind of study pay its contribution to the oracles of GOD. If my design fucceeds, Commentators will not, I hope, for the future, think they have extended their enquiries far enough, when they examine a text with grammatical nicety; they will, along with that, pay an unbroken attention to the customs of the Eastern people, and look upon this additional care as abfolutely neceffary to make a good Commentator. A deplorable want of which the judicious reader will, with indignation, find in many Commentaries of name, and that where their Authors lived in thefe very countries, who, by being on the fpot, had the greateft opportunities to have made their interpretations much more complete and accurate, by referring with care to the Natural History of thofe places, and their ancient customs. The following Obfervations will fhew that St. Jerome is, unhappily, of the number of thefe. ADVER ADVERTISEMENT HE Bookseller being defirous to reprint these papers, I have communicated to him feveral additional Obfervations, of a like kind with the others, which have occurred to me fince the publication of the first edition: fome of them derived from authors before confulted, upon an after-reviewing them; but most of them deduced from books of Travels which I had not then seen. Some of thefe are mentioned in the Preface to the Outlines of a new Commentary on Solomon's Song, published fome years after my Obfervations: Haffelquist in particular, a celebrated Swedish Phyfician, whofe Travels were translated, and printed in 1766; Bufbequius, an Imperial Ambaffador, who gave the world an account of his journey into the East about two hundred years ago, in feveral letters that edition that I made ufe of was printed at Oxford in 1660; and the Letters of Lady Mary Worthy Montague, third edition, printed in 1763. Befides thefe, I have perused a Voyage to Mount Libanus, by the Rev. Father Ferome Dandini, a Nuncio of Pope Clement VIII, who confequently travelled into the Eaft about a hundred and feventy years ago, this was tranflated from the Italian, and printed in 1698; Plaiftead's Journal from Calcutta to Bufferah, and from thence across the great defert to Aleppo, &c. in the year 1750, fecond edition, 1758; a View of the Levant, particularly of Conftantinople, Syria, Ægypt, and Greece, by Charles Perry, M. D. London, 1743; and the Travels of Alexander Drummond, Esquire, the British Conful at Aleppo, through feveral parts of Afia, as far as the banks of the Euphrates, London, 1754; and fome others, which I need not dif tinctly mention, The above-mentioned writers have furnished me with feveral particulars: not only fome notes of confequence, and fome additional claufes in the text, but fome entire new Obfervations. But the greatest advantage to this edition are those additions of all the various kinds I have been mentioning, which have been furnished by fome MS. papers of the late Sir John Chardin, who refided long in the Eaft, was a very curious Obferver, and paid a particular attention to fuch matters as might ferve to illuftrate paffages VOL. I. of ་ of Holy Writ; which led him to make many Obfervations, very much resembling those that were heretofore published in this work. There are fix small MS. volumes of Sir John, which are ftill in being, and which I have perufed on this occafion. They are referred to in the Preface to his printed Travels, in which he mentions his defign of other publications. They consist chiefly of memorandums, written with the negligence and brevity usual to papers of that kind. For this reason I have frequently tranflated them in a loofer manner than I have done fuch authors as had finished their papers, and published them to the world; but I have been as careful as could to retain his fentiments with exactness. His obfervations fometimes give a new turn to the paffages of Scripture which he is endeavouring to elucidate; but oftener farther illuftrate and confirm the explanations that are to be met with in other writers, and not unfrequently thofe formerly publifhed in, this work. I have felected thofe that feemed at all fuited to the intention of this collection of mine; and I hope these additions will give a confiderable degree of pleasure to my readers. If they fhould, the public ought to be informed that they are indebted for fuch inftruction and pleasure to Sir Philip Mufgrave, Baronet, a defcendant of this eminent Traveller, and the proprietor of thefe MSS, to whom I fome time ago returned them. And I beg leave in this public manner to return my thanks to that Gentleman, for granting me the liberty of perusing these papers, and for the permiffion he gave me of publishing any parts of them that I should felect, as proper to be introduced into this work. An ingenious and benevolent Gentleman, with whom I was totally unacquainted, but who approved of this manner of illuftrating the Scriptures, was fo obliging as to give me the first notice that there were fuch papers in being; and to direct me to a dignified Clergyman, of very great diftinction both in the Church and the Literary World, by whofe means I might hope to obtain a fight of them. This eminent Perfonage accordingly, though a perfect ftranger to me, was fo condefcending as to employ his intereft with Sir Philip Mufgrave, to procure me these Manuscripts. This favour, which I fhould in any circumftance have confidered as very great, was extremely enhanced, by the speedy and very complaifant manner in which |