and in the accompanying maps, has imposed upon me much labour, as I have been obliged, in almost every page, to refer not only to the copious Arabic lists which I prepared during my journey, but to those of Abulfeda, Edrisi, Ibn Haukal, Schultens, Assemanus, Eli Smith, Renouard, and others, and even to the Arabic Dictionary, when I could not at once recognise the roots of the words used. Some errors, I

am aware, have occurred per incuriam; but they are comparatively few. If, in some instances, I have restored the eastern names of places and persons which may be said to have acquired peculiar English names, I have done this to exhibit the effect of a system in circumstances in which it will not fail to excite notice; and because now, even in our general literature, there is an evident approximation to accuracy. While Gibbon has rightly said, that "in proper names of foreign, and especially of oriental origin, it should always be our aim to express, in our English version, a faithful copy of the original," he has added, that "some words, notoriously corrupt, are fixed, and, as it were, naturalized in the vulgar tongue." In illustration of the latter point, he says, "The prophet Mahommed can no longer be stripped of the famous, though improper, appellation of Mahomet." Of this appellation, however, the enthusiast and impostor is now stripped by many of our most approved writers, and I consequently give him at once his true eastern cognomen-Muḥammad.

The Maps which accompany this work have been constructed by the Messrs. Johnston, geographers to the Queen, under my own personal direction. In that of the Peninsula of Mount Sinai and Arabia Petræa, we have, as regards the

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coasts of the seas of Suweis and Akabah, followed the valuable survey of Captain Moresby, making the necessary correction for the longitude, which I have noticed at page 12 of my first volume. The method of representing the physical features of the country is that of Russegger of Vienna. We have freely availed ourselves of the bearings, and notes, and delineations of Burckhardt, and Robinson, and others, as regards localization; and some of the most important of their bearings we have recast. The notes of Mr. Smith of Bombay and myself have been turned to especial use; and they have enabled us, I trust, to rectify the representation of parts of the great desert, which have hitherto been put down very much at random, or altogether on conjecture. As the Sinaite group of mountains, from the narrowness of the valleys, can be but very inadequately represented, even in a general sheet map of considerable size, we have, on the margin, given an enlargement of it from a very valuable delineation of Russegger, attached to his map of the north of Syria, making it, at the same time, accord as much as possible with the notes of our own travel. An inspection of it will go far to show that Mount Sinai is indeed the geological axis of the remarkable group to which it gives name. The Map of the Holy Land is, in its southern parts, principally founded on the excellent one of Kiepert, executed by him under the direction of the famous geographer, Carl Ritter. It embraces, however, in these, as in other portions, all the improvements, and modifications, and additions, which our own observation and inquiry have suggested. The spelling of the names of places has been altered throughout, so as to make it accord with the system to

which I have above adverted. The Scripture sites are marked in capitals, and other ancient sites in italic capitals; and a greater degree of distinctness will, I hope, thus be the consequence than has hitherto been obtained. We have availed ourselves of the survey of the country contiguous to the sources of the Jordan by Major Robe of the Royal Engineers, published in the able and most valuable periodical, the Bibliotheca Sacra. In connexion with the coasts of the Mediterranean, various charts of the Royal Navy have been consulted. As regards the north of Syria and Lebanon, we have been principally indebted to Russegger and Berghaus, and our own notes. The Plan of Jerusalem is principally a reduction of the best which we have yet got of the Holy City-that of Dr. Schulze, but accommodated to the opinions which I have expressed in the body of this work. The Plans of Tyre, Sidon, and Beirut, are principally taken from those of Captain Ormsby, published by the Admiralty. My attention was directed to them by Captain Beaufort of the R.N. The little Map of Arabia Felix has been constructed from the Surveys of Captain Haines, I.N., the Notes of a Journey from Mokhá to Ṣaná, by Lieutenant Cruttenden, I.N., the Survey of the Red Sea, and from Niebuhr. The sketch Map of Lower Egypt and the Valley of the Nile, has been formed from Leake, Russegger, and Wilkinson. The Derb el-Basátín has been laid down from our own notes. In the construction of the Maps to which I have now referred, I have to acknowledge the valuable advice of Major T. B. Jervis, F.R.S., of the Bombay Engineers, long advantageously employed in the geographical Surveys of India.

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The illustrations of this work, it will be seen, are, with one or two exceptions, original, and the produce of the portfolio, with which I was furnished by our successful draughtsman, Mr. G. O'Brien.

To my learned friend, Alexander Thomson, Esq. of Banchory, I have to express my obligations for the loan, from his admirable library, of a number of rare and valuable works, to which I have had occasion to refer. A similar acknowledgment I have to make to the Council of the Royal Asiatic Society, and to the officials of the Library of the New College, Edinburgh.

But I must no longer make demands upon you and the public for explanations. My work, such as it is, has cost me many hours of labour since my return to the land of my fathers; and while now, on my again setting out to the distant East, I commit it to the decision of your own warmhearted kindness, and the candour of the public, I pray that it may in some degree benefit the reader of the Bible, and aid the advancement of the cause of philanthropy in the memorable lands in which Christianity has lost, but will yet recover, its pristine power.—I am,

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,

Yours, with the highest esteem,

EDINBURGH, May, 1847.

JOHN WILSON.