The name of Kayd Beg, which frequently occurs, is sometimes spelt in the
Ms. Kait Beg, and once erroneously Kail Beg. On reference to
Burckhardt's Nubian Travels, it appears that he entered Djidda on the
18th of July, and not on the 15th, as printed in the first page of this
volume through a mistake of the figure 8 for 5; the ink with which he
wrote having in many parts of his Journal faded considerably, and become
of a pale reddish colour. As far, also, as the faded ink in some places
of the Ms. allows the editor (and others who have seen it) to judge,
Mekkawy is used to express a person of Mekka: in many pages of the Ms.
Mekkan is distinctly written, but the Arabic derivative Mekky occurs
only in the Author's Introduction (p. xiv.) Local derivatives similar to
Mekkawy occur in the various parts of Burckhardt's works: the present
volume, and his Syrian and Nubian Travels, exhibit Djiddawy, Yembawy,
Kennawy, Dongolawy, Bornawy, Bedjawy, &c. from Djidda, Yembo, Kenne,
Dongola, Bornou, Bedja. &c.
[p.1] TRAVELS
IN
THE HEDJAZ OF ARABIA
DJIDDA
MY arrival in the Hedjaz was attended with some unfavourable
circumstances. On entering the town of Djidda, in the morning of the
15th of July, 1814, I went to the house of a person on whom I had a
letter of credit, delivered to me, at my departure from Cairo, in
January, 1813, when I had not yet fully resolved to extend my travels
into Arabia. From this person I met with a very cold reception; the
letter was thought to be of too old a date to deserve notice: indeed, my
ragged appearance might have rendered any one cautious how he committed
himself with his correspondents, in paying me a large sum of money on
their account; bills and letters of credit are, besides, often trifled
with in the mutual dealings of Eastern merchants; and I thus experienced
a flat refusal, accompanied, however, with an offer of lodgings in the
man's house. This I accepted for the first two days, thinking that, by a
more intimate acquaintance I might convince him that I was neither an
adventurer nor impostor; but finding him inflexible, I removed to one of
the numerous public
[p.2] Khans in the town, my whole stock of money being two dollars and a
few sequins, sewed up in an amulet which I wore on my arm. I had little
time to make melancholy reflections upon my situation; for on the fourth
day after my arrival, I was attacked by a violent fever, occasioned,
probably, by indulging too freely in the fine fruits which were then in
the Djidda market; an imprudence, which my abstemious diet, for the last
twelve months, rendered, perhaps, less inexcusable, but certainly of
worse consequence.
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