By Means Of It They Have,
From The Remotest Antiquity, Carried On A Regular And Extensive Commerce.
The caravans may be divided into those of Asia and those of Africa:
The
great centre of the former is Mecca: the pilgrimage to this place, enjoined
by Mahomet, has tended decidedly to facilitate and extend commercial
intercourse. Two caravans annually visit Mecca; one from Cairo, and the
other from Damascus. The merchants and pilgrims who compose the former come
from Abyssinia; from which they bring elephants' teeth, ostrich feathers,
gum, gold dust, parrots, monkies, &c. Merchants also come from the Senegal,
and collect on their way those of Algiers, Tunis, &c. This division
sometimes consists of three thousand camels, laden with oils, red caps,
fine flannels, &c. The journey of the united caravans, which have been
known to consist of 100,000 persons, in going and returning, occupies one
hundred days: they bring back from Mecca all the most valuable productions
of the East, coffee, gum arabic, perfumes, drugs, spices, pearls, precious
stones, shawls, muslins, &c. The caravan of Damascus is scarcely inferior
to that of Cairo, in the variety and value of the produce which it conveys
to Mecca, and brings back from it, or in the number of camels and men which
compose it. Almost every province of the Turkish empire sends forth
pilgrims, merchants, and commodities to this caravan. Of the Asiatic
caravans, purely commercial, we know less than of those which unite
religion and commerce; as the former do not travel at stated seasons, nor
follow a marked and constant route.
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