That all merchandise imported from English ports to Al-Hijaz should pay 4 per cent. duty. “2. That all merchandise imported by British subjects from countries not under the dominion of the Porte should likewise pay but 5 per cent. “3. That all goods exported from countries under the dominion of the Porte should pay 12 per cent., after a deduction of 16 per cent. from the market-value of the articles. “4. That all monopolies be abolished.” “Now, when I arrived at Jeddah, the state of affairs was this. A monopoly had been established upon salt, and this weighed only upon our Anglo-Indian subjects, they being the sole purchasers. Five per cent. was levied upon full value of goods, no deduction of the 20 per cent. being allowed; the same was the case with exports; and most vexatious of all, various charges had been established by the local authorities, under the names of boat-hire, weighing, brokerage, &c., &c. The duties had thus been raised from 4 to at least 8 per cent. * * * This being represented at Constantinople, brought a peremptory Firman, ordering the governor to act up to the treaty letter by letter. * * * I have had the satisfaction to rectify the abuses of sixteen years’ standing during my first few months of office, but I expect all manner of difficulties in claiming reimbursement for the over-exactions.” [FN#10] M. Rochet (soi-disant d’Hericourt) amusingly describes this manœuvre of the governor of Al-Hodaydah. [FN#11] Many of them were afterwards victims to the “Jeddah massacre” on June 30, 1858. I must refer the reader to my “Lake Regions of Central Africa” (Appendix, vol. ii.) for an account of this event, for the proposals which I made to ward it off, and for the miserable folly of the “Bombay Government,” who rewarded me by an official reprimand. [FN#12] The curious reader will find details concerning Patriarchal and Prophetical Tombs in “Unexplored Syria,” i. 33—35. [p.277] APPENDICES. [p.279] APPENDIX I. OF HAJJ, OR PILGRIMAGE. The word Hajj is explained by Moslem divines to mean “Kasd,” or aspiration, and to express man’s sentiment that he is but a wayfarer on earth wending towards another and a nobler world. This explains the origin and the belief that the greater the hardships the higher will be the reward of the pious wanderer. He is urged by the voice of his soul: “O thou who toilest so hard for worldly pleasures and perishable profit, wilt thou endure nothing to win a more lasting reward?” Hence it is that pilgrimage is common to all old faiths. The Hindus still wander to Egypt, to Tibet, and to the inhospitable Caucasus; the classic philosophers visited Egypt; the Jews annually flocked to Jerusalem; and the Tartars and Mongols—Buddhists—journey to distant Lamaserais. The spirit of pilgrimage was predominant in mediæval Europe, and the processions of the Roman Catholic Church are, according to her votaries,[FN#1] modern memorials of the effete rite. Every Moslem is bound, under certain conditions,[FN#2]