It should not be dissembled that, upon Burckhardt’s desire to travel for the African Association being communicated to Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Hamilton (then acting secretary to that body), strong representations of the dangers to be encountered in the execution of the plan were made to the youthful aspirant after fame; but such representations, which are a delusive kind of peace-offering placed for form’s sake on the altar of conscience, are seldom sincerely designed to effect their apparent purpose; and the actors in the farce would, for the most part, experience extreme chagrin should they find their eloquence prove successful. At all events, few men are so ignorant as not to know that the aspect of danger wears a certain charm for youth, which naturally associates therewith an idea of honour; and, provided success be probable, or even possible, reckons obstacles of every kind among the incentives to exertion. These dissuasive speeches, therefore, from persons whose sole object in constituting themselves into a public body was to produce a directly opposite result, were altogether hypocritical; and Burckhardt, if he possessed half the sagacity which seems to have entered into his character, must have distinctly perceived this, and have despised them accordingly. However this may be, his offer, which was laid before the association at the general meeting of May, 1808, was “willingly accepted;” and he immediately commenced all those preparations which were necessary to the proper accomplishment of his undertaking. He employed himself diligently in the study of the Arabic language both in London and Cambridge, as well as in the acquiring of a knowledge of several branches of science, such as chymistry, astronomy, mineralogy, medicine, and surgery; he likewise allowed his beard to grow, assumed the oriental dress, “and in the intervals of his studies he exercised himself by long journeys on foot, bare-headed, in the heat of the sun, sleeping upon the ground, and living upon vegetables and water.” On the 25th of January, 1809, he received his instructions, by which he was directed to proceed in the first instance to Syria, where, it was supposed, he might complete his knowledge of the Arabic, and acquire oriental habits and manners at a distance from the scene of his researches, and where he was not likely to meet with any individuals who might afterward recognise him at an inconvenient moment. Burckhardt sailed from Cowes on the 2d of March, 1809, in a merchant-ship, proceeding to the Mediterranean, and arrived at Malta in the middle of April. From thence, in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, he transmitted an account of the attempt to explore the interior of Africa which was at that time meditated by Dr. Seetzen, a German physician, who shortly afterward perished, not without suspicions of poison, in Yemen; and of a recent eruption of Mount Etna, the description of which he obtained from the letter of an English gentleman.