I am on the eve of leaving Aleppo for an excursion into the Desert, and shall probably set out the day after to-morrow. My good luck conducted some days ago an Arab Shikh to town, who is the mightiest chief of all the Arabs between Aleppo, Damascus, and Bagdad. He came for the purpose of receiving in person the passage duties upon certain goods which are shortly to be sent by means of a great caravan to Bagdad. He belongs to the wide extended tribe of the Aenezy, who have all become Wahabi; his own very powerful tribe is called the Tedhan, and his name is Duehy Ibn Ryeiben. I easily got acquainted with him; we ate and drank together, and I succeeded in making an agreement with him, that he should take me by way of Tedmor or Palmyra home to his family and tents, which he says are not far from Damascus in the plain of Haouran; he himself came to Aleppo accompanied only by a few people upon dromedaries. He is to shew me his tents and horses, of which latter I told him the English Consul here might be perhaps induced to buy some upon my recommendation; and he is then to set me down at Damascus. He is known to all the principal Bagdad merchants of this town, and my agreement with him has been made in writing, signed by the most respectable of these merchants, as witnesses; I am so far in perfect tranquillity as to the security of my person under his protection. He is indeed a famous robber, but the Shikhs of the Desert have never been known to withdraw their protection from those to whom they have promised it. _Damascus, August 15,_ 1810.