My time at Aleppo has been exclusively taken up in endeavours to enlarge my knowledge of Arabic. I have completed the perusal of several of the best Arabic authors, prosaic writers as well as poets; I have read over the Koran twice, and have got by heart several of its chapters and many of its sentences; I am likewise nearly finishing a thorough course of the precepts of the Mohammedan religion, a learned Effendi having taken upon himself the task of explaining to me the book of Ibrahim Halebi on the religious laws of the Turks. This is the book upon which D’Ohsson has grounded his excellent work. There is no kind of political news in these parts. It is a long time since we have heard of the Wahabi. Aleppo continues in the hands of the Janissaries, but it is said that Gharib Pasha, whom the Porte has lately named Pasha of Aleppo, is collecting in Anatolia a considerable force to subdue these rebels. Damascus, Tripoli, and Acre, are completely under the dominion of Soleiman Pasha, but it is known that Mohammed Aly, Pasha of Egypt, spares neither intrigues nor money to dispossess Soleiman at least of one of his Pashaliks. The pilgrimage from Damascus to Mecca is again put off for another year. There is a great scarcity all over Syria; wheat has risen to an exorbitant price, and the two last years having been remarkably dry, almost every kind of vegetable has failed. The same quantity of wheat which at the time of my arrival at Aleppo sold for six piastres and a half, is now worth twenty-seven. Such scarcity makes travelling much less pleasant, and the natives much less inclined to forward the stranger’s purposes. _Damascus, May 30_, 1812. The last, which I had the honour to address you, was from Aleppo. It was accompanied by a large chest of Arabic manuscripts. Incessant rains delayed my departure from Aleppo, until the 14th of February. I arrived on the 3d of March at Tripoli, and on the 22d at Damascus. Being very desirous of visiting the Haouran once more before I should leave Syria, in order to examine those parts which I had not been able to see during my first tour through that country, I set out with this object, as soon as I was satisfied of the tranquil state of the Pashalik. I left this city on the 21st April, and returned to it on the 9th May. One of the packets of papers herewith inclosed contains my notes on this journey through the Haouran, and part of the ancient Decapolis; the second consists of my observations during the previous journey from Aleppo to Damascus. The third paper contains corrections and annotations to the description of Bedouin manners, which I hope has long since reached you. I intend to set out from hence in a few days. It is my wish to proceed along the eastern borders of the Dead Sea into Arabia Petræa, to visit there if possible, some unknown districts, and to make my way from thence straight to Cairo.