The daily supply of one quart would afford little relief to an animal which when thirsty swallows fifty or sixty, and after several days thirst, one hundred pounds of water. Four camel loads of water would in North-eastern Africa, even among the Nubian merchants, who carefully reckon every pound weight to be loaded upon their camels, be thought a scanty allowance for twenty-eight persons, even if they were mounted on camels, for a journey of five or six days. It is not by a daily allowance of half a pint mixed with urine, that a pedestrian traveller in the sands of Africa can hope to support his strength, through the continued exertions of such a journey; nor shall I ever believe that the Moors are so much superior to the Nubians, although they may be rather stronger than Aly Bey el Abbassi, who was perishing with thirst in a desert of Barbary, of one day’s journey across, fainting at four P. M. after having drank at noon a large draught. Stories of long journeys without water are to be placed in the same class with those of hot winds, overwhelming sands, and the miraculous swiftness of camels, &c. &c. They all originate in the fancy of Bedouins, who at the expense of truth, thus indulge the curiosity of the inhabitants of the towns, gaping at the wonders of the desert. They can be contradicted only by the few who have actually crossed the deserts, while they will be constantly corroborated by those who draw their information only from bragging Arabians or Moors. I am certain that you take a lively interest in the travels of the unfortunate Seetzen, who was poisoned five years ago in Yemen. His labours, I can assure you, have been very extensive, and conducted in a most enlightened manner. His intimate acquaintance with all branches of natural history was applied with indefatigable zeal to countries the most difficult of access, and he had many times nearly become a martyr to those pursuits, before he met with his ultimate fate. It has fallen to my lot to trace his footsteps, in many hitherto unknown parts of Syria and Arabia Petrӕa, and again in the Hedjaz; these, together with what I heard from the Europeans who knew him at Aleppo, Damascus, and Cairo, as well as from many Arabs on the road, have inspired me with as great a respect for his private character, as the dispersed memoirs of his researches already published, must give every reader for his literary acquirements. Although endowed with a lively fancy, and even with considerable poetical talents, he was a man of plain truth. If sometimes over fond of speculating upon the facts which he had collected, yet I am certain that in stating those facts, he observed the strictest adherence to truth, and I have not the smallest doubt, that if he had lived to publish the mass of knowledge which he had acquired during his travels, he would have far excelled all travellers, who ever wrote on the same countries. Mr. Salt has lately shewn me a letter which he received in 1811, from Mr. Rutland,