by
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
G. P. Putnam &Co.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States forthe Southern District of New York.
This book--the chronicle of my travels through lands once occupied by theSaracens--naturally dedicates itself to you, who, more than any otherAmerican author, have revived the traditions, restored the history, andillustrated the character of that brilliant and heroic people. Yourcordial encouragement confirmed me in my design of visiting the East, andmaking myself familiar with Oriental life; and though I bring you now butimperfect returns, I can at least unite with you in admiration of a fieldso rich in romantic interest, and indulge the hope that I may one daypluck from it fruit instead of blossoms. In Spain, I came upon your track,and I should hesitate to exhibit my own gleanings where you haveharvested, were it not for the belief that the rapid sketches I have givenwill but enhance, by the contrast, the charm of your finished picture.
Bayard Taylor.
This volume comprises the second portion of a series of travels, of whichthe "Journey to Central Africa," already published, is the first part. Ileft home, intending to spend a winter in Africa, and to return during thefollowing summer; but circumstances afterwards occurred, which prolongedmy wanderings to nearly two years and a half, and led me to visit manyremote and unexplored portions of the globe. To describe this journey in asingle work, would embrace too many incongruous elements, to say nothingof its great length, and as it falls naturally into three parts, orepisodes, of very distinct character, I have judged it best to group myexperiences under three separate heads, merely indicating the links whichconnect them. This work includes my travels in Palestine, Syria, AsiaMinor, Sicily and Spain, and will be followed by a third and concludingvolume, containing my adventures in India, China, the Loo-Choo Islands,and Japan. Although many of the letters, contained in this volume,describe beaten tracks of travel, I have always given my own individualimpressions, and may claim for them the merit of entire sincerity. Thejourney from Aleppo to Constantinople, through the heart of Asia Minor,illustrates regions rarely traversed by tourists, and will, no doubt, benew to most of my readers. My aim, throughout the work, has been to givecorrect pictures of Oriental life and scenery, leaving antiquarianresearch and speculation to abler hands. The scholar, or the man ofscience, may complain with reason that I have neglected valuableopportunities for adding something to the stock of human knowledge: but ifa few of the many thousands, who can only travel by their firesides,should find my pages answer the purpose of a series of cosmoramicviews--should in them behold with a clearer inward eye the hills ofPalestine, the sun-gilded minarets of Damascus, or the lonely pine-forestsof Phrygia--should feel, by turns, something of the inspiration and theindolence of the Orient--I shall have achieved all I designed, and morethan I can justly hope.
New York, October, 1854.
Chapter I....