'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎700] (799/905)

700
FIDELITY OF THE ARABS.
[CHAP. XXV.
Arabs valuable goods belonging to merchants from the different sea-
gZd teeasure. ports to Damascus and Aleppo, and from those cities across
the desert, under a guard of their own people. In the
narrative of the Expedition, it will be seen, that stores of all
kinds, including ammunition and fire-arms, and supplies of
cash, amounting on the whole to several thousand pounds,
were transported by Arabs from the estuary of the Orontes,
and from Aleppo to the river Euphrates; and, although they
were accompanied by only one or two Europeans, and some
times by none, they took no advantage of the circumstance to
appropriate to themselves any part of the treasure. Agreeably
to custom, the Arabs were generally paid in advance; but the
money was faithfully returned when the local authorities
prevented the fulfilment of their engagement, and in every
instance the contracts into which they entered were performed
with the utmost fidelity.
Good and evil Some writers have ascribed to the Arabs every vice which
SmractCT their disgraces human nature; while they have acknowledged in
them very few of the virtues which ennoble it; and others,
by dwelling too largely on their virtues, have fallen into the
opposite extreme. Both parties appear to be equally wide of
the truth, and it may be more justly asserted that, in the
character of this people, good and evil nearly equally prevail.
It has, at least, been the lot of the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. of this work to
witness, in the Arabs, the extremes of both these qualities
during the voyage down the Euphrates, as well as during the
extensive journeys which he had previously made among them.
END OF VOL. I.