DEDICATION AND PREFACE.
dred and twenty years have past, and our knowledge of the regions traversed by the gallant Jesuit, though still exhibiting considerable gaps, has been greatly ex= tended; whilst the other two travellers have never, so far as I know, been systematically edited; i.e., with some endeavour to accompany their narratives with a commentary which should aim at identifying the places visited by them, and at the elucidation or condemnation of their statements.
In regard to Ibn Batuta, " mine Arabike," as John Bunyan says of his Latin, " I borrowe"; not, however, from Lee, but from the unabridged travels as rendered into French by MM. Defrémery and Sanguinetti. Though the version is thus borrowed, the commentary is not ; and it is certainly my belief that by it some new light is thrown on this curious traveller.
Of the other authors here laid under contribution the vain and garrulous but truthful John de' Marignolli is the most conspicuous. He has been incidentally cited by Sir Emerson Tennent, whom little escapes ; but otherwise he is, I believe, almost unknown in England.
Each of the authors, however, will present his credentials in the proper place, before telling his story ; and it is not needful to say more here regarding them individually.
For repetitions occurring in the text, I need not apologise ; they are inevitable in what is a collection, not a selection. But it is to be feared that repetitions occur also sometimes in the notes, and for these I beg
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