displayed at their head, may deserve, in the eyes of strangers, the honors of the kingly name. If the Arabian princes abuse their power, they are quickly punished by the desertion of their subjects, who had been accustomed to a mild and parental jurisdictiom. Their spirit is free, their steps are unconfined, the desert is open, and the tribes and families are held together by a mutual and voluntary compact.

“In the study of nations and men, we may observe the causes that render them hostile or friendly to each other - that tend to narrow or enlarge, to vilify or exasperate, the social character. The separation of the Arabs from the rest of mankind, has accustomed them to confound the idea of stranger and enemy: and the poverty of the land has introduced a maxim of jurisprudence, which they believe and practice to the present hour; they pretend that in the division of the earth, the rich and fertile climates were assigned to the other branches the human family; and that the posterity of the outlaw Ishmael might recover by fraud or force, the portion of inheritance of which he had been unjustly deprived. According to the remark of Pliny⚫, the Arabian tribes are equally addicted to the theft and merchandize; the caravans that traverse the deserts are ransomed or pillaged; and their neighbors since the remote times of Job and Sesostris, have been the victims of their rapacious spirit. If a Bedoween discovers from afar a solitary traveller, he