Page:The travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch - Volume II.djvu/9



Arabic Manuscript of the Travels performed by His Holiness, Patriarch of Antioch, and composed by his attendant son and Archdeacon, Paul of Aleppo, was selected for translation from a Collection of Manuscripts in the possession of the late , purchased during a tour made by his Lordship in the Levant. The merit of the Selection is due to, His Britannic Majesty's Oriental Interpreter, who, as early as the year 1819, commenced an English Version of the work; not, however, on the plan usually followed in Translations, and faithfully adhered to in the present performance, namely, that of pursuing the original thread of the writer; but, by a peculiar method of marking out a certain portion of the matter to form a text, and throwing aside the remainder for digestion into notes. In this manner Mr. prosecuted his labours, amounting to the translation of about one half of the First Volume, until 1824, when was pleased to transfer the work into my hands: and it is now, under the auspices and at the expense of the, presented to the Public in these Volumes, containing a complete and faithful Version of the Travels from the commencement, with the omission only of some uninteresting and tedious repetitions of the Greek-Church Ceremonies. As a record of the early struggles of the Muscovites for empire against their natural enemies the Poles, so steadily and triumphantly maintained by the Czar Alexius, whose sword of conquest is still wielded by his successors to the present time, the writings of the Archdeacon will be found to be of considerable value: nor, as far as I have been able to discover, is there any document extant of equally curious authenticity, as regarding the distinctive policy and prescriptive maxims of that Colossus of Modern