Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/23



February, 1852, having been recently appointed by Lord Granville to the Vice-Consulship of Mytilene, I visited the Levant for the first time. In receiving this appointment from the Foreign Office, I was, at the same time, instructed to use such opportunities as presented themselves for the acquisition of antiquities for the British Museum, and with this object I was authorized to extend my researches beyond the limits of my Vice-Consulship; a small annual allowance being granted me for travelling expenses.

In the volume now offered to the public I have recorded the researches and observations during a residence in the Levant of seven years, from 1852 to 1859.

The series of letters in which the work is arranged, were for the most part written in the Levant, at the date which they bear. Much new matter has, however, been inserted in various parts of the text, and these additions have been thrown, for the sake of uniformity, into the form of letters. Perhaps a B