ADVERTISEMENT.

HAVING had the charge of the former Volume of Christian Researches, I have undertaken, at the request of the Church Missionary Committee, to carry through the press this additional Volume; which furnishes abundant proof of the enlarged, intelligent, and devout spirit in which the Society's Representative continues to prosecute its objects in his highly interesting sphere of Christian Labour.

JOSIAH PRATT.

LONDON, August 1, 1825.

1

PREFACE.

THE present Volume is designed as a continuation of those Christian Researches, in the prosecution of which the Author was engaged during the first five years of his labours in the Mediterranean, from 1815 to 1820; and of which an account has already been published by the Church Missionary Society.

In the former publication, a wider range was taken; and a general view was given of most of the countries adjacent to this sphere of Missionary Labour. In this Volume, a fuller description is offered of one particular portion of these regionsa portion by far the most interesting to Christians, on account of its connection with all the great events recorded in the Holy Scriptures.

The limited extent of the region here described dispenses with the necessity of that systematic arrangement, which was observed in the former Volume-an arrangement, which was, in fact, absolutely requisite to the clear developement of the condition and opinions of so great a variety of Nations and of Churches, as was exhibited in that publication. In the following pages, many of the Author's observations are given in the form of a Journal. It would not, indeed, have been difficult to subdivide the Volume into parts, each furnishing a separate account of the different classes of society to be found in Syria and Palestine, Since, however, that small country does, in fact, present an

epitome of nearly all the Bodies of men existing around the Mediterranean, it is evident, that, in such a partition of subjects, some would have been found too inconsiderable to form by themselves a detached chapter.

The want of lucid order, incidental to this mode of publication, will appear, however, to be, in a considerable measure, remedied by the Introductory Section of the Work; in which, by means of an extensive compilation from a variety of Authors, there is presented to the Reader a classified view of the different Bodies of Men existing in Syria and Palestine.

In the Sections which follow the Journal, the Author has aimed at developing more fully than his Journal had done, the condition of the people; . not without an ardent hope, that the picture exhibited may be the means of rousing the British Public to a deeper sense of their obligations to prosecute Christian Missions in this part of the world. Various suggestions, the result of frequent communication with men of intelligence and piety, are likewise offered, in reference to the character of Missionaries and the measures of Missionary and Bible Societies.

In the Appendix is given the Journal of a Visit made, last winter, to the Regency of Tunis by Mr. Joseph Greaves-a friend from whose assistance the Church Missionary Society has, during several years, derived great benefit; and who was desirous to attempt at least, previously to his quitting Malta, a commencement of Christian Investigation and Exertions in North Africa—a region hitherto untrod by the feet of any Protestant Missionaries. Besides