BURCKHARDT, John Ludwig (1784-1817), a celebrated Swiss traveller, was born at Kirchgarten, near Lausanne, November 24, 1784. After studying at Leipsic and Göttingen he visited England in the summer of 1806, carrying a letter of introduction from the celebrated Blumenbach to Sir Joseph Banks, who, with the other members of the African Association, accepted his offer to explore the interior of Africa. After studying in London and Cambridge, and inuring himself to all kinds of hardships and privations, he left England in April 1809 for Malta, whence he proceeded, in the following October, to Aleppo. In order that he might acquire Arabic thoroughly he disguised himself as a Mussulman, under the name of Sheik Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah; and, after two years passed in that part of Asia, he had so mastered the language as not to be distinguished from the natives, and had acquired such accurate knowledge of the contents of the Koran, and of the commentaries upon its religion and laws, that after a critical examination the most learned Mussulmans entertained no doubt of his being really what he professed to be, a learned doctor of their law. During his residence in Syria he visited Palmyra, Damascus, Lebanon, and thence repaired to Cairo with the intention of joining a caravan, and travelling to Fezzan, in the north of Africa. In 1812, whilst waiting for the departure of the caravan, he undertook a journey to the Nile, as far up as Mahass; and then, in the character of a poor Syrian merchant, he made a journey through the Nubian desert which Bruce had traversed, passing by Berber and Shendy to Suakin, on the Red Sea, whence he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca by way of Jiddah. After enduring privations and sufferings of the severest kind, he returned to Cairo in a state of great ...