Four months in the Middle East

For twenty years the French, like all other peoples, have wanted to leave their homes: this is an indisputable fact, and a testimony to the various explorations of Central Africa which our compatriots have recently joined. The welcome they give to the impressions they bring back from those regions is every day more sympathetic. This welcome has encouraged me, although I was very much afraid, from a literary point of view, that I had undertaken too heavy a task. The present tale cannot be compared with the attractive story of a great voyage: it is true in all its details, and has only one advantage: it is short. If it offers new insights into some regions of the East which are still not entirely known, it also shows how an expedition which has many elements of success can fail because of the incapacity of its leader, when patriotism, or even the simplest self-interest, should have dictated the choice of a man who would not yield to the ridicule of strangers. These notes have, of course, been collected simply as personal recollections.

in the sharq al alawisat