[Footnote 18: Our notions of Mecca must be drawn from the
Arabians, (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 368 - 371.
Pocock, Specimen, p. 125 - 128. Abulfeda, p. 11 - 40.) As
no unbeliever is permitted to enter the city, our travellers
are silent; and the short hints of Thevenot (Voyages du
Levant, part i. p. 490) are taken from the suspicious mouth
of an African renegado. Some Persians counted 6000 houses,
(Chardin. tom. iv. p. 167.) Note: Even in the time of
Gibbon, Mecca had not been so inaccessible to Europeans. It
had been visited by Ludovico Barthema, and by one Joseph
Pitts, of Exeter, who was taken prisoner by the Moors, and
forcibly converted to Mahometanism. His volume is a curious,
though plain, account of his sufferings and travels. Since
that time Mecca has been entered, and the ceremonies
witnessed, by Dr. Seetzen, whose papers were unfortunately
lost; by the Spaniard, who called himself Ali Bey; and,
lastly, by Burckhardt, whose description leaves nothing
wanting to satisfy the curiosity. - M.]