ndon, as a new discovery. The
only difference in the modern account of the matter is, that the
ambergris originates within the alimentary canal of the whale, in
consequence, probably, of some disease; and that the lumps which are
found afloat, or cast on shore, had been extruded by these
animals.--E.

[21] Bahrein is an island in the Persian gulf, on the Arabian shore, still
celebrated for its pearl fishery.--E.

CHAP. V.

_Travels of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, through Europe, Asia, and Africa,
from Spain to China, between A.D. 1160 and 1173_[1].

This Spanish Jew was the son of Rabbi Jonas, of Tudela, a small town in
Navarre. According to the testimony of Rabbi Abraham Zuka, a celebrated
professor of astronomy at Salamanca, it is supposed that Rabbi Benjamin
travelled from 1160 to 1173. Young Barratier, a prodigy of early literary
genius, asserts that Benjamin never made the journey at all, but patched up
the whole work from contemporary writers. There is no doubt that his work
is full of incredible tales, yet many of the anomalies it contains, may
have proceeded from mistakes of copyists; exaggeration was the taste of the
times, and other travellers who are believed actually to have travelled,
are not behind him in the marvellous. These often relate the miracles of
pretended Christian saints, while he details the wonders performed by
Jewish Rabbis. He contains however, many curious pieces of information, not
to be found anywhere else, and it seems necessary and proper to give a full
abstract of his travels in this place.

Travelling by land to Marseilles, Benjamin embarked for Genoa, and
proceeded to Rome, from whence he went through the kingdom of Naples to
Otranto, where he crossed over to Corfu and Butrinto, and journeyed by land
through Greece to Constantinople, having previously visited the country of
Wallachia. All this takes up the four first chapters, which are omitted in
Harris. In the fifth, he gives an account of the city and Court of
Constantinople, as follows: Constantinople is an exceedingly great city,
the capital of the Javanites[2], or the nation called Greeks, and the
principal seat of the emperor Emanuel[3], whose commands are obeyed by
twelve kings, for every one of whom there are several palaces in
Constantinople, and they have fortresses and governments in other places of
the empire, and to them the whole land is subject. The principal of these
is the Apripus,