Our sketch of commerce would be incomplete, did it not comprehend a short notice of the manner in which the trade of great part of Asia and Africa is conducted, by means of caravans.  This is, perhaps, the most ancient mode of communication between nations; and, from the descriptions we possess, the caravans of the remotest antiquity were, in almost every particular, very similar to what they are at present.  The human race was first civilized in the East.  This district of the globe, though fertile in various articles which are well calculated to excite the desires of mankind, is intersected by extensive deserts; these must have cut off all communication, had not the camel,—­which can bear a heavy burden, endure great famine, is very docile, and, above all, seems made to bid defiance to the parched and waterless desert, by its internal formation, and its habits and instinct,—­been civilized by the inhabitants.  By means of it they have, from the remotest antiquity, carried on a regular and extensive commerce.

The caravans may be divided into those of Asia and those of Africa:  the great centre of the former is Mecca:  the pilgrimage to this place, enjoined by Mahomet, has tended decidedly to facilitate and extend commercial intercourse.  Two caravans annually visit Mecca; one from Cairo, and the other from Damascus.  The merchants and pilgrims who compose the former come from Abyssinia; from which they bring elephants’ teeth, ostrich feathers, gum, gold dust, parrots, monkies, &c.  Merchants also come from the Senegal, and collect on their way those of Algiers, Tunis, &c.  This division sometimes consists of three thousand camels, laden with oils, red caps, fine flannels, &c.  The journey of the united caravans, which have been known to consist of 100,000 persons, in going and returning, occupies one hundred days:  they bring back from Mecca all the most valuable productions of the East, coffee, gum arabic, perfumes, drugs, spices, pearls, precious stones, shawls, muslins, &c.  The caravan of Damascus is scarcely inferior to that of Cairo, in the variety and value of the produce which it conveys to Mecca, and brings back from it, or in the number of camels and men which compose it.  Almost every province of the Turkish empire sends forth pilgrims, merchants, and commodities to this caravan.  Of the Asiatic caravans, purely commercial, we know less than of those which unite religion and commerce; as the former do not travel at stated seasons, nor follow a marked and constant route.  The great object of those caravans is to distribute the productions of China and Hindustan among the central parts of Asia.  In order to supply them, caravans set out from Baghar, Samarcand, Thibet, and several other places.  The most extensive commerce, however, carried on in this part of Asia, is that between Russia and China.  We have already alluded to this commerce, and shall only add, that the distance between the capitals of those kingdoms is 6378 miles, upwards of