'The Penetration of Arabia a record of the development of Western knowledge concerning the Arabian Peninsula with illustrations from drawings, photographs, and maps by J. G. Bartholomew.' [‎69] (116/496)

PILGRIMS IN HIJAZ 69
•At this point western knowledge of inland Hijaz
remained for a generation after Niebuhr's visit to
Jidda; and the only contributions to a better under
standing even of the coast during that period were
made by James Bruce on his way to Abyssinia in 1769,
and Eyles Irwin, who was sent by the East India
Company in 1777 to explore the overland route from
the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. This Englishman
tells us, however, of little but his adventures in Yambo,
where he was made prisoner, and in Jidda, where he
was released. 1
Niebuhr's brief and temperate account of the Holy
Cities had served to dispel some of the mystery which
had hung about them, and rather to damp than to
stimulate the spirit of adventure; and the Prophet's
country would doubtless long have remained immune
from European intrusion had it never mattered more
to the west than in Niebuhr's day. But the eight
eenth century was not to be spent before Europe was
startled by a seeming repetition of the history of
eleven hundred years before. Without much warn
ing — for few had remarked a certain forecast of
Niebuhr's — Arabia was seen to be in furious ebulli
tion; and western eyes, already attracted eastward
by the projects of Napoleon and the fortunes
of his Egyptian and Syrian expeditions, turned to
Mecca.
1 One can hardly take account of such slight evidence as is contained
in Henry Rooke's letters written from Mokha and Jidda in 1781-82.
Bruce found nine Indian merchantmen at Jidda and the British colony
increased.