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.] [Footnote 19: Strabo, l.xvi.p.1110.See one of these salt houses near Bassora, in D'Herbelot, Bibliot.Orient.p.