This has come down to us through a Latin version of an Arabic manuscript; it cannot, however, have been written by Archimedes in its present form, as his name is quoted in it more than once.
A just appreciation of the genius and the writings of Propertius is made sensibly more difficult by the condition in which his works have come down to us.
Of the Dutch discoverers, Pelsaert was the only one who made any detailed observations of the character of the country inland, and it may here be remarked that his journal contains the first notice and description of the kangaroo that has come down to us.
The earliest Arabian traveller whose observations have come down to us is the merchant Sulaiman, who embarked in the Persian Gulf and made several voyages to India and China, in the middle of the 9th century.
His account of this embassy in the Relatio de Legatione Constantinopolitana is perhaps the most graphic and lively piece of writing which has come down to us from the 10th century.
