Thomas Wallace Knox made two "peaceful crusade[s] to the East . . . . for pleasure and profit" during the late nineteenth century.  The first trip (1873-1874) he documented in his book Backsheesh!  He combined this with his second trip to the Holy Land (1878) into the fourth book written for his popular The Boy Travelers series.

Backsheesh! begins with Knox departing from New York by steamer in April 1873.  He then regales us with perceptions of other voyagers, many first time ocean travelers, through calm and storm as they cross the Atlantic to Liverpool, England.  Explaining that other writers had already (excessively) documented the route from England to Austria, Knox took his readers directly to Vienna to begin the journey down the Danube.  Using both local and "accelerated" steam boats he passes through Belgrade, Moldawa, Orsova, Bucharest and Galatz on his way to Odessa on the Black Sea.  Crossing the Black Sea on steamers operated by "the Russian Company of Navigation and Commerce," he travels to the Crimea, landing in Sevastopol.  He then proceeds by carriage to Yalta, returning to Odessa by steamer, and traveling south to Constantinople.

Knox makes it a point to visit places and shops in Constantinople that other writers, including Mark Twain, had already made famous.  Upon leaving the city, he makes a brief stop in Athens before heading to Smyrna, Rhodes, and Alexandretta (the port of Aleppo) enroute to Beyrout.  Following an inland four-day excursion to Damascus, he finally arrives in Jaffa, beginning his visit to Jerusalem and the surrounding sites.  Knox finishes his travelogue with a detailed exploration of Egypt and the ruins along the Nile, ending this particular trip in the city of Alexandria in February 1874.

The Boy Travelers takes readers on an alternative route, which began on a steamer out of Bombay, India.  Traveling across the Indian Ocean, and into the Red Sea, they landed at Suez and crossed over to Cairo.  From this point the Boys’ travels nearly mirror Knox’s previous trip to Egypt and Palestine.  The primary difference is that they took the overland route from Jerusalem to Damascus, ending this particular installment of The Boy Travelers in the city of Beyrout.