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such a journey at his own expense-were overlooked in this petty war of the wits. Bruce felt their attacks keenly; but he was a proud-spirited man, and did not deign to reply to pasquinades impeaching his veracity. He survived his publication only four years. The foot, which had trodden without failing the deserts of Nubia, slipped one evening in his own staircase, while handing a lady to her carriage, and he died in consequence of the injury then received, April 16, 1794. A second edition of the Travels, edited by Dr Alexander Murray (an excellent Oriental scholar), was published in 1805, and a third in 1813. The style of Bruce is prolix and inelegant, though occasionally energetic. He seized upon the most prominent points, and coloured them highly. The general accuracy of his work has been confirmed from different quarters. MR HENRY SALT, the next European traveller in Abyssinia, twice penetrated into the interior of the country-in 1805 and 1810-but without reaching so far as Bruce. This gentleman confirms the historical parts of Bruce's narrative; and MR NATHANIEL PEARCE (who resided many years in Abyssinia, and was engaged by Salt) | verifies one of Bruce's most extraordinary statements-the practice of the Abyssinians of eating raw meat cut out of a living cow! This was long ridiculed and disbelieved, though in reality it is not much more barbarous than the custom of the poor Highlanders in Scotland of bleeding their cattle in winter for food. Pearce witnessed the operation: a cow was thrown down, and two pieces of flesh, weighing about a pound, cut from the buttock, after which the wounds were sewed up, and plastered over with cow-dung. Dr Clarke and other travellers have borne testimony to the correctness of Bruce's drawings and maps. The only disingenuousness charged against our traveller is his alleged concealment of the fact, that the Nile, whose sources have been in all ages an object of curiosity, was the Bahr-el-Abiad, or White River, flowing from the west, and not the Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue River, which descends from Abyssinia, and which he explored. It seems also clear that Paez, the Portuguese traveller, had long previously visited the source of the Bahr-el-Azrek.

MUNGO PARK, &c.

On

Next in interest and novelty to the travels of Bruce are those of MUNGO PARK in Central Africa. Mr Park was born at Fowlshiels, near Selkirk, on the 10th of September 1771. He studied medicine, and performed a voyage to Bencoolen in the capacity of assistant-surgeon to an East Indiaman. The African Association, founded in 1778 for the purpose of promoting discovery in the interior of Africa, had sent out several travellers-John Ledyard, Lucas, and Major Houghton-all of whom had died. Park, however, undeterred by these examples, embraced the society's offer, and set sail in May 1795. the 21st of June following he arrived at Jillifree, on the banks of the Gambia. He pursued his journey towards the kingdom of Bambarra, and saw the great object of his mission, the river Niger flowing towards the east. The sufferings of Park during his journey, the various incidents he encountered, his captivity among the Moors, and his description of the inhabitants, their manners, trade, and customs, constitute a narrative of the deepest interest. The traveller returned to England towards the latter end of the year 1797, when all hope of him had been abandoned, and in 1799 he published his travels. The style is simple and manly, and replete with a fine moral feeling. One of his adventures (which had the honour of being turned into verse

by the Duchess of Devonshire) is thus related. The traveller had reached the town of Sego, the capital of Bambarra, and wished to cross the river towards the residence of the king:

I waited more than two hours without having an opportunity of crossing the river, during which time the people who had crossed carried information to Mansong, the king, that a white man was waiting for a passage, and was coming to see him. He immediately sent over one of his chief men, who informed me that the king could not possibly see me until he knew what had brought me into his country; and that I must not presume to cross the river without the king's permission. He therefore advised me to lodge at a distant village, to which he pointed, for the night, and said that in the morning he would give me further instructions how to conduct myself. This was very discouraging. However, as there was no remedy, I set off for the village, where I found, to my great mortification, that no person would admit me into his house. I was regarded with astonishment and fear, and was obliged to sit all day without victuals in the shade of a tree; and the night threatened to be very uncomfortable for the wind rose, and there was great appearance of a heavy rain-and the wild beasts are so very numerous in the neighbourhood, that I should have been under the necessity of climbing up the tree and resting amongst the branches. About sunset, however, as I was preparing to pass the night in this manner, and had turned my horse loose that he might graze at liberty, a woman, returning from the labours of the field, stopped to observe me, and perceiving that I was weary and dejected, inquired into my situation, which I briefly explained to her; whereupon, with looks of great compassion, she took up my saddle and bridle, and told me to follow her. Having conducted me into her hut, she lighted up a lamp, spread a mat on the floor, and told me I might remain there for the night. Finding that I was very hungry, she said she would procure me something to eat. She accordingly went out, and returned in a short time with a very fine fish, which, having caused to be half broiled upon some embers, she gave me for supper. The rites of hospitality being thus performed towards a stranger in distress, my worthy benefactress (pointing to the mat, and telling me I might sleep there without apprehension) called to the female part of her family, who had stood gazing on me all the while in fixed astonishment, to resume their task of spinning cotton, in which they continued to employ themselves great part of the night. They lightened their labour by songs, one of which was composed extempore, for I was myself the subject of it. It was sung by one of the young women, the rest joining in a sort of chorus. The air was sweet and plaintive, and the words, literally translated, were these:The winds roared, and the rains fell. The poor white man, faint and weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him milk-no wife to grind his corn. he,' &c. &c. Trifling as this recital may appear to Chorus. Let us pity the white man-no mother has the reader, to a person in my situation the circumstance was affecting in the highest degree. I was fled from my eyes. In the morning I presented my oppressed by such unexpected kindness, and sleep compassionate landlady with two of the four brass buttons which remained on my waistcoat-the only recompense I could make her.

His fortitude under suffering, and the natural piety of his mind, are beautifully illustrated by an incident related after he had been robbed and stript of most of his clothes at a village near Kooma :

After the robbers were gone, I sat for some time looking around me with amazement and terror.

Whichever way I turned, nothing appeared but danger and difficulty. I saw myself in the midst of a vast wilderness, in the depth of the rainy season, naked and alone, surrounded by savage animals, and men still more savage. I was five hundred miles from the nearest European settlement. All these circumstances crowded at once on my recollection, and I confess that my spirits began to fail me. I considered my fate as certain, and that I had no alternative but to lie down and perish. The influence of religion, however, aided and supported me. I reflected that no human prudence or foresight could possibly have averted my present sufferings. I was indeed a stranger in a strange land, yet I was still under the protecting eye of that Providence who has condescended to call himself the stranger's friend. At this moment, painful as my reflections were, the extraordinary beauty of a small moss in fructification irresistibly caught my eye. I mention this to show from what trifling circumstances the mind will sometimes derive consolation; for though the whole plant was not larger than the top of one of my fingers, I could not contemplate the delicate conformation of its roots, leaves, and capsula, without admiration. Can that Being, thought I, who planted, watered, and brought to perfection, in this obscure part of the world, a thing which appears of so small importance, look with unconcern upon the situation and sufferings of creatures formed after his own image? Surely not. Reflections like these would not allow me to despair. I started up, and, disregarding both hunger and fatigue, travelled forwards, assured that relief was at hand; and I was not disappointed. In a short time I came to a small village, at the entrance of which I overtook the two shepherds who had come with me from Kooma. They were much surprised to see me; for they said they never doubted that the Foulahs, when they had robbed, had murdered me. Departing from this village, we travelled over several rocky ridges, and at sunset arrived at Sibidooloo, the frontier town of the kingdom of Manding.

Park had discovered the Niger (or Joliba, or Quorra) flowing to the east, and thus set at rest the doubts as to its direction in the interior of Africa. He was not satisfied, however, but longed to follow up his discovery by tracing it to its termination. For some years he was constrained to remain at home, and he followed his profession of a surgeon in the town of Peebles. He embraced a second offer from the African Association, and

arrived at Goree on the 28th of March 1805. Before

he saw the Niger once more 'rolling its immense stream along the plain,' misfortunes had thickened around him. His expedition consisted originally of forty-four men; now only seven remained. He built a boat at Sansanding to prosecute his voyage down the river, and entered it on the 17th of November 1805, with the fixed resolution to discover the termination of the Niger, or to perish in the attempt. The party had sailed several days, when, on passing a rocky part of the river named Boussa, the natives attacked them, and Park and one of his companions (Lieutenant Martyn) were drowned while attempting to escape by swimming. The letters and journals of the traveller had been sent by him to Gambia previous to his embarking on the fatal voyage, and a narrative of the journey compiled from them was published in 1815.

TAIN TUCKEY, an experienced naval officer, and he was accompanied by Mr Smith, a botanist, Mr Cranch, a zoologist, and by Mr Galway, an intelligent friend. The expedition was unfortunate-all died but Captain Tuckey, and he was compelled to abandon the enterprise from fever and exhaustion. In the narrative of this expedition, there is an interesting account of the country of Congo, which appears to be an undefined tract of territory, hemmed in between Loango on the north and Angola on the south, and stretching far inland. The military part of this expedition, under Major Peddie, was equally unfortunate. He did not ascend the Gambia, but pursued the route by the Rio Nunez and the country of the Foulahs. Peddie died at Kacundy, at the head of the Rio Nunez, and Captain Campbell, on whom the command then devolved, also sunk under the pressure of disease and distress. In 1819 two other travellers, Mr Ritchie and Lieutenant Lyon, proceeded from Tripoli to Fezzan, with the view of penetrating southward as far as Soudan. The climate soon extinguished all hopes from this expedition; Mr Ritchie sank beneath it, and Lieutenant Lyon was so reduced as to be able to extend his journey only to the southern frontiers of Fezzan.

DENHAM AND CLAPPERTON.

In 1822 another important African expedition was planned by a different route, under the care of MAJOR DENHAM, CAPTAIN CLAPPERTON, and DR OUDNEY. They proceeded from Tripoli across the Great Desert to Bornou, and in February 1823 arrived at Kouka, the capital of Bornou. An immense lake, the Tshad, was seen to form the receptacle of the rivers of Bornou, and the country was highly populous. The travellers were hospitably entertained at Kouka. Oudney fell a victim to the climate, but Clapperton penetrated as far as Sockatoo, the residence of the Sultan Bello, and the capital of the Fellatah empire. The sultan received him with much state, and admired all the presents that were brought to him. 'Everything,' he said, is wonderful, but you are the greatest curiosity of all.' The traveller's presence of mind is illustrated by the following anecdote :

'March 19, I was sent for,' says Clapperton, 'by the sultan, and desired to bring with me the "looking-glass of the sun," ," the name they gave to my sextant. I first exhibited a planisphere of the heavenly bodies. The sultan knew all the signs of the zodiac, some of the constellations, and many of the stars, by their Arabic names. The looking-glass of the sun was then brought forward, and occasioned much surprise. I had to explain all its appendages. The inverting telescope was an object of immense astonishment; and I had to stand at some little distance to let the sultan look at me through it, for his people were all afraid of placing themselves within its magical influence. I had next to show him how to take an observation of the sun. The case of the artificial horizon, of which I had lost the key, was sometimes very difficult to open, as happened on this occasion: I asked one of the people near me for a knife to press up the lid. He handed me one quite too small, and I quite inadvertently asked for a dagger for the same purpose. The sultan was immePark had conjectured that the Niger and Congo diately thrown into a fright; he seized his sword, and were one river; and in 1816 a double expedition half-drawing it from the scabbard, placed it before was planned, one part of which was destined to him, trembling all the time like an aspen leaf. I ascend the Congo, and the other to descend the did not deem it prudent to take the least notice of Niger, hopes being entertained that a meeting would his alarm, although it was I who had in reality most take place at some point of the mighty stream. cause of fear; and on receiving the dagger, I calmly The command of this expedition was given to CAP-opened the case, and returned the weapon to its owner

with apparent unconcern. When the artificial horizon was arranged, the sultan and all his attendants had a peep at the sun, and my breach of etiquette seemed entirely forgotten.'

venturers on the river Niger, and Lander was wounded by a musket ball. He arrived at Fernando Po, but died from the effects of his wound on the 16th of February 1834, aged thirty-one. A narrative of this unfortunate expedition was published in 1837, in two volumes, by Mr Macgregor Laird and Mr Oldfield, surviving officers of the expedition.

BOWDICH, CAMPBELL, AND BURCHELL,

Sockatoo formed the utmost limit of the expedition. The result was published in 1826, under the title of Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824, by Major Denham, Captain Clapperton, and the late Dr Oudney. Clapperton resumed his travels in 1825, and completed a journey across the continent of Of Western Africa, interesting accounts are given Africa from Tripoli to Benin, accompanied by Cap- in the Mission to Ashantee, 1819, by MR BowDICH; tain Pearce, a naval surgeon, a draughtsman, and and of Southern Africa, in the Travels of MR CAMPRichard Lander, a young man who volunteered to BELL, a missionary, 1822; and in Travels in Southern accompany him as a confidential servant. They Africa, 1822, by MR BURCHELL. Campbell was the landed at Badagry, in the Bight of Benin; but death first to penetrate beyond Lattakoo, the capital of soon cut off all but Clapperton and Lander. They the Boshuana tribe of the Matchapins. He made pursued their course, and visited Boussa, the scene two missions to Africa, one in 1813, and a second of Mungo Park's death. They proceeded to Socka- in 1820, both being undertaken under the auspices too after an interesting journey, with the view of of the Missionary Society. He founded a Christian soliciting permission from the sultan to visit Tim- establishment at Lattakoo, but the natives evinced buctoo and Bornou. In this Clapperton was unsuc- little disposition to embrace the pure faith, so difcessful; and being seized with dysentery, he died in ferent from their sensual and superstitious rites. the arms of his faithful servant on the 13th of April Until Mr Bowdich's mission to Ashantee, that 1827. Lander was allowed to return, and in 1830 powerful kingdom and its capital, Coomassie (a he published an account of Captain Clapperton's city of 100,000 souls), although not nine days' last expedition. The unfortunate traveller was at journey from the English settlements on the coast, the time of his death in his 39th year. were known only by name, and very few persons in England had ever formed the faintest idea of the barbaric pomp and magnificence, or of the state, strength, and political condition of the Ashantee nation.

Clapperton made valuable additions to our knowledge of the interior of Africa. The limit of Lieutenant Lyon's journey southward across the desert was in latitude 24 degrees, while Major Denham, in his expedition to Mandara, reached latitude 9 degrees 15 minutes, thus adding 14 degrees, or 900 miles, to the extent explored by Europeans. Hornemann, it is true, had previously crossed the desert, and had proceeded as far southwards as Nyffe, in latitude 10 degrees; but no account was ever received of his journey. Park in his first expedition reached Silla, in longitude 1 degree 34 minutes west, a distance of 1100 miles from the mouth of the Gambia. Denham and Clapperton, on the other hand, from the east side of Lake Tshad in longitude 17 degrees, to Sockatoo in longitude 5 degrees, explored a distance of 700 miles from east to west in the heart of Africa; a line of only 400 miles remaining unknown between Silla and Sockatoo. But the second journey of Captain Clapperton added tenfold value to these discoveries. He had the good fortune to detect the shortest and most easy road to the populous countries of the interior; and he could boast of being the first who had completed an itinerary across the continent of Africa from Tripoli to Benin.'*

RICHARD LANDER.

The honour of discovering and finally determining the course of the Niger was left to RICHARD LANDER. Under the auspices of government, Lander and his brother left England in January 1830, and arrived at Badagry on the 19th of March. From Boussa they sailed down the Niger, and ultimately entered the Atlantic by the river Nun, one of the branches from the Niger. They returned from their triumphant expedition in June 1831, and published an account of their travels in three small volumes, for which Mr Murray, the eminent bookseller, is said to have given a thousand guineas! Richard Lander was induced to embark in another expedition to Africa-a commercial speculation fitted out by some Liverpool merchants, which proved an utter failure. A party of natives attacked the ad

* History of Maritime and Inland Discovery.

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J. L. BURCKHARDT-J. B. BELZONI.

Among the numerous victims of African discovery are two eminent travellers-Burckhardt and Belzoni. JOHN LUDWIG BURCKHARDT (1785-1817) was a native of Switzerland, who visited England, and was engaged by the African Association. He proceeded to Aleppo in 1809, and resided two years in that city, personating the character of a Mussulman doctor of laws, and acquiring a perfect knowledge of the language and customs of the East. He visited Palmyra, Damascus, and Lebanon; stopped some time at Cairo, and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, crossing the Nubian desert by the route taken by Bruce. He returned to Cairo, and was preparing to depart thence in a caravan for Fezzan, in the north of Africa, when he was cut off by a fever. His journals, letters, and memoranda, were all preserved, and are very valuable. He was an accurate observer of men and manners, and his works throw much light on the geography and moral condition of the countries he visited. They were published at intervals from 1819 to 1830. JOHN BAPTIST BELZONI was a native of Padua, in Italy, who came to England in 1803. He was a man of immense stature and muscular strength, capable of enduring the greatest fatigue. From 1815 to 1819 he was engaged in exploring the antiquities of Egypt. Works on this subject had previously appearedThe Egyptiaca of Hamilton, 1809; Mr Legh's Nar rative of a Journey in Egypt, 1816; Captain Light's Travels, 1818; and Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, &c. by Mr R. Walpole, 1817. Mr Legh's account of the antiquities of Nubia-the region situated on the upper part of the Nile-had attracted much attention. While the temples of Egypt are edifices raised above ground, those of Nubia are excavated rocks, and some almost of mountain magnitude have been hewn into temples and chiseled into sculpture. Mr Legh was the first adventurer in this career. Belzoni acted as assistant to Mr Salt (the British consul at Egypt) in

exploring the Egyptian pyramids and ancient tombs. Some of these remains of art were eminently rich and splendid, and one which he discovered near Thebes, containing a sarcophagus of the finest Oriental alabaster, minutely sculptured with hundreds of figures, he brought with him to Britain, and it is now in the British Museum. In 1820 he published A Narrative of Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, &c. in Egypt and Nubia, which shows how much may be done by the labour and unremitting exertions of one individual. Belzoni's success in Egypt, his great bodily strength, and his adventurous spirit, inspired him with the hope of achieving discoveries in Africa. He sailed to the coast of Guinea, with the intention of travelling to Timbuctoo, but died at Benin of an attack of dysentery on the 3d of December 1823. We subjoin a few passages from Belzoni's nar

rative :

[The Ruins at Thebes.]

Egyptians would make the entrance into such an immense and superb excavation just under a torrent of water; but I had strong reasons to suppose that there was a tomb in that place, from indications I had previously observed in my search of other sepulchres. The Arabs, who were accustomed to dig, were all of opinion that nothing was to be found there; but I persisted in carrying on the work; and on the evening of the following day we perceived the part of the rock that had been hewn and cut away. On the 18th, early in the morning, the task was resumed; and about noon, the workmen reached the opening, which was eighteen feet below the surface of the ground. When there was room enough for me to creep through a passage that the earth had left under the ceiling of the first corridor, I perceived immediately, by the painting on the roof, and by the hieroglyphics in basso-relievo, that I had at length reached the entrance of a large and magnificent tomb. I hastily passed along this corridor, and came to a staircase 23 feet long, at the foot of which I entered another gallery 37 feet 3 inches long, where my progress was suddenly arrested by a large pit 30 feet deep and 14 feet by 12 feet 3 inches wide. On the other side, and in front of me, I observed a small aperture 2 feet wide and 2 feet 6 inches high, and at the bottom of the pit a quantity of rubbish. A rope fastened to a piece of wood, that was laid across the passage against the projections which formed a kind of doorway, appeared to have been used formerly for descending into the pit; and from the small aperture on the opposite side hung another which reached the bottom, no doubt for the purpose of ascending. The wood, and the rope fastened to it, crumbled to dust on being touched. At the bottom of the pit were several picces of wood placed against the side of it, so as to assist the person who was to ascend by means of the rope into the aperture. It was not till the following day that we contrived to make a bridge of two beams, and crossed the pit, when we discovered the little aperture to be an opening forced through a wall, that had entirely closed what we afterwards found to be the entrance into magnificent halls and corridors beyond. The ancient Egyptians had closely shut it up, plastered the wall over, and painted it like the rest of the sides of the pit, so that, but for the aperture, it would have been impossible to suppose that there was any further proceeding. Any one would have concluded that the tomb ended with the pit. Besides, the pit served the purpose of receiving the rain-water which might occasionally fall in the mountain, and thus kept out the damp from the inner part of the tomb. We passed through the small aperture, and then made the full discovery of the whole sepulchre.

On the 22d, we saw for the first time the ruins of great Thebes, and landed at Luxor. Here I beg the reader to observe, that but very imperfect ideas can be formed of the extensive ruins of Thebes, even from the accounts of the most skilful and accurate travellers. It is absolutely impossible to imagine the scene displayed, without seeing it. The most sublime ideas that can be formed from the most magnificent specimens of our present architecture, would give a very incorrect picture of these ruins; for such is the difference not only in magnitude, but in form, proportion, and construction, that even the pencil can convey but a faint idea of the whole. It appeared to me like entering a city of giants, who, after a long conflict, were all destroyed, leaving the ruins of their various temples as the only proofs of their former existence. The temple of Luxor presents to the traveller at once one of the most splendid groups of Egyptian grandeur. The extensive propylæon, with the two obelisks, and colossal statues in the front; the thick groups of enor mous columns; the variety of apartments, and the sanctuary it contains; the beautiful ornaments which adorn every part of the walls and columns, described by Mr Hamilton; cause in the astonished traveller an oblivion of all that he has seen before. If his attention be attracted to the north side of Thebes by the towering remains that project a great height above the wood of palm-trees, he will gradually enter that forest-like assemblage of ruins of temples, columns, obelisks, colossi, sphinxes, portals, and an endless number of other astonishing objects, that will convince him at once of the impossibility of a description. On the west side of the Nile, still the traveller finds himself among wonders. The temples of Gournou, Memnonium, and Medinet Aboo, attest the extent of the great city on this side. The unrivalled colossal figures in the plains of Thebes, the number of tombs excavated in the rocks, those in the great valley of the kings, with their paintings, sculptures, mummies, sarcophagi, figures, &c. are all objects worthy of the admiration of the traveller, who will not fail to wonder how a nation which was once so great as to erect these stupendous edifices, could so far fall into oblivion that even their language and writing are totally un-part were four wooden figures standing erect, four feet known to us.

[Opening a Tomb at Thebes.]

On the 16th of October 1817, I set a number of fellahs, or labouring Arabs, to work, and caused the earth to be opened at the foot of a steep hill, and under the bed of a torrent, which, when it rains, pours a great quantity of water over the spot in which they were digging. No one could imagine that the ancient

An inspection of the model will exhibit the numerous galleries and halls through which we wandered; and the vivid colours and extraordinary figures on the walls and ceilings, which everywhere met our view, will convey an idea of the astonishment we must have felt at every step. In one apartment we found the carcase of a bull embalmed; and also scattered in various places wooden figures of mummies covered with asphaltum to preserve them. In some of the rooms were lying about statues of fine earth, baked, coloured blue, and strongly varnished; in another

high, with a circular hollow inside, as if intended to contain a roll of papyrus. The sarcophagus of Oriental alabaster was found in the centre of the hall, to which I gave the name of the saloon, without a cover, which had been removed and broken; and the body that had once occupied this superb coffin had been carried away. We were not, therefore, the first who had profanely entered this mysterious mansion of the dead, though there is no doubt it had remained undisturbed since the time of the invasion of the Persians.

The architectural ruins and monuments on the been conscious that the uneasiness they experienced banks of the Nile are stupendous relics of former was a result of their own sensibility. Others have ages. They reach back to the period when Thebes acknowledged ideas widely different, excited by every poured her heroes through a hundred gates, and wonderful circumstance of character and of situation Greece and Rome were the desert abodes of barba-ideas of duration, almost endless; of power, inconrians. From the tops of the Pyramids,' said Napo-ceivable; of majesty, supreme; of solitude, most awful; leon to his soldiers on the eve of battle, the shades of grandeur, of desolation, and of repose. of forty centuries look down upon you.' Learning and research have unveiled part of the mystery of these august memorials. Men like Belzoni have penetrated into the vast sepulchres, and unearthed the huge sculpture; and scholars like Young and Champollion, by discovering the hieroglyphic writing of the ancient Egyptians, have been able to ascertain their object and history. The best English books on Egypt are, The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, by J. G. WILKINSON, 1837; and An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, by EDWARD W. LANE, 1836.

DR E. D. CLARKE.

One of the most original and interesting of modern travellers was the late REV. DR EDWARD DANIEL CLARKE (1769-1822), a fellow of Jesus college, Cambridge, and the first professor of mineralogy in that university. In 1799 Dr Clarke set off with Mr Malthus, and some other college friends, on a journey among the northern nations. He travelled for three years and a half, visiting the south of Russia, part of Asia, Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine. The first volume of his travels appeared in 1810, and included Russia, Tartary, and Turkey. The second, which became more popular, was issued in 1812, and included Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land; and three other volumes appeared at intervals before 1819. The sixth volume was published after his death, part being contributed by Mr Walpole,

author of travels in the Levant. Dr Clarke received

from his publishers the large sum of £7000 for his

collection of travels. Their success was immediate and extensive.

As an honest and accomplished writer, careful in his facts, clear and polished in his style, and comprehensive in his knowledge and observation, Dr Clarke has not been excelled by any general European traveller.

[Description of the Pyramids.]

We were roused as soon as the sun dawned by Antony, our faithful Greek servant and interpreter, with the intelligence that the pyramids were in view. We hastened from the cabin; and never will the impression made by their appearance be obliterated. By reflecting the sun's rays, they appear as white as snow, and of such surprising magnitude, that nothing we had previously conceived in our imagination had prepared us for the spectacle we beheld. The sight instantly convinced us that no power of description, no delinea tion, can convey ideas adequate to the effect produced in viewing these stupendous monuments. The formality of their construction is lost in their prodigious magnitude; the mind, elevated by wonder, feels at once the force of an axiom, which, however disputed, experience confirms that in vastness, whatsoever be its nature, there dwells sublimity. Another proof of their indescribable power is, that no one ever approached them under other emotions than those of terror, which is another principal source of the sublime. In certain instances of irritable feeling, this impression of awe and fear has been so great as to cause pain rather than pleasure; hence, perhaps, have originated descriptions of the pyramids which represent them as deformed and gloomy masses, without taste or beauty. Persons who have derived no satisfaction from the contemplation of them, may not have

Upon the 23d of August 1802 we set out for the pyramids, the inundation enabling us to approach within less than a mile of the larger pyramid in our djerm.* Messrs Hammer and Hamilton accompanied us. We arrived at Djiza at daybreak, and called upon some English officers, who wished to join our party upon this occasion. From Djiza our approach to the pyramids was through a swampy country, by means of a narrow canal, which, however, was deep enough; and we arrived without any obstacle at nine o'clock at the bottom of a sandy slope leading up to the principal pyramid. Some Bedouin Arabs, who had assembled to receive us upon our landing, were much amused by the eagerness excited in our whole party to prove who should first set his foot upon the With what summit of this artificial mountain. amazement did we survey the vast surface that was presented to us when we arrived at this stupendous monument, which seemed to reach the clouds. Here and there appeared some Arab guides upon the immense masses above us, like so many pigmies, waiting to show the way to the summit. Now and then we thought we heard voices, and listened; but it was the wind in powerful gusts sweeping the immense ranges of stone. Already some of our party had begun the ascent, and were pausing at the tremendous depth which they saw below. One of our military companions, after having surmounted the most difficult part of the undertaking, became giddy in consequence of looking down from the elevation he had attained; and Arab to assist him in effecting his descent. The rest being compelled to abandon the project, he hired an heights, with many a halt for respiration, and many of us, more accustomed to the business of climbing an exclamation of wonder, pursued our way towards the summit. The mode of ascent has been frequently described; and yet, from the questions which are often proposed to travellers, it does not appear to be generally understood. The reader may imagine himself to be upon a staircase, every step of which, to a man of middle stature, is nearly breast high, and the breadth of each step is equal to its height, consequently the footing is secure; and although a retrospect in going up be sometimes fearful to persons unaccustomed to look down from any considerable elevation, yet there is little danger of falling. In some places, indeed, where the stones are decayed, caution may be required, and an Arab guide is always necessary to avoid a total interruption; but, upon the whole, the means of ascent are such that almost every one may accomplish it. Our progress was impeded by such as our boat-compass, a thermometer, a telescope, other causes. We carried with us a few instruments, &c.; these could not be trusted in the hands of the Arabs, and they were liable to be broken every instant. At length we reached the topmost tier, to the great delight and satisfaction of all the party. Here we found a platform thirty-two feet square, consisting of nine large stones, each of which might weigh about a ton, although they are much inferior in size to some of the stones used in the construction of this pyramid. Travellers of all ages, and of various nations, have here inscribed their names. written in Greek, many in French, a few in Arabic, one or two in English, and others in Latin. We were of our arrival; it seemed to be a tribute of thankfulas desirous as our predecessors to leave a memorial ness due for the success of our undertaking; and pre

*Boat of the Nile.

Some are

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