tion of fire. The distance between Siwa and Derna on the coast, is estimated at fourteen days' journey that between it and Cairo at twelve: and that between it and Elwah, which last is about five days from ancient Thebes, at twelve days. The hostile disposition which the inhabitants manifested towards me, and my ignorance of the language, prevented me from gaining all the information which might otherwise have been obtained. I did not find any tradition among them concerning the place of their residence or their own origin. But this does not appear to me extraordinary; as the Ammonites have long ceased to have a separate existence, and the present race are partly of Arab original, if their features and manners may be depended on, and by their language seem partly to have come from the westward: but this is surmise, and must not be highly valued. I found the journey a very expensive one, having been obliged to retain eight camels and as many Arabs, together with a couple of horses, to which are to be added a number of presents. I was considerably incommoded by a fever and a dysentery for fifteen days before my return to Alexandria; so that I found myself in a weak state. But, leaving nature to do her own work, it was but a short time before my strength returned to me.

The present state of Egypt is deplorable. Corn is about eight times the usual price, and other provisions in proportion; so that famine may even now be said to reign here, and multitudes of starving wretches in the streets hourly proclaim

its horrors. The government is weaker and less effective than former ones, as well as more expensive and oppressive. To the former of its qualities we owe that the Arabs plunder and put to death with impunity even to the gates of Cairo to the latter, a ferocity that is the effect of despair in the people under its rod. I need not add that these circumstances augment the difficulties of travelling; nor are those difficulties diminished by the absurd profusion of several travellers who have preceded me, which has raised the expense of every trifling excursion to ten times what it was within eighteen or twenty years. Of the Europeans here I can say nothing to their advantage. If the Turks are liars, these are more shameless liars: if the Turks are slaves, these are more despicable slaves. Of assistance or information, though bringing with me strong recommendations, none have I yet received from them, and little do I expect. You are not, however, to suppose that I make this representation as an excuse for having abandoned my purpose. I still hope to pass the boundaries of Upper Egypt, and shall leave this place as soon as the increase of the Nile shall facilitate the passage. But my paper is now almost exhausted, and I shall already have made a trial of your patience. A merciful man will, however, make some allowances for the epidemical stupidity of Cairo, and its corrupt and unelastic atmosphere.

It is scarcely probable that I shall be able to send a letter to Europe till after my return from the south; which, if it be found possible to enter

Abyssinia, must be rather a distant event. Yet my solicitude as to the opinion of those who are judges of the subject respecting the site of the Temple, will not be remitted. I desire the severest sentence that yourself and those to whom you may think proper to communicate the matter, can deliver.

The means of gratifying my wishes will be by forwarding a letter to Smyrna in the space of about a year. The direction will be to Messrs. Lee, merchants at that place; and you must not forget to give me a full account of yourself: nothing will render me more happy than to find it a favorable one.

THE BISHOP OF DROMORE TO MR.
PINKERTON.

London, July 28th, 1792.

It is so difficult, not to say impossible, for one person to decide for another without hearing his reasons, that I submit without reply to what you say in your letter respecting your own sense of the measure once intended, and to the fate of the paper, which yet, for its own intrinsic merit, I cannot but regret. But for the same reason you must excuse me, if I entertain a different opinion of what is proper or necessary for myself; and against the expedient you suggest I have my particular reasons; one of which is, that I am now convinced, that this was the very end to

which Mr. Ritson has been driving, (whom wanton outrage and unprovoked insult cost nothing,) viz. to compel me to lay my manuscript in some place for public inspection, where he might examine and collate it (possibly extract some of the smaller articles) without being at all obliged to me; or, by his subsequent inquisitorial search, find pretences to justify his antecedent injurious charges and insinuations. I could point out one particular word in my old manuscript, to obtain a sight of which he would not scruple to violate every feeling of humanity and decency. But he shall be disappointed: the manuscript shall never be exposed to his sight in my life-time; and, as I have no other resource, I hope yet to procure some respectable friendly name, that may be generously interposed as a shield, before one whom the assailant knows to be incapable, from the peculiarities of his situation, of self-defence. Though I despair of getting any name subscribed to a paper so spirited, and in all respects so happy, as what you had sketched out. Yet there was one word in it, which Mr. Ritson would have made foundation of a new injurious charge, and that occasioned me to trouble you the last time.

* Mr. Pinkerton has not preserved among his correspondence any copy of the paper here alluded to; and I regret to say that I have failed in my endeavor to obtain it from the possessor of Dr. Percy's Mss. The bishop, at the time when he wrote this letter, was smarting under the severe attack of Mr. Ritson, in his Observations on the Ancient English Minstrels, p. xix, &c. prefixed to his Ancient Songs from the Time of King Henry III. to the Revolution, then just published.

The very great pleasure I ever felt in complying with any request of yours, is the only excuse I can offer for the intrusions of which I have lately been guilty, and which I hope you will pardon.

THE EARL OF ORFORD TO MR. PINKERTON.

Strawberry Hill, Aug. 27th, 1792.

I am exceedingly flattered by your kind attention to Miss Berry; and I assure you she is so too, though she will not allow that she has any title to such a distinction, and to so valuable a present. The acquaintance, I hope, will increase; and I have full confidence that both will mutually be convinced that I have not exaggerated a tittle in what I have respectively said to you of each other; and it shall not be my fault if you have not frequent opportunities of putting my assertions to the test. I shall be too great a gainer myself by making the experiment; as I trust it will be executed here, and that you will give me leave to summon you as soon as I have received one or two companies that I have engaged to come to me for a few days.

Many thanks for the medal. Do not trouble yourself about the other: I have got one which has been sent to me by a person of whom Kirgate had inquired where it was to be had.