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ham, 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 southward as Nyffe, in latitude 104 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 Tchad in longitude 17 degrees, to Sokoto 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 Sokoto. 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 centinent 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 Bussa they sailed down the Niger, and ultimately entered the Atlantic hy the - river Nun, one of the branches from the Niger. They returned from their triumphant expedition in June, 1831, and published en 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 adventurers 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. Öldfield, surviving officers of the expedition.

BOWDICH-CAMPEELL-BURCHELL.

Of Western Africa, interesting accounts are given in the 'Mission to Ashantee,' 1819, by MR. BOWDICH; and of Southern Africa, in the Travels' of MR. CAMPBELL, a missionary, 1822; and in Travels in Southern Africa,' 1822, by MR. BURCHELL. Campbell was the first to penetrate beyond Lattaku, the capital of the Bechuana tribe of the Matchapins. He made two missions to Africa, one in 1813, and a second in 1820, both being undertaken under the auspices of the Missionary Society. He founded a Christian establishment at

* History of Maritime and Inland Discovery,

Lattaku, but the natives evinced little disposition to embrace the pure faith, so different from their sensual and superstitious rites. Until Mr. Bowdich's mission to Ashantee, that powerful kingdom and its capital, Coomassie (a city of 100,000 souls), although not nine days' journey from the English settlements on the coast, 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.

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

Among the numerous victims of African discovery are two eminent travellers-Burckhardt and Belzoni. JOHN LUDWIG BURCKHARDT (1784–1817) 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 180.-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 appeared-The Egyptiaca' of Hamilton, 1809; Mr. Legh's Narrative 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 Nubiathe 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. acted as assistant to Mr. Salt, the British consul at Egypt, in explor ing the Egyptian Pyramids and ancient tombs. Some of these remains of art were eminently rich and splendid, and one which he Ciscovered 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 ard Nubia,' which shews how much may be done by the labour and unremitting exertions of

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Belzoni

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 Timbuktu, but died at Benin of an attack of dysentery on the 3d of December 1823, aged sixty-five. We subjoin a few passages from Belzoni's Narrative:

The Ruins at Thebes.

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 pres nt 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. he 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 enormous 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 ruis 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 Gournon, Memnonium, and Medinet Aboo. attest the extent of the great city on this side. The unrivalled colossal figures in the plains of Thebes, the nuinbr 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 unknown 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 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 bassorelievo, 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 fect 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 pieces 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.

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 carcass 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 part were four wooden figures standing erect, four feet high, and 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.

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The architectural ruins and monuments on the banks of the Nile are stupendous relics of former ages. They reach back to the period when Thebes poured her heroes through a hundred gates, and Greece and Rome were the desert abodes of barbarians. From the tops of the Pyramids,' said Napoleon to his soldiers on the eve of battle, 'the shades 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 Cham pollion, by studying the hieroglyphic writing of the ancient Egyptians, have furnished a key by which we may ascertain the object and history of these Eastern remains.

DR. E. D. CLARKE.

One of the most original and interesting of modern travellers was the 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 col- . lege 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 wiiter, 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 b held. The sight instantly convinced us that no power of description, no delineation, 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 been conscious that the uneasiness they experienced was a result of their own sensibility. Others have acknowledged ideas widely different, excited by every wonderful circumstance of character and of situation-ideas of duration almost endless, of power inconceivable, of majesty supreme, of solitude most awful, of grandeur, of desolation, and of repose.

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 [or boat]. 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 ns upon our landing, were much amused by the eagerness excited in our whole party to prove who should first set his foot upon the summit of this ar ificial mountain. With what 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 shew 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 wre pansing at the tremendous depth which they saw below. One of our military companions, after having surmounted the most difficult part of the undertaking, b came giddy in consequence of looking down from the elevation he had attained; and being compelled to abandon the project, he hired an Arab to assist him in cffecting his descent. The rest of us, more accustomed to the business of climbing heights, with many a halt for respiration, and many 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 10 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

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