Part 137

On his return to Cairo, he was much annoyed to hear that the credit of the discoveries he had made had been usurped by others, who had been announced, by name, in the English journals, as the means of bringing to light the principal temples which he had so long been employed in excavating. Accordingly he resolved, in future, to keep his operations as secret as possible; and with this view, went alone, to inspect the second great pyramid of Ghizeh, ‘that enormous mass which, for so many ages, has baffled the conjectures of ancient and modern writers;’ and which, whether one solid mass, or possessing any cavity in the interior, no one had yet been able to ascertain. Notwithstanding, however, the difficulty of the attempt, and the uncertainty of success, he resolved on making an effort to discover an entrance to the tomb; a project for the undertaking of which, £20,000 had been considered by Mr. Drouetti necessary, while Belzoni determined to begin it with the small sum of £200, all he, at that moment, possessed. Having procured the requisite number of workmen, he commenced his operations, and after a month’s labor, to his inexpressible delight, found a passage, and penetrated into the centre of the pyramid. So unsuccessful, however, were his attempts at first, that those who came to see him at work, ridiculed the idea of his proceeding further, and the Count de Forbin, says Belzoni, ‘requested, in a kind of sarcastic manner, when I had succeeded in opening the pyramid, (which, no doubt, he supposed I never would,) that I would send him a plan of it.’ Accordingly Belzoni sent it to the count, who taking advantage of the opportunity, on his arrival in Paris, caused it to be published in the newspapers, that he himself had penetrated into the pyramid, and produced the plan as an evidence.

Having sent some account of his proceedings to England, Belzoni made a third journey to Thebes, whence, after taking models in wax of the principal tombs, he set out on a voyage to the Red Sea, principally with the intention of visiting Sarkiet Minor, said to be the site of ancient Berenice. Accordingly, on the 16th of September, 1818, accompanied by Mr. Beechey, he embarked at Gornou, and sailing down the Nile, was witness to one of the most calamitous inundations ever known; the river having risen three feet and a half higher than usual, and swept away several villages and some hundred of their inhabitants. On leaving the Nile, he proceeded across the desert to the Red Sea, the coast of which he found to have been accurately described by Bruce; and, at Cape el Golahen, he discovered the ruins of a town, which, from his own observations, and those of the geographer, D’Anville, he concluded to be the site of ancient Berenice, of which city he had found no traces at Sarkiet Minor. Returning to Gornou, he was met by Mr. Salt and Mr. Banks, the latter of whom, having been authorized to take possession of the obelisk found by Belzoni in the island of Philoe, engaged him to remove it down the Nile to Alexandria, preparatory to its embarkation for England. On reaching the spot where it lay, he, after some opposition on the part of Mr. Drouetti, who claimed the obelisk as his own, commenced his operations for putting it on board, which he effected after a delay of three days, caused by its slipping from the machine into the water. Having arrived at Luxor, he landed for a few days to visit the excavations he had commenced at Carnak, when, on his returning to the boat, he was suddenly attacked by a large party of Arabs, headed by two Europeans and Mr Drouetti, who endeavored to force Belzoni to deliver up the obelisk. He was, however, firm in his refusal; but, on reaching the Nile, hastened on to Alexandria, determined to quit Egypt for ever, as he observes, ‘I could not live any longer in a country where I had become the object of revenge, to a set of people who could take the basest means to accomplish their purpose.’

Previously, however, to sailing for Europe, he made an excursion to Faiume, the ruins of ancient Arsinoe, Lake Mœris, and the Oasis of Ammon, near Zaboo, where he received a severe injury on his side, in consequence of his camel falling with him down a hard rock of twenty feet in depth. In this journey he tried to discover some remains of the famous Temple of the Labyrinth; visited the fountain at Ell Cassar, mentioned by Herodotus; and, after passing some time at various places, in search of antiquities, returned to Alexandria, whence, in the middle of September, 1819, he says, ‘Thank God, we embarked for Europe; not that I disliked the country I was in, for, on the contrary, I have reason to be grateful; nor do I complain of the Turks or Arabs in general, but of some Europeans who are in that country, whose conduct and mode of thinking are a disgrace to human nature.’ On his arrival in Italy, he visited his friends and family at Padua; to which city he presented two lion-headed statues of granite, which were placed, by his townsmen, in the Palazza della Justitia, who also struck a medal in honor of him. In 1820, he reached England; and, in the same year, published an Account of his Travels and Discoveries, a work which excited the interest and attention of the whole literary and scientific world. In 1821, he exhibited, at the Egyptian Hall, in Piccadilly, a representation of two of the principal chambers of a tomb he had discovered in Beban el Malook, besides a model of the entire excavation; with several specimens of Egyptian sculpture, cases containing idols, mummies, etc., and a superb manuscript of papyrus.

In the latter end of 1822, Belzoni left England for Gibraltar, with the intention of traveling through Africa to Senaar, by way of Timbuctoo, a city which, up to that time, had never been visited by an European. On reaching Fez, he was introduced to the emperor of Morocco, who, at first, gave him permission to join a caravan about to set out for Timbuctoo; but, subsequently, remanded him back to Tangiers, whence our traveler proceeded to Gibraltar, determined not to relinquish his project, although he had already fruitlessly expended £1,000 in his attempt to accomplish it. Having arrived at Madeira, he continued his course to Teneriffe and Cape Coast Castle, where he resolved to take a northerly direction, from the kingdom of Benim direct to Houssa, towards the east of which country he had some hope of falling in with the Niger. On the 30th of October, he reached the Bar of Benim river; and, after making an excursion to the capital of Warra, about one hundred and twenty miles distant from Bobee, returned to the latter place, and set out, in company with Mr. Houtson, an English merchant, on his expedition to Timbuctoo. Whilst stepping into the canoe in which he departed, he evinced much agitation; and when the crew of the vessel he had just left, gave him three cheers, it was with trepidation, though with earnestness, that he exclaimed――‘God bless you, my fine fellows! and send you a happy sight of your country and friends!’ He reached Gato on the 20th of November, 1823; and, on the 26th, departed for Benim, where he arrived in the evening of the same day, suffering slightly from an attack of diarrhœa, of which he had complained in the course of his journey. After some negotiation with the king of Benim, to whom Mr. Belzoni was represented as an Indian, or Malay, on his return home, it was arranged that he should be escorted as far as Houssa, whither, however, his diarrhœa, now changed to a dysentery, prevented him from preparing to proceed.

On the 2d of December, his illness increased to such an alarming degree, that he expressed a conviction of his approaching death, and begged Mr. Houtson to send him back to Gato, in the faint hope that the sea breeze might revive him. On his arrival there, though much fatigued, he appeared better for the voyage; resumed his usual cheerfulness, ate and drank, slightly, of bread and tea, and fell into a sound sleep, from which, however, he awoke with a dizziness in the head, and coldness in the extremities; shortly after he lost the power of speech, and, in the afternoon of the 3d of December, tranquilly expired.

Previously to his death, he had given directions respecting his papers, and had attempted to write to his wife; but, his strength failing him, he requested Mr. Houtson ‘to bear witness that he died in the fullest and most affectionate remembrance of her; and begged that gentleman would write to her, and send her the amethyst ring which he then wore.’ He was buried on the day following his death, the funeral service being delivered by Mr. Houtson, who placed over his grave the following inscription:――‘Here lie the remains of G. Belzoni, Esq., who was attacked with a dysentery at Benim, on the 26th of November, on his way to Houssa and Timbuctoo, and died at Gato, on the 3d of December, 1823. The gentleman who placed this inscription over the grave of this intrepid and enterprising traveler, hopes that every European, visiting this spot, will cause the ground to be cleared, and the fence around it put in repair, if necessary.’

The character of Belzoni was of an intrepid and enterprising nature; and he possessed a spirit of perseverance, in the midst of the many difficulties and dangers which surrounded him, that would have turned most men from their object. His person was as well-favored as it was tall and powerful; and his countenance was handsome and intelligent. He was accompanied by his wife in all his expeditions, except the last: she was, for a woman, as prodigious in size and strength as Belzoni was for a man; and proved of much assistance to him in the course of his researches in Egypt. The travels of Belzoni are the most interesting ever recorded; the account of them is written by himself, choosing, as he says in his preface, to tell in his own way his events and discoveries; being more solicitour about the accuracy of the facts than the manner of relating them. His narrative, however, although occasionally confused, from an over-earnestness to convey to the reader’s mind an adequate idea of the difficulties encountered by the author, is written in a pure and unostentatious style, and in a tone which occasionally approaches to the poetic and sublime. Nor is his diction inelegant; and, notwithstanding his want of a classical education, he displays, in his work, a very extensive knowledge of ancient history, and particularly of the classical traditions respecting Thebes and other celebrated places of Egypt.

GEORGE FORSTER.

George Forster, born some time about the year 1750, went out as a writer in the service of the East India Company to Madras, whence, in 1782, he set out on his return to England, by way of Persia and Russia. Embarking on the Ganges, towards the latter end of June, he proceeded through Rajmahal, Monghee, and Patna, to Benares, where he spent three months in familiarity with the Hindoos, and in endeavoring to discover the origin of the Brahmin theology. After making an excursion to the fort of Biggighur, and assuming, for safety, a Georgian name, he proceeded through the Delhi country to Najebabad, where he represented himself as a Turkish merchant, and joined a kafila going to Cashmere. On the 6th of March, he crossed the river Jumma; and, on the 20th, arrived at a frontier town of the Punjaub, or Five Rivers, whence, after a rest of three days, he left the caravan; and in company with his servants, and an other Cashmerian, passed through the respective armies of two rajahs at war with each other; and, about the middle of April, reached Jummoo. Leaving this wealthy and commercial city, he set out, on foot, towards Cashmere, which, after a fatiguing journey of ten days, he approached, on the 26th, at a time, he observes, ‘when the trees, the apple, the pear, the peach, the apricot, the cherry, and mulberry, bore a variegated load of blossoms. The clusters also of red and white roses,’ he continues, ‘with an infinite class of flowering shrubs, presented a view so gaily decked, that no extraordinary warmth of imagination was required to fancy that I stood, at least, on a province of fairy land.’

Whilst residing at Cashmere, he was declared, by a Georgian who noticed the flatness of his head, to be a Christian, but threatening his detector with the confiscation of an estate he found him to possess at Benares, in the event of his discovering him, he escaped exposure, and, immediately afterwards, solicited his passport, and left the city. On the 10th of July, he crossed the Indus, about twenty miles above the town of Altack, and, on the following day, passed the Kabul river to Akorah; whence, after a journey, in which he was nearly discovering his true religion, and a few transient dangers, he proceeded to Kabul, which he reached on the 2d of August. A few days after his arrival, he was attacked by a malignant fever, which appeared on his body in bright blue spots, and left him scarcely strength to move for some time after his recovery. Having hired one side of a camel, where he was placed in a pannier, he set out for Kandahar; in the course of his journey whither he was much annoyed by the insults and reviling of the whole kafila, in consequence of his no longer wearing the Mohammedan disguise, which, consequently, on his arrival at Herat, he thought it prudent again to assume. Here he joined another kafila, about to proceed to Tursheez, and obtained great respect the whole way, by representing himself as a pilgrim going to visit the shrine of Meshed. On the 28th of December, he left Tursheez, with a body of pilgrims proceeding to Mesanderan, whence he journeyed to Mushedsir on the Caspian sea; embarked at that city for Baku, shaved off his beard, which had grown to an enormous thickness, and sailed to Astrachan, where he arrived in the beginning of 1784, and, in the following July, landed in England.

Immediately on his arrival he began to put his manuscripts in form for the press, and in 1786, published, in London, his Sketches of the Mythology and Manners of the Hindoos. Returning some time after this to India, he published, at Calcutta, in 1790, the first volume of his travels, under the title of A Journey from Bengal to England, and was just about to print a second, when he died at Nagpoor, whither he had been sent on an embassy, some time in the year 1792. In 1798, a complete edition of his travels was published in two quarto volumes, but so negligently edited, that it has been doubted whether the second volume was compiled from the manuscripts of Forster, of whom no account was given, nor of the manner in which his papers were obtained. The work, though not gaining the reputation it deserved, received great commendation from the literary world, and was translated into German by Meineis, and into French, with the addition of notes and two maps, by Langlès, who has written a short memoir of Forster, in the Biographie Universelle.

Few travels have been more adventurous and hazardous than those of Forster; yet the gay and spirited manner in which the account of them is written, gives no indication of any apprehension on the part of the author, who seems to have been as much at home in the deserts of Khorasan, as on the banks of the Thames. Indeed, had he not preserved, during his travels, the unreserved, unsuspicious, and familiar manner which his disguise as a Mohammedan rendered necessary, he would neither have had so good an opportunity of seeing the manners and dispositions of his infidel associates, nor have lived, perhaps, to relate them.

EDWARD DANIEL CLARKE.

This distinguished traveler and antiquarian, son of the Rev. Edward Clarke, was born at Willingdon, in the county of Sussex, on the 5th of June 1769. Whilst very young, he gave proofs of a roving disposition, and of a fondness for natural history and chemistry, and many amusing anecdotes are related of his conduct under the influence of these predilections. He received the rudiments of education at an academy in the village of Uckfield; and, in 1779, was sent to the grammar school at Tunbridge, then under the superintendence of the celebrated Vicessimus Knox. Here he made but little classical progress, but his fondness for books was evinced by his habit of reading late at night, when all his schoolfellows were asleep, for which purpose he spent great part of his pocket-money in purchasing candles. In 1786, shortly after which his father died, he entered Jesus College, Cambridge, where he obtained the situation of chapel clerk, to the duties of which office he was scrupulously attentive, but distinguished himself in no branch of university learning, excepting that of English declamation. He devoted himself, however, with great assiduity to his self-selected studies, which consisted of history, antiquity, and every variety of learning comprehended under the term of _belles lettres_. Natural history, and particularly mineralogy, also occupied great part of his time; and he evinced a capacity for scientific pursuits, by the construction of a large balloon at Oxford, and of an orrery at home, for the purpose of delivering lectures to his sister, his only auditor. His sole means of support at this time were derived from an income of about £96 per annum, the source of which was a Rustat scholarship, and his exhibition from Tunbridge. Thus situated, and having made a vow to accept no pecuniary assistance from his mother, whose income was extremely small, he determined to exert himself, and accordingly, as the time approached for his examination, he, for the first time, entered upon a regular course of study, and on proceeding to his degree, in January 1790, he obtained the mathematical honor of a _junior optime_, which, though it did not confer a high distinction, enabled the college, with some show of justice, to elect him afterwards to a fellowship. In the following April, on the recommendation of the Bishop of Gloucester, he became tutor to the Honorable Henry Tufton, nephew of the Duke of Dorset, with whom he made the tour of Great Britain; and, on his return, published an account of it, but the work is by no means on a level with his subsequent performances.

In 1791, he went with his pupil to Calais; and, in the following year, he obtained an engagement to accompany Lord Berwick on a tour to Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. ‘He was now,’ says Mr. St. John, one of his biographers, ‘in the position for which nature had originally designed him.’ ‘An unbounded love of travel,’ are the words of Clarke himself, ‘influenced me at a very early period of my life. It was conceived in infancy, and I shall carry it with me to the grave. When I reflect upon the speculations of my youth, I am at a loss to account for a passion, which, predominating over every motive of interest, and every tie of affection, urges me to press forward, and to pursue inquiry, even in the bosom of the ocean and the desert. Sometimes, in the dreams of fancy, I am weak enough to imagine that the map of the world was painted in the awning of my cradle, and that my nurse chaunted the wanderings of pilgrims in her legendary lullabies.’ He remained abroad about two years, and on his return, became tutor, successively, to Sir Thomas Mostyn, and to two sons of the present Marquis of Anglesey. In 1798, having previously taken his degree of M. A., he resumed his residence at Cambridge; and, in the following year, set out with his pupil and friend, Mr. Cripps, on a tour through Denmark, Sweden, Lapland, Finland, Russia, Tartary, Circassia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Greece, and Turkey. Having arrived at the gulf of Bothnia, Clarke declared he would not return until he should have ‘snuffed the polar air,’ and he accordingly proceeded as far as Enontakis, in latitude 68 deg. 30 min. 30 sec. north: beyond which, illness prevented him from venturing.

On the 26th of January 1800, he arrived at Petersburg, whence he continued his course to Moscow, and Taganrog on the sea of Azoff; and, on his reaching Achmedshid, in the Crimea, he passed some time with his pupil in the house of Professor Pallas. He next visited Constantinople, where he was employed in searching for, and examining, Greek medals; and, among other curiosities of the Turkish capital, he contrived to enter the seraglio, ‘where,’ he says, ‘no Frank had before set his foot.’ Hence he made an excursion to the Troad, at the prospect of beholding which, he had previously said in a letter to a friend, ‘Tears of joy stream from my eyes while I write.’ Egypt and Syria next claimed his attention; and whilst near the lake of Genesareth, he took particular observation of the Druzes, whom he describes as ‘the most extraordinary people on earth,’ and whose custom of prostrating themselves weekly before the molten calf, he observes, ‘is exactly that worship at which Moses was so incensed in descending from Mount Sinai.’

In 1801, he returned to Egypt, and whilst in that country, a dispute arising between the French and English generals respecting the literary treasures collected by the former, he was deputed by General Hutchinson to point out those most worthy of being conveyed to England, which country is indebted to him, amongst other things, for the acquisition of the famous sarcophagus of Alexander the Great. From Europe he proceeded to Greece, where his enthusiasm seems to have reached its highest stretch. ‘It is necessary,’ he exclaims, ‘to forget all that has preceded――all the travels of my life――all I ever imagined――all I ever saw! Asia, Egypt, the Isles, Italy, the Alps――Whatever you will! Greece surpasses all! Stupendous in its ruins!――awful in its mountains,――captivating in its vales,――bewitching in its climate. Nothing ever equaled it――no pen can describe it――no pencil can portray it!’