! such a journey at his own expense—were overlooked by the Duchess of Devonshire) is thus related. I waited more than two hours without having an opportunity of crossing the river, during which staircase, while handing a lady to her carriage, and he tion to Mansong, the king, that a white man was died in consequence of the injury then received, April waiting for a passage, and was coming to see him. 16, 1794. A second edition of the Travels, edited by He immediately sent over one of his chief men, who Dr Alexander Murray (an excellent Oriental scholar), informed me that the king could not possibly see me was published in 1805, and a third in 1813. The style until he knew what had brought me into his country; of Bruce is prolix and inelegant, though occasion- and that I must not presume to cross the river withally energetic. He seized upon the most prominent out the king's permission. He therefore advised me points, and coloured them highly. The general to lodge at a distant village, to which he pointed, for hospitality being thus performed towards a stranger mat, and telling me I might sleep there without asr prehension) called to the female part of her family, Next in interest and novelty to the travels of Bruce who had stood gazing on me all the while in fixed are those of Mungo Park in Central Africa. Mr astonishment, to resume their task of spinning cotton, Park was born at Fowlshiels, near Selkirk, on the in which they continued to employ themselves great 10th of September 1771. He studied medicine, and part of the night. They lightened their labour by performed a voyage to Bencoolen in the capacity of songs, one of which was composed extempore, for I assistant-surgeon to an East Indiaman. The Afri- was myself the subject of it. It was sung by one of can Association, founded in 1778 for the purpose of the young women, the rest joining in a sort of chorus promoting discovery in the interior of Africa, had The air was sweet and plaintive, and the words, litesent out several travellers-John Ledyard, Lucas, rally translated, were these :-- The winds roared, and Major Houghton-all of whom had died. Park, and the rains fell. The poor white man, faint and however, undeterred by these examples, embraced weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no the society's offer, and set sail in May 1795. On mother to bring him milk-no wife to grind his corn. the 21st of June following he arrived at Jillifree, on he;" &c. &c. Trifling as this recital may appear to ] Chorus.-Let us pity the white man-no mother has the banks of the Gambia. He pursued his journey the reader, to a person in my situation the circuratowards the kingdom of Bambarra, and saw the great object of his mission, the river Niger flowing stance was affecting in the highest degree. I was towards the east. The sufferings of Park during oppressed by such unexpected kindness, and sleep his journey, the various incidents he encountered, fled from my eyes. In the morning I presented my his captivity among the Moors, and his description compassionate landlady with two of the four brax buttons which remained on my waistcoat-the only of the inhabitants, their manners, trade, and customs, constitute a narrative of the deepest interest. recompense I could make her. The traveller returned to England towards the His fortitude under suffering, and the natural piety latter end of the year 1797, when all hope of him of his mind, are beautifully illustrated by an incihad been abandoned, and in 1799 he published his dent related after he had been robbed and stript of travels. The style is simple and manly, and replete most of his clothes at a village near Kooma :with a fine moral feeling. One of his adventures After the robbers were gone, I sat for some time (which had the honour of being turned into verse | looking around me with amazement and terror, DENHAM AND CLAPPERTON. Whichever way I turned, nothing appeared but TAIN TUCKEY, an experienced naval officer, and he danger and difficulty. I saw myself in the midst of a was accompanied by Mr Smith, a botanist, Mr vast wilderness, in the depth of the rainy season, Cranch, a zoologist, and by Mr Galway, an intellinaked and alone, surrounded by savage animals, and gent friend. The expedition was unfortunate—all men still more savage. I was five hundred miles from died but Captain Tuckey, and he was compelled to the nearest European settlement. All these circum- abandon the enterprise from fever and exhaustion. stances crowded at once on my recollection, and I con- In the narrative of this expedition, there is an infess that my spirits began to fail me. I considered my teresting account of the country of Congo, which fate as certain, and that I had no alternative but to appears to be an undefined tract of territory, lie down and perish. The influence of religion, how- hemmed in between Loango on the north and ever, aided and supported me. I reflected that no Angola on the south, and stretching far inland. human prudence or foresight could possibly have The military part of this expedition, under Major averted my present sufferings. I was indeed a stranger Peddie, was equally unfortunate. He did not ascend in a strange land, yet I was still under the protecting the Gambia, but pursued the route by the Rio eye of that Providence who has condescended to call Nunez and the country of the Foulahs. Peddie himself the stranger's friend. At this moment, pain- died at Kacundy, at the head of the Rio Nunez, ful as my reflections were, the extraordinary beauty and Captain Campbell , on whom the command then of a small moss in fructification irresistibly caught devolved, also sunk under the pressure of disease my eye. I mention this to show from what trifling and distress. In 1819 two other travellers, Mr circumstances the mind will sometimes derive consola- Ritchie and Lieutenant Lyon, proceeded from Tripoli tion; for though the whole plant was not larger than to Fezzan, with the view of penetrating southward the top of one of my fingers, I could not contemplate as far as Soudan. The climate soon extinguished the delicate conformation of its roots, leaves, and cap- all hopes from this expedition ; Mr Ritchie sank sula, without admiration. Can that Being, thought beneath it, and Lieutenant Lyon was so reduced as I, who planted, watered, and brought to perfection, in be able to extend his journey only to the southern this obscure part of the world, a thing which appears frontiers of Fezzan, 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, In 1822 another important African expedition disregarding both hunger and fatigue, travelled for was planned by a different route, under the care of wards, assured that relief was at hand; and I was MAJOR DEMÁN, CAPTAIN CLAPPERTON, and DR not disappointed. In a short time I came to a small OUDNEY. They proceeded from Tripoli across the village, at the entrance which I overtook the two Great Desert to Bornou, and in February 1823 shepherds who had come with me from Kooma. They arrived at Kouka, the capital of Bornou. An imwere much surprised to see me; for they said they mense lake, the Tshad, was seen to form the recepnever doubted that the Foulahs, when they had tacle of the rivers of Bornou, and the country was robbed, had murdered me. Departing from this highly populous. The travellers were hospitably village, we travelled over several rocky ridges, and entertained at Kouka. Oudney fell a victim to the at sunset arrived at Sibidooloo, the frontier town of climate, but Clapperton penetrated as far as Sockathe kingdom of Manding. too, the residence of the Sultan Bello, and the Park had discovered the Niger (or Joliba, or capital of the Fellatah empire. The sultan received Quorra) flowing to the east, and thus set at rest him with much state, and admired all the presents the doubts as to its direction in the interior of that were brought to him. “Everything,' he said, Africa. He was not satisfied, however, but longed 'is wonderful, but you are the greatest curiosity of to follow up his discovery by tracing it to its termi- all.'. The traveller's presence of mind is illustrated nation. For some years he was constrained to re- by the following anecdote :main at home, and he followed his profession of a March 19, I was sent for,' says Clapperton, 'by surgeon in the town of Peebles. He embraced a the sultan, and desired to bring with me the “looksecond offer from the African Association, and arrived at Goree on the 28th of March 1805. Before ing-glass of the sun,” the name they gave to my I first exhibited a planisphere of the he saw the Niger once more rolling its immense heavenly bodies. The sultan knew all the signs of stream along the plain,' misfortunes had thickened the zodiac, some of the constellations, and many of around him. His expedition consisted originally of the stars, by their Arabic names. The looking-glass forty-four men; now only seven remained. He of the sun was then brought forward, and occasioned built a boat at Sansanding to prosecute his voyage much surprise. I had to explain all its appendages. down the river, and entered it on the 17th of The inverting telescope was an object of immense November 1805, with the fixed resolution to discover astonishment; and I had to stand at some little disthe termination of the Niger, or to perish in the tance to let the sultan look at me through it, for his attempt. The party had sailed several days, when, people were all afraid of placing themselves within on passing a rocky part of the river named Boussa, its magical influence. I had next to show him how the natives attacked them, and Park and one of his to take an observation of the sun. The case of the companions (Lieutenant Martyn) were drowned artificial horizon, of which I had lost the key, was while attempting to escape by swimming. The sometimes very difficult to open, as happened on this letters and journals of the traveller had been sent occasion: I asked one of the people near me for a by him to Gambia previous to his embarking on knife to press up the lid. He handed me one quite the fatal voyage, and a narrative of the journey too small, and I quite inadvertently asked for a compiled from them was published in 1915. 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- I opened the case, and returned the weapon to its owner sextant. J. L. BURCKHARDT-J. B. BELZONI. with apparent unconcern. When the artificial horizon venturers on the river Niger, and Lander was was arranged, the sultan and all his attendants had wounded by a musket ball. He arrived at Fernando a peep at the sun, and my breach of etiquette seemed Po, but died from the effects of his wound on the entirely forgotten.' 16th of February 1834, aged thirty-one. A narraSockatoo formed the utmost limit of the expedition. tive of this unfortunate expedition was published in The result was published in 1826, under the title of 1837, in two volumes, by Mr Macgregor Laird and Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Mr Oldfield, surviving officers of the expedition. Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824, by Major Denham, Captain Clapperton, and the late Dr BOW DICH, CAMPBELL, AND BURCHELL. 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 evipeed 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 Clapperton made valuable additions to our know- England had ever formed the faintest idea of the ledge of the interior of Africa. “The limit of Lieu- barbaric pomp and magnificence, or of the state, tenant Lyon's journey southward across the desert strength, and political condition of the Ashantee was in latitude 24 degrees, while Major Denham, in nation. his expedition to Mandara, reached latitude 9 degrees 15 minutes, thus adding 14degrees, or 900 miles, to the extent explored by Europeans. Hornemann, it is true, had previously crossed the desert, Among the numerous victims of African discoand had proceeded as far southwards as Nyffé, in very are two eminent travellers-Burckhardt and latitude 104 degrees; but no account was ever Belzoni. John LUDWIG BURCKHARDT (1785-1817) received of his journey. Park in his first expedi- was a native of Switzerland, who visited England, tion reached Silla, in longitude 1 degree 34 minutes and was engaged by the African Association. He west, a distance of 1100 miles from the mouth of proceeded to Aleppo in 1809, and resided two years the Gambia. Denham and Clapperton, on the other in that city, personating the character of a Mussul. hand, from the east side of Lake Tshad in longitude man doctor of laws, and acquiring a perfect know17 degrees, to Sockatoo in longitude 5 degrees, ledge of the language and customs of the East. He explored a distance of 700 miles from east to west visited Palmyra, Damascus, and Lebanon ; stopped in the heart of Africa; a line of only.400 miles re- some time at Cairo, and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, maining unknown between Silla and Sockatoo. But crossing the Nubian desert by the route taken by the second journey of Captain Clapperton added Bruce. He returned to Cairo, and was preparing to tenfold value to these discoveries. He had the good depart thence in a caravan for Fezzan, in the north fortune to detect the shortest and most easy road to of Africa, when he was cut off by a fever. His the populous countries of the interior; and he could journals, letters, and memoranda, were all preserved, boast of being the first who had completed an itine- and are very valuable. He was an accurate obrary across the continent of Africa from Tripoli to server of men and manners, and his works throw Benin.' much light on the geography and moral condition of the countries he visited. They were published at intervals from 1819 to 1830. Joux BAPTIST BELZONT was a native of Padua, in Italy, who came to Eng. The honour of discovering and finally determin- land in 1803. He was a man of immense stature ing the course of the Niger was left to RICHARD and muscular strength, capable of enduring the LANDER. Under the auspices of government, Lander greatest fatigue. From 1815 to 1819 he was and his brother left England in January 1830, and engaged in exploring the antiquities of Egypt. arrived at Badagry on the 19th of March. From Works on this subject had previously appearedBoussa they sailed down the Niger, and ultimately The Egyptiaca of Hamilton, 1809: Mr Legh's Nar. entered the Atlantic by the river Nun, one of the rative of a Journey in Egypt, 1816; Captain Light's branches from the Niger. They returned from their Travels, 1818 ; and Memoirs relating to European triumphant expedition in June 1831, and published and Asiatic Turkey, &c. by Mr R. Walpole, 1817. an account of their travels in three small volumes, Mr Legh's account of the antiquities of Nubia-the for which Mr Murray, the eminent bookseller, is region situated on the upper part of the Nile-had said to have given a thousand guineas! Richard attracted much attention. While the temples of Lander was induced to embark in another expedi- Egypt are edifices raised above ground, those of tion to Africa—a commercial speculation fitted out Nubia are excavated rocks, and some almost of by some Liverpool merchants, which proved an mountain magnitude have been hewn into temples utter failure. A party of natives attacked the ad- and chiseled into sculpture. Mr Legh was the first adventurer in this career. Belzoni acted as as* History of Maritime and Inland Discovery. sistant to Mr Salt (the British consul at Egypt) in ”中 RICHARD LANDER. exploring the Egyptian pyramids and ancient tombs. Egyptians would make the entrance into such an imSome of these remains of art were eminently rich mense and superb excavation just under a torrent of and splendid, and one which he discovered near water; but I had strong reasons to suppose that there Thebes, containing a sarcophagus of the finest was a tomb in that place, from indications I had preOriental alabaster, minutely sculptured with hun- viously observed in my search of other sepulchres. dreds of figures, he brought with him to Britain, The Arabs, who were accustomed to dig, were all of and it is now in the British Museum. In 1820 he opinion that nothing was to be found there; but I published A Narrative of Operations and Recent persisted in carrying on the work ; and on the evenDiscoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, 8c. in Egypt ing of the following day we perceived the part of the and Nubia, which shows how much may be done rock that had been hewn and cut away. On the 18th, by the labour and unremitting exertions of one in early in the morning, the task was resumed ; and dividual. Belzoni's success in Egypt, his great bodily about noon, the workmen reached the opening, which strength, and his adventurous spirit, inspired him was eighteen feet below the surface of the ground. with the hope of achieving discoveries in Africa. When there was room enough for me to creep through He sailed to the coast of Guinea, with the intention a passage that the earth had left under the ceiling of of travelling to Timbuctoo, but died at Benin of the first corridor, I perceived immediately, by the an attack of dysentery on the 3d of December 1823. painting on the roof, and by the hieroglyphics in We subjoin a few passages from Belzoni's nar- basso-relievo, that I had at length reached the entrance rative : of a large and magnificent toinb. I hastily passed along this corridor, and came to a staircase 23 feet long, [The Ruins at Thebes.] at the foot of which I entered another gallery 37 feet 3 inches long, where my progress was suddenly arOn the 22d, we saw for the first time the ruins of rested by a large pit 30 feet deep and 14 feet by 12 great Thebes, and landed at Luxor. Here I beg the feet 3 inches wide. On the other side, and in front of reader to observe, that but very imperfect ideas can me, I observed a small aperture 2 feet wide and 2 feet be formed of the extensive ruins of Thebes, even from 6 inches high, and at the bottom of the pit a quantity the accounts of the most skilful and accurate travel- of rubbish. A rope fastened to a piece of wood, that lers. It is absolutely impossible to imagine the scene was laid across the passage against the projections displayed, without seeing it. The most sublime ideas which formed a kind of doorway, appeared to have that can be formed from the most magnificent speci- been used formerly for descending into the pit; and mens of our present architecture, would give a very from the small aperture on the opposite side hung incorrect picture of these ruins ; for such is the diffe- another which reached the bottom, no doubt for the rence not only in magnitude, but in form, proportion, purpose of ascending. The wood, and the rope fastand construction, that even the pencil can convey butened to it, crumbled to dust on being touched. At a faint idea of the whole. It appeared to me like the bottom of the pit were several pieces of wood placed entering a city of giants, who, after a long conflict, against the side of it, so as to assist the person who were all destroyed, leaving the ruins of their various was to ascend by means of the rope into the aperture. temples as the only proofs of their former existence. It was not till the following day that we contrived to The temple of Luxor presents to the traveller at once make a bridge of two beams, and crossed the pit, when one of the most splendid groups of Egyptian grandeur. we discovered the little aperture to be an opening The extensive propylæon, with the two obelisks, and forced through a wall, that had entirely closed what colossal statues in the front ; the thick groups of enor- we afterwards found to be the entrance into magnifimous columns; the variety of apartments, and the cent halls and corridors beyond. The ancient Egypsanctuary it contains; the beautiful ornaments which tians had closely shut it up, plastered the wall over, adorn every part of the walls and columns, described and painted it like the rest of the sides of the pit, so by Mr Hamilton; cause in the astonished traveller that, but for the aperture, it would have been imposan oblivion of all that he has seen before. If his at- sible to suppose that there was any further proceeding: tention be attracted to the north side of Thebes by Any one would have concluded that the tomb ended the towering remains that project a great height above with the pit. Besides, the pit served the purpose of the wood of palm-trees, he will gradually enter that receiving the rain-water which might occasionally fall forest-like assemblage of ruins of temples, columns, in the mountain, and thus kept out the damp from obelisks, colossi, sphinxes, portals, and an endless the inner part of the tomb. We passed through the number of other astonishing objects, that will convince small aperture, and then made the full discovery him at once of the impossibility of a description. On of the whole sepulchre. the west side of the Nile, still the traveller finds him- An inspection of the model will exhibit the numeself among wonders. The temples of Gournou, Mem- rous galleries and halls through which we wandered ; nonium, and Medinet Aboo, attest the extent of the and the vivid colours and extraordinary figures on great city on this side. The unrivalled colossal figures the walls and ceilings, which everywhere met our view, in the plains of Thebes, the number of tombs exca- will convey an idea of the astonishment we must have vated in the rocks, those in the great valley of the felt at every step. In one apartment we found the kings, with their paintings, sculptures, mummies, sar- carcase of a bull embalmed; and also scattered in cophagi, figures, &c. are all objects worthy of the ad- various places wooden figures of mummies covered miration of the traveller, who will not fail to wonder with asphaltum to preserve them. In some of the how a nation which was once so great as to erect these rooms were lying about statues of fine earth, baked, stupendous edifices, could so far fall into oblivion coloured blue, and strongly varnished; in another that even their language and writing are totally un- part were four wooden figures standing erect, four feet known to us. high, with a circular hollow inside, as if intended to contain a roll of papyrus. The sarcophagus of Oriental [Opening a Tomb at Thebes.) alabaster was found in the centre of the hall, to which I gave the name of the saloon, without a cover, which On the 16th of October 1817, I set a number of had been removed and broken ; and the body that had fellahs, or labouring Arabs, to work, and caused the once occupied this superb cofin had been carried earth to be opened at the foot of a steep hill, and un- | away. We were not, therefore, the first who had proder the bed of a torrent, which, when it rains, pours a fanely entered this mysterious mansion of the dead, great quantity of water over the spot in which they though there is no doubt it had remained undisturbed were digging. No one could imagine that the ancient since the time of the invasion of the Persians. us. DR E. D. CLARKE. 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 Upon the 23d of August 1802 we set out for the and research have unveiled part of the mystery of pyramids, the inundation enabling us to approach these august memorials. Men like Belzoni have within less than a mile of the larger pyramid in our penetrated into the vast sepulchres, and unearthed djerm.* Messrs Hammer and Hamilton accompanied the huge sculpture; and scholars like Young and We arrived at Djiza at daybreak, and called Champollion, by discovering the hieroglyphic writ- upon some English officers, who wished to join our ing of the ancient Egyptians, have been able to as- party upon this occasion. From Djiza our approach certain their object and history. The best English to the pyramids was through a swampy country, by books on Egypt are, The Manners and Customs of the means of a narrow canal, which, however, was deep Ancient Egyptians, by J. G. WILKINSON, 1837; and enough; and we arrived without any obstacle at nine An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern o'clock at the bottom of a sandy slope leading up to Egyptians, by EDWARD W. LANE, 1836. 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 One of the most original and interesting of modern summit of this artificial mountain. With what travellers was the late Rev. Dr Edward DANIEL amazement did we survey the vast surface that was CLARKE (1769-1822), a fellow of Jesus college, Cam- presented to us when we arrived at this stupendous bridge, and the first professor of mineralogy in that monument, which seemed to reach the clouds. Here university. In 1799 Dr Clarke set off with Mr and there · appeared some Arab guides upon the imMalthus, and some other college friends, on a journey mense masses above us, like so many pigmies, waiting among the northern nations. He travelled for three to show the way to the summit. Now and then we years and a half, visiting the south of Russia, part thought we heard voices, and listened ; but it was the of Asia, Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine. The first wind in powerful gusts sweeping the immense ranges volume of his travels appeared in 1810, and included of stone. Already some of our party had begun the Russia, Tartary, and Turkey. The second, which ascent, and were pausing at the tremendous depth became more popular, was issued in 1812, and in which they saw below. One of our military compacluded Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land; and nions, after having surinounted the most difficult part three other volumes appeared at intervals before of the undertaking, became giddy in consequence of 1819. The sixth volume was published after his looking down from the elevation he had attained ; and death, part being contributed by Mr Walpole, being compelled to abandon the project, he hired an author of travels in the Levant. Dr Clarke received Arab to assist him in effecting his descent. The rest from his publishers the large sum of £7000 for his heights, with many a halt for respiration, and many of us, more accustomed to the business of climbing collection of travels. Their success was immediate and extensive. As an honest and accomplished the summit. The mode of ascent has been frequently an exclamation of wonder, pursued our way towards writer, careful in his facts, clear and polished in his described ; and yet, from the questions which are often style, and comprehensive in his knowledge and ob- proposed to travellers, it does not appear to be gener servation, Dr Clarke has not been excelled by any rally understood. The reader may imagine hinuself general European traveller. to be upon a staircase, every step of which, to a man of middle stature, is nearly breast high, and the [Description of the Pyramids.] breadth of each step is equal to its height, conseWe were roused as soon as the sun dawned by An- quently the footing is secure; and although a retrotony, our faithful Greek servant and interpreter, with spect in going up be sometimes fearful to persons the intelligence that the pyramids were in view. We unaccustomed to look down from any considerable hastened from the cabin ; and never will the impression elevation, yet there is little danger of falling. In some made by their appearance be obliterated. By reflect- places, indeed, where the stones are decayed, caution ing the sun's rays, they appear as white as snow, and may be required, and an Arab guide is always necesof such surprising magnitude, that nothing we had sary, to avoid a total interruption; but, upon the previously conceived in our imagination had prepared whole, the means of ascent are such that almost every us for the spectacle we beheld. The sight instantly one may accomplish it. Our progress was impeded by other causes. convinced us that no power of description, no delinea We carried with us a few instruments, tion, can convey ideas adequate to the effect produced such as our boat-compass, a thermometer, a telescope, in viewing these stupendous monuments. The for- &c.; these could not be trusted in the hands of the mality of their construction is lost in their prodigious Arabs, and they were liable to be broken every instant. magnitude; the mind, elevated by wonder, feels at At length we reached the topmost tier, to the great once the force of an axiom, which, however disputed, delight and satisfaction of all the party. Here we experience confirms that in vastness, whatsoever be found a platform thirty-two feet square, consisting of its nature, there dwells sublimity. Another proof of nine large stones, each of which might weigh about their indescribable power is, that no one ever ap a ton, although they are much inferior in size to proached them under other emotions than those of some of the stones used in the construction of this terror, which is another principal source of the sub- pyramid. Travellers of all ages, and of various lime.' In certain instances of irritable feeling, this nations, have here inscribed their names. Some are impression of awe and fear has been so great as to written in Greek, many in French, a few in Arabic, cause pain rather than pleasure; hence, perhaps, have one or two in English, and others in Latin. We were originated descriptions of the pyramids which repre as desirous as our predecessors to leave a memorial sent them as deformed and gloomy masses, without of our arrival; it seemed to be a tribute of thankfultaste or beauty. Persons who have derived no satis ness due for the success of our undertaking; and prefaction from the contemplation of them, may not have * Boat of the Nile. |