ancient intercourse with this country by way of the Red Sea. I was chosen as an agent in the work, and embarked in it. In the mean time, it was represented to me as desirable, that a more competent knowledge of the navigation of this sea should be obtained, and as the task required only duties which were familiar to me, I set out to accomplish it.

With this view, I ascended the Nile to Keneh, in order to cross over from thence to Kosseir, having with me excellent instruments for nautical purposes. I did not pass Hermopolis and Antinoë, Panopolis and Abydos, Diospolis and Tentyra, without an enthusiastic, and I may say a minute examination of their fine remains. I was near to Coptos; but Thebes, Hermonthis, Elythia, Apollinopolis, Ambos, and Syene, with the cataracts of Philoë and Elephantina, were still beyond me. The passage to Kosseir was obstructed at this time, and hopes were entertained of its being re-opened after some few days. I hesitated not a moment, but again spread forth the sail upon the Nile for still more southern skies.

At Thebes I remained a week. At Esneh or Latopolis, I met with the late lamented, and most accomplished traveller, Mr. Burckhardt. We remained together for three or four days, scarcely absent from each other's sight for a moment, and scarcely ever silent, so much had we to enquire of and to communicate to each other. We separated, Mr. Burckhardt for the Desert, and I to continue my course still upward on the stream,

I reached the cataracts. The intelligence received here of the wonderful monuments beyond this, determined me to pursue their traces as far southward as they could be found. I procured another boat and embarked. The temples of Daboat, of Taefa, and Galabshee; the quarries and inscriptions of Gartaasy; the stupendous cavern, with its alley of sphinxes, and colossal statues at Garfeecy; and the highly-finished sculptures of the beautiful temple of Dukkey, rewarded the undertaking, and induced me to consider the

a

monuments of Nubia as belonging to a higher class of art than even those of Egypt.

I had received the first attack of an opthalmia on quitting Mr. Burckhardt, who himself laboured under this disease at Esneh. I now, however, became gradually blind; and as the least glare of light was painful to me, even while my eyes were closed, it was in vain to think of penetrating further.

I returned from Nubia with regret, but rich, as I then thought, in the spoils of the enterprise.

An accurate chart of the Nile, as far as I had ascended it, with a delineation of the islands and inferior cataracts that we had passed; an observation which fixed with some precision the tropic of Cancer passing through the largest of these rapids; the latitude of Dukkey, the extreme point of my voyage; with measured plans, and pretty ample details of all the monuments of antiquity that we had found; were the result of my labours on this unanticipated excursion beyond the Nubian frontier.

I descended to Keneh; and though the obstacles which at first obstructed my passage of the Desert were rather augmented than diminished, I determined on making the attempt, and accordingly set out with all the precautions which it was in my power to use.

The result was, as had been predicted. I was stripped naked among the mountains, plundered of money, papers, arms, and instruments, and abandoned to my fate. I had to trace this rocky path naked and barefoot, scorched by day and frozen by night, for it was in the depth of the Egyptian winter. I continued for two days without food or water, and the first nourishment of which I partook was some raw wheat from a sack, which, swelling in the stomach, had nearly proved fatal to me.

When I lay down at Kosseir I was unable to rise again, or to support the weight of my body, from the wounded state of my swoln and lacerated feet. A mutiny of the soldiery, and a general commotion among the people here, rendered it impossible to obtain a passage by sea from hence to any part of the opposite coast;

besides which, as my instruments were gone, my labours would have availed but little in the task originally intended, that of examining nautically and hydrographically the upper part of the Red Sea.

I retraced my steps to Keneh without interruption, by taking another route, descended the Nile rapidly without suffering any impediments to retard the progress of our vessel, and again reposed from my toils in the hospitable mansion of Colonel Missett, one of the most amiable and worthy of men.

During my second stay at Cairo, I applied myself with great zeal to the study of the Arabic language, of which I had already acquired a slight knowledge colloquially, and after making some progress in it, assumed the dress of an Egyptian Fellah, crossed the desert of Suez to examine its port, returned by a more northern route to explore the traces of the ancient canal which had connected the Nile with the Arabian Gulf, visited Bubastis, Tanis, and other celebrated ruins, with the Lake of Menzaleh, in the Lower Egypt, crossed from Damietta along the edge of the Delta to Rosetta, and returned at length to Alexandria, the original point of my departure.

At this period, the Egyptian government were desirous of getting some large and fast-sailing vessels into the Red Sea; but, Mohammed Ali being refused permission to send ships round the Cape, and disappointed in promised supplies from India, I offered to undertake the work of restoring the ancient canal, which I had just returned from examining, or of transporting two beautiful American brigs belonging to the Pasha, which then lay in the harbour of Alexandria, across the desert to Suez. The practicability of these operations was satisfactorily explained to our Consulgeneral, Colonel Missett, through whom the correspondence officially passed, and he gave it his warm support; but they were undertakings which the Turks could neither sufficiently appreciate nor accurately comprehend.

My study of the Arabic language was resumed, and continued during my second stay here, till a more favourable occasion offering for the prosecution of my intended voyage to India, I left Alexandria, and came now by the way of the canal and the ruins of Hermopolis Parva, on the west of the Nile, to Cairo.

From this capital I again set out, wearing the dress of a Mamlouk, and associating with the soldiery, and accompanied a caravan of five thousand camels, and about fifty thousand pilgrims, for Mecca.

We embarked at Suez, having with us the Harem of the Egyptian Pasha, who were going to the Holy City to perform their pilgrimage, and to greet their lord on his triumphant return from the Wahabee war.

We sailed. The vessel in which I was embarked upset in a squall, and was nigh to foundering; several lives were lost, and I myself narrowly escaped, with the loss of all that I possessed except my papers.

We arrived at Jedda. I was so ill from a combination of sufferings, as to be obliged to be carried on shore in a litter. The project which I had entertained of going to Mecca from hence was defeated by the necessity of making myself known, or dying of

want.

The Suffenut-ul-Russool, a ship under English colours, arrived from India. I was taken on board her at the request of her humane commander, Captain Boog, and through his kind and friendly attentions I recovered rapidly. Mr. Burckhardt, who was then at Mecca on pilgrimage, and to whom I sent a messenger, came down to see me, and remained with me for several days. Besides the consolations of his valuable society, I received from him the warmest and most unequivocal proofs of his friendship. He left us, and I heard from him again by a letter which he had written to me from Medina.

We prosecuted our voyage to India, and arrived at Bombay'; the only benefit I had yet reaped from it being the collection of

materials for a more accurate chart of the Red Sea than any now in use.

After a stay of some months in India, I returned again to Egypt by the same channel, in company with Mr. Babington, a fellow-voyager, to whom I owe more than any public testimony or private acknowledgment can ever repay. Previous to our leaving India, we had furnished ourselves with all the books to be procured, that would in any way illustrate the track we were about to pursue. The liberality of my friends, who were lovers of science and promoters of useful knowledge in every department, enabled me to furnish myself again with instruments for surveying; and the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea offered us a fine field for commentary and correction.

We quitted India in one of the East India Company's ships of As it was the tempestuous monsoon, it obliged us to make the southern passage, by which means we saw a great deal of the eastern coast of Africa, from Azania and Adel to the Bay of Zeyla, and I had before traced the shores of Yemen from Bab-elMandeb to Dosar. Positions were established, views of remarkable lands taken, hydrographical errors corrected, and much light thrown on the learned disquisitions of Vincent upon the work which he had so laboriously illustrated.

We landed at Mokha, and from thence our passage up the Red Sea was altogether made in native vessels. This gave us opportunities of surveying, which could not otherwise have been enjoyed, with the advantage of touching at every port and creek in our way from Bab-el-Mandeb to Suez.

The voyage from India had been long and tedious, occupying nearly six months; but we accumulated in it such a valuable mass of hydrographical information as was of itself an ample reward for our labours, though these were indefatigable; and in addition to this acquisition, the mineralogy and geological features of the Arabian shores had been illustrated by specimens which were thought worthy of the thanks of the Geological Society of London, to whom they were presented.