Digitale Ausgabe

There is perhaps no department of knowledge, in whichthe difference between the ancient and modern literature ismore apparent, than that, with which the work just named isconnected,—we mean the department of Voyages and Travels.The literature of travels (if we may be allowed so to speak)can scarcely be said to have had any existence in ancient days.Travelling, indeed, was then, for the most part, a difficult, andeven a dangerous business. We have only to recollect, thatthe Roman word, hostis, means stranger and enemy, and it willbe easy to believe what has now been stated. The characterof the Romans was indeed, in this respect, more exclusive thanthat of the Greeks, who, at some periods of their history, weregreat travellers. They however divided mankind into Greekand Barbarian, and although the polite Athenian made a dis-tinction between ἐχϑρὸς and παρεπίδημος, yet he acknowledgedno standard of civilization but his own. As stranger and ene-my were synonymous to the Romans, so ἀλλόφυλος is employ-ed by the Seventy to designate a Philistine, or any heathenenemy of the Jews. The difference between ancient and modern times, in regardto books of travels, is felt at once when we ask the question,Where in Greek, Roman, Egyptian, ancient Arabian, or otherancient literature, is there any work of this nature to be found?Not that there were no scientific travellers, in ancient times.We know the contrary to be true. But the result of their |540| journeys was embodied in other forms, than that of anitinerary. Solon composed no book of travels. Herodotusvisited Egypt, Syria, and Persia, for the sake of making his-torical inquiries; and the result of these he has embodied inhis history. Other ancient historians and antiquaries did thesame. Ancient philosophers, lawgivers, geographers, poets,biographers, and letter-writers, have also left us many monu-ments of their personal acquaintance with nations and countriesforeign to their own. Still there is no work, descending to usfrom antiquity, which has any near resemblance to the itinera-ries of the present time. There is, indeed, a book called the ‘Itinerary of Antonine,’drawn up by order of Antoninus Pius, the Roman emperor,which was designed to show all the great roads in the empire,and all the stations of the Roman army. In its present formthis work is very defective, having probably suffered muchin the hands of copyists. At best, too, it appears to have beenonly a kind of ‘travelling register’; amounting to little more thanan official report of military posts, and the distances betweenthem. The first work among the Arabians, which seems to ap-proach very nearly to the shape of more modern Travels, ap-pears to be that composed by Abdollatif, about the year 1200.Before this time, geographical works, the result of travels andobservations, had been composed by Arabian authors. Suchwas that of Ibn Haukal, who wrote, in the latter half of thetenth century, a kind of universal geography. A similar workwas composed by Edrisi, in the twelfth century. But Abdolla-tif visited Egypt in person, resided there for a length of time,and, during his abode in that country, composed ‘Histories andprofitable Remarks on things which he had seen in Egypt,and on the occurrences which he had there witnessed.’The work contains valuable observations on the physicalcondition of that country, and of its inhabitants, and also re-specting its antiquities. It has been translated into Latin byProfessor White of Oxford, and into German by ProfessorWahl of Halle. Many other geographers and historians, of particular coun-tries, appeared in the Arabic not long after the time of Abdol-latif; but none of them, for some time, came so near as he,to the modern method of writing travels. Something of the same feeling, which roused the nations of |541| Europe to vie with each other, in the toils and sufferings ofthe crusades, appears to have given birth to the literature oftravels, in its more appropriate shape. The superstition whichhad, for a long time, attached such high estimation and rever-ence to the relics, which were said to have come from theHoly Land, and which were borne in solemn processionthrough all the great cities and large towns of Europe, as ob-jects entitled to a species of adoration; this same superstitionwould, of course, regard Palestine itself as an object of themost intense interest, and would create an ardent desire togain all the knowledge respecting it, which could be had. Itwas to gratify this curiosity, that some of the pilgrims to theHoly Land, who belonged to the company that made the firstcrusade, undertook to describe the events which occurred dur-ing their journey, and the objects which they found in Pales-tine. Ruperti, a monk of Bergen, who marched with thearmy of Godfrey of Bouillon, was the first, we believe, whocomposed such a narration. Every successive crusade gaveoccasion to new ones, of a similar nature. Not long after theart of printing came to be in general use, books of this kindhad become so numerous, and were in so great demand, that akind of Corpus of them was published by Sigmund Feyera-bend, in one considerable volume, printed in the year 1583.As this edition was soon sold off, and as it did not comprise allthe works of the same nature which might have been included,Nicolaus Noth, of Frankfort on the Mayne, republished it withadditions, in two folio volumes, in the year 1609. This collec-tion embraced twenty-one Itineraries, beginning with that ofRuperti mentioned above, and ending with that of JohnSchwallart (Zuallart), a native of the Netherlands. A numberof these Itineraries were composed in Latin, French, and vari-ous other languages of Europe; which were all translated(some of them very poorly) into the German, and printed byNoth in this language. To the whole collection thus made,was given the name of Reissbuch des heiliges Landes, that is,‘Itinerary of the Holy Land.’ Similar to this work, in manner and spirit, is anothercollection, entitled Voyages faits principalement en Asie,dans les XII., XIII., XIV., et XV. siècles, par Benjaminde Tudèle, Jean du Plan Carpin, &c.; par Pierre Bergeron,Haag, 1735. 2 tom. folio. The greatest curiosity in this book(and it is indeed a singular production) is the famous ‘Itinerary’ |542| of Benjamin of Tudela, a Jew, and a native of the province ofNavarre. He set out on his journey in the year 1160, andtravelled by land to Constantinople. Thence he proceededthrough the countries north of the Euxine and Caspian seas,as far as Chinese Tartary. Thence he went to farther India,traversed various provinces in that region, embarked on theIndian Ocean, visited several of its islands, and thence returnedto Europe, by the way of Egypt, after an absence of thirteenyears. He died in 1173. His Itinerary was composed inHebrew, and printed in that language, first at Constantinople,in 1543; next, at Ferrara, in 1556; and lastly at Breisgau, in1583. A Latin translation of it was made by Arias Montanus,and published at Antwerp in 1575. Another Latin translationof it, with the corresponding columns of the original Hebrew, waspublished at Leyden, in small octavo, in the year 1633, byConstantine L’ Empereur, professor of Hebrew at the Univer-sity in that city. In the article devoted to Benjamin of Tudela in Rees’s Cyclo-pædia, the edition of his work published by the rabbis of Con-stantinople, is absurdly represented as containing the Latinversion of the Benedictine Montanus; while it is still moreridiculously stated, in reference to the other translation, that‘Benjamin’s book was translated by the emperor Constantine!’A pretty fair specimen this of Cyclopædia learning. About a century after L’Empereur’s edition of the work ofBenjamin (1633), it met with a most singular editor in theperson of John Philip Baratier, born at Schwabach in Nurem-berg, in 1721. He is said to have understood the Greek,Latin, German, and French languages, when he was five yearsold. At the age of nine, he could translate the Hebrew lan-guage into the Latin or French; and the Latin and Frenchinto the Hebrew. He could repeat the whole book of Psalmsin Hebrew, memoriter, at the same age; and when he wasten, he is represented as having composed a Lexicon of rareand difficult words, with curious critical remarks. At this agehe joined the University of Altdorf, and addressed a letter, inFrench, to M. Le Maître, minister of the French church atSchwabach, respecting a new edition of the Bible, in Hebrew,Chaldee, and Rabbinic; which letter is preserved in volumetwenty-sixth of the ‘Bibliothèque Germanique.’ At the age ofthirteen, he published his version of Benjamin’s Itinerary, inFrench, entitled ‘Voyages de Rabbi Benjamin,’ &c., 2 vols. |543| Amsterdam, 1734. It is allowed, by all competent judges,that he has corrected many errors of the veteran Hebraists,Montanus and L’Empereur; and besides this, he has addedmany notes and dissertations, which exhibit a high degree ofcritical skill and accuracy, and a profound and extensive knowl-edge. His notes seem to have been the first thing which de-stroyed the credit of the Rabbi’s Itinerary, showing that itwas filled with the most senseless fables, and that it aboundedin the most obvious mistakes respecting the relative distancesof places, and other things of the like nature. This was thedownfall of the book; which after having gone through threeHebrew and two Latin editions, and circulated widely overEurope, and been greatly honored and much credited amonglearned men, came to its end by the fatal attack of a child ofthirteen years of age. Sed manum de tabulâ. We must proceed on our way.We do not intend to write a Bibliotheca of Travels; certainlynot a general one; and with regard to the countries of hitherAsia, with the adjacent ones on the continents of Africaand Europe, we shall only glance at some of the Travels,which give the most credible and valuable accounts of them.These countries are connected so intimately with the writingsof classical authors, both sacred and profane, that no lover ofliterature can help feeling a deep interest in them, and a cor-responding desire to know what are the best sources fromwhich he can draw his knowledge. The work, too, which isannounced at the head of this article, naturally leads us todwell for a few moments, on those which have preceded it. Ten years after the work of Rabbi Benjamin was printed,namely, in 1558, Pierre B. du Mans published, at Paris, Les Observations de plusieurs Singularités et Choses Mémo-rables, trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie, etautres Pays Estranges.’ This author was distinguished as alearned and accurate naturalist; and his work may be consid-ered as one of the first, which bore any considerable resem-blance to the form which accounts of Travels have sinceassumed in the hands of the great masters in this branch ofscience. The principal design of the writer was to describenatural objects. Manners and customs, civil, social, and do-mestic regulations and arrangements, are merely secondarywith him, although he does not neglect them. So valuable isthis work, that Professor Paulus of Heidelburg, in his ‘Collec- |544| tion of Travels,’ has printed copious extracts from it, accom-panied with the annotations of a naturalist. The author wasmurdered in the forest of Boulogne, in 1564. In 1583, was published in Neuburg of Bavaria, LeonhartiRauwolf’s Beschreibung der Raiss [Reise] in die Morgen-länder, fürnehmlich Syriam, Judæam, Arabiam, Mesopotamiam,Babyloniam, Assyriam, Armeniam, etc. The author was aphysician by profession, and so careful and accurate an ob-server of men and manners, that his book has continued in usedown to the present time. A useful book was published in 1614, at Antwerp, by N. C.Radzivill, entitled Jerosolymitana Peregrinatio IllustrissimiPrincipis, Nicolai Christophori Radzivili. In 1619, appear-ed also at Antwerp, one of the most useful of all the old worksof this nature, and indeed, a master-piece for the time in whichit was written. It was entitled Itinerarium Hierosolymitanumet Syriacum, a Joanne Cotovico, J. V. D. et Milite Hierosoly-mitano. ‘From this work,’ says Lüdeke in his ‘History ofthe Turkish Empire,’ ‘much has been extracted by authors,without giving credit for it.’ But a greater work appeared in 1658–1663, in four volumes,quarto, by Pietro della Valle, a most learned and interestingman and author. He was a Roman nobleman, and publishedhis work in Italian. He commenced travelling in 1614, wentthrough Egypt, Turkey, Persia, India, etc., and in 1626 re-turned to Rome, where his work was composed, and printedsome thirty years afterwards. One of the first geniuses of thisage (Göthe, in the Divan) has given us a delightful sketch ofthe life of Della Valle. In the conclusion of it he says (as akind of apology for dwelling on this subject), ‘It may be properto remark, that every one is prone to give the preference tothat way, in which he has himself attained to a knowledge ofanything; and also to introduce others to it, and initiate theminto it. With this intention, have I given a particular descrip-tion of Pietro della Valle, because he was the traveller, bywhom the peculiarities of the East were first made known tome in the clearest manner; and to my partiality it appears,that by means of his representations, I first gained some groundwhich was appropriate to my Divan. I could wish this mightserve to excite others, at the present time (which abounds somuch in sheets and pamphlets), to read through a folio, bywhich they might come to a definite knowledge of an important |545| part of the world, one which in the latest books of travels issuperficially changed, but which remains essentially the sameas it appeared to our distinguished traveller, at the time whenhe worte.’ We have only to add, that Della Valle was thefirst man, in modern times, who made known the Samaritansto the European world. It was he who procured, at Damas-cus, in 1616, the first copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch thatcame to Europe. Della Valle purchased it for the Frenchconsul, De Sancy, afterwards bishop of St Malo, who present-ed it to the Fathers of the Oratory, at Paris; and there it waspublished by Morin, and became the ground-text of all suc-ceeding editions of the Samaritan Pentateuch. In 1647, appeared at Schlesswig, the Travels of A. Olearius, in German. He was a counsellor in the suite of the embassy,which Frederic the Third, duke of Schlesswig and Holstein,sent through Muscovy, to the court of Persia. His work isamong the best of those which respect the countries trav-elled by the embassy. In 1676, J. B. Tavernier, baron of Aubonne, published his Six Voyages en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes, faits pen-dant l’espace de quarante ans. These Voyages he made in thecapacity of a jewel-merchant; in which character he gainedaccess to all classes of people. His long continued intercoursewith the East gave him the best opportunities for accurate in-formation. His work has had great credit, and been oftenreprinted. In 1686, Sir John Chardin, by birth a Frenchman, publish-ed, at London, an abridged edition of his Travels; and morefully afterwards, in 1711, at Amsterdam, in three volumes quar-to, and in ten volumes duodecimo. Chardin, also, visited Per-sia and other parts of the East, in the quality of a jewel-mer-chant, and gained access to all classes of people. So great isthe worth of his work, that it has been lately republished atParis, by L. Langlès, member of the National Institute, Pro-fessor of Persian, etc., in ten volumes octavo, with maps andplates. The title is, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin, enPerse, et autres Lieux de l’Orient, etc. Descendants of SirJohn Chardin were among the French Huguenot emigrants tothis country. Laurent d’Arvieux, long conversant with the East, and formany years French consul at Aleppo, left behind him papers,at his death, which happened in 1702, that were afterwards |546| published by order of Lewis the Fourteenth, in 1717, at Paris,by M. de la Roque. His account of the Bedouin Arabs, inparticular, has been generally regarded as the best which hasbeen given. It was translated into German, and republishedin 1789, by E. F. K. Rosenmueller, at Leipzig. The largestand best edition of D’Arvieux is that published at Paris, in1735, in eight volumes octavo, entitled Mémoires du ChevalierD’Arvieux, contenant ses Voyages, &c.’ A useful work, with special reference to places named in theBible, is that of Franz Ferdinand Von Troilo, entitled Ori-entalische Reise-Beschreibung, printed at Dresden in 1677,and several times repeated. The author was four years inthe East. In 1665, was published at Paris, Relation d’un Voyagefait au Levant, etc., par. Mr de Thevenot; and in 1674 and1684, additions to the above work. Of this work, Rosenmuel-ler, the present eminent Professor of Oriental Literature atLeipzig, says, ‘The notices are altogether simple and artless,and show a good talent at observation, as well as sound judg-ment. The work deserves to be better esteemed, than it hasbeen of late.’ One of the most useful of all the Thesauri of Oriental Trav-els, is the work of Engelbert Kaempfer, Lemgo, 1712, entitled Amœnitatum Exoticarum Politico-physico-medicarum FasciculiV., quibus continentur variæ Relationes, Observationes, Descrip-tiones, etc. He was secretary to the Swedish legation in theEast, where, during a residence of ten years, he had an excel-lent opportunity to make himself acquainted with the subjecton which he has written, in its various branches. Maundrell’s ‘Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem,’ containsuseful things, in respect to both the antiquities and the geogra-phy of the sacred Scriptures. Maundrell was chaplain of theEnglish factory at Aleppo, where, of course, he enjoyed dis-tinguished opportunities for observation; but his work is onthe whole but meagre. We pass over Paul Lucas’ Voyage au Levant, 1705, moresplendid than solid; and also over a volume of Travels byNyenburg and Heyman, 1757, 1758, a work valuable, we be-lieve, for those who can use it; but existing, as yet, only inthe Dutch language. Tournefort’s Relation d’un voyageau Levant, etc., Paris, 1717, and often reprinted, is one ofthe richest works of his times, for comparative geography, andfor the science of botany. |547| One of the most important of all the books of travels,which have reference to the East, is that published by DrThomas Shaw, in 1738, with a Supplement, in 1746. It isentitled Travels or Observations relating to several Parts ofBarbary and the Levant, &c. Shaw was born at Kendall, inWestmoreland, in 1692, and was educated at the University ofOxford. At the age of twenty-seven he took orders, and wasappointed chaplain to the English factory at Algiers. Duringa residence there of twelve years, he made various excursions,for literary and scientific purposes, into Barbary, Egypt, Syria,and the Levant. He was possessed of great learning, of soundjudgment, and of the power to an uncommon degree of acuteand discriminating observation. His work is not disposed inthe usual method of a journal, but arranged systematically,according to the nature of the subjects treated. It is a richtreasure of geographical, physical, and antiquarian knowledge;most of it referring, more or less directly, to the sacred Scrip-tures. In 1733, the author returned to England; and in 1740,he was appointed Principal of Edmund Hall, at Oxford;and afterwards Regius Professor of Greek. He died in 1751.His ‘Travels’ have been often reprinted; and they deserve anew edition, at the present time, being of unspeakably morevalue than a great part of the superficial works, which pourlike a flood from the presses of the present day. The Travels of Charles Thompson, into various countriesof the East, printed in 1744; and Mr Otter’s Voyage enTurquie et en Perse, printed at Paris in 1748, are not worthyof very special notice. Of a far different character is the greatwork of Richard Pococke, published at London, 1743–1745,in three volumes folio, and entitled Observations on Egypt,Palestine, the Holy Land, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Cyprus. Pococke was a proficient in the knowledge of the classics andof antiquities; and his work has generally been regarded asone of the most important of all those which have respect tothe East. It has been often reprinted, and many editions of ithave been published in the German language. After all, how-ever, it is not so much to be relied on as the work of Shaw.The author was in the East less than half the period of timethat Shaw resided there. Pococke very often relates whatothers told him, and what he believed upon their credit; andnot unfrequently, as Michaelis has said, ‘one must distinguishbetween Pococke the eye-witness, and Pococke who heard the |548| story of others.’ And the difficulty is, that the author has writ-ten in such a way, that oftentimes this distinction is not easilymade. Pococke made some severe criticisms on the work ofShaw abovementioned; but the latter triumphantly vindicatedhimself, in the supplementary volume of 1746. Richard Po-cocke, the traveller, is not to be confounded (as he often hasbeen) with the great Orientalist, Edward Pococke, first Profes-sor of Arabic at Oxford, who resided six years at Aleppo, wasworthy of a place among the most distinguished scholars of anyage, and lived nearly a century earlier than our traveller. In 1752, the work of F. L. Norden, entitled Voyaged’Egypte et de Nubie, was printed in two volumes folio, atCopenhagen, under the patronage of Christian the Sixth, Kingof Denmark; which was translated into English, and publishedat London, 1757; and republished, in the original, by L. Lan-glès, at Paris, in 1795, in three volumes quarto, with maps,plates, copious notes, and a full index. Alexander Russell, in 1756, published The Natural His-tory of Aleppo, &c. He was a physician to the English fac-tory at Aleppo, for eleven years; and his remarks exhibit aminute and thorough knowledge of the plants, animals, climate,diseases, &c. of that oriental region. The book has been oftenprinted in England and in Germany. But the greatest naturalist, of former days, who travelled inthe East, still remains to be mentioned. This was FredericHasselquist, a pupil and friend of Linnæus. Hasselquistwas a member of the Academy of Sciences of Stockholm andUpsala, and visited Palestine, during the years 1749–1752.He died at Smyrna, on his return from that country, in 1752;and his Iter Palestinum was drawn up by Linnæus himself,from the notes of Hasselquist, and by order of the queen ofSweden. The work extends to Egypt, as well as to Palestine,and remains, to the present time, one of the most distinguishedof all the works which respect natural science, in regard to theEast. We pass by the less important productions of Ives, 1773; ofG. Mariti, 1768; and of G. Höst, 1781; for the sake of touch-ing more at large upon the noble work of C. Niebuhr, firstpublished in 1772 at Copenhagen, entitled Beschreibung vonArabien; and at Paris, in 1779, with the title, Descriptionde l’Arabie, which is one of the best editions of the work.The expedition to which Niebuhr was attached, so much re- |549| sembled that of Professors Ehrenberg and Hemprich, an ac-count of which we have proposed to give, that it will not herebe inappropriate to dwell a few moments upon it. Michaelis, of Göttingen, was really the original author of thisfamous expedition. He wrote to Count Bernstorff, one of themost intelligent and energetic of the king of Denmark’s minis-ters, and urged him to persuade the king to fit out a literaryexpedition to Arabia, for the mere purpose of promoting aknowledge of the East. Bernstorff, following the suggestionsof his friend at Göttingen, persuaded Frederic to engage in thisundertaking. Five distinguished men were nominated, for thispurpose. F. C. von Haven was to take charge of the depart-ment of languages; Peter Forskal, of natural history; C. C.Cramer, of medical science, with special regard to medicinalplants; Carsten Niebuhr, of astronomy and geography; andG. G. Baurenfeind was to superintend the drawings necessaryfor illustration. This important mission embarked at Copen-hagen, January 4th, 1761, but did not arrive at Mocha, inYemen of Arabia, until the end of December, 1762. Here,in about five months, Von Haven died; in two months more,Forskall deceased at Yerim, a village of Yemen; in anothermonth, Baurenfeind fell a sacrifice to disease, at the island ofSocotra, on his way to Bombay; and about six months afterthis, Cramer also died at Bombay. Niebuhr, thus left alone, was not discouraged from his un-dertaking. He spent ten years in the East, principally in Ara-bia, and then, on his return, published not only the work whichhas been mentioned above, but also Descriptiones Animalium,Avium, Amphibiorum, Piscium, Insectorum, Vermium, quæ initinere Orientali observavit Petrus Forskal, taken from thenotes of this skilful naturalist. To this was subjoined, from thesame source, a botanical work, Flora Egyptiaco-Arabica; both printed at Copenhagen, in 1775. Michaelis, at whose suggestion, as we have observed, thisliterary expedition had been sent out, drew up, for the sake ofassisting their inquiries, a great number of questions, pertainingto various departments of literature and science, but especiallyto philology; which were published in an octavo volume, atFrankfort on the Mayne, in 1762, and forwarded to Niebuhrby the Swedish minister; a book, which does no less honor tohis memory, than the mission itself does to Frederic the Fifth,who sent it out, and to Christian the Seventh, his successor, |550| who, after the death of Frederic, continued to support andcherish it. The fruits of this expedition have been lasting. Niebuhr hasbeen regarded, by all competent judges, as one of the mostsober, judicious, authentic, and instructive of all the travellerswhose works have appeared for the last half century. Hiswork is a kind of classic, in respect to the countries of whichit treats. The notes of his friend Forskal, are also regarded asone of the most scientific and authentic sources of naturalknowledge, in respect to the East. The later Travels into the East are so well known, thatwe shall do nothing more than advert to them, in the briefestmanner; and this, only in respect to a few of the morevaluable. Bruce’s ‘Travels in Egypt and Abyssinia’ cameout with a brilliant reputation; then declined almost to theranks of romance; and are now rising again in credit. EylesIrwin, Sonnini, C. F. Volney, W. G. Browne, G. H. Olivier,E. D. Clarke, F. A. Chateaubriand, F. J. Mayeaux, J. H.Mayr, and T. R. Joliffe, have all published works of value, theresult of their travels in the East. The most splendid work ofthis nature ever published, and which is not likely soon to havea rival, is the Description de l’Egypte, begun under Bona-parte, and completed by the present government of France. Inthe expedition to Egypt, undertaken by Napoleon, were in-cluded a large company of learned men, in various depart-ments of the arts and sciences. Their stay was short inEgypt; but, while there, they were exceedingly active, andthe result of their labors has been published in the imperialwork just designated. A commission was named by Bona-parte to superintend its publication; the members of whichwere Berthollet, Conté, Costaz, Degenettes, Fourier, Girard,Lancret, and Monge. Conté and Lancret died, during thepublication; and in their room were named Jomard and Jollois;to whom were also added Delile and Devilliers. The workconsists of nine volumes, each of the size of three folios, madeup of plates; five volumes for the antiquities; two volumesillustrative of the present state of Egypt, and two for naturalhistory. The Atlas consists of fifty sheets. The plates andatlas are accompanied with appropriate Explications desPlanches, Descriptions, and Mémoires. The whole costsabove one thousand dollars. A copy of this most magnificentwork has been presented to the library of Harvard University, |551| by one of her liberal and public-spirited alumni, of whom shecan truly boast that she has very many. A cheaper edition ofthis work (in which, we believe, the same plates have beenemployed) has been published, at Paris, since 1821, by thebookseller Mr Pancoucke. Public libraries may afford topurchase this. The text of this edition is printed in octavo,so as to be convenient for reading. Of this great work, wepropose at some future period to submit to our readers a moredetailed account. In 1803, U. J. Seezen commenced a journey to the East,and explored Syria, the Dead Sea, and parts of Arabia. Hewas murdered by the wild Arabs in 1811. The letters of thisdistinguished traveller, respecting the Jordan and the DeadSea, were published by Baron de Zach, in his MonatlichenCorrespondenz of 1808. Very distinguished works in the department with which weare now concerned, are those of James Morier, particularly,his Second Journey through Persia, &c.; of Sir W. Ouseley,Secretary to the Persian embassy, under Sir G. Ouseley; ofJ. L. Burckhardt, published after his death by the Associationfor promoting discoveries, &c. in England, and translated byGesenius into the German language. Robert Ker Porter hasalso published a very valuable work on Georgia, Persia, Arme-nia, &c. Other works by Hamilton, Legh, and M. A. Scholz,professor of theology at Bonn, deserve very respectful mention. With these brief preliminary notices of preceding works inthis department, we now proceed to that immediately beforeus. Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich were sent upon theirliterary and scientific expedition at the expense, originally, ofthe Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin; but afterwardswere supported by the King of Prussia. After the return ofthe surviving member of this expedition, Dr Ehrenberg, fromhis travels, the Academy appointed a committee of distinguish-ed members of their body, to make report of what had beenaccomplished by their literary missionaries. The members ofthis committee, were Alexander von Humboldt, and MessrsLink, Lichtenstein, Rudolphi, and Weiss. Their report wasread before the Academy, by Von Humboldt, the chairman ofthe committee, on the thirteenth of November, 1826. Itpresents a very interesting and scientific view, of what hadbeen accomplished by their mission. We proceed to lay the |552| substance of it before the public; sometimes merely translatingthe language of the Report itself; but, for the most part,following the train of thought which it presents, and investingit with our own language, but in an abridged and condensedform. The Report commences with some very just and sensibleremarks on the important influence, which the sciences haveupon each other, and the beneficial influence upon the whole,which results from the enlargement of any one of them. Thetenor of these remarks is as follows. ‘Every accession to collections of objects, for the purposes ofscience, produces an animating influence on the enlargement ofhuman knowledge. It would be a distinguished service, for thepurpose of such enlargement, if any one, by long continuance inperforming distant and dangerous journeys, should discover agreat number of new natural substances; should preserve them ingood condition, and cause them to be transported to Europe.But the merit of this service is greatly enhanced, if men, whoare sent out at the public expense, furnished with distinguishedpreparatory knowledge, and deeply penetrated with a feeling oftheir high scientific calling, exhibit themselves not only as col-lecting, with restless diligence, materials for the advancement ofscience, but at the same time, as profound and philosophic ob-servers of nature. ‘Everything which relates to a geographical distribution ofthe forms of animals and plants; to the influence which the con-dition of the soil, the height of situation, and the various grada-tions of climate, exercise over organic life, can be investigatedonly by the immediate inspection of travellers upon the spot. Thecustomary habits of animals are not less important, than theknowledge of their formation, which determines those habits. Agreat number of the nicest anatomical and physiological observa-tions, can be made only upon the spot. The geognostic knowledgeof the earth will not be really advanced, by sending specimens ofminerals, which are merely broken off in isolated pieces, with-out any principle for a guide, and without regard to the mannerin which they are grouped in particular species of rock, or theirrelative predominance, or their transition into one another, or thesequel of their respective ages. It is only the nice observer, whocan truly aid the advances of geological knowledge. A science,the essential characteristic of which is, a representation of theconnexion which exists among phenomena, and the thorough in-vestigation of the relations of heterogeneous masses of fossils, cannever be promoted, even by the most active efforts of mere col- |553| lectors without science; at least, not in any such measure as itmay be, by those who are capable of accurately observing anddescribing. Nor will it be aided by such efforts so much, in pro-portion, as the sciences of zoölogy and botany. ‘Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich, to the choice of whom thisAcademy was led by their many distinguished works that had al-ready been published, have, in the happiest manner, answered allthe demands which could be made upon them, as learned travel-lers, even in the present improved state of knowledge. Thesimple relation of what they have actually done, is the best proofof this. They have made collections, as though it had been theirsole object to make them. They have labored also for the prepa-ration, preservation, and specific naming of the objects discovered,in such a manner as, perhaps, no other travellers ever did. Thespecimens sent to the Royal Museum, filled one hundred andfourteen boxes each from twenty to thirty cubic feet in size. Thecollective number of individual plants amounts to more than forty-six thousand; and of these there are two thousand nine hundredspecies. The collective number of animals amounts to thirty-fourthousand individuals, of which there are one hundred and thirty-five species of mammalia, four hundred and thirty kinds of birds,five hundred and forty-six species of fishes and amphibia, six hun-dred kinds of annelida and crustacea, and two thousand speciesof insects. The Royal Collection of Minerals is augmentedby three hundred specimens of fossils, arranged according totheir condition and super-position, which spreads much lightover the internal formation of the earth, in remote lands, thathave not hitherto been geologically investigated. But all thesecollections of minerals, of phanerogamous and cryptogamousplants (the first class only of which comprises five or six hun-dred kinds hitherto unknown), and of the exterior forms ofanimals of all classes, especially of the lower, which have forthe most part been hitherto neglected by travellers, however im-portant they may be for the Royal Collection, and however muchthe free use of them may enlarge the boundaries and facilitatethe knowledge of natural science, still, they are all of secondaryimportance, compared with the gain which will accrue to it, fromthe publication of the observations themselves, made and arrangedby Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich. ‘An investigation of nature, in all the variety of her produc-tions, and the coöperation of her powers, was the essential objectof the expedition, of the fruits of which we now make a reportto the Academy. Travels for the purposes of geographical dis-covery, like those of Mungo Park, Burckhardt, Caillaud, andClapperton, are of a different character, and answer claims ofanother kind. By a careful separation of the different objects, |554| which both the kinds of travels have respectively in view, yourcommittee will place the subject in such a light, that a correctjudgment may be formed of what has been accomplished. Toforce one’s way into the interior of a yet unexplored country; toinvestigate the connexion of streams before unknown, or theseparation of them; to discover towns, rich in population and intrade, which are quite unlooked-for evidences of the advance ofhuman improvement, promises, by good right, a fame to the discov-erer, which is scarcely excelled by any other, that results from theexhibition of courage and resolution, Geographical expeditions(we do not refer to such as slowly and almost imperceptibly, bymeans of astronomical observations, enlarge or correct our knowl-edge of the definite situation of places and countries, but to thosewhich suddenly resolve some problem of long standing and greatcuriosity) excite, almost every where, a deep interest, whichquickly diffuses itself widely abroad; nay, popular language evenlimits the word discoveries, to the results of undertakings purelygeographical. ‘This partial view of what needs more thorough investigation,would ill become those who ought, with a lively acknowledgementof the mutual influence of the various branches of human knowl-edge upon each other, to comprehend, in one view, the knowledgeof nature and of different countries, in all its parts. Deeper inves-tigation of the internal life of plants and animals; the discovery oforganic forms, which serve, as middle links, to connect groups thatotherwise would appear remote and isolated; and an enlargedknowledge of the connexion of meteorological phenomena, or ofthe play of the ever active magnetico-electrical powers of nature;certainly do not confer less honor upon the intellect of man, asto its most strenuous exertions, than geographical discoveries; orthan the determination of relative distances, with which descrip-tive geography is concerned. A right estimation of the bold andrapid traveller, Mungo Park, would surely not tax him with afault, because his first journeys afforded no botanical or zoölogicalresults. As little ought we to demand of excursions for the sakeof mere natural science, that they should put on the splendor ofgeographical discoveries. Every class of travels has a characterappropriate to itself. The meed of praise belongs to those trav-ellers, who have accomplished what was proposed to be accom-plished. ‘We have deemed it proper to preface our report respectingthe travels of Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich, with these gen-eral considerations, in order to turn the attention of the Academyto that which distinguishes this important undertaking, supportedand encouraged by them, from other travels in Africa. The va-riety of objects on which our naturalists have bestowed their at- |555| tention, has made it necessary for the committee to speak sepa-rately of the gain, which the sciences of botany, zoölogy, com-parative anatomy, and geology, have derived from their labors.How much persevering diligence and exertion were necessary, inorder to produce such results, will appear from a historical sketchof the journey itself, and from a consideration of the many hin-drances, with which our travellers had almost incessantly to con-tend, and to which they were not unfrequently obliged to yield.’ A brief sketch of the journey itself is then subjoined by thecommittee, which is, in substance, as follows. In 1820, the Baron von Minutoli determined on undertak-ing a journey to the East, for the purpose of antiquarian re-searches. He proposed to the Royal Academy, that theyshould send out some young men of scientific acquirements,at the expense of the state, in order to accompany him. TheRoyal Council gave permission to Mr Liman, professor ofarchitecture, to attach himself to this expedition. The Acad-emy of Sciences also made a pecuniary grant, for a likepurpose, to Doctors Ehrenberg and Hemprich (naturalistsalready distinguished by their publications), which appeared tothem sufficient for their support, during one year. At Rome,by the liberality of Prince Henry of Prussia, the literary mis-sion was enlarged by the addition of Professor Scholtz, ofBonn, an orientalist of great acquisitions and of high promise.The original plan of the Baron von Minutoli was to visit Egypt,with its Oases, the Cyrenaica, Dongola, the peninsula of Si-nai, Palestine, Syria, and a part of Asia Minor; and then toreturn home by the way of Greece. The naturalists were furnished by the Academy, with briefwritten instructions; and also with a number of questions rela-tive to objects in those countries, on which they wished themto bestow special attention. At the commencement of themonth of August, the whole company, with the exception ofProfessor Liman, assembled at Trieste, and embarked onboard of two vessels, which arrived in the harbor of Alexan-dria in Egypt, in September. At this place, they obtained information respecting the prac-ticability of a journey to the Cyrenaica, which satisfied them thatno special danger would attend it. Mr Drovetti, the Frenchconsul, who had lived many years in Egypt, and had himselfvisited the Oasis of Siva, forwarded, with great readiness andobliging care, the preparations of the caravan; which consist- |556| ed of fifty-six camels, and fifty-five armed Bedouin Arabs,among whom was an Arabian Emir, or chief, and his relatives. The Baron von Minutoli had taken the precaution to obtaina firman from the Grand Seignior, and letters of recommen-dation from the Pacha of Egypt, to Halil, Bey of Derne, onwhich the company relied for the removal of all obstacles of apolitical nature. After the caravan left Alexandria, ProfessorLiman arrived, hastened on, and overtook it at Abusir.Excessive haste had made him neglect to provide necessaryclothing; and although his companions did the utmost in theirpower to accommodate him, yet his deficiency in this respectprobably contributed very much to the lamented failure ofhis health. The baseness of the free Bedouins now began daily to ex-cite warm contention among the caravan. They belonged toseveral tribes; and when the company had already advancedfar into the Libyan desert, the Hadgi Endaui declared, thathe could exercise no control over these different clans. Hisimpatience became even as great as that of the rest of thecaravan. Under these inauspicious circumstances, which renderedwatches by night necessary, the caravan attained to a point,which was only one day’s journey distant from the borders ofthe regency of Tripoli. The chief of the Bedouins declared,that he could not pass the boundaries, without the express per-mission of Halil Bey in Derne. Messengers were sent for-ward, in consequence of this, with the letters of recommenda-tion. But as the contention among the Bedouins dailyincreased, the caravan was divided, so that Von Minutoli, withthe chief of the Bedouins, and the principal interpreter, wentover Ammonium, to Kahira; and the other part of the cara-van, to which the naturalists and the artist were attached,waited the return of the messengers sent to Halil Bey. Theseparation, just described, took place at Bir el Kor. For seventeen days they waited in the desert, and no mes-senger returned. Travellers, with whom they met, informedthem that Halil Bey was in consternation at a message from acaravan in which a general (General von Minutoli) wasfound. By a still longer delay, the time, for which the camelswere hired, expired. It was then determined to go to theOasis of Siva, where they hoped to find protection againsttheir own Bedouins. They made an offer to a leader of a |557| Bedouin clan, who remained behind, of a considerable present,in case he would bring to them a favorable answer from HalilBay of Derne. But in all their hopes they were deceived. The caravantravelled, almost without intermission, five days and five nights,through the desert. At Siva, the chiefs, who exercised su-preme authority over the Oasis, denounced the travellers asspies, and threatened to shoot them, if they passed over cer-tain designated boundaries. On their return to Alexandria, inconsequence of the cold and the fatigues of the journey, Pro-fessor Liman and William Söllner, one of the aids of thenaturalists, were taken sick. Both, however, reached Alexan-dria, but fell a sacrifice there, in the beginning of December,to the strenuous efforts which they had made. The orientalist, Professor Scholtz, separated from the com-pany at Kahira, and directed his way toward Palestine. After their arrival at Alexandria, Messrs Ehrenberg andHemprich followed closely the plan of journeying, which hadbeen before marked out. In March they made an excursioninto the province of Fayoum. Here their progress was inter-rupted, by a nervous fever which seized Dr Ehrenberg, andlasted three months; which time they spent under a tent atthe foot of the great pyramid in Sakhara. Nothing but themost assiduous care of his companion saved the life of DrEhrenberg. Near the end of July, the travellers moved forward againthrough Fayoum. This journey proved more prolific for thedepartment of entomology than any other. At the Sea ofMœris they lost another of their aids, F. Kreysel, by a dysen-tery, which came on in consequence of a cold caught duringan excursion upon the lake. The money, which the Academy of Sciences had suppliedfrom their own resources, was now all expended, and the jour-ney would have ended here, if the wish of the Academy hadnot been seconded, in the most energetic manner, by the min-ister of state, Baron von Altenstein. Our travellers came toa determination, indulging the well grounded hope that theymight discover new forms of physical bodies in the southernregions, to follow on in the train of Mohammed Ali’s victoriousarmy. Between August, 1821, and February, 1823, they hadadvanced through Nubia to Dongola. All the expectations,which could be excited by countries never before investigated |558| by naturalists, were here most happily fulfilled. Ehrenbergand Hemprich advanced through Nubia even into the desertnear Embukol and Corti, which separates Sennaar, Cordofan,and Dongola. The exhaustion of their pecuniary means, andthe wish to transport, in safety, the natural objects, which theyhad already collected, occasioned our travellers here to sepa-rate from each other. Dr Hemprich went forward with thecollections to Alexandria, where, instead of the money whichhe looked for, he found orders to return. Dr Ehrenberg,who had remained at Dongola, speedily left that country,which was now thrown into great confusion, by a revolution,and by the assassination of Ismael Pacha. The intermittentfever of the tropics had greatly injured his health. On this journey, the Italian, Vincenzo, was drowned in theNile, and the interpreter, Ibrahim, died of the plague. Our travellers were now forced to sell their camels and ef-fects in Egypt. But while they were making preparation fortheir return according to orders, the joyful intelligence came,that the government had agreed to make considerable advancesof money, to enable them to continue their undertaking. Inorder that they might employ the time in a profitable manner,until pecuniary supplies should be received, they determined tovisit the Gulf of Suez, the cliffs of Sinai, and the islandsalong the coast of Akaba, as far as Moile. This excursionlasted nine months, namely, from May, 1823, to March, 1824.Dr Hemprich first returned with the collections they had madeon the peninsula, to Alexandria, where he found only halfthe sum of money which they expected. Dr Ehrenbergstayed five months longer at Tor; but in a very perplexingcondition, suffering even for the necessaries of life. The plan, which had been before concerted, for the travel-lers to embark on board a vessel at Tor and sail to Abyssinia,was now necessarily abandoned. It was only after Dr Ehren-berg’s return to Alexandria, that the darkness, which broodedover the arrival of the funds granted by the Prussian govern-ment, was dissipated. The sad intelligence arrived, thatthe Prussian consul at Trieste, with whom the pecuniary ad-vances in question had been deposited, had become a bank-rupt, and committed suicide. Nothing remained now, but for our travellers to procure neworders and new advances of funds. The plague was ragingin Egypt; and instead of remaining there idle, it seemed |559| to them more useful to visit Mount Lebanon, at a favorableseason of the year, which would be only a journey of ten ortwelve days, in case it were made by sea. A stay of three months, in this region, sufficed for visitingtwice the ridges of this mountain covered with snow, and fortravelling over Sanin, through Cœlosyria, to the ruins of Bal-bec, and then from Balbec, over Bischerra and the cedar-for-ests of Lebanon, to the coast of Tripoli. In the beginning of August, 1824, our travellers againreached Damietta and Alexandria. Their company now sus-tained a new loss. On their return from Syria, one of theirEuropean aids died of the intermittent fever. Happily, inthe mean time, new orders respecting their journey, and pecu-niary supplies to continue it, had already arrived. With newlyanimated courage, Messrs Ehrenberg and Hemprich imme-diately set out upon their long wished for journey to Abyssinia. The Red Sea promised them a rich booty in corals, anne-lidæ, and mollusca. The fragments, which had been savedout of Forskal’s papers, served to excite to new investigationsin those tepid waters, for the extension of the science of ich-thyology. The journey to Abyssinia was commenced, on thethirteenth of November, 1824. They proceeded, first, fromSuez to Jedda, by sea. Thence they made an excursion toMecca, in order to gain some definite knowledge of the famousbalsam-plant. Farther south, in Gumfude, in Arabia Deserta,a Turkish governor showed his gratitude to them for the med-ical aid which they had afforded him. He gave them a mili-tary escort, which would enable them, in safety, to visit theneighboring mountains of Derban. In the further prosecution of their voyage by sea, importantobjects of observation occurred, namely, the volcanic island ofrocks, Ketumbul, and another, frequented by gazelles, andnamed Farsan by its inhabitants. The last is wanting, in thechart which accompanies Lord Valentia’s Travels. From Gisan, a border-town between Arabia Felix and Ara-bia Deserta, our naturalists went to Loheia; near which theunfortunate Forskal congratulates himself on having found thegreatest treasures of Arabian plants. Farther south, theyvisited Kameran, Hauakel, and Dalac; and on the twenty-fourth of April, 1825, they arrived at the harbor of Massaua. At this place, in a southwest direction, the Abyssinian high-lands commence. This was the particular point which our |560| travellers were desirous of attaining. Dr Hemprich made an excursion to the mountains of Geelam. Dr Ehrenbergwent to the mountains of Taranta, as far as the hot springs ofEilet. On the slope of the highlands of Abyssinia, productionsof nature were collected, which, in respect to their locality, arecertainly the rarest which any European museum can boast. Unhappily, however, the promising prospects of our travel-lers were soon obscured, by new accidents. An epidemicdisease raged at Massaua, by which Niemeyer, a native ofBrunswick, and one of their aids, lost his life. All the othertravellers, except the Italian, Finzi, who had been hired as apainter, fell sick, and for a long time were in great danger.Dr Hemprich, wearied out by his laborious journey to themountains, died on the thirtieth of June; after he had, for fiveyears, given proof of most distinguished talents, and of restlessactivity, and personal energy and resolution. Dr Ehrenberg, deeply afflicted by the loss of his friend,now thought only of his return; and after ten months’ absence,he reached Alexandria, by travelling over Jedda, Cossir, andKahira. On the first of November, 1825, he embarked herefor the port of Trieste. ‘Such,’ say the committee, ‘is the general view of theregions, in which the observations of our travellers were made.In the relation which follows, respecting what was achievedby them for botany and the geography of plants, for zoölogyand comparative anatomy, for geology and mineralogy, for theknowledge of countries and nations, your committee will notseparate the labors of Ehrenberg and Hemprich; since boththese naturalists were connected by the closest ties of friend-ship, and before their journey, and during the same, expressedthe desire, that all which had been done should be attributed tothem both in common.’ The committee next proceed to a particular account of theresults of this expedition, in regard to several of the physicalsciences and some others. We must only give a very briefsummary of these particulars. |562|