which were entrusted to him by the late Duc de Chaulnes, who had engaged him to purfue the particular refearches he fuggefted. Not having had it in his power to execute this commiffion, he left the MS. at Cairo, as it might there facilitate the enquiries of fome other perfons, who had lufficient leifure and opportunity to follow his views. He only took copies of the two drawings, which have not yet been published, and which make plates XIX. XX. of this work. The letters refer to remarks contained in the papers with which he was entrusted, and of which he did not think himself juftified in taking a copy; confequently, an explanation of them will not be expected in this work. (p. 472.) This is the paper published in the "Journal de Phyfique," May, 1777, and thence in our vol. LI. p. 113; by which it appears that the Duke had been recommended to apply to Mr. Tott, who was an excellent draughtfman, and carried out with him an engineer equally skil. 'led in that art; and that Mr. Daviffon, the Duke's fecretary, had ferved Mr. Montague in the fame capacity. To penetrate into Abyffinia, to vift immenfe and interefting countries in the interior of that part of the globe which is the leaft known; to do honour to my nation by an important expedition, which an Englishman, aided by all the alliftance and by all the means that a Government can command, had recently attempted with fuccefs; in fhort, to compenfate, by a bold and glorious enterprize, for the narrow conceptions and the niggardly ideas with which the old Government of France accompanied miffions of this nature, as well as to increase the fill more niggardly means that it appropriated to their execution, was a project ever uppermolt in my mind; and I left nothing unattempted that could enfure its fuccefs. Having at my difpofal only a moderate fum, and fuch as would have been barely fufficient to make a journey through fonie parts of Europe, I followed the plan I had adopted in the other expeditions with which I had been entrufted, and which I was unwilling to relinquith; that is, I made an addition, from my own purfe, to the allowance which I received from the bands of Parfimony, which was then the ordinary attendant upon useful enterprizes. awhile the excess of liberality and profu hon covered with a fatal splendour the caprices of Luxury, or the attempts of a delufive Glory, and, not unfrequently, thofe of a most shameful Immorality.” (p. 492.) Is not the latter part of this obfervation equally applicable to the new Government? and what have been the results of discoveries fet on foot by them, if, indeed. they have fet on foot any, unless those which they have pushed by fraud and force as far as fraud and force were permitted to g? But even in this public-spirited defign our traveller failed, by the ufual villainy of the people of the country he was about to penetrate into, of which he had before his eyes cruel examples in the treacherous murder of a French phyfician and his fuite; on which account Conful Maillet broke off all communication with Nubia. He left Bulac March 21, 1778, and, in the character or drefs of a Turkish phyfician, proceeded up the Nile in a boat which he had engaged, but went no farther, than Thebes before the treachery of his interpreter obliged him to return. What (p. 405) he calls two children ftrangely muffled-up and refting on a dolphin, pl. XI. 6, are really refting on a wine-vessel in that plate; and we recollect to have seen a Tingle figure in the fame drefs. At O'd Cairo are to be feen Jofeph's granaries, if the name of grana ries can be given to a large space of ground furrounded by walls 20 feet high, and divided into forts of courts, without any roof or covering, in which is depofited the corn brought from Up per Egypt as the fifcal, and where it becomes the food of a multitude of birds, and the receptacle of their aung. The walls of this inclofure are badly conftru&ed; their appearance by no means announces an antient building; and no thing but the love of the marvellous could have attributed their ere&ton to the patriarch Jofeph." (p. 502.) "At Bouleh we met with one of thofe gales of wind from the South, which are fo famous, and at the fame time to dan gerous, in these countries. Woe to thofe who may happen to be then craffing thofe immenfe fandy folitudes with which Egypt is bordered! In repidity is of no avail; and the most valorous armies might be there overwhelmed by clouds of fand driven impetuously along by the wind, p-rifh by fuffocation, and die in defpair. The atmosphere feemed as if on fire, and yet was darkened by whirlwinds of duft. Reaumur's ther mometer mometer ftood at 77 degrees. Both are feated, with their legs across, men and animals inhaled nothing but round a table with one foot in the fcorching vapours, mixed with fine and fhape of a large circular tea-board, en burning fand. The plants were parch- which are placed the dishes, without ed up; in short, all animated Nature either table-cloth, plates, knives, or was withered." (p 511.) Speaking of forks. They put the right-hand into Carthamus, one of the most productive the dishes, from which they fuccetfively articles of culture in Egypt, where it help themfelves with their Angers, each occupies whole plains, he fays, it according to his particular taile. The "would be an important branch of left hand being defined for ablution is commerce for the new colony." (p. unclean, and must not touch their 511.) Mr. S. travelled towards Abyf food. Sometimes they collect in one finia in the character of a phyfician; difh what they have taken from each, and, being fent for to the fecond in in order to form a mefs worked up into command at Miniet, who had broken a big ball, which they convey to their his leg three days before, found it had widely extended mouth. The poultry been fet by a Copt, who had treated and the boiled meats are divided and the cafe in a manner truly curious. pulled to pieces with the hands and The patient was laid upon the ground, nails. The roaft meats are served up without either mattress, mat, or carpet, in fmall bits, cut before they are put but merely on a bed of fand. His leg on the fpit; and no where is better and thigh were extended and fixed be- roast meat eaten than in the countries tween nakes driven into the earth, of Turkey. No converfation is carried which alfo fupplied a fmall brick wal o at table; as they fit down at it only raifed on each fide in fuch mera thev lofe no time, but swallow that the fractured limb was connned in a piece of mafon-work, where it to remain till the complet of the cure. In order to promote the forma tion of the callus of the fracture, the doctor had made a fort of cement, or, and the white of eggs, which he every day applied to the leg." At Siout our traveller defcribes a number of fepulchral grottoes with large human figures and hieroglyphics in relief. (p. 525.) P. Lucas fuppofed them the habitations of the first men after the deluge; an idea which only correfponds with the form of the habitations in early ages in many parts of the world; while, on the other hand, fuch receptacles of the dead are equally common all over the world. In the character of the Nubians we difcover nothing more favourable than in other Ethiopians or Negroes. The Coptic hofpitality is curioufl deferi. bed. "One of the rich Copts of Stout infifted on giving me a dinner. The infide of his houfe was clean and convenient; every thing in it announced ealy circumstances; but women w.re to be seen there no more than in the houfe of a Moffman. The repaft was ferved up with profufion; the company drank copiously of excellent date brandy, which was handed about every moment in fmali glatles of Verice crystal. In other refpe&s the Copts take their meat in the fame manner as the Turks and Arabs. They with the greatest precipitation. They ate o men affociated for the fake of foiety, but animals collected round their food by want and voracity. The great runs down from each fide of the mouth. The ftomach emits frequent eructations, which they prolong, and render as noify as they can. He whofe hunger is fooneft appealed rifes first; and it is not confidered as unmannerly to remain alone at table if a perfon's appetite is not completely fatisfied. (p. 548.) Mr. S. could not hear, in Egypt or other parts of the Levant, of the leprofy attached to inanimate things, houfes, or garments. "Thefe difeales of inanimate thines, which ferved only to form the Jews to habits of cleanlinefs, have d fappeared in the East with the dirty people for whom they were intended." (p. 563). He faw the fame ruins, infcription, and paintings, at Echmimm (p. 57*), as Pococke defcribes at Akmim, p. 77. Authority in improper bands confamly leads to the fame abuses, and is carried to the jame excess in all countries expofed to its abfurdity and its vialence, it pursues the fame menfures. The defolating fyftem of requifitions, and particularly of arbitrary arreßs, was exercifed in Egypt with a degree of cunning and of blind fury which would bave disgraced our most boi-beaded revolutionifis, and our moßt skilful plunderers." {p_582.) Many Many of the coloffal figures carved about the temples at Dendera, and juft defcribed by Pococke (p. 87), are delineated and engraved. (p. 592.) What our traveller fays of the fleur-de-lis being found in a single infance on a fceptre among thele figures, and therefore not the arms of France, but borrowed by the Egyptians from the Syrians and Babylonians, their neighbours, who bore that fymbol, is mere revolutionary declamation; that kind of fceptre being put into the hands of David, k ng of Ifrael, in a Greek MS. of the king's library, only in compliance with the coftume of the roth century, the time when the picture was drawn, as Montfaucon obferves in his defcription of it. P. 604, he determines the wolf (Auxo), worshipped at Lycopolis, to be the modern jackall. The hippopotamus and the hear are both extinct in Egypt. (p. 6c9.) "During the night were telt fome fhocks of an earthquake at Negriade and at Tabta; and at the latter place there was, at the fame time, feen a meteor, which, from the defcription I received of it, had fome refemblance to a rainbow. It was not fo large, but it was observed to be of the fame fhape and colours. The atmosphere was ob feured by thick vapours, and the duit feattered by the wind." (p. 603.) Could this be a lunar iainbow? Redolefcence is oddly applied to fignify recovery from old age, and reftoxation to a fate of youth. (p. 612.) "There is certainly no country in the world where the foil is fo productive as in Egypt. However, when, as fome antient and modera authors have affirmed, its produce in wheat is carried to 100, 200, and even as far as 300 for one, it is extremely bevond the comFD average. On the other hand, thofe who have alerted that a me fure et corn fown in the earth produced only ten-fold, have ftapped far fhort of the truth. On this fubject I co le&ted and compared the most accurate information; and the refult was, that, one year with another, a crop of corn yields from 25 to 30 for one, and it is inportant to oblerve, that it is not here meant to count the number of grains contained in an ear produced from a ingle feed, but that I am freaking of the entire harvest of the mal- of corn that it terrifbes in a given dikria; to that each mature fown vieles a crop of from 25 to 30 meatures. In extraor dinary years, favoured by circumfiances, the land laid down in corn gives a produce of 50 for one. At Negriade I was even affured that, fix cr feven years previous to my arrival, a cultiva tor had reaped 150 times the feed fown. Bat this obfervation, fuppofing it to be correct, applying only to a folitary and particular fact, cannot be included in the general eftimate. For fome of the inhabitants had been complaining of the fcanrinefs of the crops; nevertheless, during thefe very year, which they confidered as times of dearth, the hind had produced 20 for one. tility, which had no need of exaggera tion to appear attonishing, is ftiti fofceptible of increafe. Ignorant and lazy, the Egyptian cultivator know not how to derive the greatest advantage from the most fruitful foil; and the proce's of watering, which vegetation requires in fo warm a climate, was neglected, or in great measure forgotten." (p. 618.) "This incomparable fertility Such a fer is fill more brilliant in the South thau in the North of Egyp." (p. 619) The mode of fowing the feed thinly, and the stalks arranged in the rills at a distance from each other, are rendered more produ&ive. There are no weeds; but there are flocks of birds, and fwarms of winged infes, bugs, and fleas "There is not a more fuking example of a comp ete change in the character of nations than that which has taken place among the Egyptians; fivery, and its inevitable attendent, ftupidity, have taken the place of power and greatoes. Superftitious ignorance bas fucceeded to the love of the fciences, and to the exercite of the ar's, while perfect civilization has difappear. ed, and is fupplied by brutality and favagenefs of manners." (p. 6:3) The men of Thebais are finere uncivilized than thofe of Lower Egypt. and are in every refpect more ours.. (p. 624.) "The Arabs have a peculiar mode o cure for venereal complaint, b、 dig. ging a hole in the fand, and buryng themfeives us to the neck, without at ing, and expoted to the moft inteale heat, during the whole day. In the evening only they take a little nourish ment. I have been affured that they returned to the fe fcorching fituations t 20 or 30 days in fucceffion" (p. 629) "Upon the dry and almot barica plains of Upper Egypt commonly grows the true Acacia, from the lem and branches branches of which is procured the gum Arabic." (p. 636.) "Sumiem, or iclame, has a great refemblance to the digi alis; is much cultivated in Egypt, and in feveral dift iets in the Levant; and is begun to be propagated in Italy; an i thrives very well in French Guiana, a neglected and depreciated colony, but from which France might derive great advantage and wealth." (p. 639 ) On the ruins of Thebes our travel ler is very confined. "He could only haflily admire thefe important remains of antiquity, including a few fragments of the ftatue of Memnon, the greater part of which he had no opportunity of feeing but at a distance" (p. 651), and found it expedient to return back thence; and at Luxer he has drawn fuch a colonnade as no other traveller bas. "The goats of the Saïd are very lively and active, and also very noify, being inceffantly repeating their bleatings, the found of which may be aply compared to the cries of a child " (p. 655) Did this fuggeft the tory of Plammiticus caufing children to be taught by goats; in confequence of which education they could only articulate biccos, perhaps a bleat? Sonnini has made the prodigious difcovery that the Egyptians and Jews abitained from the fleth of the hog on account of its being to subject to the measles, which, under a burning fky, might eafily degenerate into leprofy; and the grofs fuperftition of the Jews has retained an averfion in cold climates, where the hog is among the number of animals moft useful for the, fuflenance of man (p. 660).-"The Jews, a nation which bas contrived to preferve its character and cultoms in all the countries through which it is difperfed." (p. 70.) At 135 or 140 leagues from Cairo be difcontinued his route to the Southward (p. 649.) He proceeded no farther than Thebes; and, after fome difagreeable delays and adventures, reacheu Rofetta. He defcribes the flight of the p-lican as undeady; that is, it flaps its wings eight or ten times in fucceflion, then piles atfer in the air, and again flaps Its wogs, conuing this alternate motia during the courfe of its flight." (p. 693.) Does not the wild goole fly in the tame manner? Beccafigues are eafily plucked after burying them in the fand for a moment, which melts their fat (p. 702.) The conclufion of the whole is to panegyrize the happy confequences to be expected to Egypt from the courage and activity of the French, who would have formed a peaceful fettlement there, if the oppofition of their enemies had not prevented it by war, rendered far more bloody and difaftrous by the new fettlers. "The climate is far from be. ing unhealthy. With a little precaution a perfon might there hope to at tain a great age, to be exempt from every complaint, did not the disorder of the eyes appear, in a great measure, unavoidable in that country." (p. 699.) Travels in Greece by the fame author feem promifed, p. 58. The tranflator of this edition of thefe travels (notwithflanding his just and Ipirited animadverfion on that by Dr. Hunter, which, belides the Preface, ccupy 20 pages under the title of Hilaria Hunteriana, which certainly proclaim the greatest incompetency on the Do&or's part, witnefs M. Brydone, bot tor boflifs, befides other inftances of abfolute nonfente) is not himself entirely free from the introduction of feveral French phrafes; and, in p. 683, where he is oppoting wheat to barley, he probably renders ble by corn inflead of wheat. P.61,"embayed in that great bight which our charts indicate by the name of the Arabian gulf." Agroftical, p. 63, must be fought in a botanical Dictionary. Capital is a new word for a cover; "covered with a capital, pierced with holes, in the shape of a perfuming pan." (p. 159.) Colours are expreffed in the French term, as gridelin and rufous, p. 200, when it fhould feem greyish and reddish were English words competent to convey the fame idea. Iatemperature, p. 202; Roadhead, p 224; the owner re-affu❤ red me, p. 249; acquire a prodigious fize, p, 260. Thele are a few of many more inRances in which we notice too clofe an adherence to the French language; from whence we have to regret the transplantation of too many words into a language already rich and frong enough to express the fame ideas. Egypt feems to be an exhausted subjeel alter the travels of Pococke and Noreen Both went to the cataracts of the Nite, which is farther than any fuccceding traveller. The times and circomitances were lefs favourable to Son mini, who had different views from both. "The "The moft extraordinary journey on a camel across the defarts that ever I heard of was performed by a Bedouin, who was frequently pointed out to me at Cairo. In five days he travelled thence to Mecca, which is more than 500 leagues, a journey in which the caravan of, the pilgrims employs up. wards of 30." (p. 3:5.) 10. Epitome of the antient Hiftory of Perfia, extracted and tranflated from the Jehan Ara, a Perúan MS. By William Oufeley, Efq. THIS indefatigable Orientalift, whofe labours we have fo frequently had opportunities of mentioning with due praife, here deals out, from his treafury of Oriental MSS, an epitome of Perfian annals, in the original language of a native hiftorian, being the Art chapter of the fecond fection of the Tarikh Jehan Ara, containing the hiftory of the Perfian kings before Mohammedanifm, as the hera'd to announce a much larger and more interefting work, the antient annals of Iran, under the title of "Illuftrations of Perfian History and Antiquities; or, An Attempt to reconcile the antient Hiftory and Chronology of Perfia (ac cording to the Date and Traditions preferved in MSS. of that Country) with the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Records." This work will comprife, 1. an introductory effay on the ftudy of Perfian history, antiquities, and romance; 2. a defcriptive catalogue. of the MSS. which have furnished materials for it; 3. that fection of the Lob al Torgarikh which contains the antient hiftory of Perfia, from Cainmuras to Yezdijerd, given in the original Perfian, with an English translation on the oppofite pages; 4. the illuftrations, &c. in which are collected, from all the MSS. before-mentioned, the various traditions and anecdotes of each king's reign, collated with those preferved in the Old Teftament, and in the Greek and Latin writers, with chronological, general, and philological obfervations, &c.; 5. an appendix, confifting of feveral mifcellaneous articles, chronolo. gical tables, extracts from rare and antient MSS. remarks on the antiquities of Perfepolis, cxamination of Zend and Pehlavi MSS. funeral rites, fire worfhip, Manichean and Mazdakian herefies, archery and horfemanfhip of the Perfians, mulick, painting, fculpture, vestiges of Hebrew and Greek in the In p. 27, n. he promises to offer to the publick, in a Hiftory of Alexander, all the Eaftern traditions, compared with thofe of the Greek and Latin writers. 11. A Difcourfe delivered to the Military A Jociation for the Town and Diftria f Shaftesbury, on Monday, December 1798, and published at the Request of the Major and the Officers of the respectru Corps. By the Rev. W. L. Bowles. AN excellent defence of that fpirit of refiftance to the infuriate foe, whele "defperare attempts, and its mournful confequences, were prevented by the firmaefs and refolution of the country, difplayed in armed affociations. Even thote moft adverfe to measures of holti. lity in the commencement, joined in the general enthufiatm, and all England, from the Southern to the North ern Ocean, refounded with one burit of loyalty and patriotism." (pp. 5. 6.) 12. Hiftory |