Chapter XIII: Part 13

Notwithstanding these circumstances, which reflect but little honour on Mohammed Ali, Belzoni found, upon calculation, that his finances would still enable him to ascend the Nile as far as Assouan; and was about to proceed up the country when Burckhardt and Mr. Salt, who had previously discussed the point together, determined upon the removal of the colossal head of young Memnon to England, for the purpose of being presented to the British Museum; and requested our traveller, as one of the fittest persons that could be thought of, to undertake the task. The expenses Burckhardt and Mr. Salt were to defray between them. A report was, it seems, circulated even during the lifetime of Belzoni, and previous to the publication of his travels, that in this affair he was merely the paid agent of Mr. Salt (for, as a professed Mohammedan, Burckhardt did not choose to appear). This, however, was clearly not the case. The expenses incurred in the undertaking they could do no other than defray. Mr. Salt’s instructions are written, as Belzoni himself observes, in an assuming style, but nevertheless have not the air of being addressed to a paid agent. But the testimony of Sheïkh Burckhardt, which I insert in justice to the memory of an enterprising and worthy man, completely sets the matter at rest. In a letter addressed to the African Association, dated Cairo, February 20th, 1817, he says, “You will be pleased to hear that the colossal head from Thebes has at last, after many difficulties, safely arrived at Alexandria. Mr. Belzoni, who offered himself to undertake this commission, has executed it with great spirit, intelligence, and perseverance. The head is waiting now at Alexandria for a proper conveyance to Malta. Mr. Salt and myself have borne the expenses jointly; and the trouble of the undertaking has devolved upon Mr. Belzoni, whose name I wish to be mentioned, if ever ours shall, on this occasion, because he was actuated by public spirit fully as much as ourselves.”

Few things are more interesting in themselves, or less captivating in description, than a search after antiquities. Belzoni, after visiting Hermontis and Dendara, arrived at Thebes, which, from the time of Germanicus to the present moment, has excited the wonder and admiration of every traveller who has beheld it. “It is absolutely impossible,” says Belzoni, “to imagine the scene displayed, without seeing it. The most sublime ideas that can be formed from the most magnificent specimens of our present architecture would give a very incorrect picture of these ruins; for such is the difference, not only in magnitude, but in form, proportion, and construction, that even the pencil can convey but a faint idea of the whole. It appeared to me like entering a city of giants, who, after a long conflict, were all destroyed, leaving the ruins of their various temples as the only proof of their existence.”

After a brief examination of these mighty ruins, he crossed to the western bank of the Nile, where, amid the vast remains of the Memnonium, was the colossal head which he was to remove. He found it, he says, near the remains of its body and chair, with its face upwards, and apparently smiling on him at the thought of being taken to England. The implements which he had brought from Cairo were sufficiently simple: fourteen poles, eight of which were employed in making a sort of car to lay the bust on, four ropes of palm-leaves, and four rollers, without tackle of any sort. Their boat lying too far to be used as a lodging every night, they established themselves in the Memnonium, where, as the traveller remarks, they were handsomely lodged in a small hut formed of stones. Mrs. Belzoni seems, in fact, to have been as enterprising and romantic as her husband, and made no difficulty about the rudeness of their accommodation. Into a detail of his laborious exertions, or those of the Arabs in conveying the head to the Nile, I do not think it necessary to enter. It will be sufficient to state, that after incredible toil and perseverance, it was at length brought to the edge of the stream on the 12th of August, 1816.

This object being effected, he made an excursion to the sepulchral excavations in the mountain of Gornou, celebrated for the quantity of mummies which they contain. Into this vast labyrinth he entered with two Arabs and his interpreter. They were in search of a sarcophagus which was said to have been discovered by Drovetti; but, in roaming about amid the dreary passages, lost their way, which, without extraordinary good fortune, might have been the first step to losing their lives. In labouring to find a passage out, they came to a small aperture, through which the interpreter and one of the Arabs passed easily, but Belzoni, who was a very large man, found it too small. “One of the Arabs, however, succeeded, as did my interpreter; and it was then agreed,” says he, “that I and the other Arab should wait till their return. They proceeded evidently to a great distance, for the light disappeared, and only a murmuring sound from their voices could be distinguished as they went on. After a few moments I heard a loud noise, and the interpreter distinctly crying, ‘O mon Dieu! O mon Dieu! je suis perdu!’ after which a profound silence ensued. I asked my Arab whether he had ever been in that place. He replied, ‘Never.’ I could not conceive what could have happened, and thought the best plan was to return to procure help from the other Arabs. Accordingly, I told my man to show me the way out again; but, staring at me like an idiot, he said he did not know the road. I called repeatedly to the interpreter, but received no answer. I watched a long time, but no one returned, and my situation was no very pleasant one.”

At length, however, by dint of laborious perseverance, they issued into upper air; and as the sarcophagus, which they had discovered, could not at that moment be removed, our traveller conceived the design of making a small excursion into Nubia. Accordingly, he proceeded up the river to Assouan, where, after much altercation, he procured a fresh boat to carry him to the second cataract. He admired, in passing, the beautiful island of Phile, rich in the ruins of antiquity. On the next day several natives, armed with spears and shields of crocodile skins, came in boats to attack them on the river; but observing them, Mrs. Belzoni and all, to be armed with pistols, they very prudently retired. At Deir, the capital of Lower Nubia, our traveller purchased with a small looking-glass permission to continue his voyage. Previous to this, many of the people of the country had never enjoyed the gratification of contemplating the reflection of their own countenances, unless, like Polypheme, they made a mirror of the glassy stream. On arriving at Ipsambul, he saw with amazement the great rock-temple discovered by Burckhardt. He immediately conceived the design of clearing away the sand which obstructed the entrance into the temple, and made the proposal to the villagers, promising, in order to excite them to the task, a present in money; but soon found that he had at length arrived in a region where money had ceased to be omnipotent. The people stared at his piasters as they would have stared at a letter in an unknown language, and inquired who would give them any thing for such small bits of metal as those? However, he by degrees succeeded in convincing them that money possessed over civilized men, and all who came within their influence, a mysterious power which they could not resist, and thus awakened in their souls the “accursed thirst of gold.” This seemed at first to produce a good effect; but the love of money once excited, they knew not where to stop; and their avarice, which he had reckoned his best ally, soon exhausted his means, so that before he had half-completed his undertaking he was compelled to desist, and continue his voyage up the Nile to Ibrim and the first cataract.

Having gratified his curiosity with a glance at these celebrated spots, Belzoni returned to Assouan, and from thence proceeded to Thebes, where he immediately put in train the measures necessary for conveying down the river the Memnon’s head, and various other antiquities. The obstacles which were thrown in his way by the obstinacy of the natives, and the intrigues of Drovetti, and other collectors of antiquities, were numerous, and highly disgraceful to their originators. Nevertheless, on the 17th of November, 1816, he succeeded in placing the head on board of a boat, in which he set sail on the 21st for Cairo, where he arrived on the 15th of December, after a voyage of twenty-four days. All professions reckon among their members many knaves and many fools; but the antiquarians with whom Belzoni came in contact deserved, in several instances, to be sent to the galleys. His labours were, as a matter of course, depreciated by several foreigners of this cast, who absurdly misrepresented his researches. In this number must be reckoned Count Forbin, who was frightened away from Thebes by beholding the apparition of an English waiting-maid in a blue pelisse among the ruins. This gentleman, in his absurd “Travels,” represents our traveller as having employed six months in placing the colossal bust on board the boat, although he knew, or should have known, that the operation did not occupy a sixth part of that time. The origin of this contemptible fiction was the jealousy which the idea of seeing this extraordinary piece of antiquity in the possession of the English inspired. An able writer in the Quarterly Review, after animadverting in a very spirited manner upon the meanness of these proceedings, observes, “But detraction, it would appear, is not all that Mr. Belzoni has had to sustain from this irrational jealousy. M. Drovetti, French consul, has, as Count Forbin observes, two agents at Thebes,--the one a Mameluke, named Yousuf, originally a drummer in the French army; the other a Marseillese renegade of the name of Riffo, ‘small in stature, bold, enterprising, and choleric; beating the Arabs because they had neither time nor taste to understand the Provençal language.’ These persons are more than suspected of being concerned in a plot against the life of Mr. Belzoni, who was recently fired at from behind a wall, while employed in his researches among the ruins of Carnac, where these two fellows were then known to be lurking. The affair has been brought before the Consular Court at Cairo; and we trust that M. Drovetti, for the sake of his own character and that of his country, will not interfere with the judicial proceedings, nor attempt to shelter his agents from the punishment which awaits them.”

From Cairo Belzoni proceeded with the bust down the Nile to Rosetta and Alexandria; from whence, after having placed his charge in the pasha’s warehouses, he quickly returned, for the purpose of proceeding on a second voyage up the Nile. It was on this occasion that he had the good fortune to become known to Mr. Briggs, with whom he returned to Cairo. Captain Caviglia had at this period commenced his researches in the interior of the first pyramid of Ghizeh; but was about to discontinue them for lack of means, when Mr. Briggs munificently engaged to furnish funds for the purpose, in which he was seconded by Mr. Salt. It was proposed by this latter gentleman that Belzoni should join Captain Caviglia in his researches; but our traveller, with commendable ambition, preferred some undertaking in which all the credit should redound to himself; and, having left his wife at the house of a friend at Cairo, he once more ascended the Nile, accompanied by Mr. Beechey, to whom he had been introduced at Alexandria.

At Eraramoun, near Ashmouneir, Belzoni obtained intelligence that two agents of M. Drovetti were hurrying on towards Thebes, in the hope of forestalling him in the purchase of antiquities; upon which he hired two asses, and, leaving Mr. Beechey to come up slowly with the boat, hurried off by night. On reaching the ruins, after an incredibly fatiguing journey of five days, he found that, although the agents were not arrived, Mr. Salt’s neglect, in not paving the way with a handsome present, had so completely irritated the bey, that he had appropriated to the French ex-consul the very ground upon which Belzoni had commenced his excavations during his first journey. Into the details of these wretched squabbles, which it is humiliating to the lovers of art even to peruse, I shall of course not enter. Belzoni, it should be observed, was forced into them much against his feelings; for he was an educated, liberal, and high-minded man, altogether averse from low caballing and intrigue, which appear to have formed the native element of Drovetti and his congenial coadjutor, the Count de Forbin.

The most interesting transaction, perhaps, in which our traveller was anywhere engaged, was his visit to the Necropolis of Thebes, in the mountain of Gournou. This is a tract of about two miles in length, at the foot of the Libyan ridge. Every part of these rocks is scooped out into a sepulchre, which, however close it may be to other sepulchral chambers, has rarely any interior communication with them. It is impossible, as Belzoni observes, to convey by description an adequate idea of these subterraneous abodes and their inhabitants. No other sepulchres in the world resemble them. There are no excavations or mines that can be compared with those astonishing places, which, when once seen, for ever after haunt the imagination, like a glimpse of the regions beyond the grave. Few travellers see more of these catacombs than the exterior chambers, from which the dead have been removed. In the interior sepulchres the air is suffocating, and frequently causes fainting. The dust of decayed mummies, which is so fine that it quickly penetrates in vast quantities to the lungs, and causes a difficulty of respiration; the strong effluvia of decomposed bodies; the dark, dismal, lonesome nature of the place;--every thing tends to discourage the intruder. Belzoni was not, however, to be deterred. In describing the difficulties which he here encountered, he observes, “In some places there is not more than the vacancy of a foot left, which you must contrive to pass through in a creeping posture, like a snail, on pointed and keen stones that cut like glass. After getting through these passages, some of them two or three hundred yards long, you generally find a more commodious place, perhaps high enough to sit. But what a place of rest! surrounded by bodies, by heaps of mummies, in all directions, which, previous to my being accustomed to the sight, impressed me with horror. The blackness of the wall; the faint light given by the candles or torches for want of air; the different objects that surrounded me seeming to converse with each other; and the Arabs with the candles or torches in their hands, naked and covered with dust, themselves resembling living mummies,--absolutely formed a scene that cannot be described. In such a situation I found myself several times, and often returned exhausted and fainting, till at last I became inured to it, and indifferent to what I suffered except from the dust, which never failed to choke my throat and nose; and though fortunately I am destitute of the sense of smelling, I could taste that the mummies were rather unpleasant to swallow. After the exertion of entering into such a place, through a passage of fifty, a hundred, three hundred, or perhaps six hundred yards, nearly overcome, I sought a resting-place, found one, and contrived to sit; but when my weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it like a bandbox. I naturally had recourse to my hands to sustain my weight, but they found no better support; so that I sank altogether among the broken mummies, with a crash of bones, rags, and wooden cases, which raised such a dust as kept me motionless for a quarter of an hour, waiting till it subsided again. I could not move from the place, however, without increasing it, and every step I took crushed a mummy in some part or other. Once I was conducted from such a place to another resembling it, through a passage of about twenty feet in length, and no wider than that the body could be forced through. It was choked with mummies, and I could not pass without putting my face in contact with that of some decayed Egyptian; but as the passage inclined downwards, my own weight helped me on. However, I could not help being covered with bones, legs, arms, and heads, rolling from above. Thus I proceeded from one cave to another, all full of mummies, piled up in various ways, some standing, some lying, and some on their heads. The purpose of my researches was to rob the Egyptians of their papyri, of which I found a few hidden in their breasts, under their arms, and in the space above the knees, or on the legs, and covered by the numerous folds of cloth that envelop the mummy.”

Belzoni continued indefatigably making new researches both at Gournou and Carnac, but was at length put to flight by the machinations of the French, who had succeeded in gaining over to their party the bey of the province. He then resolved once more to ascend the Nile to Ipsambul, and was fortunate enough to meet with two English travellers, Captains Irby and Mangles, who were desirous of performing the same voyage. They hired a boat between them at Philo, where they celebrated the birth-day of George the Third, and setting out together in high spirits, visited the second cataract, and then returned to Ipsambul. Here the wrong-headedness and quarrelsome disposition of the Nubians considerably obstructed their labours in clearing away the entrance to the temple. But at length, having dismissed the native labourers, and undertaken the task themselves, they succeeded, and enjoyed the satisfaction of beholding one of the most perfect and beautiful rock-temples in the world.

Having completed this laborious operation, our traveller returned to his old station at Thebes, where he continued his researches in the valley of Beban el Malook. Here, among other remarkable antiquities, he discovered one relic of the ancient world, which certainly appears to rank among the most beautiful that have ever been exhumed. “It is,” says he, “a sarcophagus of the finest oriental alabaster, nine feet five inches long, and three feet seven inches wide. Its thickness is only two inches, and it is transparent when a light is placed inside it. It is minutely sculptured within and without with several hundred figures which do not exceed two inches in height, and represent, as I suppose, the whole of the funeral procession and ceremonies relating to the deceased, united with several emblems, &c. I cannot give an adequate idea of this beautiful and invaluable piece of antiquity, and can only say, that nothing has been brought into Europe from Egypt that can be compared to it. The cover was not there; it had been taken out and broken into several pieces.”

Of the tomb in which this extraordinary monument was found a model was many years afterward exhibited in London, and so exceedingly well executed was the representation, that had it not been for the crowds of visiters, one might easily have imagined one’s self in the sepulchres of the Egyptian kings. Belzoni wanted but one thing to render him one of the greatest antiquarian collectors in the world: this one thing was money. But for the lack of this, many of his most arduous and well-planned enterprises came to nothing.

From Thebes, with which he was now as familiar as he was with London, he some time after this proceeded to Cairo. He had by this time acquired quite a passion for excavations, tomb-opening, and all those other pursuits by which travellers aim at diving into the mysteries of Egyptian manners and arts; and reflecting upon the success of Captain Caviglia in descending into the well of the Great Pyramid, the project of attempting the opening of the second occurred to him. It were beside my purpose to describe the difficulties which he encountered and overcame in the execution of this design. His labours were incessant; his expenses considerable; but, at length, after success had frequently appeared hopeless, the entrance to the interior chambers was found. “After thirty days’ exertion,” says he, “I had the pleasure of finding myself in the way to the central chamber of one of the two great pyramids of Egypt, which have long been the admiration of beholders!”

This object having been happily effected, Belzoni again set out for Thebes. There he was made acquainted with the history of a pretended discovery, which became a motive for a journey to the coast of the Red Sea. The history of this expedition is given in a very few words by a writer in the Quarterly Review whom I have already cited. “A French mineralogist, of the name of Caillaud, had accompanied some Arab soldiers sent by the pasha of Egypt in search of emeralds among the mountains between the Nile and the Red Sea. On their return, this person gave out (as we learn from an intelligent correspondent in the Malta Gazette) that in this expedition he had discovered the ancient city of the Ptolemies, the celebrated Bernicé, the great emporium of Europe and the Indies, of which he gave a magnificent description. Mr. Belzoni, doubtful of the accuracy of the story, set out from Edfoo, with one of the former party, to visit the supposed Bernicé; where, instead of the ruins of 800 houses and three temples, as stated by M. Caillaud, he could find no more than eighty-seven scattered houses, or rather cells; the greater number of which did not exceed _ten feet square_, built with unhewn stones, and without cement; and the only appearance of a temple was a niche in a rock, without inscription or sculpture of any kind; there was no land for cultivation, nor any water within twenty-four miles; no communication with the sea but by a rough road over the mountains of twenty-four miles; and the shore was so covered with projecting rocks for twenty or thirty miles on each side, that there was no security even for the smallest boats, much less for ships trading to India. These, therefore, he was quite certain, could not be the remains of Bernicé.

As, however, the site of this celebrated city had been fully described by the ancient writers, Mr. Belzoni determined to prosecute his researches; and at the end of twenty days he discovered, close to the shore, the extensive ruins of an ancient city near the Cape Lepte Extrema, the Ras el Auf of the present day; the projection of which forms an ample bay (now named Foul Bay), having at the bottom an excellent harbour for vessels of small burden. These ruins, which are beyond dispute those of the celebrated emporium founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, were four days’ journey from the rude cells of the quarrymen or miners, which M. Caillaud is stated to have so strangely mistaken for the magnificent vestiges of the ancient Bernicé. Several wells of bitter water were found among the ruins; and between them and the mountains was an extensive plain fit for cultivation. The remains of more than 3000 houses were counted, about the centre of which were those of a temple with sculptured figures and hieroglyphics.”

Having made this discovery, he again returned to the valley of the Nile, where he was for some time occupied in the removal of various antiquities. He then descended to the seacoast, and on the 20th of April, 1819, set out from Rosetta, on an excursion to the district of Fayoum, and the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon. After roaming about the shores of Lake Mœris for some time, for he had no leisure for making researches, he visited the ruins of Arconde, consisting of a few granite columns and fragments and mounds of burnt bricks. He then prepared to cross the desert to the Oasis, which was an affair of some difficulty. Nevertheless, he at length succeeded in completing his preparations, and commenced his journey, accompanied by a Bedouin guide, and three or four other persons. Even here, in the desert, ruins of Egyptian edifices, beautifully sculptured with hieroglyphics, were found. The scene at first lay among low rocks, sandy hills, and barren valleys, which were gradually exchanged for a plain of sand, as level as the sea, and thickly strewed with brown and black pebbles. They continued during five days their journey over this dreary waste, at the end of which time they perceived the rocks of the Oasis, and beheld two crows coming, as it were, to meet them. In the afternoon they entered the valley, which is surrounded by high rocks, and forms in the midst a spacious plain, about twelve or fourteen miles long, and about six in breadth. “There is only a very small portion of the valley cultivated on the opposite side to that which we reached, and it can only be distinguished by the woods of palm-trees which cover it. The rest of the valley is wholly covered with tracts of sand, but it is evidently seen it has once been cultivated everywhere. Many tracts of land are of a clayey substance, which could be brought into use even now. There are several small hills scattered about, some with a natural spring at the top, and covered with rushes and small plants. We advanced towards a forest of date-trees, and before evening we reached within a mile of a village named Zaboo, all of us exceedingly thirsty: here we observed some cultivation, several beds of rice and some sunt-trees, &c. Before the camels arrived, they scented the water at a distance; and as they had not drank since they left Rejan, they set off at full gallop, and did not stop till they reached a rivulet, which was quite sweet, although the soil was almost impregnated with salt. I observed here a great many wild birds, particularly wild ducks, in greater abundance than any other.”

The first man who perceived them after their entrance into the valley evinced a disposition to shoot Belzoni; but, upon the explanation of the Bedouin guide, consented to conduct them to the village. “We advanced,” says our traveller, “and entered a lane between these plants; and as we penetrated farther, we entered a most beautiful place, full of dates, intermixed with other trees, some in blossom and others in fruit: these were apricots, figs, almonds, plums, and some grapes. The apricots were in greater abundance than the rest, and the figs were very fine. The soil was covered with verdure of grass and rice, and the whole formed a most pleasing recess, particularly after the barren scenes of the desert.”

His reception at this village was equivocal: there being several sheïkhs, each of whom made pretensions to authority. Some were disposed to treat him kindly, while others, more morose, kept at a distance; but a few cups of coffee, judiciously distributed, and followed by a sheep boiled in rice, reconciled the whole; although they next morning, when they were again hungry, relapsed into their former rude manners. Like all other ignorant people, they supposed that he must necessarily be in search of treasure, and for some time refused to conduct him to the ruins of which he was in search; but upon being assured that whatever treasures might be discovered should fall to their share, while all he stipulated for were a few stones, they consented to accompany him. The ruins, which, with much probability, he concluded to be those of the temple of Jupiter Ammon, now served, he found, as a basement for nearly a whole village, in the vicinity of which he discovered the famous “Fountain of the Sun,” which is warm at midnight and cold at noon. This is a well of sixty feet deep by eight square, which, overflowing in a considerable rivulet, serves to irrigate some cultivated lands. All around it is a grove of palm and other trees. The temperature of the water, however, continues at all times the same; all its apparent changes being accounted for by the greater or less degree of heat in the atmosphere.

From this excursion Belzoni returned to Egypt, from whence he embarked for Europe about the middle of September, 1819. After an absence of twenty years he returned to his family; whence he departed for England, where he completed and published his travels. A few years afterward this enterprising and able traveller fell in an attempt to penetrate into the interior of Africa.

DOMINIQUE VIVANT DENON.

Born 1754.--Died 1825

This traveller was born at Givry, near Chalons-sur-Soane, in Burgundy. He was descended from a noble family, and commenced his career in life as a royal page. When he had for some time served in the palace in this capacity, he was nominated gentleman in ordinary to the king; not long after which he obtained the office of secretary to an embassy. In this capacity he accompanied the Baron de Talleyrand, ambassador of France to Naples, where, during the absence of the ambassador, he remained _chargé des affaires_. At the epoch of the emigration he incurred the displeasure of Queen Marie Caroline, and in consequence removed to Venice, where he was known under the name of the Chevalier Denon, and became one of the most distinguished members of the society of Madame Albrizzi. This lady has sketched his portrait in her _Ritratti_. After having spoken in a highly laudatory strain of his passion for knowledge, his intrepidity in danger, the constant gayety of his mind, the fertility of his imagination, the versatility of his character, his irresistible inclination to drollery, she adds, “He is generally supposed to resemble Voltaire. For my own part, I would admit that in his physiognomy you may discover that of Voltaire, but in the physiognomy of Voltaire you would look in vain for that of Denon. That which, in my opinion, they possess in common, is simply an indication of sprightliness, vivacity, versatility, and a certain sarcastic air in the look and smile, which amuses while it terrifies; but the physiognomy of Voltaire indicates none of those qualities which characterize the soul of Denon.”

During his stay in Italy, Denon diligently applied himself to the art of design, in which, as was afterward seen, he acquired a remarkable facility and power. On the breaking out of the revolution he adopted its principles, and even connected himself with the most furious jacobins, with the intention, it has been said, of snatching a few victims from their fangs. But, notwithstanding all this, he would probably have sunk into that oblivion which has already devoured the memory of so many actors in those sanguinary times, had not the Egyptian expedition placed him in an advantageous position before the world. He had all his life, he says, been desirous of travelling in Egypt, and easily obtained the consent of Napoleon to accompany him. Embarking at Marseilles on the 14th of May, 1799, he sailed along the shores of Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Malta, where he landed and made some stay, and then proceeded to Egypt. Having had the good fortune to escape the English fleet in a fog, he landed near Alexandria with the French troops, of whose movements I shall take no further notice, except in as far as they may be connected with the actions of Denon.

It has been truly remarked by Volney, that on arriving any foreign country, how many descriptions soever you may have read of it, you nevertheless find every thing new and strange; as if, in fact, you had just discovered it. Denon was precisely in this predicament. He had, no doubt, read what had been written respecting Egypt; yet he looked upon it as a country of which little beyond the name was known in Europe, and consequently commenced the study of its antiquities with all possible enthusiasm. His views, though vanity had some influence in the formation of them, were tolerably correct. Egypt has indeed been often visited, and in many instances by able men and accomplished scholars; but no one who has toiled, as I have, through the descriptions of these various travellers, can avoid making the discovery that very much remains yet to be done before we can be said to possess a thorough knowledge of Egypt, ancient or modern.

From Alexandria Denon proceeded with Kleber’s division towards Rosetta; clouds of Arabs hung on their front and in their rear, cutting off every man who lagged behind, or strayed to the distance of fifty yards from the main body. Desaix himself narrowly escaped; and several young officers, less on the alert, were either made prisoners or shot. After making numerous little excursions in the Delta, he set out for Upper Egypt, which, in his opinion, had never before been visited by a European; so that, if we interpret him literally, all the travellers who had previously described that country were so many fiction-mongers. In ascending the Nile, he beheld at ten leagues’ distance from Cairo the points of the Pyramids piercing the horizon. These prodigious monuments, which, even more powerfully than Thebes itself, command the attention of every traveller in Egypt, he soon visited with an escort, and sketched from various positions. The city of Cairo disappointed his expectations, which appear to have been absurd, since he had formed his ideas of the place from the “Arabian Nights,” rather than from the descriptions of travellers.

The population of Cairo, which, though far less numerous than is commonly supposed, is still very great, saw with disgust and horror the triumph of the Franks; who, they feared, might soon introduce among them the eating of the “unclean beast,” abhorred by Jews and Mussulmans, with drinking, gambling, and other accomplishments which Mohammed had prohibited to his followers. They therefore determined to shake off the yoke which they had too tamely suffered to be placed on their necks. Rushing fiercely to arms, they attacked their invaders with fury. The house which had been appropriated to the learned men who accompanied the expedition stood apart from the city, and was surrounded by gardens. Here they were collected together when the revolt began. The report of musketry and symptoms of increasing consternation soon informed them, however, of what was going forward in the more populous quarters, and their alarm was proportioned to the solitude by which they were surrounded. Presently a report reached them that the house of General Caffarelli had been sacked and pillaged, and that several members of the commission of arts had perished. They now reviewed their numbers, and four of the party were missing. In an hour after this it was ascertained that they had been massacred. Meanwhile no one could give any account of Napoleon; night was coming on; the firing continued; shouts and clamours filled the air; and it was evident that the insurrection was general. A tremendous carnage had already taken place, but the inhabitants still held out, having in one half of the city adopted that barricading system in which they were recently imitated by the people of Paris; and in others, taken refuge, to the number of four thousand, in a spacious mosque, from whence they repulsed two companies of grenadiers. Night produced a pause in the struggle. At the commencement of the insurrection the literati had been granted a guard, but about midnight the exigences of the moment caused this to be withdrawn; when they themselves took arms, and, though every man was disposed to command and none to obey, prepared to receive the insurgents. Thus the night passed away in confusion and slaughter, and in the morning the French were again masters of the city.

It must be acknowledged, to the honour of the French, that, whatever their conduct in Egypt may have been in other respects, nothing could be more constant than their ardour for the sciences. In the midst of battles, revolts, and dangers of every kind, their researches were still continued. We accordingly find Denon, just escaped from becoming a mummy himself, busily engaged in dissecting an ibis, five hundred mummies of which bird had just been discovered in the caverns of Saccara. He next witnessed an exhibition of the achievements of the Psylli; but his incredulity and self-sufficiency disinclined him from making any serious inquiries on the subject of their power over serpents, which he was contented with turning into ridicule: an unfortunate propensity for a traveller, who should abandon all such absurd displays of littleness to the wits of the metropolis.

Shortly after this Denon accompanied General Desaix on an expedition into Upper Egypt. The Mamelukes, though forced to retire, still continued to make head against their enemies, who, if they triumphed over them through the effects of discipline, were assuredly neither more brave nor more enterprising. When they drew near the place where the Mamelukes under Murad Bey were reported to be encamped, Desaix was informed that Murad was already putting himself in motion to attack him. The French general, no less chivalrous than Murad, determined at once to anticipate the attack. Both armies came in sight of each other in the evening. It was too late for battle. The victory which both parties promised themselves was deferred until the morrow. In the Mameluke camp the night was spent in rejoicings; and their sentinels approached, with laughter and insult, the advanced posts of the French. The battle commenced with the dawn. Murad, at the head of his redoubtable Mamelukes and eight or ten thousand Arabs, appeared ready for the attack. The French formed with rapidity, and the combat commenced. Never, on any occasion, was more impetuous bravery displayed than by Murad and his Mamelukes on this day. Finding that the chances of battle were turning against them, their habitual courage degenerated into fury: they galloped up, reckless of danger, to the ranks of their enemies, and endeavoured to open themselves a way through the bayonets and muskets of the French, which they attempted to hew in pieces with their sabres. Failing in this, they made their horses rear and plunge into the opposing lines, or backed them against the bayonets, in the hope of breaking and dispersing them. When this desperate measure also deceived their hopes, they lost all government of their rage, and in the madness of their despair, threw their muskets, pistols, and blunderbusses at the enemy; or, if dismounted, crept along the ground, beneath the bayonets, to cut at the legs of the soldiers. It was in this fight that an instance of ferocity on both sides, unsurpassed by any thing of the kind recorded in history, occurred: a French soldier and a Mameluke, engaged in mortal struggle on the ground, were discovered by an officer, just as the Frenchman was cutting the throat of his enemy. “How can you be guilty of so horrible an action,” said the officer, “in the state in which you are?” The soldier replied, “You talk very finely, at your ease, sir; for my own part, however, I have but a moment to live, and I mean to enjoy it!” The Mamelukes retired, but they did not fly; and it cost the French torrents of blood before the victory was completed.

This victory caused Desaix to return once more to Cairo for a reinforcement, after which the journey towards the south was resumed. At Miniel Guidi, while Denon was sitting beside the general in the shade, a criminal, who had been caught in stealing the muskets from the volunteers, was brought up for judgment. It was a boy not more than twelve years of age, beautiful as an angel, but bleeding from a large sabre wound which he had received in his arm. He paid no attention to his wound, but presented himself with an ingenuous and confident air before the general, whom he soon discovered to be his judge. How great is the power of unaffected grace! The anger of every person present immediately disappeared. He was first questioned respecting the person who had instigated the crime. “No one,” he replied. The question was repeated under another form: he answered that “he did not know--the powerful--the Almighty.”--“Have you any relations?”--“Only a mother, very poor, and blind.” He was then informed, that if he confessed who had sent him nothing would be done to him; whereas certain punishment would ensue upon his concealing the truth. “I have told you,” he said, “I was sent by no one; God alone inspired me!” Then placing his cap at the feet of the general, he continued, “Behold my head, command it to be struck off.”--“Poor fellow!” exclaimed Desaix, “let him be dismissed.” He was led away, and divining his fate from the looks of the general, he departed with a smile.

Here they enjoyed the unusual pleasure of a shower of rain. On visiting the ruins of Oxyrinchus, Denon suffered one of the penalties attached to a hopeless creed; beholding around him nothing but desolation and sterility, a thousand melancholy ideas glided into his mind; he saw the desert encroaching upon the cultivated soil, as the domain of death encroaches upon life; the tombs in the pathless waste seemed the emblems of death and annihilation. The gayety described by Signora Albrizzi had now fled. He thought himself alone, and felt all that awful solitude inspired by a want of faith in the spiritual nature of man, that faith which sheds around us, wherever we move, a light by which we discern the links that unite us to our Creator, and to every thing noble and immortal in the works of his hands. He was not, however, alone. Desaix had wandered to the same spot, and having apparently yielded, like himself, to the fatal error of the times, experienced the same sensations, and was oppressed by the same gloom.

They shortly afterward set out together, escorted by three hundred men, on an excursion to the ruins of Hermopolis; which, being the first monument of ancient Egyptian architecture that he beheld, the Pyramids excepted, became in his mind the type of that sublime style. Notwithstanding the number of his escort, Denon soon found that, although arms might indeed open him a way to places which had hitherto been inaccessible to travellers, other circumstances, over which neither himself nor Desaix could exercise any control, prevented him from maturely studying what he beheld. A few hours satisfied the curiosity of the general, and overwhelmed the soldiers, who felt no curiosity about the matter, with fatigue. It was therefore necessary to be contented with a few fugitive glances, as it were, with a few sketches hastily made, and the hope of returning again under more favourable auspices.

On approaching Tentyris Denon ventured, he says, to propose that the army should halt there. Desaix, though no less sensible than himself of the charms of these antique ruins, had his mind filled with other cares, and met the proposal with anger. Passion, however, could possess but a momentary influence over that beautiful mind; shortly afterward he sought out the enthusiastic traveller, in whose company he visited Denderah, and admired the sublimity of its ponderous architecture. In the evening, Latournerie, a young officer remarkable for his courage and the delicacy of his taste, observed to Denon, “Ever since I have arrived in Egypt, continual disappointment has made me ill and melancholy. The sight of Denderah has revived me. What I have seen this day has repaid me for all my fatigues; and whatever may be the fate to which the present expedition shall lead me, the remembrance of this day will cause me to rejoice, as long as I live, that I was engaged in it.”

Two days after this, on turning the point of a chain of mountains, the army came in sight of the ruins of Thebes. Denon loved above all things to be original. In approaching the wreck of this mighty city, Homer’s phrase, “Thebes with its hundred gates,” occurred to him; he repeated it, and then descanted upon its poetical vanity, and the folly of those who harped upon this string. As soon as the army came in sight of these gigantic ruins, the whole body stopped spontaneously as one man, and clapped their hands with admiration and delight. The conquest of Egypt appeared to be complete. Our traveller, who rivalled Dr. Syntax himself in his love of the picturesque, immediately set about sketching the view, as if it had been merely a city of vapour, like that which appears under the name of the “Palace of the Rajah Harchund,” in the desert of Ajmere. Being desirous of beholding at once all the wonders of this stupendous city, he quickly visited those colossal statues which are found in a sitting posture in the neighbouring plain, which he supposed to be those of the mother and son of Ossymandyas.

From Thebes he proceeded with General Belliard to Syene, while Desaix struck off into the desert in search of a detachment of Mamelukes. Here he resided for some time, making the island of Elephantina his country-house, and Syene his head-quarters. He visited the cataracts, the island of Phile, and made drawings of whatever was striking or remarkable in the vicinity. After a considerable stay, he returned towards the north, where he bade adieu to his friend Desaix, never to meet again. He afterward made a second excursion to Thebes, Denderah, and other celebrated spots; and experienced, during one of these rambles, the effects of the Khamsyn wind, variously described by travellers, according to the variety of their temperaments. It was about the middle of May, the heat was almost intolerable, a complete stagnation seemed to have taken place in the air. “At the very moment,” he says, “when to remove the painful sensation occasioned by such a state of the atmosphere, I was hastening to bathe in the Nile, all nature seemed to have put on a new aspect: the light and colours were such as I had never seen before; the sun, without being concealed, had lost its rays; become dimmer than the moon, it yielded but a pale light, diffused around every object without shadows; the water no longer reflected its rays, and appeared troubled: the aspect of every thing was changed; it was the earth which now appeared luminous, while the air was dim, and seemed opaque; the trees, beheld through a yellow horizon, wore a dirty blue colour; a long column of birds swept before the cloud; the terrified animals wandered wild through the plain, and the peasants, who pursued them with shouts, failed to collect them together. The wind, which had raised this prodigious mass of sand, and transported it along through the atmosphere, had not yet reached us, and we hoped, by entering into the water, to escape from its effects. But we had scarcely stepped into the river before its waves were lifted up by the hurricane, dashed over our heads, and carried in an instantaneous inundation over the plain. The bed of the Nile seemed shaken under our feet, and its banks with our garments appeared to have been blown away. We hurried out of the water, the dust fell upon us like rain, we were immediately covered as with a crust. Too much terrified even to put on our garments, we crept along through a reddish, insufficient light, partly guiding our steps by the walls, until at length we found refuge in our lodgings.”

Denon, who really possessed all the genuine enthusiasm of a traveller, shortly after this undertook a journey to Cosseir on the Red Sea, where he enjoyed an opportunity of beholding the manners of the Arabs under less disadvantages than in the valley of the Nile. He then returned again to Thebes, where he visited the sepulchres of Gournon, and descending the Nile to the seacoast, embarked with Napoleon on board a frigate, and sailed for France. The ship, fearful of encountering the English, coasted along the shores of Africa, as far as the Gulf of Carthage and Biserta; then, after passing close to Sardinia, and touching at Corsica, arrived safe on the coast of Provence.

On his return to France, Napoleon, of whom he was a devoted admirer, and in whose praise he was frequently guilty of adulation, conferred upon him the office of superintendent of museums and the striking of medals. The triumphal column in the Place Vendôme was erected under his direction. On the fall of Napoleon, the king, who was not ignorant of the merits of Denon, continued him in his offices; but as on the reappearance of Napoleon in 1815 he returned to his allegiance to his first sovereign, he naturally sank with him upon his final fall. In his place of superintendent of the medal mint he was succeeded by M. de Puymaurin and by the Comte de Farbin, as director-general of museums. Denon enjoyed the reputation, however, of being the most competent person in Paris for filling the offices of which he had been deprived. Remarking upon those changes, “It would be difficult,” says the Quarterly Review, “to discover on what grounds an old and meritorious servant, who, like Denon, had distinguished himself by his knowledge of antiquities, by his taste and execution in the fine arts, and by his zeal for their promotion among his countrymen, was dismissed to make room for the present Apollo of the Museum, who has not the good fortune to be gifted with science, art, or taste, or even with the semblance of zeal or respect for any of them.” Denon died in 1827, leaving behind him an extensive and well-merited reputation, which is likely long to survive. His travels have been translated into English, and are still highly esteemed.

REGINALD HEBER.

Born 1783.--Died 1826.

Reginald Heber, equally distinguished for his talents and for his piety, was born on the 21st of April, 1783, at Malpas, in the county of Chester. From his earliest years religion was the predominant feeling of his mind. His passions, which would seem to have been naturally ardent, he quickly learned to hold in subjection; and was thus happily delivered from those stormy agitations and poignant regrets to which those who are formed of more fiery materials are but too frequently liable. Like most other men who have been remarkable for their attainments in after-life, Heber was strongly addicted, while a boy, to extensive miscellaneous reading. Guicciardini and Machiavelli were among his early favourites. He admired the great Florentine historian for his style, and with a freedom from prejudice which indicated the purity of his mind, ventured to make the discovery, that this much-calumniated advocate of freedom was a far better man than the world was inclined to admit. At the same time his study of the sacred Scriptures was incessant. Even while a child, the principal events which they record were so firmly imprinted on his memory, that his friends used to apply to him, when at a loss where to find the account of any important transaction, or any remarkable passage.