Et tamen hunc audes maculare et dicere nigrumDesine; habet certe numen et iste suum.CHAPTER XIV.
Et tamen hunc audes maculare et dicere nigrumDesine; habet certe numen et iste suum.
Et tamen hunc audes maculare et dicere nigrumDesine; habet certe numen et iste suum.
Et tamen hunc audes maculare et dicere nigrumDesine; habet certe numen et iste suum.
Et tamen hunc audes maculare et dicere nigrum
Desine; habet certe numen et iste suum.
The last traveller to distant regions, of whom there are notices in our Sexagenarian’s Recollections, was a noble Lord, the history of whose life involves many extraordinary particulars. The gay, the witty, but depraved Lord ⸺, was his uncle, and he has often been heard to detail the very mysterious circumstances of the death of his relation, with much solemnity and pathos. He was at that time at school, his morals therefore were not contaminated by his connection with that nobleman, though it cannot be denied that he afterwards launched into the gaieties of youth, and the dissipation of the times, with an ardour to which, unfortunately, his rank and situation afforded too many and too great facilities.
Disappointed and injured in the domestic establishment he had formed, he had, moreover, to contend with the most cruel and abominable aspersions aimed at the very vitality of his character. These however, from the cause which excited them, as well as from the source from which they were circulated, were, by all those who were qualified to ascertain the facts with precision, discovered ultimately to be the result of calumny and malice.The late Lord Kenyon, as good a judge of evidence as the most experienced lawyer could possibly be, avowed this opinion forcibly and solemnly from the bench.
In the extreme perturbation of mind and spirits, naturally produced by such circumstances, the noble Lord very judiciously determined to make the experiment, how far change of scene, and the exploring of remote regions, might tend to restore him to the tranquillity he had lost. At this period he obtained an introduction to the Marquis W⸺, who filled the high office of Governor General of India with great dignity and splendour. To his hospitality he accordingly resolved to resort, and he afterwards lived with the Marquis on terms of friendship.
He proceeded to India, where he enjoyed every facility which authority could bestow, or curiosity require. He first visited Calcutta, on the Bay of Bengal; he then went up to Lucknow, where he spent a month. He then returned down the Ganges to Calcutta, sailed to Ceylon, thence coasted the W. of Ceylon and the eastern shore of the Peninsula to Madras. He afterwards crossed through the Mysore to Mangalore, sailed to the Red Sea, and again returning to Bombay, proceeded to the Red Sea a second time.
His Lordship had intended to have visited Agra, but he was prevented by the war with the Mahrattas. Whilst at Bombay, however, he visitedPoonah, the capital of the Mahratta country, and such other places as were deserving the investigation of an enlightened traveller.
From Bombay he crossed the Indian ocean, and arrived at Mocha, in the Red Sea. After a certain sojourn at that place, he proceeded to Massouah, the key by which means, Bruce was enabled to penetrate to Abyssinia. From Massouah, Mr. Salt, Lord ⸺’s Secretary, was dispatched to visit the Ras at Antalow. Mr. Salt having successfully accomplished this expedition, joined his illustrious friend at Massouah, and after various perils and difficulties, they arrived in safety at Suez. The rout from Suez was that usually pursued by travellers from the East, namely, to Cairo, Alexandria, Malta, &c.
The details published of these interesting travels, were not, however, so popular as might reasonably have been expected, and as they actually deserved. They certainly contained a great deal of original matter, and a large mass of important information. They were more favorably received on the continent. The translator of them into French has, in his introduction, drawn a strong contrast between the reception Lord ⸺ met with in his native country, and what would have been given in France to a man of his Lordship’s situation in life, who would have performed such a work. Bonaparte considered it so important as to the State of India, that Notes were ordered to be insertedby the Police, as an antidote, which was done; the original order is in his Lordship’s possession, and it is curious that Lord V. has often been the subject of Napoleon’s conversation with Englishmen.
They were considered by the very learned Editor of the voyage of Nearchus, as entitled to the merit of having elucidated many abstruse and complicated points in ancient geography, and in many parts as fairly claiming the honour of actual discovery. Certain it is, that no modern navigator has before taken an actual survey of that part of the African coast, from the straits of Babulmandeb to the 26th degree N. &c. Perhaps the principal cause which restrained their more extensive circulation, is to be found in the first volume, where too great importance has been given to trifles, and the work too much swelled out with circumstantial representations of Oriental ceremonies, visits, dresses, and presents, which scholars contemn, and which in fact had not the charm of novelty to recommend them.
The work was afterwards published in a smaller compass, pruned of many of these eccentricities and unnecessary appendages, and can never, in its present form, be perused without much gratification and improvement.
Upon this work and its author, the following remarks subsequently occur in our manuscript, and are evidently written in another hand, but they well deserve preservation, as well from their erudition as their sagacity.
Indiscriminate praise is of no value, but the sense of this noble Lord’s merits as a traveller, arises from the consideration of his engaging in such a service, at a time of life when young men of rank, think of little but their pleasures. It arises, moreover, from his attention to the manners of the nations which he visited, and from the judgment of the plan, which he executed with so much ardour and perseverance.
The survey of the western coast of the Red Sea, was a grand desideratum in geography, where nothing essential had been done since the voyage of De Castro. It is not a speculation of curiosity, but a duty incumbent upon a nation, possessed of the greatest maritime power that ever existed, to explore every region, where the sea is navigable, and this not only in a commercial view, but for the extension of science.
Lord ⸺’s coarse from the straits of Babulmandeb, up to Salaka, is a survey, not only of importance to navigation and science, but of great utility in shewing that there are means of approaching the most barbarous inhabitants of the coast.
Many of the observations which are introduced upon the coast, above and upon the country of Adel, are the best illustrations possible in regard to ancient geography. They must have been peculiarly gratifying to the very learned Dr. Vincent, as they coincide with the nature, both of the natives and the countries which his pen had delineated from ancient authority.
The trade and caravans of Adel, the intercourse of that country with Arabia and Adooli, the western entrance of the Straits, the Opsian Bay, the Bay of Adooli, the regal government of Axuma, the double sovereignty of Suakin, the independent Bedoweens, above the Tahama, or Tessiborike, the site of Berenice, in Foul Bay, the existence of the gold mines, and the evidence of gold, still obtainable on the coast, all prove, whatever may have been the revolution of governments, or the changes effected by the lapse of time, that the general features are still indelible, and the portrait true.
The bay to which the noble traveller has given the fantastic appellation of “Botherem Bay,” with all its intricacies, shoals, and islands, will be found perfectly consistent with both Agatharchides and Diodorus.
The Axumite inscription proves incontestibly the prevalence of the Greek language in Abyssinia. The fact undoubtedly was, that as soon as Adooli became a mart, approachable by the Greeks from Egypt, Greeks established themselves there as residents. Thus they had formerly done all around the Euxine, from the time of Herodotus, to the time when it was visited by Arrian, in the reign of Adrian.
Greeks of this sort were not only merchants, but became ministers, or agents for the native Sovereigns, such as Xenophon found in the time ofScuthes, and by such a Greek, the inscription was doubtless drawn up for Aeizaneus.
The whole work does the writer great credit. The style is unaffected; and the commercial speculations, in regard to Arabia and Abyssinia, of greater public importance, than they hitherto appear to have been considered.