ces. The party went on board the Greenland, ship of war, which was bound to the Mediterranean to protect vessels, sailing under Danish colors, from English search. The Greenland left the Sound, on the 7th January, 1761. Three times she was driven back to the Elsineur roads ; nor was it till the 10th of March, the fourth time of her sailing, that she could continue her course to the Medi

terranean.

Niebuhr recollected this voyage with pleasure. The noble and beautiful interior of a ship of war, with all its appointments and regulations, the simple and energetic manliness of the sailors, from the commander to the lowest man on board, a class of men whose distinguishing virtues were very much allied to his own, interested and delighted him, in the highest degree. Nor did he find the way of life monotonous or dull. Navigation was, at that time, very imperfectly understood: its operations were conducted in a manner rather mechanical than scientific. The officers of a ship going on such a service were, however, doubtless, men distinguished in their profession. Niebuhr endeavored to make himself acquainted with the construction of the ship; and he exercised himself daily in nautical and astronomical observations, which procured him the satisfaction of being regarded by the officers as an active and useful member of their company. He thus obtained from them that respect and regard which practical men are always ready to bestow on those, whom they find to be superior to themselves on any particular subject connected with their own business, and whom they see willing to acknowledge their superiority in other points, and able to appreciate their merits and services.*

Mayer, in the instructions he gave Niebuhr, had constantly kept in view that his pupil would be placed in situations in which it would be absolutely necessary for him to be able to rely upon himself, and where he could

*It is a remarkable fact, that, in this same year, 1761, the great astronomer Maskelyne was also at sea, and engaged also in instructing the officers of the ship in which he sailed, in the lunar method, with a view to its general adoption in the English navy, which subsequently took place

not hope for the slightest assistance or support. He had taught him, entirely himself, and encouraged him with the assurance that an active and clear-sighted man is generally able to discover means of overcoming the obstacles which may oppose him. His method of teaching, which was entirely practical, was chiefly this. He first described to his pupil the object of the observation, and the method of using the instruments; he then left him without any assistance, to try how far he could proceed in his observation and calculation, and desired him to tell him when he came to any insurmountable difficulty. He was obliged to describe exactly how far he had gone on well, and where his progress had been stopped; and then Mayer helped him out. He had been able to exercise himself but little, in Göttingen, in calculating lunar distances, and was in great anxiety about his future success in that point. The result of his observations, during this voyage, gave him greater confidence, and ought to have convinced him that he had gone through his apprenticeship, but this his modesty and humility forbade.

A stay of some weeks at Marseilles, and of a shorter time at Malta, procured a very agreeable recreation to the party. The scientific enterprise was known throughout Europe, and we should find it difficult, now, to picture to ourselves the universal interest in its success, which insured to the travellers the most cordial reception and the most respectful attentions. It was an enterprise consonant with the spirit of the times, and nowise solitary or strange. The King of Sardinia had sent the unfortunate Donati to the East: Asia was become an object of interest to Europeans, from the war which the two great maritime powers were then waging in India: England began to send out ships to circumnavigate the globe. It was just that period, of general satisfaction and delight in science and literature, in which mankind believed they had found the road that must inevitably lead to perfection; men of letters enjoyed great consideration; and every body was ashamed not to regard the interests of science and of its followers, as the most important interests of the human race.

In both places, they experienced the courtesy and charm of French reception; for, even in Malta, although the ruling body were of all nations, the prevalent manners were French.

CHAPTER XVI.

LIFE OF NIEBUHR, CONTINUED.

FROM Malta, the expedition proceeded to the Dardanelles, still on board the Greenland, which had taken its convoy to Smyrna. In the Archipelago, Niebuhr was attacked with dysentery, and was near dying. He recovered his health at Constantinople, but so slowly, that, at the expiration of two months after the beginning of his illness, he had scarcely made sufficient progress to go on board a Dolcignote vessel bound for Alexandria, without manifest danger. Here, for the first time, the travellers felt that they were really in the East. The plague broke out among the crowded Asiatic passengers: they, however, were exempt from it.

As we cannot follow him through his minute and accurate descriptions of the places through which he passed, we must content ourselves with a few extracts from his travels, calculated to throw light upon his character; to show that clear and dispassionate judgement, and that freedom from prejudice, which so admirably fitted him for a traveller among people whose opinions and manners are so entirely unlike our own. Passing over his description of Constantinople, we give, in his own words, his account of the first Oriental people with whom he was thrown into close contact :

"The captain," says he, "his clerk, and his steersman, spoke pretty good Italian. The clerk had been not only in Venice and other Italian ports, but had travelled as far as Vienna. The Roman Catholics had told him just as great calumnies of the other sects of Chris

tians as the Sunnites relate of all Mohammedans but themselves. I once asked him, whether any heathens were to be found in the Sultan's dominions? In the course of his reply, he said, 'There are many in Germany and Italy; they are called Lutherans, and know nothing of God or the prophets.' In religious disputation, he showed himself a true Mohammedan. One of our company endeavored to convince him of the truth of the Christian religion. The clerk immediately rose, and said, that people who believed in other gods beside the one true God, were oxen and asses,' and left the room. The good man thus gave us a hint, that we should do well to leave every body undisturbed in the belief that his own religion is the best, so long as he entertains no doubts about it himself. I did not hold it to be any part of my vocation to make proselytes. But when I afterwards inquired of enlightened Mohammedans, concerning the principles of their faith, I took the opportunity of explaining to them various matters relating to the Christian religion; and, as I carefully abstained from asserting that it was better than the doctrines set forth in the Koran, none of them were in the least offended or displeased."

În Egypt, the party remained a whole year, from the end of September, 1761, till the beginning of October, 1762, during which time, Niebuhr visited Mount Sinai, in company with Forskaal and Von Haven. The party did not go further inland than Kahira.* During their stay in Egypt, Niebuhr determined the longitude of Alexandria, Kahira, Raschid, and Damietta, by means of numerous lunar observations, with an accuracy which the astronomers of Bonaparte's expedition, to their great surprise, found fully equal to that of their own. They, and the French army, not only found his chart of the two branches of the Nile equally correct, but even his ground-plan of Kahira, taken under the most difficult circumstances, in the midst of an infuriated and fanatical populace.

"In the year 1801," says his illustrious biographer, "I laid this plan before a French officer who had risen from the ranks during the French revolution,-a man who

* [Cairo.]

could hardly write and was wholly unaccustomed to make use of ground-plans, with a view to gain some information concerning the intrenchments thrown up by the French army round the city, and the history of the great rebellion in Kahira. It was some minutes before he could translate the knowledge he had gained from personal observation into the symbolic language of drawing; but, as soon as he caught the idea, he found his way, step by step, and could not cease wondering. My father, also, measured the height of the pyramids, and copied many hieroglyphic inscriptions on obelisks and sarcophagi."

may

At the time Niebuhr visited Egypt, very little information, worthy of credit, concerning that remarkable country, existed. Later travellers have added much to what he obtained; but when we consider under what circumstances of difficulty, and with how little protection, he added such vast stores to the stock of knowledge, we shall acknowledge that none have surpassed, or perhaps equalled him in industry, courage, and devotion to his object. Of the obstacles he had to encounter, some idea be formed, from the following extracts. At Alexandria, he says, "As I could overlook a great part of the old city walls, from the eminence on which Pompey's pillar stands, I took some angles of it, from there, and hoped that I might be able to take others from some other spot. One of the Turkish merchants, who stood opposite to me, and remarked that I had pointed the telescope attached to my quadrant against the city, was very curious to look through the glass, and not a little uneasy, when he saw a tower upside down. This gave occasion to a rumor, that I was come to Alexandria to turn the whole city topsy turvy. This report reached the governor's house. My janizary refused to accompany me, when I took my instrument, and as I thought a European could not venture to appear in a Turkish city, without a janizary, I gave up all idea of taking any more geometrical measurements here. Once afterwards, when an Arab of Raschid saw a ship upside down in my telescope, he was very near throwing the instrument on