of the Isthmus, before the Canal should be opened, two beautiful American brigs, then lying in the harbour of Alexandria, which the Pasha was anxious to get into the Red Sea, but feared the East India Company would prevent him sending them round the Cape of Good Hope. At this period the war against the Wahabees occupied almost the exclusive attention of all parties in Egypt, and ultimately compelled the Pasha himself to repair to the seat of hostilities in Arabia, while those to whom he confided the government of the country in his absence were far less able than himself to appreciate the value of such works as these.

From Alexandria Mr. Buckingham proceeded to Cairo, and from thence ascended the Nile into Nubia, beyond the Cataracts, being prevented from penetrating farther in consequence of an almost total blindness, occasioned by a long and severe ophthalmia, one of the plagues that still afflict Egypt. On his descent he halted at Keneh, and crossed the Desert to Kosseir, on the shores of the Red Sea. In the course of this journey he encountered, nearly in the middle of the Desert, a party of the mutinous soldiery of the Egyptian army, returning in a state of revolt from Kosseir, by whom he was stripped, plundered, and left entirely naked on the barren waste, at a distance of sixty miles at least from any habitation or supply of food or water. The narrative of this disastrous journey would alone make a volume, if extended to all its details. It is enough, however, to say, that by perseverance he succeeded in reaching Kosseir, though under circumstances of the most painful and distressing nature, and that, to add to his sufferings, he was obliged to retrace all his steps, and return again to Keneh, on the Nile, from the impossibility of prosecuting his route further in that direction.

He therefore descended the Nile to Cairo, from thence traversed the Isthmus cf Suez, explored all the surrounding country, and visited every part of Lower Egypt and the Delta, habited as an Egyptian, speaking the language, and mixing freely with the people of the country.

It was at this period that a proposition was made to Mr. Buckingham by the English merchants then resident in Egypt, to undertake on their account a voyage to India, by way of the Red Sea; first, to survey its hydrography, till that period most inaccurately known,

and thus to judge of the practicability of its coasting navigation by English ships; and next to ascertain how far the merchants of India, but those at Bombay more especially, might feel disposed to renew the commercial intercourse which formerly existed between India and Egypt, for the supply of all the higher parts of the Mediterranean.

He readily acceded to this proposition, and set out for Suez accordingly, profiting by the departure of a large caravan, then conveying the pilgrims of Africa, collected at Cairo, to the great temple at Mecca, and bearing also the harem of Mohammed Ali Pasha, consisting of fifty or sixty of the most beautiful women of Asia, to his camp in the Holy Land. The voyage was continued, under most disastrous circumstances, to Jedda, from thence to Mocha, and ultimately to India.

The merchants of Bombay being, however, unwilling to resume the commerce with Egypt, except under securities which it was hardly probable they could obtain, Mr. Buckingham considered his mission at an end; and, after communicating the result to the proper quarter, his attention was turned to some maritime or mercantile occupation in India itself. This was soon obtained; for he had scarcely been a week on shore, before he was appointed to the command of a fine new frigate, just launched, for the Imaum of Muscat, an independent Arab prince, who had commissioned her for a voyage to China. He was invested with the command, and was actually engaged in rigging and fitting her out, when he received a letter from the Government of Bombay, informing him, that, as he was not licensed by the East India Company, he could not be permitted to hold this command, or even to remain in India.

That such a succession of voyages and travels should be full of danger, as well as incident, may be easily imagined; and his published volumes sufficiently prove this. It may be sufficient here, however, to say, that storms, plagues, shipwreck, battle, imprisonment, hunger, thirst, sickness, nakedness, and want, had been his frequent portion; and that there was scarcely any form under which human misery could have presented itself in which he had not encountered it, or scarcely any pomp, pleasure, honour, or distinction, which mortal could enjoy, that he had not witnessed, and occasionally shared in.

This first banishment of Mr. Buckingham from India was not in consequence of any fault on his part, either alleged or even suspected; but merely in conformity with the settled principle of the East India Company's monopoly, to prevent any one from visiting India on any pretence, or for any purpose, without their express license, which Mr. Buckingham did not possess, merely because, on his leaving England to settle at Malta, he had never contemplated visiting India at all, and did not know that such a license was necessary. Indeed, the Governor of Bombay, the late Sir Evan Nepean, at the very moment of his feeling himself compelled to have recourse to this harsh measure of banishing a man without trial, and without the commission of any moral or political offence, used these express words in his communication to Mr. Francis Warden, then chief secretary of the Bombay Government, through whom the correspondence on this subject passed: "To the individual himself (meaning Mr. Buckingham) I have not the slightest degree of objection; on the contrary, he appeared to me to be a sensible, intelligent man; and I shall by no means be sorry to see him return with the Company's license, believing, as I do, that he would be of use to the mercantile interests, in opening the trade of the Red Sea." Being thus banished from the country, with the highest compliment to his utility, Mr. Buckingham returned again to Egypt, by a second voyage through the Red Sea, during which, with his usual energy and industry, he collected ample materials, en route, for a new hydrographical chart for all its coasts.

In Egypt, Mr. Buckingham succeeded in negotiating a treaty with Mohammed Ali Pasha, to which the British consul and himself became parties, the terms of which were highly favourable to the merchants of England and India —as it guaranteed safe protection across the Desert for all goods sent from India to England, or vice versa by that route-and a reduction of duties to a considerable extent, with the removal of many existing restrictions on the commerce between the two countries.

With this treaty, Mr. Buckingham returned to India, as the representative of Mohammed Ali, for which the Company's license was not required, bearing letters and commissions to the Indian Government, as the envoy of an independent prince. Proceeding from Alexandria to Beyrout, and thence by Tyre, Sidon, Acre, and Jaffa,

to Jerusalem, he was compelled by various circumstances to traverse nearly the whole of Palestine, the countries east of Jordan and the Dead Sea, the Hauran, and the Decapolis. He reached Damascus ; from whence he was invited to Mount Lebanon, to become the guest and enjoy the hospitality of Lady Hester Stanhope; after which he visited Baalbeck, Tripoli, Antioch, the Orontes, and Aleppo; proceeding thence into Mesopotamia, he crossed the Euphrates at Bir; passed on to Orfah, near Haran, the Ur of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Abraham, and the Edessa of the Greeks; journeyed to Diarbekir, or the Black City, in the heart of Asia Minor; to Mardin, on the mountains, and by the Great Desert of Sinjar, to Mosul on the Tigris; inspected the renowned sites of the ancient cities of Nineveh, Arbela, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia; made extensive researches on the ruins of Babylon, identified the hanging gardens of Semiramis and the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, and discovered a portion of the ancient wall of Babylon, supposed to be entirely destroyed; ascended the tower of Babel; and, at length, reposed from his labours in the city of Bagdad.

Pursuing his route towards India, he advanced into Persia, crossing the chain of Mount Zagros, and going by Kermanshah to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana; Ispahan, the most magnificent of oriental cities; Persepolis, and its splendid ruins; and (by Shiraz and Shapoor) to Bushir, where he embarked in a ship of war belonging to the East India Company, which was bound on an expedition against the Wahabees, the pirates of the Persian Gulf; visited Ras-el-Khyma, their chief port; went on shore with the commodore of the squadron, Captain Brydges, and acted as his Arabian interpreter; assisted afterwards in the bombardment of the town, and finally reached Bombay at the end of 1816, having been nearly twelve months on his perilous journey.

By this time, however, the Company's license had been forwarded to him from England, authorising him to remain in their territories; and he accordingly resumed his command in the service of the Imaum of Muscat, being reappointed to the same ship, the Humayoon Shah, his removal from which had cost him in the interim some 3C,000l., which had gone into the pockets of his more fortunate successor, by three successful voyages to China, yielding 10,000l. each. After visiting Muscat and Bussorah, he returned with his vessel to Bombay;

proceeded down the coast of Malabar (touching at Tellicherry, Calicut, Mahee, and Cochin), to Colombo and Point de Galle; thence passed up the Coromandel coast, by Covelong, Madras, Vizagapatam, and Bimlipatam; and, having greatly extended the hydrographical knowledge of the Persian Gulf and the river Euphrates, reached Calcutta, in June, 1818. Here he found orders from the Imaum, directing him to proceed with the ship to the coast of Zanzibar, and give convoy to certain vessels there, engaged in the slave trade. But Mr. Buckingham abhorred the slave system, having opposed it in the West Indies many years before; and, having no alternative, rather than acquire riches from such a polluted source, he resigned the command, and the income of 4,0007. a year which it yielded him. Would that all the sons of Britain had been like-minded! Would that all her descendants were so now! Then would the chains drop from the unoffending captive; then would the hands of commerce be unstained by blood, and religion accompany her to teach and to bless the world.

It was now suggested to him by Mr. Palmer, "the prince of the merchants of the East," that he had talents for literary and political life, and ought to relinquish the maritime profession; and the attentions paid to Mr. Buckingham by the highest authorities, including the Governor-general, Lord Hastings, Bishop Middleton, the Supreme judges, and the invitation of the leading British merchants (whom his disinterested and high-principled conduct had deeply impressed), induced him to consent to undertake the establishment and editorship of a newspaper on the liberal principles which then characterised the Hastings' administration. It was issued under the title of "The Calcutta Journal," obtained almost instant popularity, and within three years yielded its enterprising founder a net profit of 8,000l. per annum.*

* At first published only twice a week, its success was so great as at length to lead to its daily issue. A taste for learning and enlightened pursuits was called by it into existence; in polite literature and general information it is said to have been unequalled; and it numbered every individual in India of literary eminence among its contributors. The good it effected is admitted, by all who were then in that country, to have been greater than was ever achieved by any publication that had previously existed in any part of our Eastern possessions. It exposed many public abuses, and caused them to be redressed, and prevented many more being committed, from the apprehension