OHN BAPTIST BELZONI was born about 1780, at Padua, in Italy, and passed the greater part of his youth at Rome, where he was preparing himself to become a monk, when he observes, "the sudden entry of the French into that city

altered the course of my education, and being destined to travel, I have been a wanderer ever since." In 1803, he visited England, and married; when, having but scanty means of subsistence, he went to Scotland and Ireland, and exhibited, at various theatres, a series of experiments in hydraulics, a science to which he had devoted much of his time in Italy. Finding, however, that he received but little profit from these exhibitions, he determined on a public display of his strength, which he put forth in feats that astonished and attracted crowded audiences wherever he appeared. Though, at that time, very young, he was six feet seven inches in height; and such was his elephantine power, that he could walk

across the stage with no less than two-and-twenty persons attached by straps to different parts of his body. In 1812, he exhibited at Lisbon and at Madrid; and sailed afterwards to Malta, whence he set out for Cairo, for the purpose of making a machine for raising water out of the Nile to water the bashaw's gardens. While on his way to the palace, he received so severe a blow on the leg, that he was confined to his bed thirty days before he could be introduced to the bashaw; who merely observed, on being told of Belzoni's wound, "that such accidents could not be avoided where there were troops."

Having concluded an agreement to make a machine which should enable one ox to raise as much water as was drawn previously by four, he, after much difficulty and obstruction on the part of those whose cattle were employed in the gardens, completed his work, and demonstrated, with great success, a practical experiment of its power. The opposition, however, of the Arabs to the use of his machine, which they had materially damaged, induced Belzoni to relinquish his projects concerning it, and to undertake, at the suggestion of Mr. Salt and Mr. Burckhardt, an expedition to Thebes, for the purpose of removing an enormous bust, to which they had given the name of "the younger Memnon."

"It has been erroneously stated," says Belzoni, "that I was regularly employed by Mr. Salt for the purpose of bringing the colossal bust from Thebes to Alexandria. I positively deny that I was ever engaged by him in any shape whatever, either by words or writing, as I have proofs of the case being on the contrary. When I ascended the Nile, the first and second time, I had no other idea in my mind, but that I was making researches for antiquities which were to be placed in the British Museum ; and it is naturally to be supposed, that I would not have made these excursions, had I been aware that all I found was for the benefit of a gentleman whom I never had the pleasure to see before in my life."

Our traveller, accompanied by his wife, left Boolak on the 30th of June, 1815, examined the ruins of ancient Antinoë, and arrived at Ashoumain, where he met with the first remains of Egyptian architecture, which he supposes to have been of a date anterior to those of Thebes. Having arrived at Siout, he requested of the bashaw's physician, permission to employ the workmen necessary to remove the head of Memnon; but not receiving a favourable reply, he, by means of his interpreter, procured the requisite assistance, and after viewing the tombs of Issus, proceeded to Thebes. On his way thither, he visited, near Dendera, the Temple of Tentyra, before which he remained seated some time, lost in admiration at "the singularity of its preservation," and the extent and magnificence of its structure. On his return to Dendera, the inhabitants insisted on detaining his interpreter, imagining him to be the same who had joined the French army, some years ago, and declaring "that he had been 1 11

enough among Christian dogs." With much difficulty he procured the man's release, and in a few days came in sight of the ruins of Thebes, of which he thus writes :—“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 proofs of their former existence." After pausing with wonder before the two colossal figures in the plain, he proceeded to examine the bust, which it was the object of his expedition to remove. "I found it," he observes, "near the remains of its body and chair, with its face upwards, and apparently smiling on me, at the thought of being taken to England." Finding the distance to his bost on the Nile too far to go every night, he built a small hut with the stones of the Memnonium, in which, with Mrs. Belzoni, he determined to remain till he had accomplished the removal of the bust. This, after much diffi culty and persuasion, he procured sufficient men to raise from the ground; "which," says Belzoni, "so astonished the Arabs, that, though it was the effect of their own efforts, they said it was the devil that did it." On the 5th of August, he reached, with the head, that part of the land which he was afraid of being prevented from crossing by the rising of the water; and on the 12th, he observes, "Thank God, the young Memnon arrived on the bank of the Nile." Next day he entered a cave in the mountains of Gornou, for the purpose of taking out a sarcophagus, which had been mentioned to him by Mr. Drouetti; and which, after having more than once lost his way in the different avenues that lead to it, he was preparing to remove, when the Arabs, who were working for him, were put into prison by the cacheff of Erments, who replied, on his complaining of such conduct, "That the sarcophagus had been sold to the French consul, and that no one else should have it."

While waiting the arrival of a boat from Cairo, he made an excursion to the Temple of Ybsambul, the entrance to which, though choked up by an accumulation of sand to the height of thirty-six feet, he determined on using his utmost endeavours to open. Previously, however, to commenc.ng his operations, he made a voyage to the second cataract of the Nile; in reference to which, he says, " Though some authors assert that the Nile has no waves, but runs quite smooth, I can assure the reader, that we were this day tossed about as if by a gale at sea.” On his return to Ybsambul, he immediately began to clear the entrance to the temple, and after five days' labour, had succeeded in uncovering twenty feet of sand, when, finding that he had neither sufficient time nor money for the completion of his undertaking, he obtained a promise from the cacheff to keep the place

untouched till his return, and descended the Nile to Deboade, where he took possession of an obelisk, twenty-two feet long, "In the name of his Britannic majesty's consul in Cairo." On arriving at Thebes, he met two Frenchmen, who made some remarks on the head of Memnon to deter him from taking it away, and was told by their dragoman, that if he persevered in his researches, "he should have his throat cut, by order of two personages." After hiring a boat to convey the bust to Cairo, he proceeded to Carnak, where he employed twenty men to dig away the sand from a large temple, from the ruins of which he transported to Luxor six sphinxes and a white statue of Jupiter Ammon, which he subsequently conveyed to England, and are now in the British Museum. The merit of the discoveries he made here, was attempted to be taken from him by Count de Forbin, who published an account, extracted from Belzoni's letters.

After examining the extensive ruins of Medinet Aboo, which he describes as "best worthy of the attention of the traveller of any on the west of Thebes," and penetrating into several tombs which he discovered in the valley of Beban el Malook, Belzoni returned to Luxor, with the intention of putting on board the colossal head, which, after many impediments, he effected on the 17th of November. On the 15th of December, he arrived at Cairo, with the bust and other antiquities; the latter of which he left, according to the instructions of Mr. Salt, at the consulate, and with the former, departed for Alexandria, where he saw it safely deposited in a British transport. Having accomplished this important object, he proceeded to resume his operations at the Temple of Ybsambul, stopping on his way thither at Thebes, where he found the agents of Mr. Drouetti in the act of completing many of the excavations he had begun, and removing several statues and sphinxes from the ruins. With some difficulty our traveller procured sufficient workmen to pursue his excavations at Carnák, where he discovered a magnificent temple, dedicated to the great God of the creation; on entering which, he says, "My mind was impressed with ideas of such solemnity, that for some time I was unconscious whether I were on terrestrial ground, or in some other planet."

From Carnak he again proceeded to Gornou, a tract of rocks two miles in length, and formerly the burial place of the city of Thebes; of which subterranean abodes, the most wonderful in the world, he thus speaks:"In some places there is not more than a 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. Once I was conducted from such a place, to another resembling it, through a passage of about two feet in length, and no wider than a 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 down wards. my own weight helped me on; however, I could not avoid being

covered with bones, legs, arms, and heads rolling from above; at the same time, my throat and nose were choked with dust; but though, fortunately, I am destitute of the sense of smelling, I could taste that the mummies were rather unpleasant to swallow." After collecting several papyri from the shrouds of the mummies, and purchasing a pair of beautiful brazen vessels, which he describes as "two of the finest articles of metallic composition that ever were to be found in Egypt," he returned to Carnak, where, among other discoveries, he dug up, and sent to England, a colossal head of red granite, still larger than that of the younger Memnon. About this time he was joined by Captains Mangles and Irby, with whose assistance he succeeded in entering the temple at Ybsambul, which he found to be one hundred and seventeen feet wide, and eighty-six feet high, and “enriched with beautiful intaglios, painting, colossal figures," &c. His next and most important discovery was in the valley of Beban el Malook, of a vast and magnificent tomb, described by him as “a new and perfect monument of Egyptian antiquity, which can be recorded as superior to any other in point of grandeur, style, and preservation." Speaking of the day on which he discovered this tomb, he says, "I may call it one of the best, perhaps, of my life; it led me to the fortunate spot which has paid me for all the trouble I took in my researches."

On his return to Cairo, he was much annoyed to hear that the credit of the discoveries he had made had been usurped by others, who had been announced, by name, in the English journals, as the means of bringing to light the principal temples which he had so long been employed in excavating. Accordingly, he resolved, in future, to keep his operations as secret as possible; and with this view, went alone, to inspect the second great pyramid of Ghizeh, "that enormous mass which, for so many ages, has baffled the conjectures of ancient and modern writers ;" and which, whether one solid mass, or possessing any cavity in the interior, no one had yet been able to ascertain. Notwithstanding, however, the difficulty of the attempt, and the uncertainty of success, he resolved on making an effort to discover an entrance to the tomb; a project for the undertaking of which, £20,000 had been considered by Mr. Drouetti necessary, while Belzoni determined to begin it with the small sum of £200, all he, at that moment, possessed. Having procured the requisite number of workmen, he commenced his operations, and after a month's labour, to his inexpressible delight, found a passage, and penetrated into the centre of the pyramid. So unsuccessful, however, were his attempts at first, that those who came to see him at work, ridiculed the idea of his proceeding further, and the Count de Forbin, says Belzoni, "requested, in a kind of sarcastic manner, when I had succeeded in opening the pyramid, (which, no doubt, he supposed I never would,) that I would send him the plan of it." Accordingly, Belzoni sent it to the count, who taking advantage of the opportu