geographers and naturalists. Its interior remains unknown,
notwithstanding the various attempts which have been made from various
points to penetrate it. The explorations of scientific men during the
last four years have been productive of valuable information relating to
its geography, ethnography, geology and natural history.
Among the most eminent and successful in this field, is the Count de
Strzelecki. This gentleman, as early as the year 1840, made an extensive
tour into the southwestern part of Australia, in which he discovered an
extensive tract called Gipp's Land, containing an extent of five
thousand six hundred square miles, a navigable lake and several rivers,
and from the richness of the soil, presenting an inviting prospect to
settlers. His explorations were continued during the years 1842 '43 and
'44, and in the following year the results were given to the public,[53]
"comprehending the fruits of five years of continual labor during a tour
of seven thousand miles on foot. This work treats, within a moderate
compass, of the history and results of the surveys of those countries,
of their climate, their geology, botany and zoology, as well as of the
physical, moral and social state of the aborigines, and the state of
colonial agriculture, the whole illustrated by comparisons with other
countries visited by himself in the course of twelve years travel
through other parts of the world." For these extensive explorations and
discoveries, and for his valuable work in which they are embodied, the
Royal Geographical Society of London awarded the "Founders" gold medal
to Count Strzelecki.[54]
Additional information to our knowledge of Australia is contained in
Capt. Stokes's late work detailing the discoveries made by himself and
other officers attached to H.M.S. Beagle. These discoveries consist of
a minute examination of a large part of the coast of that island, of
several rivers on its northern and northwestern sides, and of
expeditions into the interior. Natives were seen in small numbers in
various parts, all of whom were in the lowest state of barbarism. A
remarkable diversity of character was noticed, however, among the
natives of different localities, some being most kindly disposed, and
approaching the strangers without fear, as though they were old
acquaintances, whilst others manifested the greatest hostility and
aversion. In the instances referred to, they had never seen white men
before. Capt. Stokes says his "whole experience teaches him that these
were not accidental differences, but that there is a marked contrast in
the disposition of the various tribes, for which he will not attempt to
account."[55] The natives at Port Essington, on the north, appear to be
in some respects superior to those in other parts of the island. Their
implements of war and their canoes show a connexion with the Malays.
They also have a musical instrument made of bamboo, the only one yet
found among them.[56] The rite of circumcision was practised on the
northern coast near the gulf of Carpentaria. On the southern coast, at
the head of the Australian bight, it had before been noticed by Mr.
Eyre.[57] For the practice of this ancient rite at such remote
distances, and confined to within such narrow limits, we can only
account, by some early migration or visit of people by whom it was
practised. Nothing has yet been done towards a comparison of the
languages spoken by the Australian tribes. In the late cruise of Capt.
Stokes, natives of the south were taken to the northern parts of the
island, but in their intercourse with the people of the latter, they
were unable to make themselves understood. It is possible, however, that
like the languages of the American Indians, though they may exhibit a
wide difference in words for similar objects, the grammatical structure
may be the same. This is a more important test in ethnological
comparison, and should be applied before any of the aboriginal tribes of
Australia are extinct.
By far the most important journey yet accomplished for the exploration
of Australia, is that of Dr. Leichardt. This gentleman, accompanied by
Mr. Gilbert, a naturalist, and six others, started from Moreton Bay, on
the southeastern shore of the island, in October, 1844, to penetrate to
Port Essington, on its most northerly point; in order, if possible, to
open a direct route to Sydney. Several months after the party left,
reports were brought to Moreton Bay that they had been cut off by the
natives. This was proved to be untrue by an expedition sent out for the
purpose, who traced the travellers four hundred miles into the interior.
Dr. Leichardt found it impossible to penetrate into the interior in a
direct course, on account of high table-land, and the absence of water;
and this circumstance compelled him to keep within six or seven degrees
of the coast. Their six months' provisions being exhausted, the only
resource of the party was the horses and stock bullocks,--and with these
the strictest economy was necessary. One was killed as provision for a
month--sometimes a horse, at others a bullock. For six months prior to
reaching Port Essington, the party were reduced to a quarter of a pound
of meat per day--frequently putrescent--unaccompanied with salt, bread,
or any kind of vegetable. In the neighborhood of the Gulf of
Carpentaria, Mr. Gilbert, the naturalist, was surprised by the natives,
and killed. The remainder reached Port Essington on the 2d of December,
1845.[58]
The narrative of Dr. Leichardt's expedition has not yet been published
in detail. The report[59] which has appeared consists chiefly of notices
of the geography of the region traversed, the soil, productions,
climate, &c. He encountered natives in many places, sometimes in
considerable numbers. By some they were kindly received, by others
treated as enemies. Their characteristics are not noticed. The most
extraordinary feature in Dr. Leichardt's narrative is the constant
succession of water. Although the season was an exceedingly dry one, no
rain having fallen for seven months, yet from the commencement to the
close of his year and a half's expedition, throughout the whole length
and breadth of the vast region he traversed, he was continually meeting
with fresh water, in the forms of "pools, lagoons, brooks, wells,
water-holes, rocky basins, living springs, swamps, streams, creeks or
rivers." The soil in many places was of the best kind, covered with
luxuriant grass and herbs. Of the former, some twenty kinds were seen.
In lat. 18 deg. 48' he found a level country, openly timbered, with fine
plains, extending many miles in length and breadth. The flats bordering
the creeks and rivers were covered with tall grass, and the table-lands
presented equally attractive features. "The whole country along the east
coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria is highly adapted for pastoral
pursuits. Cattle and horses would thrive exceedingly well, but the
climate and soil are not adapted to sheep. Large plains, limited by
narrow belts of open forest land; fine grassy meadows along frequent
chains of lagoons, and shady forest land along the rivers, render this
country inviting to the squatter." Dr. Leichardt thinks there are many
districts suitable for the cultivation of rice and cotton.
In regard to a communication between the settlements, it is the decided
opinion of the Doctor, that no line of road can be effected direct from
Fort Bourke to the northern settlement. A route from Moreton bay to the
gulf of Carpentaria will be easily constructed. The whole coast is
backed by ranges of mountains, consisting, nearest the sea, generally of
granite and basaltic rocks, which he calls the granite range; behind
this is a second range of sandstone. Descending from this and again
rising, they entered upon the table-land; which they could nowhere
penetrate, so as to determine what might be the character of the central
country. It was covered with a dense shrub, had no water; and frequently
there was difficulty in descending from it, owing to the perpendicular
cliffs and deep ravines. They passed several rivers all of which ran
easterly towards the coast. After reaching the Gulf of Carpentaria, they
again ascended the table-land, and suffered extremely for want of water.
The country beneath them was delightful to look at, but they were unable
to descend to it, until they reached the dip towards the Alligaters.
Here the country surpassed in fertility any thing that they had seen.
By later advices from Sydney, it appears that this enterprising and
zealous traveller, is again making arrangements for another expedition
to explore the interior of this great island.[60] The Doctor now
proposes to leave Moreton bay and endeavor to trace the sources of the
rivers which flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria. He will then proceed
northwest, penetrating directly across the unknown and unexplored
interior, forming the are of a circle, to Swan river. This will be the
most daring journey yet attempted; but under the direction of one who
has already shown so much perseverance and undergone such severe
hardships, it is to be hoped that his efforts may be crowned with
success.
An expedition for the exploration of Australia, under the command of Sir
Thomas L. Mitchell, is at present employed in traversing the unknown
parts of this vast country. When last heard from, the expedition had
reached the latitude of 29 deg. 45' longitude 147 deg. 34'. The particulars of
Dr. Leichardt's journey have been sent to him to guide him in his course
of future operations.[61]
The following list embraces the latest works on Australia.
Physical description of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land,
accompanied by a Geographical map, by P.E. de Strzelecki. 8vo.
1845.
South Australia and its Mines; with an account of Captain
Grey's government, by Fr. Dutton. 8vo. London, 1846.
History of New South Wales, from its settlement to the close of
the year 1844, by Thomas H. Braim. 2 vols. post, 8vo. London,
1846.
Reminiscences of Australia, with hints on the Squatters' life,
by C.P. Hodgson. post, 8vo. London, 1846.
A visit to the Antipodes; with some reminiscences of a sojourn
in Australia. By a Squatter. 8vo. London, 1846.
Enterprise in tropical Australia. By George W. Earl. 8vo.
London, 1846.
Impressions of Savage life, and scenes in Australia and New
Zealand. By G.F. Augas. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1847.
Travels in New South Wales. By Alexander Majoribanks. 12mo.
Lond. 1847.
Simmonds' Colonial Magazine contains a vast deal of information
relating to Australia, as well as to other British Colonies,
and is unquestionably the best book of reference on subjects
relating to the history and present condition of the British
colonies of any work extant.
ASIA.
LYCIA, ASIA MINOR. This interesting region has been further explored by
two English gentlemen, Lieut. Spratt, R.N., and Professor Forbes, who,
accompanied by the Reverend E.T. Daniel, embarked from England in the
year 1842, in H.M. ship Beacon, for the coast of Lycia, for the purpose
of bringing home the remarkable monuments of antiquity discovered by Sir
Charles Fellows.
This gentleman, it will be remembered, was the first who in modern times
successfully explored the interior. He visited the sites of many ancient
cities and towns; copied numerous inscriptions, by means of which he was
enabled to identify the names of fifteen out of eighteen cities; and
made sketches of the most interesting sculptures and monuments.
It is remarkable that a country so often spoken of by the Greek and
Roman historians should not have sooner attracted attention, when
districts contiguous to, as well as far beyond, have been so thoroughly
explored. The ruins on the southern coast of Asia Minor, were first
made known by Captain Beaufort, who discovered them when employed in
making a survey of this coast. Several travellers subsequently made
short excursions into the country; but it was not until Mr. now Sir
Charles Fellows, in 1838 and 1840, made his visits and explorations,
that the riches of the interior in historical monuments were disclosed.
The relics of antiquity brought to light in these researches, consist
first of the ruins of large cities, many of which, by reason of their
isolated situation among the high lands and mountains, seem to have been
preserved from the destruction which usually attends depopulated cities
situated in more accessible places.
These ruined cities contain amphitheatres more or less spacious, and
generally in a good state of preservation, temples, aqueducts, and
sepulchral monuments, together with numbers of lesser buildings, the
dwelling houses of the inhabitants. The ruins of Christian churches are
also found in many places, and in one instance a large and elegant
cathedral; the purposes of these are satisfactorily made out by their
inscriptions; and the date of their erection, when not otherwise known,
may be fixed by their style of architecture. The most numerous as well
as the most interesting monuments of these ancient cities, are their
sepulchres. In some instances where a mountain or high rock is
contiguous, it is pierced with thousands of tombs, presenting an
appearance similar to Petraea in Idumea, sometimes called the City of the
Dead. The roads in all directions are lined with tombs and sarcophagi,
many of them covered with elaborate sculptures and inscriptions. It is
by means of the latter, which abound and which exist in a fine state of
preservation, that the names of the cities are identified and other
historical facts brought to light. The following is a translation of the
most common form of sepulchral inscription.
"THIS TOMB APOLLONIDES, SON OF MOLISSAS, MADE
FOR HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN: AND IF ANY ONE
VIOLATES IT, LET HIM PAY A FINE."
Coins too are found, which possess considerable historic interest.
In architecture, we find excellent specimens of the several Grecian
orders, exhibiting both the perfection and declension of the art. The
works of Sir Charles Fellows abound in architectural representations. A
pointed arch was discovered by Lieut. Spratt and Professor Forbes in the
interior of a tomb (a sketch of which is given) among the ruins of
Antiphellas. This conclusively shows, that this peculiar form of the
arch was not first introduced with Gothic architecture, as has been
generally believed, but belongs to a period anterior to the Christian
era. An inscription in the Lycian and Latin was found on the monument.
The language of the ancient Lycians is an important discovery which has
resulted from these researches. A bilingual inscription in Lycian and
Greek first led to the key, and similar inscriptions, subsequently
discovered, have furnished sufficient materials for ascertaining the
values of the several letters of the alphabet, which consists of
twenty-seven letters, two of which are still doubtful. Able
disquisitions on the language have been written by Mr. Sharpe and
Professor Grotefend.
In regard to the antiquity of the monuments, and the people who spoke
the language called Lycian, now first made known through these
inscriptions, we are enabled to arrive at conclusions which fix their
era with some degree of certainty. The earliest inscription yet
decyphered is a bilingual one, which consists of an edict, in which the
name of Harpagus, or his son, a well known personage, is mentioned;
which would give a date of 530 to 500 B.C. This is about the period of
the earliest arrow-head inscriptions yet known--namely, those at
Behistun, of the age of Darius, decyphered by Major Rawlinson. The
language belongs to the same family as the Zend and old Persian, and is
supposed to have been in use in the same age as the former, and along
with that of the Persepolitan inscriptions. The sculptures too, bear
some resemblance to the figures on the Persian monuments, particularly
the well known figure with an umbrella, so common on the latter.
Other reasons are adduced by scholars for fixing the date of the Lycian
language not before the fifth century B.C., or to the age of Herodotus.
This historian was from the adjoining province of Caria; and as might be
expected, gives accounts of the Lycians before his time, but does not
say that they spoke a language different from his own, or from that of
the entire region,--a fact that he would not have overlooked had such
been the case.
It is believed that Cyrus, when he subjected this country, brought in
some people from his Persian dominions, who afterwards became the
dominant party, and introduced their language.[62]
It is surprising to find the names of these Lycian cities so well
preserved when the descendants of its ancient inhabitants have been so
entirely swept out of the country, and replaced by a people differing in
manners, in religion, and having no interest connected with the
locality to induce them to respect the relics or names, and keep alive
the memory, of the former possessors of the soil.
Travels in Lycia, Milytas and the Cibyrates, in company with
the late Rev. E.T. Daniel, by Lieut. Spratt, R.N., and Prof.
E. Forbes. 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1847.
A Journal written during an excursion in Asia Minor, by Charles
Fellows. royal 8vo. London, 1839.
An account of Discoveries in Lycia, in 1840. By Charles
Fellows, royal 8vo.
An Essay on the Lycian language. By Daniel Sharpe. (In the
appendix to Fellows' Journal.)
ARABIA.
If we now turn to the discoveries that have recently been made in the
southern part of Arabia, we find much in them worthy of attention. This
country, called in the Scriptures Hazarmaveth, by the natives Hadramaut,
and by the classical writers of antiquity, Arabia Felix, is celebrated
as being the kingdom of the Queen of Sheba, who visited Solomon, as well
as for the gold, gems, frankincense and other precious productions,
which it furnished in ancient times. It is represented by the Greek and
Roman writers as a populous country, with many extensive cities,
abounding in temples and palaces; though the palpable fables with which
these accounts are intermingled, show that at least they had no personal
knowledge of the facts, but retailed them at second hand.
After Europe had awoke from the intellectual slumber of the dark ages,
the Arabs were long regarded only as objects of religious and political
abhorrence. The discovery of the route to India by the Cape of Good
Hope, at the close of the fifteenth century, by diverting the channel of
Indo-European traffic from the Red Sea, left the countries bordering
upon it in such a state of solitude, that when better feelings began to
prevail, there was no means of obtaining any direct information
respecting them.
In 1650, the illustrious Pococke, by the publication of his Specimens of
Ancient Arabian History, extracted from native authors, created a
curiosity respecting Southern Arabia and its ancient inhabitants, which
successive collections of a similar nature, down to our own times, have
served rather to increase than to gratify. The researches of Niebuhr,
Seetzen, and Burckhardt, in the latter part of the last, and the
beginning of the present century, made us somewhat acquainted with the
western extremity of this country, along the shores of the Red Sea; but
before the investigations of which we are about to speak, its southern
coast had never been accurately explored, and the great body of the
interior, with its once famous capital, Mareb, remained, as it ever had
been, completely unknown to and unvisited by the natives of Europe.
The hordes of pirates, which until twenty years ago infested the Persian
Gulf, caused the government of British India to order a complete survey
of its islands and both its shores, with the view of laying bare their
haunts, and putting an end to their depredations. In 1829, after this
service had been performed, the project then recently set on foot of
establishing a steam communication between England and Bombay, caused
orders to be issued for a similar examination of the Red Sea.
The attention of the officers composing the expedition, was not
restricted to the technical duties in which they were chiefly engaged.
It was well known that information of every kind would be prized by the
government which they served; and this, together with the monotony of
life on board ship on the one hand, and the novelty of the scenes by
which they were surrounded on the other, seems to have created among
them a spirit of emulation that led to the most interesting discoveries
respecting both the geography and the antiquities of the adjacent
countries.
Among the most intelligent and enterprising of these officers was the
late Lieut. Wellsted, who thus describes his reflections on joining the
expedition in the Red Sea, on the 12th October, 1830. "From the earliest
dawn of history, the northern shores of the Red Sea have figured as the
scene of events which both religious and civil records have united to
render memorable. Here Moses and the Patriarchs tended their flocks, and
put in motion those springs of civilization, which, from that period,
have never ceased to urge forward the whole human race in the career of
improvement. On the one hand the Valley of the Wanderings, commencing
near the site of Memphis, and opening upon the Red Sea, conducts the
fancy along the track pursued by the Hebrews during their flight out of
Egypt; on the other hand are Mount Sinai, bearing still upon its face
the impress of miraculous events, and beyond it that strange, stormy,
and gloomy-looking sea, once frequented by Phoenician merchants'
ships, by the fleets of Solomon and Pharaoh, and those barks of later
times which bore the incenses, the gems, the gold and spices of the
East, to be consumed or lavishly squandered upon favorites at the courts
of Macedonia or Rome. But the countries lying along this offshoot of the
Indian Ocean, have another kind of interest, peculiar perhaps to
themselves. On the Arabian side we find society much what it was four
thousand years ago; for amidst the children of Ishmael it has undergone
but trifling modifications. Their tents are neither better nor worse
than they were when they purchased Joseph of his brethren, on their way
to Egypt; the Sheikhs possess no other power or influence than they
enjoyed then; the relations of the sexes have suffered little or no
changes; they eat, drink, clothe themselves, educate their children,
make war and peace, just as they did in the day of the Exodus. But on
the opposite shores, all has been change, fluctuation, and decay. While
the Bedouins have wandered with their camels and their flocks,
unaspiring, unimproving, they have looked across the gulf and beheld the
Egyptian overthrown by the Persian, the Persian by the Greek, the Greek
by the Roman, and the Roman in his turn by a daring band from their own
burning deserts. They have seen empires grow up like Jonah's gourd. War
has swept away some; the varieties and luxuries of peace have brought
others to the ground; and every spot along these shores is celebrated."
When the northeastern and the western shores of the Arabian peninsula
had thus been investigated, there still remained to be explored the
south eastern shore, the coast of the anciently renowned province of
Hadramaut, extending from Tehama, on the Red Sea, to the province of
Oman, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf; and it is to the discoveries
made in this almost unknown part of the world that I now wish more
particularly to allude.
In the year 1839 Capt. Haines, the commander of the expedition and the
present governor of Aden, published his survey of about two fifths of
this coast, extending from the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb as far east as
Missenaat, in long. 51 deg. east of Greenwich.[63] In the year 1845, he
published his further survey of about an equal portion extending to Cape
Isolette, in long. 57 deg. 51', leaving about one fifth of the whole extent
on the eastern end still to be explored.[64]