CARSTEN NIEBUHR.

Born 1733.--Died 1815.

This traveller was born on the 17th of March, 1733, in the province of

Friesland, in the kingdom of Hanover. It would be to mislead the reader

to represent him, as some of his biographers have done, as the son

of a peasant, in the sense in which that term is applied in England.

His father and his ancestors, for several generations, had been small

landed proprietors; he himself received an education, and inherited a

property, which, however small, served as an incentive to ambition; and

though, like many others, he found the entrance of the road to fame

rugged and hard to tread, it must not be dissembled that his prudence

and perseverance were singularly aided by good fortune.

Having lost his mother before he was six weeks old, the care of his

infancy was intrusted to a step-mother; and he was still a lad when

his father likewise died. The guardians upon whom the superintendence

of his youth at first devolved, entertaining, apparently, but little

respect for intellectual pursuits, interrupted his studies; and his

maternal uncle, who succeeded them in this important trust, would seem

to have wanted the means, if he possessed the will, to direct the

course of a young man. Niebuhr was therefore left very much to his

own guidance, which, to a man of vigorous intellect, I am far from

regarding as a misfortune. The beginnings of life, however, like the

beginnings of day, are generally accompanied by mists which obscure the

view, and render it absolutely impossible to determine with precision

the character of the various paths which present themselves before us;

and thus it was that our traveller, who, knowing not that Providence

was about to conduct him to a brilliant destiny in the East, at one

time studied music, with the intention of becoming an organist, and was

afterward led, through accidental circumstances, to apply himself to

geometry, for the purpose of practising as a land-surveyor.

With this design he repaired, in his twenty-third year, to Bremen,

where he discovered a person from whom he might have derived the

necessary instruction; but finding that this individual’s domestic

economy was under the superintendence of two youthful sisters, whose

behaviour towards himself Niebuhr seems to have regarded as forward

and indecorous, he immediately quitted this city and proceeded to

Hamburgh. It will easily be conceived that the studies of a young man

who voluntarily cultivated his intellect as the only means by which

he could arrive at distinction, were pursued with ardent enthusiasm.

Niebuhr, in fact, considered labour and toil as the only guides

to genuine glory, and was content to tolerate on the way the rude

fierceness of their manners.

When he had studied the mathematics, during two years, under Büsch, he

removed to Göttingen, where he continued another year. At this period

the Danish ministry, at the suggestion of Michaelis, had projected

a scientific expedition into Arabia, which was at first designed,

at least by its originator, merely to throw some light upon certain

passages of the Old Testament, but which afterward embraced a much

wider field. Michaelis, to whom the choice of the individuals who were

to form this mission had been intrusted, betrayed the narrowness or

malignity of his mind, by neglecting the celebrated Reiske, who was

then well known to be struggling with starvation, in order to thrust

forward Von Haven, a pupil of his own, who, but for this partial

choice, would probably have lived and died in obscurity. Niebuhr

himself was recommended to Michaelis by Kästner, whose pupil he had

for some time been. The proposal was abruptly made, and as suddenly

accepted. “Have you a mind,” said Kästner, “to go into Arabia?”--“Why

not?” replied Niebuhr, “if anybody will pay my expenses.”--“The King

of Denmark,” said Kästner, “will pay your expenses.” He then entered

into the history of the Danish ministry’s project, and Niebuhr, whose

genuine ambition was most ardent, and who, though in manners modest

and unassuming, could not but entertain a favourable opinion of his

own capacity, at once engaged to form a member of the mission. It was

agreed, on the part of his Danish majesty, that he should be allowed

a year and a half for preparation, with a salary sufficient for his

maintenance.

Niebuhr had now a definite object. The East, with all its barbaric

pomp and historical glory, which in preceding and succeeding days

have kindled enthusiasm in so many bosoms, appeared to court his

examination; and, like a lover who appreciates at their highest value

the accomplishments of his mistress, and is bent on rendering himself

worthy of her, he thenceforward studied, with vehement earnestness,

all those branches of knowledge which he regarded as necessary to a

traveller in the East; and Latin, Arabic, the mathematics, drawing,

practical mechanics, together with the history of the countries he was

about to visit, amply occupied his hours. An additional half-year being

granted him, it was not until the Michaelmas of 1760 that he quitted

Göttingen for Copenhagen.

Here he was received in the most flattering manner by Count

Bernstorf, the Danish minister, by whom he was appointed lieutenant

of engineers. The rank of captain he modestly refused. Niebuhr was

never possessed by an immoderate desire for wealth, and a trait of

unpresuming disinterestedness which escaped him during his preparatory

studies is at once illustrative of this fact, and of another equally

important,--that wealth no less than fame is frequently best won by

carefully abstaining from grasping at it too eagerly. The salary

granted him by the King of Denmark was probably small, but our

traveller, with that repugnance to solicit which is characteristic

of superior minds, not only contrived to reduce his wants within the

limits of his means, but by rigid economy enabled himself, moreover,

to purchase at his own expense whatever instruments he needed. The

knowledge of this fact coming to the ears of the minister, he not only

reimbursed the young traveller the sum he had expended, but, as a mark

of the high satisfaction he derived from so striking an evidence of

honest independence, committed to his charge the travelling-chest of

the mission.

Niebuhr’s companions were four in number: Von Haven, the linguist, a

person of mean capacity; Forskaal, the naturalist, distinguished for

his numerous and profound acquirements; Cramer, a physician, devoid

even of professional knowledge; and Baurenfeind, an artist, not

destitute of talent, but ignorant, full of prejudices, and addicted to

the vulgar habit of drinking. Von Haven, to whom a long sea-voyage was

disagreeable, obtained permission to proceed to Marseilles by land;

and the ship in which the other members of the expedition embarked was

directed to take him on board at that port. They left the Sound on the

7th of January, 1761, but were three times driven back by contrary

winds; so that it was not until the 10th of March that they were

enabled fairly to put to sea, and continue their voyage.

Niebuhr describes, among the singular things observed during this

voyage, a white rainbow, which only differed from the common rainbow in

being destitute of colours. This, I believe, is a phenomenon not often

witnessed; but on the 21st of May, 1830, which succeeded a day and

night of tremendous thunder, lightning, and rain, I remember to have

myself seen a similar rainbow in Normandy. It was much thicker, but

greatly inferior in span, and less sharply defined at the edges than

the ordinary bow; and, as the morning mist upon which it was painted

grew thinner, the arch decreased in span, until it at length vanished

entirely.

Our traveller amused himself while on board in observing the manners

of the crew, which he considered manly though unpolished. He likewise

exercised himself daily in nautical and astronomical observations;

and by his affability and the extent of his knowledge, acquired and

preserved the respect of both officers and men. They discovered Cape

St. Vincent on the 21st of April, and a few days afterward entered the

Mediterranean, where their course was considerably retarded by calms

and contrary winds. Meanwhile the weather was beautiful, and their

eyes were refreshed with the most lovely prospects, now on the African

shores, and now on those of Europe. On the 14th of May they cast anchor

in the port of Marseilles, which was at that time crowded by Swedish,

Danish, Dutch, Spanish, and French ships, the greater number of which

were prevented from putting to sea by fear of the English fleets, which

scoured the Mediterranean, diffusing consternation and terror on all

sides.

From the agreeable society of Marseilles, rendered doubly charming in

their estimation by their previous privation, they were soon compelled

to snatch themselves away. On the 6th of June Niebuhr observed at sea

the transit of Venus, and on the 14th reached Malta. This little island

enjoys, like Ireland, the privilege of being free from serpents, which

it is supposed to owe to the interference of St. Paul; though Niebuhr

imagines that the dry and rocky nature of the soil is sufficient,

without a miracle, to account for the circumstance. The knights

observing, perhaps, a peculiar absence of bigotry in our traveller,

imagined that this indicated a leaning towards Catholicism, and

appear to have been desirous of tempting him by magnificent promises

to desert the creed of his forefathers. Though his stay in Malta was

very short, Niebuhr was careful to observe whatever curiosities the

island afforded: the great church of St. John, enriched, it is said, by

sharing the plunder of the knights, with innumerable ornaments, and a

prodigious candelabrum of gold; the hospital, where the sick, whatever

might be their medical treatment, were served with vessels of silver;

the immense corn-magazines, hewn out in the rock; the salt-mines; and

the catacombs. For some reason, however, which is not stated, he did

not see the Phenician inscription, which was still preserved in the

island.

In sailing from Malta to Smyrna he was attacked with dysentery, and

began to fear that his travels were to terminate there; but the

disorder was less serious than he imagined, and having reached Tenedos,

he embarked in a Turkish boat, and proceeded up the Dardanelles to

Constantinople. Here, though slowly, he recovered his health, and

having remained quiet two months, and provided oriental dresses, not

choosing to expose himself in the paltry costume of Europe to the

laughter of the populace, he set sail with his companions for Egypt.

On the way they landed at Rhodes, where, for the first time they

visited a Turkish eating-house. The dinner, though dear, was good, but

was served up in common earthen platters, in the open street. They

next visited a Jew, who kept wine for the accommodation of Europeans;

and had in his house two young women, whom he called his daughters,

who were probably designed for the same purpose. Their reception here

cost them still dearer than their Turkish dinner; and as Jews, wine,

and the drinkers of wine are held in contempt by all sincere and

respectable Mohammedans, this must be considered a highly injudicious

step in Niebuhr. The ship in which they sailed had on board a number

of female slaves, the principal of whom were lodged in a large chamber

directly over their cabin, from which we may infer that the Turks do

not, like the Burmese, consider it a disgrace to have women walking

over their heads. As there were tolerably wide cracks in the ceiling,

our travellers frequently enjoyed the pleasure of viewing these ladies,

who, though a little terrified at first, soon became accustomed to

their faces, and notwithstanding that neither party at all understood

the language of the other, many little presents of fruit and other

trifles were given and returned. The mode in which this affair was

conducted was ingenious. As soon as the Mohammedans collected together

for prayer, the girls gently tapped at their windows, and Niebuhr

and Forskaal, looking out of the cabin, beheld the handkerchiefs of

the fair held out for fruit. When filled, they were drawn up, and

the presents they chose to make in return were then lowered down in

the same way. During the voyage, six or eight persons having died

suddenly, it was suspected that they had the plague on board; but

Niebuhr imagined that other causes might have hastened the end of those

who died; at all events, none of the members of the expedition were

infected, though their physician had often visited the sick.

The land of Egypt at length appeared on the 26th of September, and

on the same day, late in the evening, they cast anchor in the port

of Alexandria. Norden, a scientific, but an uninteresting traveller,

having recently constructed a plan of the city, Niebuhr judged that

he might spare himself the pains of repeating the process, more

especially as the Arabs, hovering in troops in the vicinity, rendered

him apprehensive that he might be robbed. However, as the eminence on

which Pompey’s pillar stands overlooks a large portion of the city, he

amused himself with taking several angles from thence, intending to

follow this up by taking others from some other positions. While he was

thus engaged, one of the Turkish merchants, who happened to be present,

observing his telescope pointed towards the city, had the curiosity to

look through it, and was not a little alarmed at perceiving a tower

upside down. “This,” says he, “gave occasion to a rumour, that I was

come to Alexandria to turn the whole city topsyturvy. The report

reached the governor’s house. My janizary refused to accompany me

when I took out my instrument; and as I then supposed that a European

could not venture to appear in an eastern city without a janizary, I

relinquished the idea of making any further geometrical measurements

there.”--“On another occasion,” he continues, “when I was making an

astronomical observation on the southern point of the Delta, a very

civil and sensible peasant, from the village of Daraúe, happened to be

present. As I wished to show him something he had never seen before, I

pointed the telescope of the quadrant towards his village, on which he

was extremely terrified at seeing all the houses upside down. He asked

my servant what could be the cause of this. The man replied, that the

government, being extremely dissatisfied with the inhabitants of that

village, had sent me to overthrow it entirely. The poor peasant was

greatly afflicted, and entreated me to wait long enough for him to take

his wife, his children, and his cow to some place of safety. My servant

assured him he had two hours good. He immediately ran home, and as soon

as the sun had passed the meridian, I took my quadrant on board again.”

Niebuhr found a number of Mohammedans at Alexandria who understood

French, Swedish, and Danish as completely as if they had been born

in the countries where those languages are spoken. As most European

travellers proceed up the Nile from this city to Cairo, the members of

the expedition were desirous of performing the journey by land, but

were restrained by fear of the Arabs; and M. Forskaal, who afterward

ventured upon this hardy enterprise, was actually stripped to the

skin, and with great difficulty obtained back his breeches. Niebuhr

now hired a small ship, and embarked on the 31st of October, but was

detained in the Gulf of Aboukir by contrary winds. Impatient of delay,

his companions proceeded thence to Rosetta by land, with a company of

Turks; but our traveller continued his voyage, and reached the city

very shortly after them. Though the inhabitants of Rosetta enjoyed the

reputation of being peculiarly polite towards strangers, Niebuhr was

too impatient to behold the capital of modern Egypt to linger long in

any provincial city; he therefore hastened to ascend the Nile, and

enjoyed the romantic prospect of fertility, villages peeping through

groves of date-trees, and here and there vast wrecks of ancient cities,

which all travellers in that extraordinary country have admired. They

arrived at Cairo on the 10th of November.

The Nile, like the Ganges, has long been renowned for the daring race

of pirates who infest it. Bruce, and many other travellers, have

celebrated their ingenuity; but the following anecdote, related by

Niebuhr, exhibits their exquisite skill in a still more favourable

point of view: A pasha, recently arrived in Egypt, happening to

be encamped on the banks of the river, his servants, aware of the

dexterity of their countrymen, kept so strict a watch during the

night, that they detected one of the pirates, and brought him before

the pasha, who threatened to put him to death on the spot. The

prisoner, however, entreated permission to show the pasha one of the

extraordinary tricks of his art, in the hope of thereby inducing him to

spare his life. The permission was granted. The man then took up the

pasha’s garments, and whatever else he found in the tent, and having

tied them up into a packet, as the Egyptians do when they are about to

swim across a river, made several turns before the company to amuse

them. He then insensibly approached the Nile, and darting into the

water like lightning, had already reached the opposite shore, with the

pasha’s garments upon his head, before the Turks could get ready their

muskets to fire at him.

Niebuhr was exceedingly desirous, soon after his arrival at Cairo, of

descending the eastern branch of the Nile to Damietta; but the sky

during the whole winter and spring was so overcast with clouds, and the

rain fell so frequently, that it was impossible to take astronomical

observations. On the 1st of May, however, the weather having cleared

up, he left Cairo. The wind blowing from the north, their progress

was slow, and he had therefore considerable leisure for observation.

The Coptic churches amused him much. In one of these he saw pictures

representing Christ, the Virgin, and several saints, on horseback;

intended, perhaps, to insinuate to their Mohammedan masters, that the

founder of their religion and his followers had not been compelled,

as Christians then were in Egypt, to ride upon asses. These churches,

moreover, were strewed with so many crutches, that a stranger might

conclude, upon observing them, that the whole Coptic community had lost

the use of their limbs; however, upon inquiry, our traveller discovered

that it was the custom among them to stand in church, which many

persons found so wearisome that they resolved to aid their piety with

crutches. The floors were covered with mats, which, not being changed

very frequently, swarmed with fleas, numbers of which did our traveller

the honour to prefer him before any of their ancient patrons. In

approaching Damietta he saw about twenty large boats loaded with bees:

each of these boats carried two hundred hives; the number, therefore,

of the hives here assembled in one spot, was four thousand; and when

the inhabitants of this floating city issued forth to visit the flowers

of the neighbourhood, they must have appeared like a locust cloud.

His stay at Damietta, which is about four miles above the mouth of the

Nile, was short. Europeans are nowhere in the East so much detested, on

account, chiefly, of the profligate character of the French formerly

settled there, who, having debauched several Mohammedan women, were

nearly all massacred by the infuriated populace. Niebuhr’s fancy

that they still remember the crusades, and hate the Franks for the

evils those insane expeditions inflicted on their ancestors, is just

as rational as if the English people were to be supposed to nourish

resentment against all the northern nations, because their barbarous

ancestors made piratical descents upon our coasts.

While at Cairo he could not, of course, resist the desire of visiting

the Pyramids. He therefore hired two Bedouin guides, and proceeded with

his friend Forskaal towards the desert, where they were encountered by

a young sheïkh, who, by dint of bravado and insolence, succeeded in

extorting from them a small sum of money; but had they, when he first

offered his services, bestowed upon him half a crown, he would not only

have given them no further molestation, but would have constituted

himself their protector against all other importunates. Niebuhr

afterward returned under more favourable auspices, and completed the

measurement of the two great pyramids, the loftier of which he found to

be 443 feet, and the second to be 403 feet high. I shall hereafter,

perhaps, have occasion to remark upon the strange discrepancies which

are found between the measurements of various travellers, which are, in

fact, so great, that we must suspect some of them, at least, of having

wanted the knowledge required by such an undertaking. From considering

the petrifactions and the nature of the rocks in this neighbourhood,

Niebuhr was led to infer the prodigious antiquity of Egypt: “Supposing

the whole of the rocks in the northern portions of the country to be

composed of petrifactions of a certain kind of shell, how many years,”

says he, “must have elapsed before a sufficient number of little snails

to raise mountains to their present height could have been born and

died! How many other years before Egypt could have been drained and

become solid, supposing that, in those remote ages, the waters retired

from the shore as slowly as they have during the last ten centuries!

How many years still, before the country was sufficiently peopled to

think of erecting the first pyramid! How many more years, before that

vast multitude of pyramids which are still found in the country could

have been constructed! Considering that at the present day we are

ignorant of when, and by whom, even the most modern of them was built.”

On the 26th of August, 1762, Niebuhr and his companions set out with

the caravan going from Cairo to Suez: the rest of the party, in spite

of the Mohammedans, mounted on horseback, and Niebuhr himself on a

dromedary. By this means he avoided several evils to which the others

were liable. Seated on his mattress he could turn his face now on one

side, now on another, to avoid the heat of the sun; and, after having

travelled all day, was no more fatigued in the evening than if he had

been all the while reposing in a chair; while the horsemen, compelled

to remain perpetually in the same posture, were well-nigh exhausted. On

the 30th they encamped near a well of good water, mentioned by Belin,

Pietro Della Valle, and Pococke, close to which the Turks formerly

erected a castle, which was now in ruins, and in three hours more

arrived at the wells of Suez, which were surrounded by a strong wall,

to keep out the Arabs, and entered by a door fastened with enormous

clumps of iron. The water here was drawn up with buckets or sacks of

leather.

Suez, from its fortunate position on the Red Sea, carried on a

considerable trade. Numbers of ships were built there annually, the

materials of which were transported thither on the backs of camels from

Cairo. The environs consist of naked rocks, or beds of loose sand, in

which nothing but brambles and a few dry stunted plants, among others

the rose of Jericho, are found to grow. This rose is employed by the

women of the East in various superstitious practices, and is therefore

to be found for sale in all cities. When pregnant, they gather one of

the buds, and putting its stem in water, foretel whether their pains

will be severe or slight from the greater or smaller development of the

flower.

Niebuhr’s first inquiry on arriving at Suez was concerning the

“Mountain of Inscriptions,” about which so much had been said in

Europe. The individuals to whom his first questions were put had never

even heard of it; others, who were exactly in the same predicament,

but desired to possess themselves of a little of their European gold,

professed a most accurate knowledge of the spot, but upon inquiry

were detected. At length, however, an Arab was discovered, from whose

replies it was clear, that whether he had seen the real _Gebel el

Mokatteb_ or not, some mountain or another he had beheld, upon which

inscriptions in an unknown language were to be found. Under this man’s

guidance, therefore, they placed themselves,--that is, Niebuhr and

Von Haven, for the rest were, from various causes, detained at Suez;

and leaving the Red Sea on their right-hand, they struck off into the

desert.

As I have given a description of this part of Arabia in the life of

Dr. Shaw, it will not be necessary here to repeat what I then said.

Niebuhr found that the Arabs, whose profession it is to serve as

guides, were distinguished, like all other persons of that class,

for their extravagant cupidity. So long as they could live at the

expense of strangers their own provisions and means were assiduously

spared; but on other occasions they exhibited various symptoms that

the old national virtue of hospitality was not wholly banished from

their minds. The women in this part of Arabia are not in the habit of

concealing their faces from strangers, as is the fashion in Egypt.

Niebuhr, in his solitary rambles through the country, discovered the

wife and sister of a sheïkh grinding corn beside their tent; who,

instead of flying and concealing themselves at his approach, as he

seems to have expected, came forward, according to the good old custom

of the East, with a present in their hands.

On arriving at what his guides called the “Mountain of Inscriptions,” a

lofty rugged eminence, which it cost them much time and toil to climb,

he found--not what he had expected--but a vast Egyptian cemetery,

in which were a great number of sepulchral monuments, covered with

hieroglyphics. These inscriptions he was not permitted to copy at the

time, because the sheïkh of the mountain apprehended he might thereby

gain possession of the immense treasures concealed beneath; but one of

his guides, who probably had little faith in that point of the sheïkh’s

creed, afterward, on his return from Mount Sinai, enabled him to copy

whatever he pleased. On his arrival at the convent of St. Catherine

the monks politely refused to admit him, alleging, as their excuse,

that he had not brought along with him a letter from their bishop. The

patriarch’s letter, which he presented to them, they returned unopened.

He was, in fact, destined to meet with nothing but disappointment in

these celebrated regions; for his Arabs, having conducted him up to

a certain height on Mount Sinai, refused to proceed any farther, and

he was not possessed of sufficient resolution to ascend the remainder

alone.

Niebuhr now hastened back to Suez, and on his return forded the Red Sea

on his dromedary, a thing which no European had done before, though the

guides, who were on foot, did not find the water above knee deep. Being

desirous of surveying the extremity of the Arabian Gulf, he procured

a guide soon after his return from Mount Sinai, with whom he set out

upon this expedition. They travelled, however, in constant fear; and

the sight of a stranger in the distance increased the terrors of the

guide to so extraordinary a pitch, that I suspect he had blood upon his

hands, and dreaded the hour of retribution.

The constant arrival of pilgrims from Egypt had now rendered Suez, in

proportion to its extent, more populous than Cairo. These holy men,

being on their way to the city of their prophet, regarded Christians

with an evil eye, just as a bigoted Franciscan travelling to Jerusalem

would regard a heretic or an unbeliever; and on this account Niebuhr

greatly dreaded the voyage he was about to perform in their company

from Suez to Jidda. To avoid, as far as possible, all causes of dispute

with their fellow-passengers, they embarked several days before the

rest, paid their passage, stowed away their luggage, and then amused

themselves with observing the strange characters by which they were

surrounded, not the least extraordinary of which was a rich black

eunuch, who, in imitation of the great Turkish lords, travelled with

his harem.

All the passengers having at length repaired on board, they set sail

on the 9th of October, and sailing along coral reefs, which in bad

weather are highly dangerous, they arrived next day at Tor. Near this

town is a small village inhabited by Christians, to which Forskaal

went alone, for the purpose of visiting what is supposed to be the

site of ancient Elim. While he was absent it was rumoured on board

that the Arabs had formed the intention of pursuing and arresting the

Frank, who had landed with the design of sketching their mountains;

upon which a number of janizaries from Cairo, who happened to be on

board, immediately set out for the village, and having met with M.

Forskaal, conducted him back in safety to the vessel. “Are there many

Christians,” inquires Niebuhr, “who, under similar circumstances, would

do as much for a Jew?”

On the evening of the 16th of October they discovered, about sunset,

the Emerald Mountains on the coast of Egypt, called _Gebel Zumrud_ by

the Arabs. Next day there happened an eclipse of the sun. In Mohammedan

countries persons who are able to calculate an eclipse are regarded as

consummate physicians. Forskaal had informed the reis, or captain, that

an eclipse was about to take place; and to amuse him and keep him from

interrupting his astronomical observations, Niebuhr had smoked several

glasses, through which he, as well as the principal merchants, might

contemplate the phenomenon. They were all greatly amused, and from that

moment Forskaal enjoyed the reputation of being a second Avicenna. From

a spirit of humane complaisance, which induces us to allow every one an

opportunity of exhibiting his peculiar talents, men are exceedingly apt

to fall ill when they come in contact with a physician. Our traveller’s

Mohammedan companions were particularly polite in this way; for no

sooner had they persuaded themselves that there was a physician on

board than they all discovered that they were attacked by diseases

which had previously lain dormant, and confidingly demanded medicines

and advice. Forskaal prescribed for all. To the majority he recommended

more or less sleep, and a careful attention to their diet. A pilgrim

at length presented himself who complained that he was unable to see

during the night. The physician advised him to light a candle. This

was excellent. The Arabs, who are naturally lively, burst into a loud

laugh, and all their diseases were forgotten in a moment.

Between Ras Mohammed and Hassâni the ship was twice in danger of

being set on fire by the negligence of the women; but at length they

reached this small island in safety, and the Mohammedans, believing

the principal danger to be now over, exhibited various tokens of joy,

firing muskets and pistols, illuminating the ship with lamps and

lanterns, and uttering the triumphant cry of _Be, be, be!_ so commonly

used by the orientals. The sailors and the pilot petitioned for a

present, the former coming round to each passenger with a little boat

in their hands, which, when the collection was over, was thrown into

the sea. During this passage Niebuhr, who, up to his arrival at Suez,

had scarcely seen the face of a Mohammedan woman, had an opportunity

of viewing three or four of them naked in a bath; and his indiscreet

curiosity very fortunately entailed upon him no evil consequences.

On the 29th of October they arrived at Jidda, where the usual attempts

were made to defraud the custom-house. In this praiseworthy design some

succeeded to the extent of their desires; but others, less adroit, or

more unfortunate, were detected and compelled to pay the duties, no

such atrocity as the confiscation of the whole property being ever

practised. A duty of two or two and a half _per cent._ being levied

upon all specie, people were most anxious to conceal their wealth: but

by endeavouring to effect this, one of Niebuhr’s companions suffered

severely; for in stepping from the ship into the boat, his purse,

which he had tied round his body, opened accidentally, and about a

hundred crowns fell into the sea. The common cash of the expedition was

conveyed on shore in the bottoms of their boxes of drugs, which were

not searched, it being in Arabia a general opinion that physicians,

having no need of money, seldom carry any about with them.

Niebuhr had observed in Egypt that the populace looked with

inexpressible contempt upon Christians, and thence inferred that in

proportion as they approached the Holy City they should find this

inhospitable bigotry on the increase; but his apprehensions were

unfounded, for the people of Jidda, long accustomed to the sight of

Europeans, and constantly experiencing the humanizing influence of

commerce, were peculiarly refined, allowing strangers to do almost what

they pleased. It was merely forbidden them to approach the Mecca gate;

which, like the city to which it leads, is reputed holy. Our traveller,

during his residence at Cairo, had formed an acquaintance with a poor

sheïkh, who, for a Mohammedan, might be said to be as highly favoured

by science as he was neglected by fortune; and this man, in gratitude

for the knowledge he had derived from him, besides furnishing him

with letters of recommendation to the Kihaya and Pasha of Jidda, had

privately written to those important personages, who had honoured him

for his knowledge, earnestly requesting them to show every possible

mark of kindness and attention to his European friends. These were the

letters from which they had least expectations, and presented last;

nevertheless, when the recommendations of all their other friends

had failed even to procure them a lodging, those of the poor sheïkh

introduced them to powerful protectors. Niebuhr was here witness of the

curious mode of catching wild ducks noticed by Pococke in Upper Egypt,

and by another English traveller in China. When a number of these birds

were observed in the water, the sportsman undressed, covered his head

with seaweed, and then crept quietly into the water. By this means the

ducks were deceived, so that they allowed the man to come near and

catch them by the legs.

They remained at Jidda until the 14th of December, when they embarked

in one of the country vessels for Loheia. Niebuhr was not possessed

of the art of painting what he saw with the fine colours of language.

His narrative is frequently dry even to insipidity. He was observant,

he was calm, he was judicious, but he was destitute of eloquence, and

this deficiency is nowhere in his works more strongly felt than in his

account of his various voyages through the Red Sea. On the 22d they

landed on the coast of Yemen, near Fej el Jelbe, inhabited by Bedouins,

who are suspected of being pagans. A few tents were discovered on the

shore, and as soon as the travellers had landed, which they did unarmed

lest they should be taken for enemies, several of the wild natives

came down to meet them. Their appearance and dress were extraordinary.

Their dark hair descended in profusion to their shoulders; and instead

of a turban, several of them had merely a cord tied round the head,

intended, I imagine, to keep their tresses in order. Others, more

careful and industrious, had woven themselves a kind of bonnet with

green palm-leaves. A miserable waist-cloth constituted the whole of

their dress. From the eagerness of the sailors to get their lances out

of their hands they immediately discovered that they were suspected;

upon which they cast the weapons on the ground, assuring the strangers

that they had nothing to fear. Notwithstanding that they had landed in

search of provisions the Bedouins conducted them to their tents, where

two women came out to meet them. Their salutation was curious. The

women, who were unveiled, kissed the arm of the sheïkh, who, in return,

pressed their heads with his lips. The ladies then advanced towards

the strangers. Their complexion was sallow brown, they had blackened

their eyelids with surme, and died their nails with henne; and, like

the lower ranks of women in Egypt, exhibited marks of tattooing on the

chin, cheeks, and forehead. Cosmetics being rare in those countries,

they requested our travellers to favour them with a small quantity of

kohol and al henne; but they had injudiciously neglected to provide

themselves with any thing of the kind, and consequently saw themselves

in the disagreeable predicament of being compelled to refuse.

On their arrival at Loheia they were received with remarkable

politeness by the emir and the chief merchants of the city. They

had taken the small vessel in which they performed the voyage for a

longer passage as far as Hodeida; and the captain, understanding that

they had some intention of remaining at Loheia, secretly applied to

the emir with a request that he would compel them to complete their

engagement, either by proceeding all the way to Hodeida, or by paying

the whole sum agreed upon. With a generosity not often displayed

towards utter strangers by men in office, the emir replied, that should

the travellers refuse payment of the sum in question, he himself would

satisfy his demands; and the principal merchant to whom the suspicious

navigator also applied entered into the same engagement. Of course they

were not allowed to suffer by their grateful and astonished guests.

The above merchant, in his eastern style of hospitality, gave them a

house to live in during their stay. In return the travellers amused him

and the emir with the effects of their microscopes, telescopes, &c.

These things filled them with wonder; crowds of people, curious but

well-behaved, thronged their court from morning till night, examining

with attention whatever they saw, and expressing their astonishment

at every thing. This was too much for Danish politeness. They hired a

porter, and stationing him at their door, gave strict orders that none

but professional men should be admitted. But the curiosity of the Arabs

was not to be subdued so easily; for, when all other excuses failed,

they feigned illness, and gained admittance under pretence of coming

to consult the physician. Sometimes Dr. Cramer, who appears to have

been an uncouth creature, was requested to favour sick persons with a

visit at their own houses, and one day received a pressing entreaty to

repair without delay to the _emir el bahr_, or captain of the port,

who had need of consulting him. Cramer, not attending to this summons

immediately, was shortly afterward informed that the _emir el bahr’s_

saddle-horse was at the door waiting for him. This piece of attention

was too flattering to be resisted; he therefore descended immediately,

and was about to put his foot into the stirrup, when he was interrupted

with the information that the horse was unwell, and had been brought

there as a patient! Physicians in Arabia prescribe for horses as well

as men; this, therefore, was not meant as an insult; but Cramer, who

felt all his Danish blood curdle in his veins at the bare idea of

prescribing for a Mohammedan horse, and was, moreover, mortified at not

being allowed to mount his patient, indignantly refused to exercise

the functions of a horse-doctor. Luckily, however, their European

servant, who had served in a dragoon regiment, understood something of

the veterinary art, and undertook the cure of the emir’s horse; which

succeeding happily, he also was regarded as an eminent physician, and

was allowed to elevate his ambition to the treatment of men.

As our travellers continued, as far as possible, to live after the

European fashion, their manners were necessarily as much an object of

curiosity to the Arabs as those of the Arabs were to them. One day two

young men came to see them eat. Of these, the one was a young nobleman

from Sana, whose gentle manners announced a superior education; the

other a young chief from the mountains, whose country was seldom

visited by strangers. This the _naïveté_ and simplicity of his manners

soon rendered manifest. Upon being invited to eat, he replied, “God

preserve me from eating with infidels, who have no belief in God!”

Niebuhr then demanded the name of his country; “What,” said he, “can

my country concern thee? Hast thou formed the design of going thither

to subdue it?” He afterward made several remarks upon their manners,

the simplicity of which excited their laughter; at which the Arab

felt ashamed, and ran away in confusion. His companion fetched him

back, however, and he returned, wondering at the amazing quantity of

food which they devoured. Fowl after fowl disappeared before these

mighty eaters; the poor Arab, who began to entertain awful ideas of

the capacity of a German stomach, and apprehending that they might

bring about a famine in the land, for a while looked on in silent

amazement; but when they had already eaten as much as would, perhaps,

have satisfied a whole tribe of Bedouins, he started up, upon seeing

Von Haven preparing to carve yet another fowl, and seizing him by the

arm, exclaimed, “How much, then, dost thou intend to eat?” This sally

produced still louder peals of laughter than ever, and the poor Arab,

who probably apprehended that they might finish by eating him, rushed

out of the house and disappeared.

Having sufficiently observed whatever was interesting or new at Loheia,

they departed thence on the 20th of February, 1763, their servants and

baggage mounted on camels, and themselves on asses. Not that Europeans

were here, as at Cairo, prohibited from riding on horseback, but that

horses were dear and not easily to be hired, while the asses, though

comparatively cheap, were large fine animals, of easy gait. Arabia, it

is well known, is surrounded by a belt of burning sand, which has in

all ages aided in protecting it from invasion. This our travellers had

now to traverse, but they suffered no particular inconvenience from the

heat, and in four days arrived at _Beit el Fakih_, the greatest coffee

emporium in the world.

Niebuhr, being now in a country where travelling was attended with

no risk, and desiring, apparently, to escape from the society of

his companions, hired an ass, and set out alone on an excursion to

several neighbouring towns. This was succeeded by several other

excursions, and at length he proceeded to the Coffee Mountains, a

district which offers, perhaps, as many curious particulars to the

observation of a traveller as any spot in Asia. These mountains could

be ascended only on foot. The road, though rugged and broken, lay

through coffee plantations and gardens, and to Niebuhr, who had just

quitted the burning plains of the Tehama, afforded the most exquisite

gratification. The prospects, moreover, which here meet the eye on all

sides are rich and beautiful. They are precisely what the hills of

Judea must have been before Sion had been profaned by the heathen, when

every man, confident in the protection of the Lord, sat down tranquilly

under his vine or under his fig-tree. The small chain of hills, called

the Côte d’Or, which traverses nearly the whole of Burgundy from north

to south, and is covered with vineyards to the summit, may probably

represent to a European eye the ridge of the Coffee Mountains, except

that the latter have necessarily a more woody appearance, and are

beautified by numerous mountain streams, which frequently leap in long

cascades from the rocks. The coffee-tree, which was at this time in

full flower in many places, diffuses around an agreeable odour, and

somewhat resembles the Spanish jasmin. The Arabs plant these trees so

close that the rays of the sun can scarcely find their way between

them, which prevents the necessity of frequent watering; but they have

reservoirs on the heights from which they can, when necessary, turn

numerous streamlets into the plantations.

From the Coffee Mountains they returned to Beit el Fakih, whence they

shortly afterward departed on another short excursion. The natives, who

carefully abstained from exposing themselves to the sun during the heat

of the day, expressed their well-grounded astonishment that Europeans

should be imprudent enough to hazard so dangerous a step; and our

travellers were, in reality, at this very time laying the foundation of

those fatal diseases which shortly afterward swept them away, Niebuhr

only excepted; for I am persuaded that they might have returned, even

in spite of their execrable diet and destructive habits of drinking,

to brave the climate of Yemen, had they timed their journeys more

judiciously.

By this time their appearance was tolerably oriental; the sun had

bronzed their countenances, their beards had acquired a respectable

length, their dress was exactly that of the country, and they had,

moreover, adopted Arabic names. Even their guides no longer took them

for Europeans, but supposed them to be members of the eastern church,

who by forbidden studies had succeeded in discovering the art of making

gold, and were searching among the lonely recesses of their mountains

for some rare plant whose juices were requisite in their alchymical

processes. Niebuhr’s assiduous observation of the stars considerably

aided in strengthening this delusion, which upon the whole, perhaps,

was rather beneficial to them than otherwise.

In the hilly districts of Yemen our traveller observed among the

Arabs a peculiar mode of passing the night. Instead of making use

of a bed, each individual crept entirely naked into a sack, where,

without closing the mouth of it, the breath and transpiration kept him

sufficiently warm. Niebuhr himself never tried the sack, but very soon

acquired the habit, which is universal among the Arabs of Yemen, of

sleeping with the face covered, to guard against the malignant effects

of the dews and poisonous winds. Here M. Forskaal discovered the small

tree that produces the balm of Mecca, which happening to be in flower

at the time enabled him to write a complete description of it, which he

did seated under its branches. The inhabitants, who knew nothing of its

value, merely made use of it as firewood, on account of its agreeable

odour.

Upon descending from these mountainous countries, where the climate

is as cool and salubrious as in most parts of Europe, Niebuhr found

the heat of the Tehama almost insupportable, and entering a little

coffee-house, overwhelmed with fatigue, threw himself on his mat in

a current of air, and fell asleep. This heedless action nearly cost

him his life. He awoke in a violent fever, which hung about him for a

considerable time, and reduced his frame to such an extreme state of

weakness that the slightest exertion became painful. Von Haven, too,

whose supreme delight consisted in brandy, wine, and good eating, and

who seldom quitted his sofa, except for the purpose of placing himself

before his gods at the dinner-table, now began to experience the

impolicy of feeding like an ogre in the deserts of the Tehama, and very

quickly fell a victim to his imprudence.

From Beit el Fakih they proceeded to Mokha, where, as at Cairo,

Europeans were compelled to enter the city by a particular gate,

on foot, as a mark of humiliation. Niebuhr found that he and his

companions were here taken for Turks, and they were accordingly

directed to the khan, or inn, where the Osmanlis usually took up

their abode. Though they understood that there was an English merchant

at Mokha, they judged it unnecessary, in the first instance, to make

application to him, as they had everywhere else in Yemen been received

with politeness and hospitality; and besides, they were somewhat

apprehensive that, from their dress and appearance, he might be led

to regard them as vagabonds or renegades. They therefore addressed

themselves to an Arab merchant, by whom they were well received.

The people of Mokha made some pretensions to civilization, which is

unfortunate, as the term, at least in the East, means custom-house

officers, and insolence towards strangers. Our travellers, though no

merchants, had large quantities of baggage, which, of course, was taken

to the custom-house, before they could be allowed to enjoy the use

of it. I have already observed, that although Niebuhr himself was a

temperate, perhaps even an abstemious man, his companions set a high

value on the gratification of their senses. Von Haven himself, who,

as I have already observed, shortly afterward fell a victim to his

indiscretion, was still among them, and it may therefore be easily

imagined that the first articles they were desirous of obtaining from

the custom-house were their cooking utensils and their beds. The

Arabs, however, were differently minded. They allowed their curiosity

to fasten upon the cases in which the natural history specimens were

packed, and resolved to begin with them. Among these, unfortunately,

there was a small barrel containing various fish of the Red Sea,

preserved in spirits of wine. This M. Forskaal, who had collected

these fishes himself, injudiciously requested the officers to allow to

pass unopened. The request immediately roused all their suspicions.

He might, for aught they knew, be a magician, who had confined the

Red Sea itself in that barrel, for the purpose of carrying it off,

with all its fishes, into Europe. It behooved them, therefore, to

bestir themselves. Accordingly the barrel was the first thing opened;

but when the operation had been performed, the result anticipated by

the naturalist was produced, for so pungent, so atrocious a stink

was emitted from the half-putrefied fish, that the authorities very

probably apprehended them to be a troop of assassins, commissioned

by the devil to administer perdition through the nostrils to all

true believers. The custom-house officer, however, confiding in the

protection of the Prophet, determined to brave the infernal odour, and

in order to explore the abomination to the bottom, took out the horrid

remains of the fish, and stirred up the liquor with a piece of iron.

The entreaties of the travellers to have it put on one side probably

caused them to be regarded as ghouls, who made their odious repasts

upon such foul preparations. The Arab still stirred and stirred, and at

length in an inauspicious moment upset the cask, and deluged the whole

custom-house with its contents. Had Mohammed himself been boiled in

this liquid, it could not have smelt more execrably; we may therefore

easily imagine the disgust with which the grave assembly beheld it

flowing under their beards, infecting them with a scent which it would

take several dirrhems’ worth of perfume to remove. Their ill-humour

was increased when, on opening another cask, containing insects, their

nostrils were again saluted with a fresh variety of stink, which they

inferred must possess peculiar charms for the nose of a Frank, since

he would travel so far to procure himself the enjoyment of its savour.

An idea now began to suggest itself to the Arabs, which still further

irritated them, which was, that the insolent Franks had packed up

these odious things in order to insult the governor of the city, at

the expense of whose beard, it was not doubted, they intended to amuse

themselves. This persuasion was fatal to many a cockleshell. They

mercilessly thrust down a pointed iron bar through the collections,

crushing shells, and beetles, and spiders. The worst stroke of all,

however, was yet to come. This was the opening of a small cask, in

which several kinds of serpents were preserved in spirits. Everybody

was now terrified. It was suggested that the Franks had no doubt come

to the city for the purpose of poisoning the inhabitants, and had

represented themselves as physicians in order to commit their horrid

crimes the more effectually. Even the governor was now moved. In fact,

his anger was roused to such a pitch, that, though a grave and pious

man, he exclaimed, “By God, these people shall not pass the night in

our city!” The custom-house was then closed.

While they were in this perplexity, one of their servants arrived in

great hurry and confusion, with the news that their books and clothes

had been thrown out through the window at their lodgings, and the door

shut against them. They moreover found, upon inquiry, that it would

be difficult to discover any person who would receive into his house

individuals suspected of meditating the poisoning of the city; but at

length a man bold enough to undertake this was found. Such was their

position when they received from the English merchant above alluded to

an invitation to dinner. “Never,” says Niebuhr, “was an invitation more

gladly accepted; for we not only found at his house a dinner such as we

had never seen since our departure from Cairo, but had at the same time

the good fortune to meet with a man who became our sincere and faithful

friend. The affair of the custom-house was long and tedious; but at

length, by dint of bribery and perseverance, their baggage, snakes

and all, was delivered to them, and they even rose, in consequence

of a cure attempted by M. Cramer on the governor’s leg, into high

consideration and favour.”

Niebuhr was here again attacked by dysentery, and Von Haven died.

This event inspired the whole party with terror, and having with

much difficulty obtained the governor’s permission, they shortly

afterward departed for the interior. They travelled by night, to escape

the extreme heat of the sun, but soon found the roads so bad as to

render this mode of journeying impracticable. The country during the

early part of their route was barren, and but thinly inhabited; but

in proportion as they departed from the shore the landscape improved

in beauty and fertility. At the small city of Jerim, on the road to

Sana, Niebuhr had the misfortune to lose his friend Forskaal, the best

Arabic scholar of the whole party, and a man who looked forward with

enthusiasm to the glory to be derived from the successful termination

of their travels. The bigotry of the Mohammedans rendered it difficult

to obtain a place of burial for the dead, who was interred in the

European fashion; which, immediately after their departure, caused the

Arabs, who imagine that Europeans bury treasures with their dead, to

exhume the body. Finding nothing to reward their pains, they compelled

the Jews to reinter him; and as these honest people complained that

they were likely to have no remuneration for their labour, the governor

allowed them to take the coffin in payment, and restore the body naked

to the earth.

On the 17th of July, 1763, they arrived in the environs of Sana, and

sent forward a servant with a letter, announcing their arrival to the

chief minister of the imam. This statesman, however, who had previously

received tidings of their approach, and was desirous of receiving

them with true Arab politeness, had already despatched one of his

secretaries to meet them at the distance of half a league from the

city. This gentleman informed them that they had been long expected

at Sana, and that, in order to render their stay agreeable, the imam

had assigned them a country-house at _Bir el Assab_. While they were

conversing with the secretary, and secretly congratulating themselves

on their good fortune, they arrived at the entrance into their garden,

where the Arab desired them to alight. They of course obeyed, but soon

discovered that their guide had played them a trick in the manner of

the people of Cairo, for he remained on his ass during the rest of

the way, which was considerable, enjoying the pleasure of beholding a

number of Franks toiling along on foot beside his beast. This put them

out of humour, and their spleen was increased when, on arriving at

their villa, they found that, however elegant or agreeable it might be,

it did not contain a single article of furniture, or a person who would

provide them even with bread and water.

Next day, however, they received from the imam a present of five sheep,

three camel-loads of wood, a large quantity of wax-tapers, rice, and

spices. At the same time they were informed that two days at least

would elapse before they could obtain an audience, a matter about which

they were indifferent; but that they could not in the mean time quit

their house. Though considerably chagrined at the latter circumstance,

they hoped in some measure to neutralize its effects, by receiving

the visits of such natives as curiosity, or any other motive, might

allure to the house; and accordingly were very much gratified at the

appearance of a Jew, who had performed in their company the journey

from Cairo to Loheia. This young Israelite, delighted to spend a

few moments in the company of persons who received him without any

demonstrations of contempt, appeared to experience a gratification in

obliging them; and came on the second day accompanied by one of the

most celebrated astrologers of his sect, from whom Niebuhr learned the

Hebrew appellations of several stars. While he was yet conversing with

this learned descendant of Abraham, the secretary of the imam arrived.

They were ignorant of the etiquette of the court of Sana, according to

which they should have abstained from receiving as well as from paying

visits; but the secretary, whose business it was to have instructed

them on these points, doubly enraged by their infraction of the rules

of decorum, and by a sense of his own negligence, directed all the

violence of his fury against the unfortunate Jews, whose society he

imagined must have been equally disagreeable to the travellers as it

would have been to him. He therefore not only expelled them from the

house, but, in order to protect the imam’s guests from a repetition

of the same intrusion, gave peremptory orders to their Mohammedan

attendant to admit no person whatever until they should have obtained

their audience.

Two days after their arrival they were admitted into the presence of

the imam. It is probable that, having previously formed an exalted

idea of the splendour of oriental princes, the reader will be liable

to disappointment on the present occasion. The riches and magnificence

of the califs, however, of which we find so many glowing descriptions

in the Thousand and One Nights, in D’Herbelot, and many other writers,

have long passed away, leaving to the successors of those religious

monarchs nothing but remembrance of ancient glory, which gleams like a

meteoric light about their throne and diadem. Niebuhr, arriving at Sana

from the sandy deserts of the Tehama, where poverty reigns paramount

over every thing, enjoyed the advantage of possessing an imagination

sobered by stern realities. His fancy depicted the court of the imam in

the livery of the desert. He expected little. If he was disappointed,

therefore, it was not disagreeably.

The imam, with a vanity pardonable enough in a prince who learns from

his cradle to estimate his own greatness by the pomp and glitter

which surround him, had in fact employed the two days elapsed since

the arrival of his guests in active preparations for their reception;

and the rules of etiquette forbidding strangers to pay or receive

visits during the interval, were originally intended to conceal this

circumstance, and create the belief that the holyday appearance of

the court was its ordinary costume. Our travellers were conducted to

the palace by the minister’s secretary, who here performed what is

called the mehmandar’s office in Persia. They found the great court

of the edifice thronged with horses, officers, and other Arabs of

various grades; so that it required the ministry of the imam’s grand

equerry to open them a way through the crowd. The hall of audience was

a spacious square apartment, vaulted above, and having on its centre

several fountains of water, which, gushing aloft to a considerable

height, and falling again incessantly, maintained a refreshing coolness

in the air. A broad divan, adorned with fine Persian carpets, occupied

the extremity of the hall, and flanked the throne, which was merely

covered with silken stuffs, and rich cushions. Here the imam sat

cross-legged, according to the custom of the East. He received the

travellers graciously, allowed them to kiss the hem of his garment, and

the back and palm of his hand--an honour which is but sparingly granted

to strangers. At the conclusion of this ceremony a herald cried aloud,

“God save the imam!” and all the people repeated the same words. As

their knowledge of Arabic was still very limited, they conversed with

the imam by means of an interpreter, a contrivance admirably adapted

for shortening public conferences, since there are few persons who,

under such circumstances, would be disposed to indulge in useless

circumlocution.

The result of this audience was, that they obtained the prince’s

permission to remain in the country as long as they desired; and on

their retiring, a small present in money was sent them, which they

judiciously determined to accept. In the afternoon of the same day

they were invited to the minister’s villa, where Niebuhr exhibited

his mathematical instruments, his microscopes, books, engravings, &c.;

at the sight of which Fakih Achmed expressed the highest satisfaction.

From the various questions which he put to them, they discovered,

moreover, that he himself was a man of very considerable knowledge,

particularly in geography; while from his constant intercourse with

foreigners his manners had acquired an ease and gracefulness which

rendered his company highly pleasing. Nevertheless, Niebuhr, who feared

that the cupidity of this minister, or of some other courtier, might be

excited by the sight of his instruments, regretted to perceive these

tokens of curiosity, and the necessity he was under of satisfying it;

but his suspicions, which appear to have been as unfounded as they

were illiberal, were not of long duration, for no man demanded of him

any part of his property, or seemed to regard it with covetousness.

He, in fact, learned shortly afterward that even the presents which it

was judged necessary to make both to the imam and his minister were

altogether unexpected, since they were not merchants, and demanded no

favours of prince or courtiers.

Niebuhr confesses that the reception which he and his companions met

with at Sana was marked by a degree of civility and friendship that

far surpassed their expectations. The Arabs would seem, indeed, to

have derived so much gratification from their society, that it is

more than probable they would willingly have made some sacrifice to

retain them; but the death of Von Haven and Forskaal had cast a damp

over their imaginations; they apprehended that disease might even

then be undermining their constitutions, and were therefore more

desirous of flying from the country than of studying its productions

or its inhabitants. When they departed from Mokha several English

ships were lying there, taking in cargoes of coffee for India; and

this circumstance, by promising to facilitate their progress farther

towards the east, operated strongly upon their determination to quit

Arabia, the original object of their mission, for other regions which

appeared more agreeable. One of Niebuhr’s biographers appears to

think that it was mere solicitude to transmit to Europe an account of

what had been performed by the expedition, and not any apprehension

of danger, which rendered him so exceedingly desirous of quitting

Yemen, for that he never clung to life with any great eagerness. I

have by no means an unfavourable opinion of Niebuhr’s courage, which,

on the contrary, I consider to have been in general equal to the

dangers to which he was exposed; but I nowhere find any traces of that

stoical indifference about life and death which his biographer seems

to attribute to him; and am persuaded, that on the occasion of his

departure from Sana, it was the apprehension of death, united, perhaps,

with a longing for European society, which actuated his movements.

At the same time I acknowledge that his fears were natural, and that

most travellers under similar circumstances would have acted much the

same way. We miss, however, in Niebuhr, both on this and on all other

occasions, the chivalrous spirit of Marco Polo, Pietro della Valle,

Chardin, and Bruce, as we miss in his writings the enthusiasm which

casts so powerful a charm over the records of their adventures.

The same reasons which induce me to acknowledge the rational nature

of Niebuhr’s apology for suddenly quitting Yemen long before he had

completed his examination and description of it, incline me likewise

to accept his reasons for avoiding the road by Jerim and Táäs, which

would have led him by Haddâfa and Dhâfar, where Hamyaric inscriptions

were said to exist. He had already been frequently deceived by the

misrepresentations of Arabic ignorance, and therefore doubted the

accuracy of his informants. The three remaining members of the mission

set out from Sana on the 26th of July, and, arriving at Mokha on the

5th of August, found that their apprehensions of danger at Sana, which,

though excusable, were not well founded, had precipitated them into

real peril; for the English ship in which they intended to embark was

by no means ready to sail, so that they had to remain in that burning

climate nearly a whole month, during which almost every individual in

the party, servants and all, fell sick.

The ship in which Niebuhr at length set sail for India belonged to Mr.

Francis Scott, a younger son of the Scotts of Harden, a jacobite family

of Roxburghshire. With this gentleman Niebuhr ever after lived on terms

of intimate friendship; and “five-and-thirty years afterward,” says our

traveller’s son, the historian of the Roman republic, “when I studied

in Edinburgh, I was received in all respects as one of the family in

the house of this venerable man, who then lived at his ease in the

Scottish capital on the fortune he had acquired by honourable industry.”

On his arrival at Bombay he met with the most cordial reception from

the English, in whose society he had first learned to delight while in

Egypt. Here he spent a considerable time in studying the manners and

customs of the Hindoos, and his observations, though now destitute of

value, must at that time have possessed considerable interest, above

all on the Continent. He here lost Cramer, the last of his companions;

Baurenfeind, the artist, having died on the voyage. During his stay at

Bombay he made a voyage to Surat, famous in the history of oriental

commerce and in the Arabian Nights; but his stay was short, and he

returned to Bombay without pushing his researches any farther into the

interior. The passion for travelling was certainly never very powerful

in Niebuhr; but he was posessed by considerable curiosity, and this

passion induced him to form the design of proceeding in an English ship

to China; but being unwell at the time of the ship’s departure, he

relinquished the design, which he never afterward resumed.

His residence at Bombay, a much less healthy place than Sana, was

continued so long, that I am strongly inclined to suspect the want of

European society may, after all, have numbered among his most powerful

reasons for hurrying from Yemen. From this city he forwarded the

manuscripts of his deceased companions as well as his own papers, by

way of London, to Copenhagen; and at length, on the 8th of December,

1764, set sail in one of the company’s ships of war, bound for Muskat

and the Persian Gulf. During this voyage he beheld the surface of

the sea for half a German mile in extent covered at night with that

luminous appearance which we denominate “phosphoric fires;” and which,

according to his opinion, arises entirely from shoals of medusas, which

by the English sailors are called “blubbers.” A few days afterward,

as they approached the shore of Oman, they were accompanied for a

considerable distance by a troop of dolphins, which, by the persevering

manner in which they followed the ship, seemed, as Lucian jocularly

observes, to be animated by a kind of philanthropy, as when they bore

Melicerta and Arion to the shore on their backs.

They arrived at Muskat on the 3d of January, 1765; and here Niebuhr,

had the interior of Arabia possessed any attractions for him, had once

more an opportunity of indulging his curiosity, and fulfilling the

original design of the expedition; for, from the humane and polished

manners of the people of Oman, travelling was here, he says, attended

with no more danger than in Yemen. He preferred, however, ascending the

Persian Gulf in an English ship; and therefore, after a stay of a few

days, set sail for Abusheher, where he arrived on the 4th of February.

Here Niebuhr, who had learned the English language at Bombay, found

himself still in the company of one of our countrymen, from whom

he obtained a plan of the city, together with much curious and

valuable information respecting the country and its inhabitants.

This Englishman, whose name was Jervis, spoke, read, and wrote the

Persian with fluency, and amused himself with making a collection of

manuscripts in that language; among which was the “Life of Nadir Shah,”

by his own private secretary Mohammed Mahadi Khan. The authenticity of

this work was so highly spoken of in Persia, that Niebuhr was at some

pains to procure a copy of it for the King of Denmark’s library; and

it was from this copy that Sir William Jones afterward compiled his

“History of Nadir Shah,” once celebrated, but now sunk into oblivion.

At Abusheher our traveller saw several of that species of cat numbers

of which are now brought into Europe from Angola. They were procured

from Kermân, and it was said that they would nowhere breed except in

those countries in which the shawl goat was found--an opinion which has

long been proved to have been erroneous.

Shortly after Niebuhr’s arrival at Abusheher, Mr. Jervis determined

upon sending a quantity of merchandise to Shiraz; and his intention was

no sooner made public, than a number of petty merchants, together with

several families from the interior, who had been expelled from their

homes by the troubles consequent upon the death of Nadir Shah, desired

to unite themselves to his party; and thus a small kafilah was at once

formed. So excellent an opportunity of visiting the most beautiful city

of Persia, as well as the famous ruins of Persepolis, was not to be

overlooked. Our traveller therefore joined the trading caravan, and on

the 15th of February set out for the interior.

For this journey, however, he was but badly prepared. He was wholly

ignorant of the Persian language, and therefore, had he not by great

good fortune found some persons among the party who spoke Arabic, as

well as an Armenian who was a tolerable master of the Italian, he must

have been reduced to depend upon the universal but scanty language of

signs. Strange to say, likewise, he had abandoned the oriental costume,

though fully aware, by his own account, of the advantages to be

derived from it by a traveller. In other respects he conducted himself

judiciously; for, understanding that the English, notwithstanding the

troubled state of Persia, had nowhere any thing to fear, he represented

himself as an Englishman; and thus, without passport or formal

permission, he travelled with perfect freedom and safety. He observed

during this journey a curious superstition among the Armenians, of

which he had nowhere else discovered any traces: having despatched his

servant upon some business at a distance from the encampment, he was

one day compelled to act as his own cook, and was about to cut off

the head of a fowl. His face at that moment happening to be turned

towards the west, an Armenian who was present informed him that a

Christian should turn his face to the east when he killed a fowl, no

less than when he prayed. Others (as the affair was a serious business)

conjectured that he turned towards Mecca, either that his servant,

who was a Mohammedan, might conscientiously partake of the food, or

because that in reality was his _kebleh_. Seeing, however, that people

endeavoured to decide respecting his religion by the mode in which he

slaughtered a hen, he for the future relinquished to his servant the

art and mystery of cookery.

Our traveller had an opportunity, near Firashbend, of visiting a

Turkoman camp. He found them rich in camels, horses, asses, cows, and

sheep. Their women, like those of the Bedouins, enjoyed the most

perfect liberty, and wore no veils. These Turkoman women were said to

be exceedingly laborious, and the small carpets so universal in Persia

were of their workmanship. He likewise beheld a Kurdish family. Farther

on, he had a very laughable adventure with a troop of Armenian women,

which, as characteristic at once of the Armenians and of himself,

merits some attention. Having travelled for some time through rain and

hail, the kafilah at length halted, near the village of _Romshun_, in

which Niebuhr hired a horse for a day, and purchased a quantity of

wood, in the hope of enjoying a good fire until bedtime. Not desiring,

however, to taste of these blessings alone, he invited several

Armenians to share the advantage of his apartments, which they most

readily accepted. Presently, however, a number of women and children

presented themselves for admission, and appeared extremely well

satisfied when he granted them permission to place themselves inside

of the door. He had shortly afterward occasion to leave the house for

a moment. Upon his return, he found the husbands of the women seated

near the entrance of the house, while the whole harem had established

itself round the fire! and conceiving that it might be imprudent to sit

down by the fire among the women, or to drive them away from it, he

allowed them, though certainly not from politeness, to dry themselves

first. Here he was detained for twenty-four hours by bad weather.

The apartments which he occupied were on the second story, and his

horse, which had its quarters in the adjoining chamber, being somewhat

restless in the night, broke through the floor, and fell down into the

landlord’s apartment below!

The kafilah reached Shiraz on the 4th of March. Here he was hospitably

received and entertained by the only European in the city, a young

English merchant, whose name he should have been at the pains to

learn, for assuredly it was not, as he imagined, _Mr. Hercules_.

His stay at Shiraz was rendered agreeable by the politeness of the

governor, who, at his first audience, informed him that he would

decapitate the first person who should offer him any injury in his

territories. The audience being over, one of the governor’s friends

undertook to show them the palace. Several of the apartments were

coated with beautiful Tabriz marble, and covered with magnificent

carpets; and among the ornaments of the palace were numerous European

mirrors, and pictures of Persian workmanship, among which was one

representing a woman bathing, almost wholly naked. Niebuhr was greatly

surprised to find pictures of this kind in the house of a Mohammedan;

but, in fact, the _Shiahs_ are far less rigid on this point than the

_Soonnees_; and we learn from the Arabian Nights, that even so early

as the time of Haroon al Rashid painting was encouraged in Persia and

Mesopotamia, since that celebrated prince is said to have adorned his

palace with the performances of the principal Persian artists.

From Shiraz he proceeded to the ruins of Persepolis, the site and

nature of which I have already had occasion to describe in the lives of

Chardin and Kæmpfer. His head-quarters during his stay was at the small

village of Merdast. From thence, as well as from the other villages,

the peasants frequently came to observe him during his examination of

the ruins, in which he constantly employed the whole day, from eight

o’clock in the morning until five in the afternoon. The majority of

these visiters were women and young girls, who were curious to see a

European; and the whole of the population were so entirely harmless,

that the traveller felt himself as safe in their company as he could

have been in any village in Europe. He here received a visit from an

Arab sheïkh, a learned, polished, and agreeable man, who had passed

thirty years in Persia, during which time he had amassed considerable

wealth, and now lived in independence and ease.

From Persepolis he returned by the way of Shiraz to Abusheher, where

he embarked in one of the country vessels for the island of Karak,

where he was hospitably received and entertained by the Dutch merchants

settled there; and after a short stay, proceeded to Bassorah. Here he

embarked in a small vessel which was about to sail up the Euphrates

to Hillah. His companion, during this voyage, was an officer of the

janizary corps, who lay in a small chamber close to Niebuhr’s cabin,

and appeared to be at the point of death. In other respects this little

voyage, which occupied twenty-one days, was sufficiently agreeable.

The passengers were remarkable for their good-humour and obliging

disposition; and often, when our traveller set up his quadrant on the

banks of the stream, they stood round him in a circle, while he was

making his observations, to screen him from the wind with their long

flowing dresses.

At Rumahia, a small village on the Euphrates, he lodged with two of his

Mohammedan companions at the house of a Soonnee, who happened to be the

_moollah_ of a mosque. Soon after their arrival, our traveller entered

into conversation with his host, and their discourse turning on the

subject of marriage, he observed, among other things, that in Europe

a man, when he gives his daughter to any one in wedlock, is generally

accustomed to add a considerable sum of money. This custom greatly

delighted the moollah. “Do you hear,” says he to his mother-in-law,

who was sitting near him, while the daughter was preparing their

_pilau_,--“do you hear what the stranger is saying? It was not thus

that you acted towards me, my mother; I was compelled to pay you a sum

of money before you would give me your daughter!” The mother-in-law,

after patiently hearing him to the end, replied, “Ah! my son, upon

what should I and my daughter have subsisted, had I given thee my

field and my date-trees?” This slight interruption in the conversation

having ceased, Niebuhr, resuming the thread of the discourse, remarked,

that in Europe no man could possess more than one wife, under pain of

death; that married persons enjoyed every thing in common; and that

their property descended to their children. It was now the old lady’s

turn to be eloquent. “Well, my son,” says she, “have you marked what

the gentleman has just related? Ah! what justice prevails in those

countries! Ah! had you no other wife than my daughter, and could I be

sure you would never divorce her, how willingly would I relinquish to

you my house, and all I possess!” The young woman, who had hitherto

seemed to pay no attention to what was said, now likewise joined in the

discussion. “Alas! my husband!” said she, “how can you desire that my

mother should give you her house? You would soon bestow it upon your

other wives. You love them better than me. I see you so seldom!”

The mother and daughter proceeded in this style for some time, and at

length Niebuhr, turning to the moollah, demanded how many wives he

had.--“Four,” replied the man. This was the highest number permitted

by the law. He had, therefore, indulged his affections to the utmost;

and as each of his spouses had a separate house and garden, he flitted

at pleasure from wife to wife, and was everywhere received as a man

returning home from a long journey. Our traveller inquired of this

zealous polygamist whether his private happiness had been increased

or diminished by his having availed himself of the privilege of a

Mohammedan; but, because his reply was contrary to his own European

views, as that of every other Mussulman, whom he had questioned on the

subject, had been, he absurdly accused him of insincerity.

From this place he proceeded to _Meshed Ali_, where he was deterred

from entering the mosque, by the fear that he might, as a punishment

for his presumption, be compelled to profess Mohammedanism; but he

admired the exterior of its gilded dome, which glittered like a globe

of flame in the sun. The riches of this mosque, allowing much for the

exaggeration of the _Shiahs_, must still be immense. The interior of

the dome is no less superbly gilt than the exterior, and is adorned

with Arabic inscriptions in rich enamel; other inscriptions, in letters

of gold, glitter along the walls; while enormous candelabra, in silver

and fine gold, set with jewels, support the tapers which afford light

to the pious during the darkness of the night. This accumulation of

gorgeous ornaments, though supplied from a commendable motive, affects

the worshippers injuriously, and once occasioned a pious Arab to

exclaim, “Verily, the treasures lavished upon this tomb have made me

forget God!”

Niebuhr next visited the ruins of Kufa, and Meshed Hussein, and then

returned to Hillah, near which are found the misshapen ruins of

Babylon. We must not, as he justly observes, expect to find among the

remains of this city any thing resembling the sublime magnificence

which cast a halo over the ruins of Persian and Egyptian cities.

Babylon, like modern London, was a city of bricks, prodigious in

extent, mighty in appearance, but calculated, from the nature of its

materials, to give way, when war or time laid its giant hands upon

its towers. Its very site is now become an enigma, “a place for the

bittern, and pools of water.” Modern travellers, however, have since

visited this celebrated spot, and described it so frequently, that it

is unnecessary to pause and repeat what they have written, particularly

as no two agree upon any one point.

His stay at Babylon was brief, and on the 5th of January, 1766, he left

it to proceed towards Bagdad, where he remained until the 3d of March,

awaiting the departure of a caravan for Syria. At length, finding no

better companions, he departed with a kafilah composed wholly of Jews,

from one of whom, who had travelled much in the country, he expected

to derive considerable information. He still possessed the sultan’s

firman, which he had procured at Constantinople, and had likewise

provided himself with a passport from the Pasha of Bagdad. He therefore

anticipated no interruption on the way. In proceeding from Bagdad to

Mousul, he traversed the plain on which the great battle of Arbela,

which reduced Persia to a Macedonian province, was gained by Alexander.

Ruin and desolation have since that day been busily at work in these

countries. Among the vagabonds who now roam over or vegetate upon these

renowned scenes, are a strange people, accused by many writers of

worshipping the devil; I mean the _Yezeedis_, who, though suspected by

Niebuhr of being an offshoot from the Beyazi sect of Oman, appear to

be rather the descendants of the ancient Manichæans, or a remnant of

the Hindoo population, worshippers of _Siva_, hurled into this obscure

haunt by the storms of war.

At Mousul, where he found numerous Catholic and Nestorian Christians,

he was received with extreme scorn, because his worthy coreligionists

learned that he did not fast during Lent. However, by allowing himself

to be defrauded a little by a Dominican father, a dealer in coins and

physic, he quickly regained his character, and, during the remainder of

his stay, was reputed a very good Christian. From this city he departed

with a numerous caravan, bound partly for Aleppo, partly for Mardin,

Orfah, or Armenia. The whole number of the travellers, including

a guard of fifty soldiers, and about three or four hundred Arabs,

amounted to little less than a thousand men. Yet, notwithstanding

their numbers, the slightest report of there being a horde of Kurds in

their neighbourhood threw these gallant warriors into consternation,

and, upon one particular occasion, their confusion was so extreme

that, like the honest knight of La Mancha, they mistook a flock of

sheep for an army. The robbers on this road are exceedingly expert

in their vocation; and one of the merchants of the caravan, who

had often travelled by this route, amused Niebuhr with an anecdote

illustrative of their skill, which deserves to be repeated:--He was one

night encamped, he said, on the summit of a steep hill, and for the

greater security had pitched his tent on the edge of the precipice.

He himself kept watch until midnight, at which time he was relieved

by his servant, who, as it would appear, soon fell asleep. On awaking

about daybreak he observed a robber in the tent. He had already

fastened the hook, with which he meant to perform his feat, in a bale

of merchandise; but sprang out of the tent, upon perceiving he was

discovered, still holding fast the cord of his hook. The merchant,

however, immediately detached the hook from the bale, and fastened it

in the clothes of his slumbering domestic, who, as the robber continued

tugging violently at the cord, was soon roused. The robber pulled,

the servant rolled along like a woolsack, and the master had the

satisfaction of seeing him tumble down to the bottom of the hill, that

he might in future be somewhat more careful of his master’s property.

Niebuhr himself, whose cautious temper generally defended him from

danger, had on this journey a trifling adventure with an Arab sheïkh.

It entered into the head of this fiery young Islamite that it would

be amusing to have a frolic with a Giaour, and for this purpose he

deprived our traveller of his bed and counterpanes. Niebuhr complained

to the caravan bashi, but could only get a portion of his property

restored. Next day, therefore, he applied to the sheïkh himself,

who, instead of returning the articles, only jested with him upon

his uncharitable disposition, which would not allow him to share his

luxuries, even for a few days, with a true believer, who was willing

to be condescending enough to sleep on the bed of an infidel. Our

traveller, hoping to terrify the Arab, now produced the sultan’s

firman, and the Pasha of Bagdad’s passport; but this only rendered

matters worse. “Here in the desert,” said the sheïkh, “_I_ am thy

sultan and thy pasha. Thy papers have no authority with me!” Some days

afterward, however, the Arab returned him his effects, from fear,

according to Niebuhr, of the Governor of Mardin; but more probably

because he had never intended to retain them.

From this point of his travels he proceeded by way of Mardin, Diarbekr,

and Orfah, to Aleppo, where he arrived on the 6th of June. Here he

remained some time, during which he acquired the friendship of the

celebrated Dr. Patrick Russel, from whom he received much information

respecting the Kurds and Turkomans, whose principal chiefs frequently

visited our distinguished countryman at his house. His inquiries

likewise extended to the Nassaireah and Ismaeleah, who, from the

accounts of the Mohammedans and oriental Christians, would appear to

have preserved among them the rites and ceremonies of the ancient

worshippers of Venus. Nocturnal orgies, in which every man chose his

mistress in the dark, and the adoration of the Yoni, in a young woman

who exposed herself naked for the purpose of receiving this extravagant

reverence, were likewise attributed to them; but, as Niebuhr observes,

there is nothing too absurd or abominable to be related by the orthodox

and dominant party of a persecuted heretical sect. He, in fact, found

that the Roman Catholics everywhere in the East represented their

Protestant brethren as persons who lived without hope and without God

in the world; while we, on the other hand, look upon them as idolaters,

as far removed as the pagans of old from the pure religion of Christ.

After the death of his companions, Niebuhr had applied to the Danish

government for permission to extend his journey in the East, and,

through the benevolence of Count Bernstorf, his wishes had been readily

complied with. He therefore passed from Syria into Cyprus, for the

purpose of copying certain Phenician inscriptions at Cittium, the

birth-place of Zeno, which had, it was suspected, been incorrectly

copied by Pococke. Finding no inscriptions of the kind on the spot to

which he had been directed, he, with an illiberality which was not

common with him, imputed to Pococke the gross absurdity of having

confounded Armenian with Phenician characters; but, as his recent

biographer remarks, it is more probable that the stones had, in the

interval, been removed.

From Cyprus he passed over into Palestine, visited Jerusalem, Sidon,

Mount Lebanon, and Damascus, and then returned to Aleppo. Here he

continued until the 20th of November, 1766, when he set out with a

caravan for Brusa, in Asia Minor; and in traversing the table-land

of Mount Taurus, suffered, says one of his biographers, as much from

frosts, piercing winds, and snow-drifts, as he could have done in a

winter journey in northern regions. Lofty mountains are everywhere

cold. Chardin nearly perished among the snows of Mount Caucasus; Don

Ulloa suffered severely from the same cause in the Andes, almost

directly under the equator; and the lofty range of the Himalaya, which

divides Hindostan from Tibet, is so excessively cold, that Baber Khan,

though a soldier and a Tartar, beheld with terror the obstacle which

these mountains presented to his ambition; and their summits have

hitherto been protected by cold from human intrusion. Upon reaching

Brusa, however, he reposed himself for some time, and then set out for

Constantinople, where he arrived on the 20th of February, 1767.

Here he remained three or four months, studying the institutions of

the empire, civil and military. He then directed his course through

Roumelia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Moldavia, towards Poland, and on

arriving at Warsaw was received with extraordinary politeness by King

Stanislaus Poniatowsky, with whom he afterward corresponded for many

years. From Warsaw he continued his journey towards Copenhagen, and

visited on the way Göttingen and his beloved native place, when the

death of his mother’s brother, during his absence, had left him in

possession of a considerable marsh-farm. He arrived at Copenhagen in

November, and was received in the most flattering manner by the court,

the ministers, and men of science.

Niebuhr now employed himself in preparing his various works for

publication. The “Description of Arabia” was published in 1772, and

although it must unquestionably be regarded as one of the most exact

and copious works of the kind ever composed on any Asiatic country,

it met with but a cold reception from the public. This, however, is

not at all surprising. Written in the old style of books of travels,

which appear to have aimed at imparting instruction without at all

interesting the imagination, it can never be relished by the generality

of readers, who at all times, and especially in these latter ages, have

required to be cheated into knowledge by the secret but irresistible

charms of composition. Niebuhr, unfortunately, possessed in a very

limited degree the art of an author. His style has nothing of that

life and vivacity which compensates, in many writers, for the want of

method. But those who neglect his works on these accounts are to be

pitied; for they abound with information, and everywhere exhibit marks

of a remarkable power of penetrating into the character and motives

of men, and a noble, manly benevolence, which generally inclines to a

favourable, but just interpretation. He understood the Arabs better

than almost any other traveller, and his opinion of them upon the

whole was remarkably favourable. It is to him, therefore, that in an

attempt to appreciate the character of this extraordinary people, I

would resort, in preference even to Volney, who, whatever might be

the perspicuity of his mind, had far fewer data whereon to found his

conclusions.

In 1773 he married, and his wife bore him two children, a daughter

and B. G. Niebuhr, the author of the “Roman History.” Next year the

first volume of his “Travels” appeared, and was received by the public

no less coldly than the “Description of Arabia;” which was, perhaps,

the cause why the second volume was not published until 1778; and why

the third, which would have completed his “Travels’” history, was

never laid before the world, or even prepared for publication. This is

exceedingly to be regretted, as, whatever may be the defects of Niebuhr

as an author, which it appeared to be my duty to explain, he was, as an

observer, highly distinguished for sagacity; and his account of Asia

Minor would have been still valuable, notwithstanding all that has

since been written on that country.

He continued to live at Copenhagen for ten years; but at length the

retirement of Count Bernstorf from the ministry, and a report that

General Huth designed to despatch him into Norway for the purpose

of making a geographical survey of that country, disgusted him with

the capital. He therefore demanded of the government permission to

exchange his military for a civil appointment, and accordingly obtained

the situation of secretary of the district of Meldorf, whither he

removed his family in the year 1778. This town afforded Niebuhr few

opportunities of entering into society. He consequently endeavoured to

extract from solitude and from study the pleasures which he could not

take in the company of mankind, and addicted himself to gardening and

books. When his children had reached an age to require instruction, he

undertook to conduct their education himself. “He instructed us,” says

his son, “in geography, and related to us many passages of history.

He taught me English and French--better, at any rate, than they would

have been taught by anybody else in such a place; and something of

mathematics, in which he would have proceeded much further, had not

want of zeal and desire in me unfortunately destroyed all his pleasure

in the occupation. One thing, indeed, was characteristic of his whole

system of teaching: as he had no idea how anybody could have knowledge

of any kind placed before him, and not seize it with the greatest

avidity, and hold to it with the steadiest perseverance, he became

disinclined to teach whenever we appeared inattentive or reluctant

to learn. As the first instruction I received in Latin, before I had

the good fortune to become a scholar of the learned and excellent

Jäger, was very defective, he helped me, and read with me “Cæsar’s

Commentaries.” Here again, the peculiar bent of his mind showed itself:

he always called my attention much more strongly to the geography than

the history. The map of Ancient Gaul by D’Anville, for whom he had

the greatest reverence, always lay before us. I was obliged to look

out every place as it occurred, and to tell its exact situation. His

instruction had no pretensions to be grammatical; his knowledge of the

language, so far as it went, was gained entirely by reading, and by

looking at it as a whole. He was of opinion that a man did not deserve

to learn what he had not principally worked out for himself; and that

a teacher should be only a helper to assist the pupil out of otherwise

inexplicable difficulties. From these causes his attempts to teach me

Arabic, when he had already lost that facility in speaking it without

which it is impossible to dispense with grammatical instruction, to his

disappointment and my shame, did not succeed. When I afterward taught

it myself, and sent him translations from it, he was greatly delighted.

“I have the most lively recollection of many descriptions of the

structure of the universe, and accounts of eastern countries, which he

used to tell me instead of fairy tales, when he took me on his knee

before I went to bed. The history of Mohammed; of the first califs,

particularly of Omar and Ali, for whom he had the deepest veneration;

of the conquests and spread of Islamism; of the virtues of the heroes

of the new faith, and of the Turkish converts, were imprinted on my

childish imagination in the liveliest colours. Historical works on

these same subjects were nearly the first books that fell into my hands.

“I recollect, too, that on the Christmas-eve of my tenth year, by

way of making the day one of peculiar solemnity and rejoicing to me,

he went to a beautiful chest containing his manuscripts, which was

regarded by us children, and indeed by the whole household, as a kind

of ark of the covenant; took out the papers relating to Africa, and

read to me from them. He had taught me to draw maps, and with his

encouragement and assistance I soon produced maps of Habbesh and Soudan.

“I could not make him a more welcome birthday present than a sketch of

the geography of eastern countries, or translations from voyages and

travels, executed as might be expected from a child. He had originally

no stronger desire than that I might be his successor as a traveller

in the East. But the influence of a very tender and anxious mother

upon my physical training and constitution, thwarted his plan, almost

as soon as it was formed. In consequence of her opposition, my father

afterward gave up all thoughts of it.

“The distinguished kindness he had experienced from the English,

and the services which he had been able to render to the East India

Company, by throwing light upon the higher part of the Red Sea, led

him to entertain the idea of sending me, as soon as I was old enough,

to India. With this scheme, which, plausible as it was, he was

afterward as glad to see frustrated as I was myself, many things, in

the education he gave me, was intimately connected. He taught me, by

preference, out of English books, and put English works, of all sorts,

into my hands. At a very early age he gave me a regular supply of

English newspapers: circumstances which I record here, not on account

of the powerful influence they have had on my maturer life, but as

indications of his character.”

In the winter of 1788 he received from Herder a copy of his

“Persepolis,” which afforded him one proof that he was not forgotten

by his countrymen. He took a deep interest in the war which was then

raging against Turkey; for, in proportion to his love for the Arabs,

was his hatred of the Turks, whom he cordially desired to see expelled

from Europe. The French expedition to Egypt, however, was no object

of gratification to him; for his dislike of the French was as strong

as his dislike of the Turks, convinced that their absurd vanity and

want of faith would infallibly neutralize the good effects even of the

revolution itself. I am sorry to discover that, among other prejudices,

he was led, partly, perhaps, from vanity, to accuse Bruce of having

copied his astronomical observations; of having fabricated his

conversation with Ali Bey; as well as, to borrow the strange language

of his recent English biographer, “the pretended _journey over the

Red Sea_, in _the country of Bab el Mandeb_, as well as that on the

coast south from Cosseir.” The same writer informs us that “Niebuhr

read Bruce’s work _without prejudice_, and the conclusion he arrived

at was the same which is, since the second Edinburgh edition, and

the publication of Salt’s two journeys, _the universal and ultimate

one_.” During the composition of these Lives, I have almost constantly

avoided every temptation to engage in controversy with any man; I

hope, likewise, that I have escaped from another, and still stronger

temptation, to exalt my own countrymen at the expense of foreigners;

but I cannot regard it as my duty, on the present occasion, to permit

to pass unnoticed what appears to me a mere ebullition of envy in

Niebuhr, and of weakness and want of reflection in his biographer.

What is meant by a “_journey over the Red Sea?_” And where does Bruce

pretend to have travelled in the “_country_ of _Bab el Mandeb?_” These

Arabic words are, I believe, by oriental scholars acknowledged to

signify the “Gate of Tears,” and were anciently applied to what is

commonly called the “Strait of Bab el Mandel,” from the belief that

those who issued through that strait into the ocean could never return.

The biographer seems to misunderstand the state of the question. Bruce

has often been charged with never having sailed down the Red Sea so far

as the strait, notwithstanding his assertions in the affirmative. But

who are his accusers? Lord Valentia, Salt, and others of that stamp;

men who never dared to venture their beards amid the dangers which

Bruce encountered intrepidly. With respect to the coast from Cosseir

southward, what, I will venture to inquire, could Niebuhr have known

about the matter? Had he ever set his foot upon it? Had he even beheld

it from a distance? If he relied, as in fact he did, upon the testimony

of others, who were they? what were their opportunities? and what their

claims to be believed? I am far from insinuating that Lord Valentia

and Mr. Salt have entered into a conspiracy to wound the memory of

Bruce; but, to adopt the language of an old orator, I would ask these

gentlemen if they themselves could have been guilty of the impudent

mendacity which they impute to Bruce? If, as there can be no doubt on

the subject, Lord Valentia and Mr. Salt would spurn the imputation, is

it to be for a moment believed that the discoverer of the sources of

the Nile, the honourable, the fearless, the brave Bruce, could have

condescended to do what these individuals, who, compared with him, are

insignificant and obscure, would, by their own confession, have shrunk

from perpetrating? But my unwillingness to speak harshly of Niebuhr,

whose name ranks with me among those of the most honest and useful of

travellers, forbids me to carry this discussion any further. I honour

him for his knowledge, for his integrity, for his high sense of honour;

but, for this very reason, I vehemently condemn his unjust attack upon

the memory of our illustrious traveller. The opinion of his recent

biographer, an able and, I make no doubt, a conscientious man, appears

evidently to have arisen from an imperfect knowledge of the subject,

and is therefore the less entitled to consideration.

The account given by his distinguished son of the latter days of

this meritorious traveller is worthy of finding a place here. “His

appearance,” says he, “was calculated to leave a delightful picture in

the mind. All his features, as well as his extinguished eyes, wore the

expression of the extreme and exhausted old age of an extraordinarily

robust nature. It was impossible to behold a more venerable sight.

So venerable was it, that a Cossack who entered an unbidden guest

into the chamber where he sat with his silver locks uncovered, was so

struck with it, that he manifested the greatest reverence for him, and

a sincere and cordial interest for the whole household. His sweetness

of temper was unalterable, though he often expressed his desire to go

to his final home, since all which he had desired to live for had been

accomplished.

“A numerous, and as yet unbroken, family circle was assembled around

him; and every day in which he was not assailed by some peculiar

indisposition he conversed with cheerfulness and cordial enjoyment on

the happy change which had taken place in public affairs. We found it

very delightful to engage in continued recitals of his travels, which

he now related with peculiar fulness and vivacity. In this manner he

once spoke much and in great detail of Persepolis, and described the

walls on which he had found the inscriptions and bas-reliefs, exactly

as one would describe those of a building visited within a few days and

familiarly known. We could not conceal our astonishment. He replied,

that as he lay in bed, all visible objects shut out, the pictures of

what he had beheld in the East continually floated before his mind’s

eye, so that it was no wonder he could speak of them as if he had seen

them yesterday. With like vividness was the deep intense sky of Asia,

with its brilliant and twinkling host of stars, which he had so often

gazed at by night, or its lofty vault of blue by day, reflected in the

hours of stillness and darkness on his inmost soul; and this was his

greatest enjoyment. In the beginning of winter he had another bleeding

at the nose, so violent that the bystanders expected his death; but

this also he withstood.

“About the end of April, 1815, the long obstruction in his chest grew

much worse; but his friendly physician alleviated the symptoms, which

to those around him appeared rather painful than dangerous. Towards

evening on the 26th of April, 1815, he was read to as usual, and asked

questions which showed perfect apprehension and intelligence; he then

sunk into a slumber, and departed without a struggle.”

Niebuhr had attained his eighty-second year. He was a man rather

below than above the middle size, but robust in make, and exceedingly

oriental in air and gestures. As might be clearly enough inferred

from his works, he was no lover of poetry; for, though he is said to

have admired Homer in the German translation of Voss, together with

the Herman and Dorothea of Goëthe, this might be accounted for upon

a different principle. His imagination, however, was liable to be

sometimes excited in a very peculiar way. “It is extraordinary,” says

his son, “that this man, so remarkably devoid of imagination, so exempt

from illusion, waked us on the night in which his brother died, though

he was at such a distance that he knew not even of his illness, and

told us that his brother was dead. What had appeared to him, waking or

dreaming, he never told us.”