which year he married Angelica, daughter of Sir William Beaumaris Rush, he succeeded to the college living of Harlton, in Cambridgeshire; and shortly afterwards to the vicarage of All Saints, Cambridge, where he officiated with great popularity, and upon which he bestowed an altar-piece, after the Grecian model. In the year last-mentioned, he commenced a course of lectures on mineralogy, the excellence of which induced the university, in 1808, to found a professorship for the encouragement of that branch of learning when he was unanimously elected to the chair. About the same time he received £1,000 from the curators of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for the manuscripts he had collected during his travels, inIcluding the famous one known as the Patmos Plato, to which Professor Porson assigned a very high antiquity. In 1810, the first volume of his travels appeared; and was succeeded, at subsequent periods, by five others. The publication of them produced him a sum of £6595; and by no means a more than adequate one, when it is considered that the work occupied five thousand pages of quarto letter-press; a task, under which, he says, "I should certainly have sunk, had I not been blessed with double the share of spirits which commonly belong to sedentary men.' Yet amidst all this toil and multifarious employment, he pursued the study of chemistry both with zeal and success, as appears in one of his letters to a friend, in September, 1816, in which he says, "I sacrificed the whole month of August to chemistry. Oh, how I did work! It was delightful play to me; and I stuck to it, day and night. At last, having blown off both my eyebrows and eye-lashes, and nearly blown out both my eyes, ended with a bang that shook all the houses round my lecture-room. The Cambridge paper has told you the result of all this alchemy, for I have actually decomposed the earths, and attained them in a metallic form." The death of this accomplished traveller took place at the residence of his father-in-law, on the 9th of March, 1822, and he was buried on the 18th, in the chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge, with academic solemnities.

For ardent enterprise, energy of pur

pose, industry of research, and extent and variety of observation, few travellers are to be compared with Dr. Clarke. His works have, on this account, become more popular than any other of a similar nature, though containing an account of countries both before and since visited and described. They would certainly bear abridgment; but it would require a most skilful hand to select from pages where few paragraphs appear worthy of rejection, if of curtailment. Although he expresses himself with enthusiasm, and many of his reflections are hastily and inconsiderately formed, his style is chaste and clear, and he details the most curious facts with a simplicity incompatible with exaggeration. In speaking of the second volume, Lord Byron says, in a letter to the author, "in tracing some of my old paths, adorned by you so beautifully, I receive double delight. How much you have traversed! I must resume my seven-leagued boots, and journey to Palestine, which your description mortifies me not to have seen, more than ever."

A peculiar feature in the character of Dr. Clarke is the rapidity with which he passed from one pursuit to another. "I have lived to know," he says in a letter to Dr. D'Oyley, "that the great secret of human happiness is this:never suffer your energies to stagnate. The old adage," he adds, " of 'too many irons in the fire,' conveys an abominable lie. You cannot have too many; poker, tongs, and all-keep them all going." "His ardour for knowledge," says his biographer, the Rev. Mr. Otter," not unaptly called by his old tutor, literary heroism, was one of the most zealous, most sustained, and most enduring principles of action that ever animated a human breast." As a preacher, his biographer speaks of "the sublimity and excellence of his discourses," and says that his ardour in the pursuit of science, was "softened by moral and social views." In private life he was amiable and benevolent; and, to conversation equally interesting and intelligent, joined the most kind and captivating manners. He was survived by five sons and two daughters.

In addition to his Travels, Dr. Clarke was the author of Testimony of different Authors respecting the Colossal Statue

of Ceres; The Tomb of Alexander; Description of the Greek Marbles brought from the Shores of the Euxine,

Archipelago, and Mediterranean; besides some letters and pamphlets, on subjects relating to science and antiquity.

THIS ill-fated traveller, the son of a farmer, at Foulshiels, near Selkirk, was born there on the 10th of September, 1771. He was educated at the grammar school of Selkirk; and, on account of the studious and thoughtful turn of his mind, was at first destined for the Scottish church; but, in consequence of his partiality for the medical profession, was apprenticed to a surgeon in the town, about 1786. In 1789, he entered the University of Edinburgh, where he remained for three sessions as a medical student; and, in his summer vacations, pursued the study of botany, for which he had always evinced a partiality. Having completed his academical education, he repaired to London; and, through the influence of Sir Joseph Banks, he was appointed assistantsurgeon to the Worcester East Indiaman. He sailed, in 1792, for the East Indies; and having visited Bencoolen, in the island of Sumatra, returned to England in the following year, and communicated to the Linnæan Society the observations in botany and natural history he had made, which were accordingly printed.

In May, 1795, he was engaged in the service of the Society for the Promotion of African Discoveries; and, on the 22nd of May, set sail from Portsmouth in the Endeavour, an African trader. "Previously to my starting," says Mr. Park, in his preface to the Account of his Travels, "I had been informed that a gentleman of the name of Houghton had already sailed to the Gambia, and that there was reason to apprehend he had fallen a sacrifice to the climate, or perished in some contest with the natives; but this intelligence, instead of deterring me from my purpose, animated me to persist in the offer of my services with the greater solicitude. I had a passionate desire to examine into the productions of a country so little known, and to become experimentally

acquainted with the modes of life, and character of the natives. If I should perish in my journey, I was willing that my hopes and expectations should perish with me; and if I should succeed in rendering the geography of Africa more familiar to my countrymen, I knew that I was in the hands of men of honour, who would not fail to bestow that remuneration, which my successful services should appear to them to merit. My instructions," he continues, "were very plain and concise. I was directed, on my arrival in Africa, to pass on to the river Niger, and to ascertain the course, and, if possible, the rise and termination of that river; that I should use my utmost exertions to visit the principal towns or cities in its neighbourhood, particularly Timbuctoo and Houssa; and that I should be afterwards at liberty to return to Europe, by the way of Gambia, or by such other route as should seem to be most adviseable."

Mr. Park landed at Illifree, on the 21st of June in the year last-mentioned; and proceeded, shortly afterwards, to Pisania, on the river Gambia, where he remained till the following December, when he continued his course to Jarra, the frontier town of the Mons. In his way thither, he was made prisoner by the king of that territory, and detained from the 7th of March till July, 1796, when he succeeded in escaping, after having endured innumerable hardships. He wandered in wretchedness for three weeks in the African desert, and at last came in sight of the river Niger, when he made the discovery that it flowed from west to east, which was the grand object of his voyage. At length he arrived at Sego, the Capital of Bambarra, when the king refused to see him, but furnished him with the means for proceeding on his journey. At Wonda, he was confined nine days by a fever,

where he felt himself a burthen to his landlord, on account of the scarcity that was prevalent, which was so great, that mothers sold their children for a scanty supply of provision. At Kamalia, his life was preserved by the benevolence of a negro, in whose house he resided for more than seven months; at the termination of which, he set out with a caravan of slaves towards the Gambia, on the 17th of April, and reached the banks of the river on the 4th of June, 1797. After some other difficulties, trifling in comparison with those he had before endured, he sailed from Antigua, on the 24th of November, and arrived at Falmouth on the 22nd of the following month.

His return to London was hailed with triumph by his friends, and the African Association allowed him to publish an account of his travels for his own benefit. The interest excited by the announcement of the work was almost universal; and the manner in which it was executed, as well as the matter it contained, fully answered the expectations that had been raised concerning it. The publication of it took place in 1799, but the favourable reception it met with, was accompanied by a suspicion that the author had lent himself as the tool of a party inimical to the abolition of the slave trade. Whatever may have been his motives, there can be no question of his inconsistency; for, though in conversation he always spoke with abhorrence of a traffic in slaves, yet, in his travels, his arguments in support of the system are the strongest that have ever been adduced. It has, however, been said, in palliation of his conduct with respect to this transaction, that being a young man, inexperienced in literary composition, and in a great measure dependent, as to the prospects of his future life, on his intended publication, he was obliged, by policy, to succumb to the opinions of the friend who assisted him in his work, Mr. Bryan Edwards, a West India planter, and a systematic advocate of the slave trade.

Mr. Park's work, however, was received with avidity and applause; two impressions were rapidly sold off; several other editions have since been , called for; and it continues, even at the present time, to be a popular and

standard book. In the summer of the last year, Mr. Park returned to Scotiand; where, on the 2nd of August, he married Miss Anderson, the daughter of the gentleman to whom he had served his apprenticeship, and resided for two years with his mother at Foulshiels. In October, 1801, he settled, as an apothecary, at Peebles; but not content to remain in so obscure a capacity, he, in December, 1803, left Scotland, having gladly accepted a proposal to undertake a second expedition to Africa. After some delay, of which he took advantage to improve himself in the science of astronomy, and to acquire some knowledge of the Arabic language, a brevet commission of captain in Africa was granted to him, and he at length set sail, in the Crescent transport, on the 30th of January, 1805. He proceeded, without interruption, as far as Kayee, a small town on the Gambia, where he remained, making preparations for his expedition, till the 27th of April.

The very interesting journal of Mungo Park, gives the full particulars of his last mission to Africa. He encountered difficulties at every stage; at Pisania, he was obliged to leave five hundred weight of rice, not having a sufficient number of asses to carry it; and when he had proceeded some distance further, the caravan experienced an attack from bees, by which seven beasts were killed or lost; and the baggage was nearly destroyed by a fire the men had kindled to cook their provisions, from which they had been driven. On the 4th of July, the guide was nearly destroyed by a crocodile; and, on the 12th of August, Park was in danger from three lions; but he succeeded in getting rid of them by firing his piece, and afterwards, when one of them returned, he drove it away by a loud whistling.

On arriving at the Niger, out of thirty-four soldiers who had left the Gambia, six only remained; and out of four carpenters, there was but one who survived. The rest of the men had either died, or dropped away, unable to proceed on the voyage; and all, with the exception of Park himself, were seriously affected by the disease of the climate. He, however, seems to have consoled himself that he had been able to proceed so far, and that

over an extent of five hundred miles, he had preserved the most friendly understanding with the natives. On the 28th of October, he lost his brotherin-law, Mr. Anderson; and "then," he says, "I felt myself as if left a second time lonely and friendless amidst the wilds of Africa." On the 16th of November, he finished his journal, every thing being ready for his embarkation on an utterly hopeless enterprise. His voyage was to be undertaken on a vast and unknown river, in a crazy canoe built by his own hands, manned by a few negroes, and four European soldiers, one of whom was in a state of mental derangement. By the letters, however, which he wrote at this time to some of his friends and his wife, in which he informs her of the death of Mr. Anderson, he seems to have been full of hope, and talks of reaching England before the arrival of his letters.

Nothing, however, was heard of him till 1806,when reports of his death having been received, permission was given by government to ascertain their truth, and Isaaco, his guide, was appointed to the mission. The result of Isaaco's expedition was the confirmation of Park's death, which was ascertained from Amadi Fatouma, who had been of the party that had gone down the Niger; and, as circumstances have corroborated his account, his testimony cannot reasonably be doubted. It appears, from this evidence, that Mr. Park was drowned in jumping from his canoe, to escape an attack that had been commenced by the natives; but those who

are unwilling to believe Fatouma's story, presume that, at least, he perished on his passage down the Niger.

The character of Mungo Park was eminent for a spirit of enterprise, unshaken resolution, and calm fortitude, together with an exceedingly sanguine temperament, which often blinded him to the difficulties of his situation. He seems to have acted on the maxim,

"Possunt quia posse videntur;"

and, indeed, had this been an infallible truth, there is nothing that would not have been within his power to accomplish. In his journals, he showed a correctness of judgment, and an adherence to bare facts, seldom united with an enthusiastic mind. He rarely indulged in conjecture; though he ven tured to give it as his opinion that the Niger could only terminate in the sea. In private life, he was a good husband and father, as well as a sincere friend, though he was slow in forming acquaintances, owing to an aversion to general society. His popularity never made him vain, but he always preserved his original simplicity of manner. In conversation, he generally disappointed those who expected to find it striking and remarkable. His person, which was well proportioned, and six feet in height, was robust, and well fitted for exertion and the endurance of hardships, and his whole appearance was extremely prepossessing.

Mr. Park's journal of his last mission was published in 1815, together with a sketch of the author's life.

NATHANIEL PEARCE was born at East Acton, Middlesex, on the 14th of February, 1779. At an early age, he was sent to an academy at Thirsk, in Yorkshire, where he remained six years; during which time, he says in his autobiography, "I was given to all manner of wild tricks, for which I was continually punished severely, till I got so hardened that, at last, I did not

mind a flogging for a pocketful of apples or a jackdaw's nest." He, subsequently, passed five months at a school at his native place; after leaving which, he was bound apprentice to a carpenter, in London, but shortly afterwards ran away, and offered his services to the master of a merchant brig, saying, when his father urged him to return, that he would tie a shot to his

VOL. III.

neck and jump overboard sooner than go back.

After having made a voyage to Petersburgh, he visited his home, and, at the request of his father, became bound to a leatherseller; from whom, however, he eloped, in a few weeks, to Deptford, where he entered himself, as a sailor, on board the Alert. On the 10th of May, 1794, his vessel, while on its way to Newfoundland, being captured by the French, he was conducted to Vannes, whence, after three ineffectual attempts, he, at length, succeeded in escaping; and was put on board the Bellerophon. On the arrival of that ship at Portsmouth, he deserted, and, having changed his name to Clark, worked his passage, in a coal brig, to South Shields; proceeded thence to London, and, shortly after, set out, in the Thames East Indiaman, on a voyage to China. On his way thither, while stopping off Amboyna, he, in company with two others, swam ashore at night, and, falling in with a party of Malays, made them intoxicated with arrack; for which, on returning to the vessel, he received twenty-four lashes; and subsequently, at Canton, underwent the same punishment, on a discovery of an attempt he had made to desert.

On reaching the Cape of Good Hope, in his passage homewards, he went on board the Sceptre, and declared himself a deserter, which compelled the captain of that vessel to detain him, and carry him to Bombay, where he again deserted, and a third time received corporal punishment. In 1798, while at anchor in a bay near the Isle of France, the Sceptre was shipwrecked, and himself and forty others were the only survivors out of a crew of four hundred. He was now taken on board the Adamant, in which he sailed to Madras, Trincomalee, and Bombay; where, having wounded a sepoy, in attempting to pass the hospital gates without leave, he was put in prison; from which, with his usual good fortune, he escaped. Having changed his name to Francis Dilvaro, he went on board the Antelope, in which he sailed to Mangalore; whence he proceeded, with Lord Valentia, to the Red Sea; and on his arrival at Mocha, swam on shore from the ship at night, gave himself up to the dola, and turned Ma

hometan. He, however, soon grew tired of his situation, and on meeting with Mr. Coffin, who had just arrived at Mocha, in the Panther, he said, "he would give worlds to get away, begging Mr. Coffin to use all the means in his power to get him removed from his forlorn and miserable condition." Having, at length, contrived to escape, he sailed to Massowa, whence he was permitted to accompany Mr. Salt and Captain Rudland in their expedition to Abyssinia.

Ón his arrival at Tigré, he expressed a desire to remain there; and having obtained from the ras a promise of protection during his stay, and a present of some land, he built himself house at Chelicut, married a Greek girl, and commenced studying the various Abyssinian languages; of which he acquired a speedy knowledge, and was subsequently enabled to act as Mr. Salt's interpreter on many important occasions. During the early part of his residence at Chelicut, he continued to enjoy the favour of the ras, who, however, at length, began to treat him with suspicion and coldness, which lasted till 1807, when the latter being attacked by his enemies, Pearce, running through the flames of the ras's palace, awakened him and saved his life. In consequence of a subsequent quarrel, he left Antalo, where he then resided; and, after crossing the lofty mountains of Samen, arrived at Inchetkaub, where he was attacked with ophthalmia, and, during his confinement, robbed of almost the whole of his effects. On his recovery, hearing that the Ras of Tigré was about to be attacked by the Ras Gojee, he hastened back to the assistance of the former, who, on seeing him return, exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, to his attendants, "Look at that man; he came to me a stranger, about five years ago, and not being satisfied with my treatment, left me in great anger; but now that I am deserted by some of my friends, and pressed upon by my enemies, he is come back to fight by my side."

In the battles which followed his reconciliation with the ras, who, alluding to Pearce, would often cry out in the midst of them, "Stop that madman," he distinguished himself by his daring and courage, and contributed greatly to