the flatness of his head, to be a Christian, but threatening his detector with the confiscation of an estate he found him to possess at Benares, in the event of his discovering him, he escaped exposure, and, immediately afterwards, solicited his passport, and left the city. On the 10th of July, he crossed the Indus, about twenty miles above the town of Altack, and, on the following day, passed the Kabul river to Akorah; whence, after a journey, in which he was nearly discovering his true religion, and a few transient dangers, he proceeded to Kabul, which he reached on the 2nd of August. A few days after his arrival, he was attacked by a malignant fever, which appeared on his body in bright blue spots, and left him scarcely strength to move for some time after his recovery. Having hired one side of a camel, where he was placed in a pannier, he set out for Kandahar; in the course of his journey whither, he was much annoyed, by the insults and reviling of the whole kafila, in consequence of his no longer wearing his Mohammedan disguise, which, consequently, on his arrival at Herat, he thought it prudent again to assume. Here he joined another kafila, about to proceed to Tursheez, and obtained great respect the whole way, by representing himself as a pilgrim going to visit the shrine of Meshed. On the 28th of December, he left Tursheez, with a body of pilgrims proceeding to Mesanderan, whence he journeyed to Mushedsir on the Caspian Sea; embarked at that city for Baku, shaved off his beard, which had grown to an enormous thickness, and sailed to Astrachan, where he arrived in the beginning of 1784, and, in the following July, landed in England. Immediately on his arrival he began to put his manuscripts in form for the press, and in 1786, published, in London, his Sketches of the Mythology and Manners of the Hindoos. Returning some time after this to India, he published, at Calcutta, in 1790, the first voluine of his travels, under the title of A Journey from Bengal to England, and was just about to print a second, when he died at Nagpoor, whither he had been sent on an embassy, some time in the year 1792. In 1798, a complete edition of his travels was published in two quarto volumes, but so negligently edited, that it has been doubted whether the second volume was compiled from the manuscripts of Forster, of whom no account was given, nor of the manner in which his papers were obtained. The work, though not gaining the reputation it deserved, received great commendation from the literary world, and was translated into German by Meineis, and into French, with the addition of notes and two maps, by Langlès, who has written a short memoir of Forster, in the Biographie Universelle. Few travels have been more adventurous and hazardous than those of Forster; yet the gay and spirited manner in which the account of them is written, gives no indication of any apprehension on the part of the author, who seems to have been as much at home in the deserts of Khorasan, as on the banks of the Thames. Indeed, had he not preserved, during his travels, the unreserved, unsuspicious, and familiar manner which his disguise of a Mohammedan rendered necessary, he would neither have had so good an opportunity of seeing the manners and dispositions of his infidel associates, nor have lived, perhaps, to relate them. GEORGE VANCOUVER. GEORGE VANCOUVER, born about the year 1750, accompanied Captain Cook in his second voyage round the world, and, on his return, went out with him, in the Discovery, to the North Pole, and arrived again in England in 1780. VOL. III. In the latter end of the last-mentioned year, he was appointed a lieutenant of the ship Fame, part of Lord Rodney's fleet, then on its way to the West Indies, where he remained till 1789, being employed, during the last six years, on the Jamaica station, in the sloop Europa. On his arrival in England, in 1790, he was made master and commander of the Discovery; in which ship he was sent out to ascertain if there existed in North America, between the thirtieth and sixtieth degrees of latitude, an interior sea, or any canals of communication between the known gulfs of the Atlantic and the Great Sea; a point about which Cook and other navigators had been able to give no satisfactory information. On the 17th of August, 1791, he reached the southern coast of New Holland, where he discovered King George the Third's Sound; and, after leaving Dusky Bay, in New Zealand, ascertained the situation of some dangerous rocks and an inhabited island, giving to the former the name of the Snares, and to the latter that of Oparo. On the 24th of January, 1792, he set sail from Otaheite; and in the following March, arrived at Owhyhee, where he was visited by the chiefs of the island. He then proceeded along the north coast of New Albion to De Fuca's Straits, Nootka, and Monterrey Bay. Here he passed some days, and having received an important communication from the Spanish commandant relative to the cession of Monterrey, he forwarded a despatch to England, by Captain Broughton, in the ship Dædalus, together with his journal of discoveries up to that time. In February, 1793, he sailed to the Sandwich Islands, where he endeavoured to establish peace between the different chiefs, and compelled them to execute two islanders, whom he discovered to have been the murderers of Lieutenant Hergest and other seamen of the Dædalus. In April, he sailed along the American shore as far as Cape Decision; and, after coasting along the western side of Queen Charlotte's Islands to Nootka, proceeded to the Spanish settlements of New California, and discovered, to the south of Monterrey, a double chain of mountains, and that the one nearest the sea was the least in height. In January, 1794, in which year he was made a postcaptain, he reached Owhyhee, which was, shortly after his arrival, ceded by the King Tamaahmaah to the King of England. On leaving Owhyhee, he passed Trinity Isles, and discovered an island uninhabited and covered with snow, which he called Tschericow. He then proceeded up Cook's River, and after minutely examining several bays, straits, and inlets, and discovering King George the Third's Archipelago, he terminated his operations in Port Conclusion, which he reached on the 22nd of August, where he made the following remarks in his journal:-"The principal object which his majesty appears to have had in view, in directing the undertaking of this voyage, having at length been completed, I trust the precision with which the survey of the coast of North West America has been carried into effect will remove every doubt, and set aside every opinion of a north-west passage, or any water communication navigable for shipping, existing between the North Pacific and the interior of the American continent, within the limits of our researches." On the 6th of July, 1795, he arrived at St. Helena, and observed that, having made the tour of the world by the east, he had gained twenty-four hours; it being, according to his estimation, Monday, instead of Sunday, the 5th of July, as in the island. He arrived in London in November, 1795, and, in a state of declining health from the effects of his voyages, devoted himself to the arrangement of his manuscripts for publication until within a short time of his death, which occurred on the 10th of May, 1798. In the same year, his work, edited by his brother, was printed at the expense of government, entitled, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and round the World, in which the Coast of North West America has been carefully examined and accurately surveyed, undertaken by his Majesty's command, and performed in the Years 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, and 1795; and was, shortly after its appearance, translated into French, German, and, Swedish. The world is indebted to Vancouver for ascertaining the precise knowledge of the North West American coast, of which he entered parts never before deemed accessible but to the smallest sea boats, and travelled in a canoe nearly nine thousand miles among the labyrinth of isles which border that part of the coast. His maps afford an exact description of the discoveries, which he determined with great precision. Zealous, and indefatigable in the pursuit of his object, he was, at the same time, benevolent and unassuming, and insisted on his companions sharing in the credit of his undertakings. In his account he offers some curious notions in reference to the various inhabitants of the north-west coast, the Russian and Spanish colonies, and the isles of the Great Sea; which, by their frequent intercourse with Europeans, had sufferred much change in an interval of thirty years. His narrative, in addition to the information it contains, is also replete with interest. WILLIAM GEORGE BROWNE. Browne, "a ferocious clan, and differ He WILLIAM GEORGE BROWNE, the son of a wine-merchant, was born on Great Tower Hill, London, on the 25th of July, 1768. After having been some time under the tuition of Dr. Whalley, the editor of Ben Jonson's works, he went to Oriel College, Oxford, where he studied, very frequently, from twelve to fifteen hours a day. Being left a moderate competence by his father, he declined following any profession, and devoting himself to literature and politics, republished some political tracts, among which was part of Buchanan's De Jure Regni apud Scotos. Excited, however, by the fame of Mr. Bruce's travels, and of the first discoveries made by the African Association, he determined to be among the list of adventurers, and leaving Eng-lished his Travels in Africa, Egypt, and land in 1791, arrived at Alexandria in Egypt on the 10th of January, 1792. Hence he made an excursion to Siwa, the supposed site of the temple of Jupiter Ammon, but returned in April to Alexandria, without having been able to effect the discovery of that celebrated fane." He next visited Aboukir, Rashed, Terané, Fué, and Kahira," the only mint for Egypt," and of which city he gives a most animated and interesting description. He then made a voyage down the Nile to Assouan, stopping on his way thither to examine the magnificent ruins and temples of Thebes. In the course of this voyage, landing at Kourna, he was asked by one of the women, if he was not afraid of crocodiles? On his replying in the negative, she said, emphatically, "We are crocodiles;" and proceeded to depict her own people as thieves and murderers. 66 They are, indeed," says Mr. Syria, from the year 1792 to 1798, in one quarto volume. "The work," says our traveller's biographer, in the Encyclopædia Britannica," was highly esteemed, and is classed, by Major Rennell, among the first performances of the kind; but from the abruptness and dryness of the style, it never became very popular." In 1800, Mr Browne again left England, but returned, after having passed three years in visiting Asia Minor, Greece, and Sicily, and spent his time in retirement and study until 1812. In this year he set out with the intention of penetrating into central Asia; and whilst at Constantinople, made himself master of the Turkish language, and assumed the character and costume o: that country, in order to facilitate his progress among the Asiatics. He had proceeded on his journey to Persia, as far as Oujon, whence, after an audience with the king, he continued his journey to the pass of Irak, where he stopped to take refreshment at a caravansera. "That over," says Sir R. K. Porter, "he remounted his horse," but "had scarcely proceeded half a mile, when suddenly two men on foot came up behind him, one of whom, with a blow from a club, struck him senseless from his saddle." He was at the same moment seized and bound by several other villains, whom, on his recovery, he saw plundering his baggage. The robbers how told him he should die, but that they had not arrived at the spot where they intended to despatch him. At his request, however, they spared the life of his servant, and even made the man a present of his master's gun and pistols. They then carried him away into a valley on the opposite side of the Kizziłouzan, where his body was afterwards found, stripped of every garment. Mr. Browne was thinly shaped, and slightly above the middle size. His countenance was grave and pensive, and with a fondness for every thing eastern, he imbibed the reserved and silent manners of the orientals, almost to a repulsive degree. Even with his friends he was taciturn and gloomy, until he had taken up his pipe, when he would relate, in the most animated conversation, the account of his adventures. He was a strict adherer to truth; of a generous and liberal disposition; and beneath a cold exterior cherished an ardent desire to distinguish himself by some memorable achievment, in pursuit of which he was ready to brave danger and death. Mr. Pinkerton says of him, that "in courage, prudence, love of science, and intimate acquaintance with the eastern languages and manners, he has never been exceeded." EDWARD DANIEL CLARKE. THIS distinguished traveller and anti-English declamation. He devoted himquarian, son of the Rev. Edward Clarke, was born at Willingdon, in the county of Sussex, on the 5th of June, 1769. Whilst very young, he gave proofs of a roving disposition, and of a fondness for natural history and chemistry, and many amusing anecdotes are related of his conduct under the influence of these predilections. He received the rudiments of education at an academy in the village of Uckfield; and, in 1779, was sent to the grammar school at Tunbridge, then under the superintendence of the celebrated Vicessimus Knox. Here he inade but little classical progress, but his fondness for books was evinced by his habit of reading late at night, when all his schoolfellows were asleep, for which purpose he spent great part of his pocket-money in purchasing candles. In 1786, shortly after which his father died, he entered Jesus College, Cambridge, where he obtained the situation of chapel clerk, to the duties of which office he was scrupulously attentive, but distinguished himself in no branch of university learning, excepting that of self, however, with great assiduity to his self-selected studies, which oonsisted of history, antiquity, and every variety of learning comprehended under the term of belles lettres. Natural history, and particularly mineralogy, also occupied great part of his time; and he evinced a capacity for scientific pursuits, by the construction of a large balloon at Oxford, and of an orrery at home, for the purpose of delivering lectures to his sister, his only auditor. His sole means of support at this time were derived from an income of about £96 per annum, the source of which was a Rustat scholarship, and his exhibition from Tunbridge. Thus situated, and having made a vow to accept no pecuniary assistance from his mother, whose income was extremely small, he determined to exert himself, and accordingly, as the time approached for his examination, he, for the first time, entered upon a regular course of study, and on proceeding to his degree, in January, 1790, he obtained the mathematical honour of a junior optime, which, though it did not confer a high distinction, enabled the college, with some shew of justice, to elect him afterwards to a fellowship. In the following April, on the recoinmendation of the Bishop of Gloucester, he became tutor to the Honourable Henry Tufton, nephew of the Duke of Dorset, with whom he made the tour of Great Britain; and, on his return, published an account of it; but the work is by no means on a level with his subsequent performances. In 1791, he went with his pupil to Calais; and, in the following year, he obtained an engagement to accompany Lord Berwick on a tour to Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. "He was now," says Mr. St. John, one of his biographers," in the position for which nature had originally designed him." "An unbounded love of travel," are the words of Clarke himself," influenced me at a very early period of my life. It was conceived in infancy, and I shall carry it with me to the grave. When I reflect upon the speculations of my youth, I am at a loss to account for a passion, which, predominating over every motive of interest, and every tie of affection, urges me to press forward, and to pursue inquiry, even in the bosoms of the ocean and the desert. Sometimes, in the dreams of fancy, I am weak enough to imagine that the map of the world was painted in the awning of my cradle, and that my nurse chaunted the wanderings of pilgrims in her legendary lullabies." He remained abroad about two years, and on his return, became tutor, successively, to Sir Thomas Mostyn, and to two sons of the present Marquess of Anglesey. In 1798, having previously taken his degree of M. A., he resumed his residence at Cambridge; and, in the following year, set out with his pupil and friend, Mr. Cripps, on a tour through Denmark, Sweden, Lapland, Finland, Russia, Tartary, Circassia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Greece, and Turkey. Having arrived at the gulf of Bothnia, Clarke declared he would not return until he should have "snuffed the polar air," and he accordingly proceeded as far as Enontakis, in latitude 68 deg. 30 min. 30 sec. north; beyond which, illness prevented him from venturing. On the 26th of January, 1800, he arrived at Petersburgh, whence he continued his course to Moscow, and Taganrog on the sea of Azoff; and, on his reaching Achmedshid, in the Crimea, he passed some time with his pupil in the house of Professor Pallas. He next visited Constantinople, where he was employed in searching for, and examining, Greek medals; and, among other curiosities of the Turkish capital, he contrived to enter the seraglio, "where," he says, 66 no Frank had before set his foot." Hence he made an excursion to the Troad, at the prospect of beholding which, he had previously said in a letter to a friend, "Tears of joy stream from my eyes while I write." Egypt and Syria next claimed his attention; and whilst near the lake of Genesareth, he took particular observation of the Druzes, whom he describes as "the most extraordinary people on earth," and whose custom of prostrating themselves weekly before the molten calf, he observes, "is exactly that worship at which Moses was so incensed in descending from Mount Sinai." In 1801, he returned to Egypt, and whilst in that country, a dispute arising between the French and English generals respecting the literary treasures collected by the former, he was deputed by General Hutchinson to point out those most worthy of being conveyed to England, which country is indebted to him, amongst other things, for the acquisition of the famous sarcophagus of Alexander the Great. From Europe he proceeded to Greece, where his enthusiasm seems to have reached its highest stretch. "It is necessary," he exclaims, "to forget all that has preceded-all the travels of my life-all I ever imagined-all I ever saw! Asia, Egypt, the Isles, Italy, the AlpsWhatever you will! Greece surpasses all! Stupendous in its ruins!-awful in its mountains, captivating in its vales,-bewitching in its climate. Nothing ever equalled it-no pen can describe it-no pencil can portray it!" Our traveller returned to Cambridge in 1802, when, in consequence of his presents to the university, of which the principal was a Grecian statue of Ceres, he was presented with the degree of L. L. D. It does not appear at what time he took orders, but in 1506, in |