Houghton, who ascended the Gambia, and penetrated as far as into Ludamar, where he was murdered, or perished with hunger.

13. But of all the explorers employed by the Association, no other has done so much as the enterprising and intrepid Scotchman, Mungo Park. He sailed from England in May, 1795, and proceeded up the Gambia, and ascertained the sources of the three great rivers, the Gambia, the Senegal, and the Niger; and also determined the course of the last for a great distance, a river which no European eye had seen but his own.

14. After travelling about 1100 miles into the heart of Africa, he returned to the enjoyment of private life. He afterwards embarked on a second expedition, penetrated into the interior, and launched forth again on the 7th of November, 1805, on the mysterious Niger, but nothing that can be relied on as authentic has since been heard of him.

15. The next adventurer, employed by the Association, was Hornemann, a German, who sailed from England in 1797, proceeded to Cairo, and from thence afterwards to Mourzouk, in Fezzan, to the south of which he is suppos‐ ed to have died of a fever. Mr. Nicholls was then sent to the gulf of Benin, to commence a tour to the regions of the Niger, but he soon fell a victim to the fever of the coun try.

16. In 1819, Mr. Burckhardt, an enterprising and accomplished Swiss, sailed from England in the service of the Association, and travelled through Syria, Arabia, and Nubia, but died at Cairo, without having performed his jected journey into the interior of Africa.-Such has been the success and the fate of the adventurers employed by the African Association.

17. In 1816, an expedition was fitted out by the British government with a view to ascertain the course and termination of the Niger. The expedition was divided into two parts, one military, commanded by Major Peddie, the other naval, commanded by Capt. Tuckey.

18. The party under Major Peddie proceeded up the river Nunez, but all the leaders fell a sacrifice to the climate before they approached the Niger. The party under Captain Tuckey ascended the Congo 300 or 400 miles, but were seized by a pestilential disorder that proved fatal to most of them.

Thus fatally terminated both parts of this

expedition! and so difficult is it to effect the discovery of Africa!

Note. Egypt is a country of Africa, 600 miles in length, and 250 in breadth; lying south of the Mediterranean and west of the Red Sea. Denmark is a kingdom of Europe, bounded on the east by the Baltic Sea, on the west and north by the North Sea, and on the south by Germany; in a medium latitude of 56° north. Its capital is Copenhagen. Sweden, in Europe, lies north of the Baltic Sea, and the gulf of Finland, west of Russia, and east of Norway; between 60 and 70° north latitude.-Nubia is a kingdom of Africa, south of Egypt, north of Abyssinia, and west of the Red Sea. The Nile passes through, and greatly enriches the soil of Nubia.

HERCULANEUM.

1. THIS city was, together with Pompeii and Stabia, involved in the common ruin occasioned by the dreadful eruption of Vesuvius, in the 79th year of the christian era. It was situated on a point of land stretching into the gulf of Naples, about two miles distant from that city, near where the modern towns of Portici and Resina, and the Royal Palace, by which they are separated, now stand.

2. The neck of land on which it was built, and which has since disappeared, formed a small harbour. Hence the appellation of the small haven of Hercules, sometimes given to Herculaneum, and hence, in all probability, the modern name of Portici. The latter being seated immediately above some of the excavations of Herculaneum, the just fear of endangering its safety, by undermining it, is given as a principal reason why so little progress has been made in the Herculanean researches.

3. The discovery of Herculaneum is thus explained. At an inconsiderable distance from the Royal Palace of Portici, and close to the sea-side, a certain prince inhabited an elegant villa. To obtain a supply of water, a well was dug, in the year 1730, through the crust of lava, on which the mansion itself had been reared. The labourers,

after having completely pierced through the lavà, which was of considerable depth, came to a stratum of dry mud.

4. This event precisely agrees with the traditions relative to Herculaneum, that it was in the first instance overwhelmed with hot mud, which was immediately followed by a wide stream of lava. Whether this mud was thrown from Vesuvius, or formed by torrents of rain, does not appear to have been decided. Within the stratum the workmen found three female statues, which were sent to Vienna.

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5. It was not until some years after, that the researches of Herculaneum were seriously and systematically pursued. By continuing the Prince's well, the excavators at once came to the theatre, and from that spot carried on their further subterraneous investigation. The condition of Herculaneum was at that time much more interesting, and more worthy the notice of the traveller, than it is at present.

6. The object of its excavation having unfortunately been confined to the discovery of statues, paintings, and other curiosities, and not carried on with a view to open the city, and thus to ascertain the features of its buildings and streets, most of the latter were again filled up with rubbish as soon as they were divested of every thing moveable.

7. The marble was even torn from the walls of the temples. Herculaneum may therefore be said to have been overwhelmed a second time by its modern discoverers : and the appearance it previously presented, can now be only ascertained from the accounts of those who saw it in a more perfect state. Agreeably to those, it must at that time have afforded a most interesting spectacle.

8. The theatre was one of the most perfect specimens of ancient architecture. It had from the floor upwards, eighteen rows of seats, and above these, three other rows, which, being covered with a portico, seem to have been intended for the female part of the audience, to screen them from the rays of the sun. It was capable of containing between three and four thousand persons.

9. Nearly the whole of its surface was, as well as the arched walls which led to the seats, cased with marble. The area, or pit, was floored with thick squares of beautiful marble of a yellowish hue. On the top stood a group of four bronze horses, drawing a car, with a charioteer, all of exquisite workmanship. The pedestal of white mar

ble is still to be seen in its place; but the group itself had been crushed and broken in pieces by the immense weight of lava which fell on it.

10. The fragments having been collected, might easily have been brought together again, but having been carelessly thrown into a corner, a part of them were stolen, and another portion fused, and converted into busts of their Neapolitan majesties. At length, it was resolved to make the best use of what remained, that is, to convert the four horses into one, by taking a fore leg of one of them, a hinder leg of another, the head of a third, &c. and, where the breach was irremediable, to cast a new piece.

11. To this contrivance the bronze horse in the courtyard of the museum of Portici owes its existence; and, considering its patch-work origin, still conveys a high idea of the skill of the ancient artist. In the forum, which was contiguous to the theatre, beside a number of inscriptions, columns, &c. two beautiful equestrian statues were found. These are of white marble, and are deposited in the hall of the left wing of the palace at Portici.

12. Adjoining the forum stood the temple of Hercules, an elegant rotunda, the interior of which was decorated with a variety of paintings. These were carefully separated from the walls, and are here deposited in the museum. The most important discovery, however, was that of a villa, at a small distance from the forum; not only on account of the peculiarity of its plan, but because the greater number of the works of art were dug out of its precinct, and more especially as it contained a library consisting of 1500 volumes, which are likewise safely deposited in the museum, and which, were they legible, would form a great classic treasure.

13. The villa is conjectured to have belonged to one of the Balbi family. Although elegant, it was small, and consisted of a ground-floor only, like those of Pompeii. Beside a number of small closets round an interior hall, it contained a bathing room, curiously fitted up with marble, and water pipes, and a chapel of a diminutive size, without any window or aperture for day-light, the walls of which were painted with serpents, and within which, a bronze tripod, filled with cinders and ashes, was found standing on the floor.

14. The apartment which contained the library was fit

ted up with wooden presses around the walls, about six feet high: a double row of presses stood insulated in the middle of the room, so as to admit a free passage on every side. The wood of which the presses had been made, was burned to a cinder, and gave way at the first touch; but the volumes, composed of more imperishable substance, were so far preserved as to admit of their removal to a similar set of modern presses, provided, however, with glass doors, in the museum.

15. In the middle of the garden belonging to this villa, was a basin, nearly of the size of the one in the Green Park, having its edges faced with stone, and the two narrow ends rounded off in a semi-circular form. This piece of water was surrounded by beds of various shapes; and the garden was on every side enclosed by a covered walk supported by columns.

16. Of these columns there were sixty-four, ten for each of the shorter, and twenty-two for each of the longer sides of the quadrangle: they were made of brick, neatly stuccoed over, exactly similar to those in the Pompeian barracks. Each pillar supported one end of a wooden beam, the other extremity of which rested on the arden wall, thus forming an arbour, probably planted with vines, around the whole garden.

17. Under this covered walk, several serlicular recesses, which appear to have served as bathing-places, were built. The spaces between the pillars were decorated with marble busts and bronze statues, alternately arranged. This garden was surrounded by a narrow ditch; and another covered walk, of a considerable length, led to a circular balcony or platform, the ascent to which was by four steps, but which overhung the sea about fifteen feet.

18. The floor of the balcony consisted of the very beautiful tessellated pavement, which now serves as the floor of one of the rooms of the Portici museum. From this charming spot the prospect over the whole Bay of Naples must have been delightful.

IMPRISONMENT OF LA FAYETTE.

1. AT the time of the massacre of the 10th of August, 1792, and of the imprisonment of the king and his family,