OF AUCHER-ELOY. 177 
degenerate in the East; and assuredly their prying curiosity 
and insolence often cost him dear, while their cowardice 
proved no less injurious to his interests. 
For the honour of human nature, it must be stated that 
there were some compensations for these trials, and that 
Aucher-Eloy met, even among these men, with a few indi- 
viduals, as the Chief of Laristan and the Sheik of Bender- 
Abassy, who testified towards him a kindness for which he was 
deeply grateful. It is needless to say that he never lacked 
that protection and assistance which Europeans, when he 
happened to be near them, could bestow, and he received 
especial kindness from the diplomatic agents of France, and 
the representatives of Russia and England at the court of 
Teheran ; Count Simonitch, Sir John Mac Neill, and Colonel 
Shee, in particular, conferring on him all the services that 
might be expected from such enlightened individuals. The 
Christian missions scattered in the East, also proved a great 
resource ; and as was wont in the middle ages of Europe, con- 
vents, those asylums of literature and misfortune, protected 
our traveller from the barbarities of the Eastern populace, 
and exhibited the touching influence of religion in a way 
which shows how much it is the policy of commerce and of 
power to favour its diffusion. 
We shall now give a succinct analysis of six journies made 
by Aucher-Eloy, starting from Constantinople, that city, in 
the environs of which his family was settled, being his own 
rendezvous, and the central point to which he transmitted his 
collections. 
. In November, 1830, he set off for Egypt, furnished with 
‘structions from the Academy of Science, at Petersburg. 
At Alexandria he was so fortunate as to make the highly 
desirable acquaintance of M. Gustave Coquebert de Mont- 
bret, a relation of M. Brongniart, whom a love for na- 
tural history had also attracted to the East. Together 
they proceeded to the ruins of Thebes and came back to 
Cairo; M, de Montbret returning to Europe by Italy, and 
Aucher-Eloy taking his way through Suez to Mount Sinai, and 
