40 Royal Society. 



friendship of many superior officers, and especially of the great Lord 

 Clive j and he was soon promoted to the station of Surveyor General 

 in Bengal. 



The fatigues attached to this civil employment were sufficient to 

 exhaust the strength of any European constitution, conducted as 

 were the surveys, with indefatigable industry, along the banks of the 

 great rivers, periodically overflown and perpetually damp. But these 

 were not all : Major Rennell in encountering dangers which are in- 

 separable from military renown, had suffered wounds so severe that 

 he was, 1 believe, twice left exposed on the field of battle, and never 

 recovered from their effects up to the latest period of his life. These 

 altogether compelled his return to England, and alone prevented 

 him from attaining the highest military stations. 



Retired to private life, the whole energies of his mind were direct- 

 to scientific and literary pursuits. We have, founded on his exer- 

 tions in India : An Atlas of Bengal. A Map of the Mogul Empire. 

 Marches of the Army in India. A Map of the Peninsula. 



But the mental powers of Major Rennell were far from being con- 

 fined to one region of the world. 



We have from his pen a work on the Geography of Africa. And with 

 a vigour of intellect that may well call to our recollection the greatest 

 of the Roman Censors, he acquired at an advanced age a competent 

 knowledge of Greek for consulting the early writers in that language, 

 and gave to the world, The Geographical System of Herodotus, in- 

 cluding the Expedition of Darius Hystaspes to Scythia; The Site of 

 Babylon ; The Temple of Jupiter Ammon ; The Periplus of Africa, &c. ; 

 and A Dissertation on the Locality of Troy. 



The attention of this great investigator of every thing connected 

 with the surface of our globe, extended itself from mountains and 

 plains to the waters of the ocean j and produced a most curious in- 

 vestigation of the currents prevalent in the Atlantic, and of accumu- 

 lations caused by certain winds in the English Channel. 



And lastly, I would mention a very ingenious mode of ascertain- 

 ing distances, and connecting with their bearings the actual localities 

 of spots in the Great Desert, by noting the average rate at which 

 camels travel over those worlds of sand. 



This is a very imperfect catalogue of the works published by Major 

 Rennell ; and I am happy to add that several more exist in manu- 

 script, destined, we may hope, at no distant time, to appear. 



Major Rennell has been honoured by the Copley Medal from this 

 Society -, by the Gold Medal from the Royal Society of Literature ; 

 he was a Corresponding Member of the Institute of France 3 and 

 a Member of various other Societies. 



Our regret for such a man, exerting his intellectual powers with 

 so much energy and to such useful purposes, throughout the course 

 of a long life, and up to his eighty-eighth year, must always be 

 strong and sincere; but we console ourselves with the reflection 

 that he had attained the utmost ordinary limit of human life, amidst 

 the respect and esteem of all who knew him, and that his memory 

 is revered. 



Mr. 



