Dealh of Dr. Seelzen. 393 



DEATH OF THE CELEBRATED ORIENTIAL TRAVELLER 

 DR. SEETZEN. 



The readers of The Philosophical Magazine have from time to 

 time been made acquainted with the progress of this most inde- 

 fatigable and truly enlightened traveller. We lament to state, 

 that like our estimable countrymen Major Houghton and Mungo 

 Park, the earthly career of Dr. Seetzen has been prematurely- 

 terminated; and, alas! not without ground for the strongest su- 

 spicion that he has fallen a victim to the barbarous policy or 

 cupidity of an Arab chief. V/e select from a Bombay paper of 

 I^Iay 25, the following elegant tribute to his memor},, and suc- 

 cinct detail of his short but useful public life. 



*' Among the few travellers whose thirst of knowledge and in- 

 trepidity of mind have directed their views towards exploring the 

 interior regions of Africa, and whose labours have so uniformly been 

 interrupted by a lamented and untimely fate, — Br. Seetzen, aGer- 

 raan gentleman of considerable talent, and distinguished qualifica- 

 tions for the arduous task of discovery, seems to have been less 

 known to the world than most of his predecessors in that path, al- 

 though his want of notoriety arose rather from a retiring modesty 

 of character than from any deficiency of claim on the gratitude and 

 admiration of the friends and patrons of civilization and know- 

 ledge. — Of the early part of this traveller's history nothing 

 fmther is known to the writer than that he was a native of Saxony, 

 had passed through a regular course of studies as Doctor of 

 Medicine, and had added to his professional acquirements an in- 

 timate knowledge of botany, mineralogy, and natural history ia 

 general, besides an acquaintance v.'ith oriental languages, ani 

 particularly a proficiency in th.e Arabic. 



'^ So rare an union of science and learning, with a robust con- 

 stitution, unshaken courage, and enthusiasm in the pursuit of 

 knowledge, had recommended him to the notice of the Duke of 

 Saxe Gotha, by whom he was introduced also to the Emperor 

 of Austria, and the learned Orientalists of Vienna, who were then 

 engaged in their first labours on Les Mines d'Orierit. 



" Under the joint patronage of these distinguished characters, 

 he left Europe about the year 1S07, on a tour through Syria and 

 Palestine, chiefly with a viev.- to imprvive his qualifications for 

 the great work of exploring Africa, by gradually bringing him- 

 self to suffer the greatest privations, by familiarising his habit* 

 to those of savage life, and by acquiring a facility in the collo- 

 quial dialects of Arabic, which would enable him to pass for a 

 native of that country. 



" During his stay in Syria, he visited Palmyra, Balbec, Lebanon, 

 Jerusalem, and the intermediate scenes of sacred or profane his- 

 tory; 



