396 Death of Dr. Seetzen. 



who depended solely on their consuls in Egypt for information, 

 that Dr. Seetzen had met his death in Africa, in some wars 

 among the Samaulies in Berbera ; but it is confidently asserted 

 at Mocha that he did not once cross over even to the opposite 

 coast. After some stay there, waited in ineffectual endeavours to 

 obtain a restoration of his seized specimens, he formed the de- 

 termination of revisiting Saana in person, and of journeying from 

 tlience to the eastern extremity of Arabia, to cross from Muscat 

 into Persia, and return again to Syria, from whence he would at 

 length enter on his great undertaking. 



" For this purpose he left Mocha in the month of October 1811, 

 having with him a number of camels laden with baggage, pro- 

 visions, scientific apparatus, &c. ; when three days only after hi« 

 departure information was received of his sudden death near Tais, 

 and the consequent dispersion of all his property. No doubt 

 seems to ha^•e been entertained, even by the Arabs themselves 

 who were of his party, that lie was poisoned by some agents of 

 the Bola among them, with the connivance, or perhaps at the 

 express orders of the Imaum, to wrench from him the little mite 

 he possessed, and to remove him effectually beyond the power 

 of remonstrance. 



*' Beyond this, nothing further is positively known as to the 

 detail of his sufferings ; but the fact of his having died a sudden 

 and violent death is unfortunately too well established. Two 

 evenings before he quitted Mocha, he passed some few minutes 

 with Mr. Aitkins, the surgeon of the Company's Establishment 

 there, and at the same time confided to the care of Mr. Benzoni, 

 an Italian, in their service also, the whole of his valuable papers 

 and journals, which he had congratulated himself on securing 

 from the grasp of rapacious ignorance, to be forwarded by that 

 gentleman through Egypt to his distinguished patron the Duke 

 of Saxe Gotha in Europe. It fell, however, to the lot of poor 

 Benzoni himself to close a chequered existence on that inhospi- 

 table shore: so tliat the only manner in which he could acquit 

 himself of his trust, was to transfer the charge of his murdered 

 friend's memoranda to the chief of the Banians there, who vvas 

 then the commercial broker of the East India Company. From 

 him these papers were soon afterwards seized by the Dola, and 

 are now, it is to be feared, irretrievably lost to the friends of 

 science and the patrons of discovery, who would doubtless other- 

 wise, have found among their details, information of the most 

 valuable and interesting nature. — Such has been the melancholy 

 termination of tin. labours of one of the most enterprising and 

 promising of modern travellers, who, like Houghton, Park, 

 Hornemann, and Roiitgen, has fallen a victim to an ardent 

 thirst for information, and sacrificed not only all that could ren- 

 der 



