Neil' Islu7id in the Bay of Bengal. 465 



a miracle (Heiodotus justly regards the same phaenomenon in his 

 time) has damaged the painting and sculptme at the entrance. 

 We left Thebes late, and ran as fast as we could for Cairo ; re- 

 ports of the plague had reached us, and apprehensive, in case they 

 proved true, of being detained in the country till the heat of suni- 

 mer, before which it could not possibly cease, we decided on sa- 

 crificing any ulterior or former projects, such as a journey to the 

 Great Cairo, to the Facceni or Lake Moris, to these salutary and 

 essential precautions. On our arrival here, we found that some 

 accidents had occurred, of course in Alexandria, where its return 

 is now periodic, but had not extended further, so that we were 

 only allowed the time for the Holy Easter of Jerusalem and Mount 

 Sinai ; for my own part 1 have seen so many of these displays, 

 and am now so little affected by any thing which is mere display, 

 that were my companions originally v.illing, I should have pre- 

 ferred seeing objects which can communicate information; I 

 should prefer a prosecution of our journey a little further into 

 Arabia, to the sight of all the pilgrims from Godfrey de Bouil- 

 lon down to Chateaubriand. On these occasions, however, I re- 

 member the advice of Terence, and am satisfied with a circuitous 

 route. We remain a few days at Cairo, and have engaged ca- 

 mels for next winter ; we of course travel in June. You. may 

 guess what our appearance may be, when some of my compa- 

 nions have expended nearly two himdred pounds on their cos- 

 tume. I am hajjpy to say I have not been one of the fortunate. 

 We travel twelve or thirteen in a party, including servants, inter- 

 preters, &c. Easter occurs the 16th, I think, of April: to-day is 

 the 4th of March. We expect to have sufficient time to see the 

 city during the week, and shall set off immediately after for Da- 

 mascus and Palmyra, or Tediion in the Desert. I doubt the 

 practicability of a tour in Asia Minor after this, as the heats are 

 dangerous on the whole of the coast at a very early season, and 

 I am not so Quixotic an errant as to risk my health so obviously, 

 as I should do I)y travelling there after July. You may therefore 

 reckon as a certain thing my return, somehow or other, to Smyrna 

 before the first of the month. I may go once more to Attica, 

 where mv baggage has been sent from Constantinople, should I 

 find a ship of war, and thence to Malta for quarantine. We have 

 already had many kind offers from the officers on this station, to 

 take us thither. I propose being in Sicily in October, and making 

 the tour of the island before the end of the month. I shall take 

 Calabria, and the Volscian and Samnite country in my way back 

 to Rome." • 



NEW ISLAND IN THE BAY OF KKNOAL. 



A new island has been lately formed in the upper part of the 



Bay of Bengal, by a va\ni\ accretion of the alluvium or boil, made 



Vol, 54. No. 'iUO. Dec, ISl'J. G t; idong 



