637 



BELZONI, GIOVANNI. 



BEMBO, PIETRO. 



638 



originally from Rome, as he himself states in the preface to his work 

 on Egypt He passed his early youth at Rome, where he intended to 

 enter the monastic life, but the French invasion of that city in 1798 

 altered his purpose, and in the year 1800 he left Italy, and visited in 

 succession several parts of Europe. In 1803 he arrived in England, 

 where he soon after married : and after nine years' residence in 

 England, during part of which he gained his living by exhibiting feats 

 of strength, he get off with his wife for Portugal and Spain, from 

 whence he proceeded by way of Malta to Egypt, where he arrived in 

 1815. His object in going to Egypt was to construct an hydraulic 

 machine to supersede the clumsy engines then used in that country 

 for irrigation. He proposed his plan to Mehemet AH Pasha, by whom 

 it was approved. Belzoni constructed a machine in the pasha's garden 

 at Zubra, near Cairo, and the experiment proved successful, but owing 

 to the prejudices and opposing interests of the natives, it was aban- 

 doned before it was completed. Belzoni then decided upon visiting 

 Thebes, and his intention becoming known to Mr. Burckhardt, the 

 latter gentleman prevailed upon Mr. Salt, the British consul, to employ 

 Belzoni to remove the colossal bust, commonly but incorrectly called 

 the Young Memnon ; which he accomplished with great ingenuity, 

 placed it in a barge, which sailed down to Rosette, and thence to Alex- 

 andria, where it was shipped for England. This head, now in the 

 British Museum, is one of the finest specimens of Egyptian colossal 

 sculpture. Belzoni, on his return to Cairo, received a present through 

 Burckbardt, half of which was paid by Mr. Salt. Before embarking 

 the colonus Belzoni made an excursion higher up the country, visited 

 the great temple of Edfu, and the islands of Elephantine and of Philte, 

 and proceeded into Nubia as far as the second cataract. He was the first 

 to open the great temple of Abousambul, or Ipsambul, which is cut in 

 the side of a mountain, and the front of which was so much encumbered 

 by the accumulated sand, that only the upper part of it was visible. 

 In 1817 Belzoni made a second journey into Upper Egypt and Nubia, 

 during which he made excavations at Carnak, on the eastern side of 

 the N ile, and found there a colossal head of granite, several statues, 

 an altar with baso-rilievi, sphinxes, ic. The colossal head and an arm 

 ten feet in length, both belonging to one colossus, are now in the 

 British Museum. But one of the greatest discoveries of this enter- 

 prising traveller was the opening of a splendid tomb in the Beban-el- 

 jlolouk, or Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. He discovered the 

 right entrance, which had been blocked up for many centuries, had it 

 cleared, and at last made his way into the sepulchral chambers cut 

 in the calcareous rock, and richly adorned with pictures in low relief, 

 and hieroglyphics painted in the brightest colours. Belzoni made 

 drawings of the chambers, took impressions in wax of the figures and 

 hieroglyphics, noting carefully the various colours, and thus con- 

 structed a perfect fac-simile of this magnificent tomb, which was 

 afterwards exhibited in London. He also brought to England a 

 sarcophagus of arragonite, which he found in a chamber of the great 

 tomb. Mr. Salt paid Belzoni's expenses in these undertaking*, besides 

 giving him a remuneration, and received for his share part of the 

 antiquities which Belzoni collected, and among the rest the sarcopha- 

 gus, which he subsequently sold to Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Soane 

 the architect for 2000/. (See the ' Life and Correspondence of Salt,' 

 by J. Halls.) Belzoni also opened numerous other sepulchres exca- 

 vated in the ridge of rocks at Qournou, at the foot of the Libyan 

 Mountains, near western Thebes. He gives in his ' Narrative" a most 

 graphic and interesting account of the difficulties and labour he had 

 to encounter in this enterprise. 



Belzoni's next undertaking was the removal of an obelisk from the 

 island of PhilfC, the shaft of which was twenty-two feet long, and two 

 feet wide at the base, which he accomplished with no other aid than 

 poles, rotten palm ropes, and a few ignorant Arab peasants. He 

 placed it in a boat, and contrived to pass it safely down the falls of 

 Assouan. The obelisk was removed at the expense of Mr. William 

 Bankes, who erected it at Kingston Hall in Dorsetshire. Belzoni 

 discovered also the entrance into the second great pyramid of Jizeh, 

 and penetrated into the central chamber, the existence of which was 

 before unknown, though it appeared, from an inscription found there, 

 that it had been entered by the Arabs. 



In September 1818, he again left Cairo, went to Esn<5, and thence 

 struck across the Desert to the shore of the Red sea. He there disco- 

 vered the ruing of the ancient town of Berenice, and visited likewise 

 the emerald mines of Mount Zabarah. In the following year (1819) 

 he went on another excursion to Lake Mccris, and thence to the 

 smaller Oasis, which lies due west of it. No European was known to 

 have visited the spot before him. He left Egypt in September 1819, 

 after a residence of five years, during which ho made numerous and 

 important discoveries. 



Belzoni returned to Italy, and visited his native town, Padua, the 

 citizens of which had a medal struck, with the date of that year, 1819, 

 in commemoration of his discoveries. On his arrival in England, he 

 published his 'Narrative of the Operations and recent Discoveries 

 within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations in Egypt and 

 Nubia,' 4 to, London. 1820, with an Atlas. In 1823 he set off once 

 more for Africa, with the intention of penetrating to the city o 

 Timbuctoo. He undertook this journey on his own account, unassisted 

 by any government or society. He landed at Tangier, accompanied by 

 his wife, and thence proceeded to the city of For,. Messrs. Briggs o : 



Alexandria contributed 200?. towards the funds for the expedition : 

 >ut the jealousy of the Moorish or Jewish traders prevented his 

 obtaining permission from the emperor to join the great caravan, 

 which assembled here to cross the Desert to Soudan. He then repaired 

 a Mogadore, and embarked for Cape Coast, whence he proceeded to 

 he Bight of Benin, which he seems to have guessed was the most 

 direct way to reach the Niger. There he met with a negro from 

 Kashna, who had been a sailor on board the ' Owen Glendower ' 

 'rigate, and who was returning to his own country. Belzoni and he 

 agreed to travel together to Houssa. Belzoni was well received by the 

 sing of Benin, who gave him much useful information for his journey. 

 Everything seemed favourable to his undertaking, when he was 

 attacked by a dysentery, which, after a few days, terminated his life on 

 the 3rd of December 1823, at a place called Gato, in the kingdom of 

 Benin. He was buried there under a large tree, and a simple inscrip- 

 tion wa8 placed on his tomb. The day before his death he wrote to 

 his friend Mr. Hodgson, who was on board the brig ' Swinger ' in the 

 Bight of Benin, intrusting him with some directions concerning his 

 property, and with his last affectionate farewell to his wife. Belzoni 

 was frank and kind-hearted, trusty and honourable, and to great 

 simplicity of manners united intelligence, firmness, and perseverance. 

 He was certainly one of the most enterprising and sagacious of modern 

 explorers, but he appears to have been apt to take offence, and to have 

 been too prone to suspect the intentions of those with whom ho camo 

 in contact. 



BEM, JOSEPH, was born at Jarnow, in Galicia, in 1795. After 

 having studied in the university of Cracow, in 1810 he entered the 

 military school at Warsaw, directed at this period by the French 

 general Pelletier ; and from this school, at the end of two years, ho 

 issued as an officer of the horse artillery. In 1812 he served as lieu- 

 tenant in the army under Davoust, and subsequently under Macdonald, 

 with whom he was during the siege of Hamburg. Russia having vio- 

 lated the capitulation, he was forced to return to Poland, residing with 

 his father, who had an estate near Kielce. When the kingdom of 

 Poland was again constituted, Bern resumed his military duties. In 

 1819 he was created a captain, and became aide-de-camp to General 

 Bontemps. He was next made professor in a school of artillery newly 

 established at Warsaw. Here he introduced into the Polish army the 

 use of the Congreve rocket, and published a work upon this instru- 

 ment of destruction. Soon afterwards he solicited to be removed from 

 this school, but the Grand-Duke Constantino, who treated this demand 

 as an act of insubordination, had him brought to trial before a court- 

 martial, which condemned him to prison. He was however released, 

 but sent to Ketzk, and placed under the surveillance of the police. 



After the death of Alexander, Bern obtained his dismission, and wf at 

 to reside at Leopol in Galicia. There he devoted himself entirely to 

 science, and commenced a work on the steam-engine. When the revo- 

 lution of 1830 broke out, Bern immediately betook himself to Wai-saw, 

 where he was at once made a major in the Polish army ; and shortly 

 afterwards was appointed to the command of a battalion of horse 

 artillery, in which capacity, in the face of a numerous enemy, he dis- 

 played all the knowledge of a tactician with the bravery of a soldier. 

 After the defeat of the Polish army he led the remnant towards France, 

 and here he remained for a considerable period in exile, gaining his 

 living by teaching mechanics and mnemonics. He afterwards under- 

 took to raise a Polish legion for Dom Pedro in hia expedition to 

 Portugal, but the attempt proved a failure. He himself repaired to 

 Lisbon, where an attempt was made on his life ; the ball aimed at 

 him was arrested by a piece of money in his pocket. 



On the commencement of the revolution in 1848, Bern at first 

 attempted to organise the insurrection at Vienna, and afterwards joined 

 himself to the Hungarian party. Charged with the command of an 

 army to oppose the Austrians on the side of Transylvania, he at first 

 experienced some checks, but in March 1849 he made himself master 

 of Hermannstadt, took Cronstadt, and repulsed the Austrian army, 

 though joined by that of Russia, called to its assistance in the 

 previous February. He also compelled the Austrian general, Puchner, 

 to abandon the Banat and Wallachia. The Austrians and Russians 

 rallied in Transylvania ; and after attempting in vain to excite the 

 Wallachians and Moldavians to rise, he was attacked and defeated 

 at Segesvar by a greatly superior force under Liiders, the Russian 

 general. He however succeeded in re-assembling his forces, and on 

 August 5, 1849, he a second time possessed himself of Hermannstadt, 

 which however he could not retain for want of reinforcements. At 

 the desire of Kossuth he entered Hungary, and on August 8 took 

 part in the battle of Temesvar, in which the Hungarians were 

 defeated. 



Bern then, with others, took refuge in the Turkish territories, 

 embraced the Mussulman faith, was favourably received by the Sultan 

 Abdul-Medjid, and was raised to the dignity of a pasha, with a com- 

 mand in the Turkish army. In November 1850 he exerted himself at 

 Aleppo, where he and several other converts had been ordered to 

 reside, in repressing the sanguinary excesses committed by the Mussul- 

 man population on the Christian residents. On December 1 in the 

 same year he died in that town, leaving a reputation for extraordinary 

 ability as a general, and a valour that has seldom been surpassed, 



(Nouvelle Biographic Vmvertette.) 



BE'MCO, PIE'TRO, was born at Venice in H70. His father was a 



