304 TRAVELS THROUGH 



and to fuperintend thefe ufeful eftablimments. 

 Some time before, he .had travelled at the expence 

 of the King with three young gentle men to 

 Germany, and efpecially to Saxony, to get there, 

 and in the Miners-academy at Freiberg, that 

 knowledge by which he and his companions were 

 defigned to be ufeful to the public. You remem- 

 ber that counfellor Gelkrt, in the Preface of his 

 Metallurgical Chemiftry, has taken proper notice 

 of thefe travellers. At their return, Cavalier Rubi- 

 lante got the commifiipn of the eftablirtiment, the 

 inspection and chair of a Profefibr in this Mine- 

 academy, together with the direction of the mines 

 in Savoy. -He caufed fome of them to be worked 

 again; and during feveral years he continued in 

 thefe different functions with great advantage to his 

 difciples. One of his companions was fent into 

 Savoy, and the two others into Sardinia, to exa- 

 mine the mountains and mines of this remarkable 

 country. A happy moment in the Natural Hif- 

 tory of thefe parts ; as about the fame time Donati 

 fpread a new light in fome other parts, and was 

 entirely bent on bringing Arabian treafures into 

 Europe ! I fhall prefently take more notice of this 

 unhappy man. But how vain are human hopes ! 

 Donati fell- a facrifice to the plague ; the un whole* 

 fome air killed the two travellers in Sardinia; ano- 

 ther difeafe made away with the third -fent into Sa- 

 voy, 



