284 THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



gested to Salt that he might benefit by the facilities 

 afforded in his situation at Cairo, to collect Egyptian 

 antiquities for the British Museum. It was a congenial 

 idea. Salt entertained it with some warmth ; and, when 

 he landed in Egypt, took measures for carrying out 

 plans of exploration, and for buying specimens and 

 examples. He was in fairly good financial circumstances ; 

 but zeal carried him forward, and some of his purchases 

 were made with borrowed money. He sent an agent to 

 Thebes to buy antiquities. He employed Belzoni to bring 

 away the colossal head of Memnon : an object long 

 familiar to us in the public hall of the Egyptian Depart- 

 ment at Bloomsbury. In this matter Burckhardt shared 

 the expenses, and the two made a present of it to the 

 British Museum, along with other valuable items. Pearce 

 brought from Abyssinia some trifling additions to the 

 spoil. 1 



When Salt found that he had been at a cost greatly 

 exceeding his anticipations, he naturally looked for 

 some recompense. He had embarked all his little patri- 

 mony in the determination to secure a number of valu- 

 able antiquities. Hence arose the question of prices to 

 be paid. He sent Hamilton a list of items, with what he 

 considered a fair price marked against each. Some of 

 these were fine specimens of antiquity ; notably among 

 them an alabaster sarcophagus, which he valued at a very 

 high figure. 



The prices were simply his own suggestion, which it 

 was within his right to make. But, contrary to Salt's in- 

 tention, Hamilton showed the list to Sir Joseph Banks. 



1 Pearce stayed in Cairo until his death in 1820. He led a life of 

 remarkably varied adventure. Apprenticed to a carpenter, he ran away 

 to sea ; was again apprenticed to a leather-seller, and presently enlisted 

 in the Marines. He was made prisoner by the French, served again in 

 the Navy, found his way on board Lord Valentia's ship ; joined Henry 

 Salt ; and at last became a botanist and curiosity-hunter. Pearce 

 stated very positively that Mungo Park was still alive in 1818, and was 

 in honourable captivity at Timbuctoo. 



