TO THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN. 



167 



tanical nature. Peysonnell has merely given an account of the Black 

 Sea in a commercial point of view ; and Beauchamp, who is the 

 latest traveller that has visited its shores (whose Memoir upon the 

 Euxine was published in the Egyptian Decades of last year, and pro- 

 cured for me at Alexandria by Tallien), has chiefly considered them 

 in a geographical one. Beauchamp is now confined in a castle at the 

 mouth of the Bosphorus. I have not seen him myself, but have 

 received several accounts of his descriptions of the voyage (indet 

 pendent of his Memoir) ; and he declares it to be by far the most 

 interesting one he ever performed. Your Lordship will probably 

 have seen one of Beauchamp's essays (viz. that upon the site of Ba- 

 bylon) detailed in Major Rennell's Geography of Herodotus. 



Thus, my Lord, I conceived these countries to be in many respects 

 almost unexplored, and 1 thought a journey thither would not only 

 be curious, but might also prove useful in more essential concerns. It 

 is now fifty years since Peysonnell's materials were collected ; his book 

 is the only document that can be procured respecting the trade of the 

 Black Sea ; for, strange to tell, though we have had a commercial 

 company established here for so long a time, and though the Black 

 Sea is now open to English ships, yet there is not an Englishman, 

 nor I believe any Frank to be found in Constantinople, who possesses 

 any accurate information with regard to the geography, inhabitants or 

 products of the regions adjoining to this sea. 



But, alas, my Lord, all my fine schemes have been entirely blasted 

 by Turkish procrastination. It is now too late for such an expedition, 

 and no vessel will engage to navigate the Black Sea so far till spring, 

 as there are at present only twenty-five days of fine weather to be ex- 

 pected before winter commences ; and what is still worse, (for perhaps 

 the former difficulty might have been gotten over,) I understand the 

 plague has certainly spread its ravages to Angora and Tocat, and that 

 it is suspected to have shown itself even at Sinope and Trebisond. I 

 confess I have witnessed too much of this horrid distemper, not to feel 

 the utmost apprehensions from it. I think I did mention to Your 

 Lordship that I had been obliged to run considerable hazard of infec- 



