The Professor Transmitted To The Association A Strong Recommendation Of Horneman, As A Young Man, Active, Athletic, Temperate, Knowing Sickness Only By Name, And Of Respectable Literary And Scientific Attainments.

Sir Joseph Banks immediately wrote, "If Mr. Horneman be really the character you describe, he is the very person whom we are in search of."

On receiving this encouragement, Horneman immediately applied his mind to the study of natural history and the Arabic language, and in other respects sought to capacitate himself for supporting the character of an Arab or a Mahometan, under which he flattered himself that he should escape the effects of that ferocious bigotry, which had opposed so fatal a bar to the progress of his predecessors.

In May 1797, Horneman repaired to London, where his appointment was sanctioned by the association, and having obtained a passport from the Directory, who then governed France, he visited Paris, and was introduced to some influential members of the National Institute. He reached Egypt in September, spent ten days at Alexandria, and set out for Cairo, to wait the departure of the Kashna caravan. The interval was employed in acquiring the language of the Mograben Arabs, a tribe bordering on Egypt. While he was at Cairo, intelligence was received of the landing of Buonaparte in that country, when the just indignation of the natives vented itself upon all Europeans, and, amongst others, on Horneman, who was arrested and confined in the castle. He was relieved upon the victorious entry of the French commander, who immediately set him at liberty, and very liberally offered him money, and every other supply which might contribute to the success of his mission.

It was not before the 5th September 1798, that Horneman could meet with a caravan proceeding to the westward, when he joined the one destined for Fezzan. The travellers soon passed the cultivated lands of Egypt, and entered on an expanse of sandy waste, such as the bottom of the ocean might exhibit, if the waters were to retire. This desert was covered with the fragments, as it were, of a petrified forest; large trunks, branches, twigs, and even pieces of bark, being scattered over it. Sometimes these stony remains were brought in as mistake for fuel. When the caravan halted for the night, each individual dug a hole in the sand, gathered a few sticks, and prepared his victuals after the African fashion of kouskous, soups, or puddings. Horneman, according to his European habits, at first employed the services of another, but finding himself thus exposed to contempt or suspicion, he soon followed the example of the rest, and became his own cook.

There are, as usual, oases in this immense waste. Ten days brought the caravan to Ummesogeir, a village situated upon a rock, with 120 inhabitants, who, separated by deserts, from the rest of the world, passed a peaceful and hospitable life, subsisting on dates, the chief produce of their arid and sterile soil.

Another day's journey brought them to Siwah, a much more extensive oasis, the rocky border of which is estimated by Horneman to be fifty miles in circumference. It yields, with little culture, various descriptions of grain and vegetables; but its wealth consists chiefly in large gardens of dates, baskets of which fruit form here the standard of value. The government is vested in a very turbulent aristocracy, of about thirty chiefs, who meet in council in the vicinity of the town wall, and in the contests which frequently arise, make violent and sudden appeals to arms. The chief question in respect to Siwah is, whether it does or does not comprise the site of the celebrated shrine of Jupiter Ammon, that object of awful veneration to the nations of antiquity, and which Alexander himself, the greatest of its heroes, underwent excessive toil and peril to visit and to associate with his name. This territory does in fact contain springs, and a small edifice, with walls six feet thick, partly painted and adorned with hieroglyphics. There are also antique tombs in the neighbouring mountains, but as the subsequent discoveries of Belzoni and Edmonstone have proved that all these features exist in other oases, scattered in different directions along the desert borders of Egypt, some uncertainty must perhaps for ever rest on this curious question.

The route now passed through a region still indeed barren, yet not presenting such a monotonous plain of sand as intervenes between Egypt and Siwah. It was bordered by precipitous limestone rocks, often completely filled with shells and marine remains. The caravan, while proceeding along these wild tracts, were alarmed by a tremendous braying of asses, and, on looking back, saw several hundred of the people of Siwah, armed and in full pursuit, mounted on these useful animals. The scouts, however, soon brought an assurance that they came with intentions perfectly peaceable, having merely understood that in the caravan there were two Christians from Cairo, and on their being allowed to kill them, the others would be permitted to proceed without molestation. All Horneman's address and firmness were required in this fearful crisis. He opposed the most resolute denial to the assertions of the Siwahans, he opened the Koran, and displayed the facility with which he could read its pages. He even challenged his adversaries to answer him on points of mahommedan faith. His companions in the caravan, who took a pride in defending one of their members, insisted that he had cleared himself thoroughly from the imputation of being an infidel, and as they were joined by several of the Siwahans, the whole body finally renounced their bloody purpose, and returned home.

The travellers next passed through Angila, a town so ancient as to be mentioned by Herodotus, but now small, dirty, and supported solely by the passage of the inland trade. They then entered the Black Harutsch, a long range of dreary mountains, the mons ater of the ancients, through the successive defiles of which they found only a narrow track enclosed by rugged steeps, and obstructed by loose stones.

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