mouth, where he continued until the autumn of 1812, and, on the 12th of August in that year, he was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral. From this period Sir Edward Buller was unemployed.

His zeal, activity, and bravery have often occasioned his numerous friends to join in the regret expressed by his biographer, whom we have just cited, " that fortune should not have been more propitious in placing him more frequently in scenes where his acknowledged merit must have ensured applause and commanded admiration ;" for, though the occasions for distinguishing himself were but few, he eagerly seized on every opportunity which presented itself; and his conduct in Sir Robert Calder's action affords indisputable evidence of professional talent and gallantry, which required only opportunity to have placed him amongst the most celebrated of his contemporaries.

In private life Sir Edward Buller was distinguished by the warmth and goodness of his heart, the frankness of his temper, and the generosity of his disposition. Ever willing to confer a kindness, his best exertions were uniformly used to promote the welfare of his friends, and there are few men whose name will be remembered with more gratitude and affection.

Sir Edward represented East Looe from 1802 to 1820, and, on the death of his brother John Buller, Esq. in 1807, he was elected recorder of that borough.

He married at Nova Scotia, March 15, 1789, Gertrude, daughter of Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt, by whom he had issue, John St. Aubyn Buller, who died an infant, and AnnaMaria, born November 3, 1799, who married 25th February last, at Buloe in Cornwall, Lieut-Col. James Drummond Elphinstone, younger son of the Hon. William Fullarton Elphinstone, a director of the Hon. East India Company, second surviving son of Charles, tenth Lord Elphinstone, and great-uncle of John, 13th and present lord. Colonel Elphinstone, on his marriage with Miss Buller, obtained the royal licence to assume the name of Buller before that of Elphin

stone, and to bear the arms of that family quarterly, in the second quarter with his paternal coat.

Sir Edward Buller's decease took place at his seat, Trenant Park, in Cornwall, on the 15th of April, 1824. In conse

quence of his dying without issue male, the baronetcy is extinct.

76

No. IV.

MR. BELZONI.

JOHN BAPTIST BELZONI was a native of Padua. He was of a Roman family, which had resided in that city for many years. The greater part of his younger days he passed in Rome, the abode of his ancestors, where he was preparing himself to become a monk; but the troubles of Italy in 1800, and the sudden entry of the French army into Rome, altered the course of his education; and he became a wanderer for the rest of his life.

countenance.

In 1803, Mr. Belzoni visited England. He was at that time very young, and a singularly handsome man, being of the extraordinary height of six feet seven inches, well made and stout in proportion, with an animated and prepossessing Soon after his arrival in England he married; and, his circumstances becoming straitened, with the ardour and love of independence which ever characterized him, instead of resorting to his friends abroad or to foreigners at home for assistance, he determined to draw upon his own resources, and to become a candidate for public favour. Early in life, when resident in Rome, he had imbibed some of the elementary parts of science, but the study of hydraulics was that to which he had particularly devoted himself, and on which he resolved principally to depend for the purpose he had in view. Accordingly he repaired to Edinburgh, and commenced an exhibition, principally of hydraulics, displaying the various fantastic forms into which water may be urged by the force of machinery. From Scotland he went to Ireland, and recommenced his hydraulic exhibition at the theatres of some of the populous cities in that country.

Finding, however, that the inventions of his mind were insufficient to satisfy the curiosity of his visitors, he was compelled to call to their aid the prodigious strength of his body, and, between the acts of his hydraulic experiments, undertook to bear upon the various parts of his colossal frame not fewer, if we mistake not, than twenty or two-and-twenty persons: they were strapped round his hips, shoulders, neck, &c. and he moved across the stage under the enormous pressure, with as much steadiness and stateliness as the elephant does when his howdah is full of Indian warriors.

After spending some time in Ireland, exposed to all the vicissitudes incident to such a course of life, Mr. Belzoni visited the Isle of Man, and thence proceeded, in the year 1812, to Lisbon. Here his athletic person induced the manager of the theatre of San Carlos at once to engage him to appear in the play of Valentine and Orson, and again, during Lent, in the sacred drama of Sampson; in both of which pieces his feats of strength and activity gained him the highest applause. Proceeding to Madrid, he there performed before the king and the court. On leaving Spain, Mr. Belzoni went to Malta, where he fell in with Ismael Gibraltar, the agent of the Bashaw of Egypt, who persuaded him to visit Cairo, for the purpose of constructing a machine for raising water out of the Nile, to irrigate the Bashaw's gardens.

In May, 1815, Mr. Belzoni, accompanied by his wife, and a lad of the name of James Curtain, whom he had brought with him from Ireland, embarked at Malta, and in less than three weeks arrived at Alexandria. On reaching Cairo, Mr. Belzoni went to the house of Mr. Baghos, interpreter to Mahommed Ali, to whom he had been recommended, and who immediately prepared to introduce him to the Bashaw. As they were proceeding towards the palace, through one of the principal streets of Cairo, a brutal Turk struck Mr. Belzoni so fiercely on the leg with his staff, that it tore away a large piece of flesh. The blow was so severe, and the discharge of blood so copious, that he was obliged to be conveyed home, where he remained under cure thirty days, before he could

support himself on the wounded leg. When able to leave the house he was presented to the Bashaw, who received him very civilly; but, on being told of the misfortune which had happened to him, contented himself with coolly observing, "that such accidents could not be avoided where there were troops."

An arrangement was immediately concluded for erecting a machine, which was to raise as much water with one ox as the ordinary machines did with four. Mr. Belzoni soon found, however, that he had many prejudices to encounter, and many obstacles to surmount, on the part of those who were employed in the construction of the work, as well as of those who owned the cattle engaged in drawing water for the Bashaw's gardens. When his machine was completed, the Bashaw proceeded to the gardens of Soubra to witness its effect. It was set to work, and, although constructed of bad materials, and of unskilful workmanship, its powers were greater than had been contracted for; yet the Arabs, from interested motives, declared against it. The Bashaw, however, allowed that it was equal to four of the ordinary kind, and consequently according to the agreement. Unluckily, he took it into his head to have the ox removed, and, " by way of frolic," to see what effect would be produced by putting fifteen men into the wheel. Mr. Belzoni's Irish lad got in with them, but no sooner did the wheel begin to turn, than the Arabs jumped out, leaving the lad alone in it. The wheel, relieved from its load, flew back with such velocity, that poor Curtain was thrown out, and, in the fall, broke one of his thighs; and, being entangled in the machinery, he would in all probability have lost his life, had not Mr. Belzoni applied his extraordinary strength to the wheel, and stopped it.

This accident being fatal to the project, and to the future hopes of the projector, Mr. Belzoni began to turn his thoughts towards Upper Egypt. It is probable that in this voyage he had at first no definite object in view; but on the suggestion of Mr. Burckhardt, the celebrated African traveller, and the encouragement of Mr. Salt, the English Consul-General in