peculiarities of Greek idiom"; and in researches into ecclesiastical antiquity-where there are works of dubious origin to be estimatedwhere, in productions of which the authenticity is undoubted, there are obscure passages to be illustrated and corrupt ones to be restoredwhere, in fact, there are discrepancies of all kinds to be reconciled,we may confidently assert, that the leading qualities of Mr. Porson's mind were exactly those from which the world might have anticipated the happiest results.

Arguments and objections, when urged by him, assume a new character, and produce a new effect. He deals not in trite and vague generalities: what had before been thrown out in the gross, is thoroughly sifted and applied to its proper use. Whether intent upon Greek manuscripts, or ancient versions, or early fathers, his power cf discrimination is constantly on the alert. Nothing seems to escape him by its minuteness; and yet, whatever subject he is discussing, he places the whole of it before the reader, in all its bearings. Let a man read every thing that had been written on the controverted text, previously to the time of Mr. Porson, and when he has afterwards perused the "Letters to Travis", he will confess that to be the work from which he has derived the fullest information on the subject. Such are the effects of great talents, when exercised even on common materials.' There is one quality of the mind, unnoticed by Bishop Burgess, in which, it may be confidently maintained that Mr. PORSON " had no superior"-I mean, the most pure and inflexible love of truth, Under the influence of this principle, he was cautious, and patient, and severing in his researches; and scrupulously accurate in stating facts as he found them. All who were intimate with him, bear witness to this noble part of his character; and his works confirm the testimony of his friends. In a word, if, in a general council of SCHOLARS, an individual were to be selected and sent forth, to take a survey of any region of antiquity, profane or ecclesiastical, it is quite certain, that the person who should be found to possess Mr. Porson's endowments, would command every vote.'

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PORSON IS AMPLY VINDICATED.' A more generous or a more powerful protector of his literary reputation, no man could have found, than the Author of the "Letters to Travis" has obtained in the accomplished writer of the pages which we have been reviewing. Nor has any literary advocate ever been entrusted with the defence of a client, which more completely dispensed with artifice in the management of it, or allowed him more freely the unrestricted use of honest principles and honourable feelings. It is this high spirit of integrity which all upright minds must wish to see blending itself with the affairs of learning and the inquiries of criticism. But of Porson's literary character, it is unnecessary for us to say a single word after presenting to our readers the preceding testimony. The Vindication was necessary. For its conclusions, the Author is not responsible, as they spring up at the call of truth. But no person who felt interested in the reputation of another, would ever

wish to see it in such peril of humiliation, as, both in respect to the display of solid learning and sound reasoning, and still higher qualifications, the inquiry leaves that of the Right Reverend Assailant of the late Greek Professor of Cambridge.

Art. IV. The Travels of Ibn Batuta; translated from the abridged Arabic Manuscript Copies, preserved in the Public Library of Cambridge. With Notes illustrative of the History, Geography, Botany, Antiquities, &c. occurring throughout the Work. By the Rev. Samuel Lee, B.D. D.D. of the University of Halle, M.R. A.S. &c. 4to. pp. xx. 244. London. 1829.

IBN BATOUTA', says Burckhardt, is perhaps the greatest

*

land traveller who ever wrote his travels. When I first 'rapidly ran over his book, I took him for no better than Damberger, the pseudo African traveller; but a more careful perusal has convinced me that he had really been in the places, ' and seen what he describes. He published his travels after the year 755 A. H. They consist of a large quarto volume, ' which is so scarce in Egypt, that I never saw it; but I know ⚫ that a copy exists at Cairo, though I was not able to discover 'who was the owner. A small abridgement in quarto is more common; and of that I have two copies.' A third was subsequently obtained by this enterprising Traveller, to whom philological, as well as geographical science is so deeply indebted; and from these three manuscripts, bequeathed by him to the library of the Cambridge University, the present Translation has been executed. Much as we regret that Professor Lee has not been able to obtain access to the original work, for the purpose of occasional illustration, as well as for that of verifying the fidelity of the abridgement, we entertain no doubt that its present form is that which would have been judged best fitted for translation. The very circumstance of its having been abridged, (Burckhardt says, by two different Mohammedan writers,) together with the popularity of the abridgement, affords a strong presumption, that the original was tediously extended, either by unnecessary repetitions, or by rhetorical embellishments. Should a copy of it hereafter be obtained, it will probably furnish no other matter worthy the trouble of translation, than what may be easily imbodied in a few additional

notes.

The learned ability displayed in the translation of this curious specimen of Moorish literature, forms but part of the Editor's claim to the commendations of the scholar, and the thanks of

* Burckhardt's Nubia, p. 488.

the unlearned. By the historical and geographical notes which illustrate the obscurities of the text, he has more than doubled the value of the document. With the exception of Mr. Marsden's Marco Polo, and Mr. Erskine's Baber, we do not recollect to have seen any more accomplished specimen of editorship. The multifarious reading which the notes exhibit, includes a number of Arabic and Persian works not generally accessible, together with voyages and travels of all sorts. Nor must we omit to bear testimony to the spirited attempts of the learned Translator, to give a metrical form to the poetical extracts with which the Sheikh embellishes the dry details of his narrative,

1

Abu Abdallah Mohammed Ibn Abdallah El Lawati El Tanjy, surnamed Ibn Batouta, left his native city, Tanja (Tanjiers), for the purpose of performing the pilgrimage, in the year 725 of the Hejira, answering to A. D. 1324-5. He went by Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Barca, to Alexandria; (not by sea, as Burckhardt states;) whence he proceeded to Cairo and Upper Egypt, and crossed the desert to Aidhab, the capital of the Bejah, intending to go by that route to Mecca. But the disturbed state of the country, owing to a war that had broken out between the Bejah people and those of Bornou, rendered it impracticable to reach Jidda, and he returned to Cairo. In 726, he visited Jerusalem, and made the tour of Syria. At Damascus, he joined the Hajji caravan to Mecca, and having performed the pilgrimage, crossed the Nedjed to Meshed Ali and Bassora. After an excursion to Shiraz and Ispahan, he returned to Kufah and Bagdad. He next visited Tabreez and Mosul, and on his return to Bagdad, accompanied the Hajji caravan of 729, on a second pilgrimage to the sacred city of the Hedjaz. Embarking at Jidda, he then descended the Red Sea, touching at all the ports of Yemen, and then crossing over to the African coast, visited Zaila in the country of Barbara, and travelled southward as far as the country of Zanuj, the ancient Zingis. He then made again for the Arabian peninsula, crossed the Persian gulf to Laristan, and after visiting Hormuz, proceeded by way of Bahrein, El Hasa, (Lachsa,) and Yemama, a third time to Mecca. This was in a. H. 733. He then sailed for Aidhab, and again crossed the Bejah desert to Egypt; thence, a second time passed through Syria, and embarked at Latikia for Anatolia, which he traversed in all directions. From Constantinople, he went to Astrachan, and thence to Khauresm and Bokhara; he visited Samarcand, Balkh, and Herat, and crossing the Hindoo Koosh, traversed the Punjaub to Moultan and Delhi. Of the metropolis of Hindostan, we have an unusually long account, with an historical sketch of the empire. Ibn Batouta arrived there during the reign of the worthless parricide, Mohammed III.; and when he entered

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Delhi, he found it almost a desert, in consequence of the forced emigration of its citizens to the new capital in the Deccan. In the year 743, he set out on a mission to the Emperor of China; but the party fell into the hands of infidels, and Ibn Batuta narrowly escaped with his life. Having made his way back to India, he visited Kanouje, Dowletabad, Nazarabad, Cambay, Goa, Malabar, Calicut, and the Maldive Islands. He also explored Ceylon; and after various adventures, which are very briefly and indistinctly adverted to, visited Bengal, Java, and Sumatra, and at length set out for China. In almost every town in that empire, he found Mussulmans, who treated him with hospitality. From China, he returned by sea to Java and Calicut; thence to Muscat, Shiraz, and Bagdad, Damascus, and Cairo. In 749, he again accompanied the Cairo hajjies to Mecca, and afterwards travelled from Egypt to Tangiers, his native place. After a short excursion into Andalusia, he visited Morocco, and crossed the Atlas to Sejelmessa. The recesses of Soudan now excited his insatiable curiosity. He traversed the Tuarick desert to the banks of the Niger, and after visiting Timbuctoo, returned by way of Sejelmessa to Fez, the residence of the Commander of the Faithful; where, having finished his travels, he took up his residence, in the year 745, (A. D. 1353,) after having been an almost incessant wanderer during nearly thirty years!

The account given of the routes and different places visited, of the wonders of nature and art, the strange customs of strange people, and personal adventures during the peregrinations of so many years, the reader will not expect to find characterized by the distinctness and regularity of a modern journal. One internal mark of its genuineness is the inartificial and unequal character of the production. The Sheikh does not always tell us what we Europeans should most wish to know, but what he deemed most worthy of being communicated to the faithful. He is sometimes very brief and abrupt when we should have been glad to find him explicit; and at other times, discovers a little garrulity, as well as not a little credulity, which is amusing only because it is characteristic. As we cannot undertake to give either a commentary upon the work, or even an analysis of its contents, a few desultory remarks and a specimen or two are all that our readers will expect from us.

We find Ibn Batuta making the same distinction between Sind and Hind, that is observed in Baber's Memoirs. Speaking of the Egyptian Nile, he says, 'it is one of the five great rivers of the world, which are, itself, the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Sihoon, and the Gihoon (Oxus).

Five other rivers too may be compared with them, namely, the river of Sindia, which is called the Panj Ab (or five waters); the river

of India, which is called the Gung, (or Ganges,) to which the Indians perform their pilgrimages, and into which they throw the ashes of their dead when burned,-they say it descends from Paradise; also, the river Jun (or Jumna); the river Athil (Volga) in the desert of Kifjak; and the river Sarv in Tartary, upon the banks of which is the city of Khan-Balik, and which flows from that place to El Khansa, and thence to the city of Zaitun in China; of which we shall give accounts in their proper places. The course of the Nile, moreover, is in a direction from the south to the north, contrary to that of all other rivers.' p. 13.

Khan Balik, which is said to signify the city of the Khan*, is evidently the Cambalu of Marco Polo; and according to Asseman, it is the same city as the modern Peking. With this opinion, however, Ibn Batuta's account is at total variance. The river Sarv, upon the bank of which the famous city is represented as situated, and which flows into the sea, at or near Zaitun, cannot be the Pe-ho, or northern river, into which the Peking stream falls. In a subsequent part of the work, describing China, our Traveller says:

This is a most extensive country, and abounds in good things (of every description); fruit, agricultural produce, gold and silver: and in these it is without a parallel. It is divided by a river called the Water of Life. It is also called the River of Sibar, like the name of a river in India. It has its rise in the mountains which are in the neighbourhood of the city Khan Balik, called the Mountain of the Apes. It then proceeds through the middle of China for a distance of six months, until it passes by Sin El Sin,' (the same as Sin Kilan,) 'both banks of which are covered with villages and farms, just like the Nile of Egypt, except that this is much more populous.' p. 208.

This description would seem best to answer to the Yang-tseKiang or Blue River, (literally the Chinese Nile,) which, taking its rise in the great table land of Tibet, traverses the whole extent of China, and falls into the Gulf of Tsong-ming, in lat. 32°, and about 120 miles east of the city of Nan-king. El Zaitun is thus described.

The first city I came to in China, was El Zaitun. It is a large city, and in it they make the best flowered and coloured silks, as well as satins, which are therefore preferred to those made in other places. Its port is one of the finest in the world. I saw in it about one hundred large junks: the small vessels were innumerable. It is a large estuary of the sea, running into the land till it meets the great river.

* A different etymology is given by Asseman from Matthæus Riccius; viz. Cam or Can, signifying king; Pa, north; and Lu, Tatars. But we suspect that this is, like many other learned derivations, more ingenious than authentic. Balik (or baligh) occurs in other combinations as signifying residence.