Travellers and Tourists. (1)

I, demens! et sævas curre per Alpes,

Ut pueris placeas & declamatio fias.

Juvenal.

Go, thou insane man! rush o'er the wild Alps, that children may be amused, and yourself become the subject of declamation.

FROM traveller Mandeville, liar surnam❜d,
To moderns at shooting the long-bow far fam'd,

(1) Lo! here's another set to pen

Works that entrance the minds of men;

I mean my travellers in legions,

That coin rare tales in foreign regions,

On par with romancers we justly may class,
Since stomach's capacity nought can surpass:

* For the truth of this assertion, let the reader refer to Pliny, where he will find this miracle avouched; while Cowley, in his poetical Treatise of Plants, inserts these lines:

But that which gave more wonder than the rest,
Within an ash a serpent built her nest,

And laid her eggs; whence once to come beneath

The very shadow of an ash was-death.

A Sicilian called Strabo is reported to have seen objects at the distance of one hundred and thirty miles, with as much distinctness as if only removed to a few yards distance.

For on palfrey I've known worthy gentleman ride, To a soil which, if gain'd, must be o'er Neptune's tide,

Who ne'er budg'd farther from their houses,
Than lambkin from its ewe that browses.
And of this crew that made great stir,
I needs must quote fam'd Dambergher,
Who wrote concerning Afric's deserts,
And men that never put on clean shirts;
Of things whom you might see as soon
As man discover in the moon;

In short, 'twas marvellous and rare
As he cou'd make it-not being there;

And rais'd a stir which was not sated
Till lie full oft had been translated:

When, lo! the writer by confession

Made known 'gainst truth his sad transgression.

I've still a race of connoisseurs

In travelling-who publish tours,

That have not recourse to earthquakes,

But rest contented with some lakes,
Meand'ring streams, rocks, woods, and glades,

A few old walls, dried up cascades, &c.

* This most ingenious chamber-traveller was native of Germany, and a carpenter, who pretended to have explored the most remote regions of Africa, an account of which appeared in print, and was eagerly translated into French

While the distance some twelve hundred leagues he has banter'd,

Since his palfrey the route hath in eighteen hours

canter'd.

But to treat now of travellers staunch in the cause, A Bruce (m) long discredited claims high applause ;

(m) The unfortunate circumstances attending the fate of this persevering adventurer are sufficient to deter any spirited individual from encountering dangers under the hope of ultimately benefiting the human race. What must have been Mr. Bruce's

and English; when, lo! the writer's confession shortly after appeared, announcing to the public that the whole was a mere fabrication, the writer never having visited that part of the globe which constituted the narrative in question.

Insitá hominibus libidine alendi de industria rumores.

Men having in them a natural desire to propagate reports.

If there existed gudgeons in the present century who swallowed Dambergher's bait, our ancestors, be it remembered, did not prove themselves less credulous; since the fictitious existence and code of laws pictured by Sir Thomas More in the Utopia, were long accredited as in actual being; and the learned Ludovicus Vives, his constant correspondent and friend, in speaking of the empire of China, writes" That he wonders any man could spend his time about such TRIFLES." See Webb's Antiquity of China, 8vo. 1678.

Whose bold perseverance at length reap'd requital,

Of public ingratitude-shameful recital!

Thus ultimate pity too late was his doom,
His merits allow'd when he slept in the tomb.
As dauntless in courage and bold in pursuit,
To hardships inur'd, of perception acute;

feelings, after the perils he had manfully encountered, to find his narrative turned into ridicule, and himself held forth as the grossest impostor; and this too, by a set of hireling writers in their garrets, who never were five miles removed from the smoke of the metropolis? Unfortunately for Mr. Bruce, he did not survive the shock to hear detailed the researches of the French when in Egypt, which tended in every respect to validate the narrative of this most injured gentleman; since which, indeed, Mr. Bruce's integrity is universally allowed—but reparation comes too late. If we refer to the travels of this personage, the narratives are interesting in the extreme; and in that part of the work which details his passage over the burning sands, nothing can afford more amusement, combined with dread for the safety of the being so completely environed with horrors on every side. Let romancers delineate what they will, no fictitious embellishments can ever surpass these recorded truths of our gallant countryman.