f
apprenticeship, to travel. He left England, with no very definite
object, in the summer of 1839, and, accompanied by a friend, visited
Russia and other northern countries, and afterward, living some time in
Germany and the states on the Danube, made himself master of the German
language, and of several of the dialects of Transylvania. From Dalmatia
he passed into Montenegro, where he remained a considerable time,
assisting an able and active young chief in ameliorating the condition
of his semi-barbarous subjects. Travelling through Albania and Romelia,
where he met with numerous adventures, he arrived at Constantinople,
about the end of 1839. Here he made arrangements for visiting Asia
Minor, and other countries in the East, where he spent some years,
adopting the costume and leading the life of an Arab of the Desert, and
acquiring a thorough knowledge of the manners and languages of Turkey
and Arabia. In 1840 or 1841, he transmitted to the Royal Geographical
Society, an Itinerary from Constantinople to Aleppo, which does not seem
to have been published; but in the eleventh volume of the Journal of
that Society, we have an account of the tour which he performed with Mr.
Ainsworth, in April, 1840. He travelled in Persia in the same year, and
projected a journey for the purpose of examining Susa, and some other
places of interest in the Baktyari mountains, to which Major Rawlinson
had drawn the attention of the Geographical Society. With this view, he
left Ispahan in the middle of September, in company with Schiffeer Khan,
a Baktyari chief; and having crossed the highest part of the great chain
of Mungasht, he visited the ruins of Manjanik, which are of considerable
extent, and resemble those of the Susannian cities. He visited also the
ruins in the plain of Mel Amir, and copied some of their cuneiform
inscriptions. In crossing the hills to Susan, he was attacked by a tribe
of Dinarunis, and robbed of his watch, compass, &c.; but having
complained to the chief, and insisted on the return of every missing
article, he received back the whole of his property. It had been his
practice to traverse these mountains quite alone, and he was never
attacked or insulted, except on this occasion, when the country was in a
state of war. He found scarcely any remains at Susan to indicate the
site of a large city. In 1842 and 1843, he spent a considerable time in
the province of Khuistan, an elaborate description of which he
communicat