Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/344

 asked the Indian government for a letter to the king of Bokhara, which was refused. He nevertheless made his way from Cabul to Bokhara, and 'met with as much kindness from the king as could be expected from a selfish, narrow-minded bigot.' He got rid of all his merchandise, and bought some valuable horns to take back to India. The route from Cabul to Bokhara was then new to Europeans. Moorcroft wrote: 'Before I leave Turkestan I mean to penetrate into that tract that contains perhaps the finest horses in the world, but with which all intercourse has been suspended during the last five years. The expedition is full of hazard, but "le jeu vaut bienlachandelle."' He started from Bokhara on his return on 4-5 Aug. 1825. With a few servants he separated from his party to visit Maimama. But he was taken by robbers, and he died, by some accounts of fever, by others of poison, at Andekhui, after a few days' illness. His body was brought on a camel to Balkh, and was buried outside the walls. George Trebeck, a young Englishman who had accompanied Moorcroft from Calcutta, was too ill when Moorcroft's body arrived at Balkh to investigate the case. Trebeck died of fever shortly afterwards at Mazar.

As Moorcroft's pay had been suspended, there was a question as to the ownership of his papers. This was settled, and the papers became the property of the Indian government, by whom they were made over to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. A summary of those in the India House, arranged by the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, appeared in vol. i. of the 'Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London.' The narrative of Moorcroft's ' Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab. . . from 1819 to 1825,' ending with his arrival at Bokhara, was published in 1841 under the editorship of Professor H. H. Wilson. In a review of the work the 'Athenæum' observed with much truth : 'When we take into account the difficulties experienced by those who followed in his [Moorcroft's] track, we hardly know how to express sufficiently our admiration of his hardihood and address, and to do him justice we must remind our readers that not only did death overtake him at a time when he had triumphed over the chief difficulties of his undertaking, but that his papers remained unnoticed until those who followed his example had carried off the honours that were justly his due.'

Moorcroft was author of: 1. An English translation of Valli's ' Experiments in Animal Electricity,' London, 1793. 2. 'Directions for Using the Portable Horse-Medicine Chest adopted for Service in India,' London, 1795. 3. 'Cursory Account of the Various Methods of Shoeing Horses hitherto in Use,' London, 1800. The following papers were published, the first excepted, after his death: 1. 'Journey to Lake Manaforavara in Little Tibet' (sic) f 'Asiatic Researches,' xii. 375-534. 2. 'On the Púrik Goat of Ladakh,' 'Asiatic Society's Transactions,' vol. i. 1827; 'Froriep Notizen,' xxviii. (1830) 275-6, 3. 'Notice on Khoten,' 'Geographical Society's Journal,' i. (1832) 233-46. 4. 'Notices of the Native Productions of Cashmere,' ib. ii. 253-68.  MOORE. [See also and .]

MOORE, ALBERT JOSEPH (1841–1893), painter, born at York on 4 Sept. 1841, was thirteenth son and fourteenth child of William Moore [q. v.], portrait-painter, and Sarah Collingham, his wife. Several of his numerous brothers were educated as artists, including Henry Moore, R.A., the well-known sea painter. Albert Moore was educated at Archbishop Holgate's School, and also at St. Peter's School at York, receiving at the same time instruction in drawing and painting from his father. He made such progress that he gained a medal from the Department of Science and Art at Kensington in May 1853, before completing his twelfth year. After his father's death in 1851 Moore owed much to the care and tuition of his brother, John Collingham Moore [see under ]. In 1855 he came to London and attended the Kensington grammar school till 1858, when he became a student in the art school of the Royal Academy. He had already exhibited there in 1857, when he sent 'A Goldfinch' and 'A Woodcock.' In the two following years he sent more natural history studies, but in 1861 he made a new venture with two sacred subjects, 'The Mother of Sisera looked out of a Window,' and 'Elijah running to Jezreel before Ahab's Chariot.' He exhibited other sacred pictures in 1862 and 1865. Meanwhile Moore had given signs elsewhere of the remarkable skill which he afterwards displayed as a decorative artist. After designing pictorial figures for architects in ceilings, altar-pieces, &c., he about 1860 painted a ceiling at Shipley, fol- 