Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/529

BEM lad that Belzoni had taken out with him, joined the company. When the wheel began to move, the Arabs took fright, and ran off, leaving the son of Erin to struggle with the wheel, loaded with water, as best he might. His leg was broken in the struggle, and the accident was readily construed into an omen against the innovation. Mahomet Ali paid Belzoni for this wheel, but gave him no further encouragement; and he had nothing for it but to retrace his steps to Alexandria, and place himself in communication with his old patron, Mr. Salt.

Belzoni remained in Egypt for about five years, and among his achievements may be named the removal of the colossal head of what was called the Young Memnon. After a series of difficulties, which we cannot here recount, Belzoni succeeded in conveying the head to Alexandria, whence it was shipped to England, and it may now be seen in the British Museum. He next effected an entrance into one of the pyramids of Ghizeh. He explored the tombs of the Egyptian kings at Beban-el-Molouk, in the vicinity of the ancient city of Thebes. He discovered the entrance of this celebrated temple, and found chambers richly adorned with beautiful paintings and hieroglyphics.

Belzoni also penetrated into Nubia, as far as the second cataract of the Nile, where he discovered and reopened the great temple of Abousambul, or Ipsambul. This temple is cut in the side of a mountain, and the front of it was so much encumbered by the accumulated sand, that only the upper part of it was visible. In 1819 he returned to Europe, and, visiting his native town, he was received with great honours. He presented the Paduans with two lion-headed statues, which were placed in a conspicuous station in the palace of justice. To show the interest they took in the fame of their fellow-citizen, the Paduans caused a medal to be struck, bearing on one side a representation of the statues in question, and on the other, an inscription recording Belzoni's principal researches and discoveries. In 1820 Belzoni published "A narrative of the operations and recent discoveries within the pyramids, temples, tombs, and excavations in Egypt and Nubia; and of a journey to the coast of the Red Sea, in search of the ancient Berenice; and another to the oasis of Jupiter Ammon."

In 1821 Belzoni exhibited at the Egyptian hall, in Piccadilly, a model of the tomb which he had explored near Thebes, facsimiles of the paintings on the walls of one or two of the sepulchral apartments, and other curiosities which he had collected in Egypt. This exhibition attracted much public attention, and it was eminently successful in a pecuniary point of view. But the old spirit soon revived, and Belzoni was again impelled to travel. This time his destination was Timbuctoo, but he never reached it. He was seized with dysentery at Gato, in the Bight of Benin, and rested from his labours on the 3d of December, 1823, aged forty-five. When dying, he intrusted the captain of the vessel in which he came to Benin with a large amethyst, to be given to his wife; and he also wrote her a letter, bidding the faithful companion of his travels an affectionate farewell. A statue of him was erected at Padua on the 4th of July, 1827, and while his name is more particularly treasured by his immediate countrymen, it is held in esteem by all mankind. He exhibited a ghoul-like talent for bringing to light the secrets of the grave, and he was the first and not the least efficient explorer of Egyptian antiquities. We now probably know more of ancient Egypt than Herodotus, Anthony, or even Cleopatra ever knew; and this superior knowledge we owe, in a great measure, to the extraordinary talent and indomitable perseverance of Belzoni.—C. W. C.  BEM,, Polish general, Hungarian lieutenant-general, and Turkish pasha, was born in 1795 at Tarnow, in Austrian Poland. He studied mathematics at the university of Cracow with great success; and, still in his teens, took part in Napoleon's campaign of 1812 as lieutenant, being rewarded by General Rapp with the cross of the legion of honour for his bravery during the defence of the fortress of Dantzig. In 1815 he entered the Polish army, became captain in 1819, professor of the school of artillery at Warsaw, and director of the chemical laboratory for the manufacture of rockets. His patriotic sentiments, however, which he never concealed, soon brought him into difficulties with the Russian authorities; he was dismissed, put before a court-martial, and imprisoned—at last confined to live in a small provincial town under police superintendence. His reputation as an author on military subjects served to smooth the temper of the Grand-duke Constantine, viceroy of Poland, in regard to Bem, and he was allowed to retire to the estates of Count Potocki, where he occupied himself with literary labours, and the technical superintendence of the count's husbandry. At the outbreak of the Polish revolution, he hastened to Warsaw, took a brilliant part in the battles of Iganic, Ostrolenka, and before Warsaw, where he gained the rank of general. He held with his artillery the bridge of Praga on the 7th of September against fearful odds, protecting the retreat of the Polish army. After the fall of Warsaw he went to Prussia, remained up to 1832 in Germany, and tried to form a Polish legion in 1833 in France, for the service of Don Pedro of Portugal. Disgusted with the violent party dissensions among his fellow-refugees, which prevented the formation of the legion, he henceforth kept aloof from politics, interested himself in mnemonics, and travelled extensively in Portugal, Spain, Holland, Belgium, and England. In 1848 Bem returned to Lemberg in Gallicia; and engaged by a Hungarian gentleman to Hungarian service, he came to Vienna in October, just after the successful insurrection. The command of the Viennese forces was offered to, and accepted by him; but, surrounded by officers who incessantly plotted how to get safely out of the danger, he could not make any use of the devoted gallantly of the great bulk of the population. In fact, the Vienna insurrection was made exclusively by the lower classes and the students; the higher and middle classes, who kept aloof in the beginning, stept only in and took the lead in order to deliver the town up to Prince Windishgratz. Bem's surrender was one of the conditions of the capitulation of Vienna; but the general succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the Austrians, and safely arrived at Presburg in the Hungarian camp, preceded by other Vienna fugitives, who tried to throw the blame of the failure on the gallant foreigner, whilst party dissensions blinded a young Pole so much that he made an attempt on Bem's life, and lodged a bullet in his cheek-bone. Such being the circumstances, Kossuth and the committee of public safety did not venture to avail themselves of Bem's services at once; but when in December the news arrived at Pesth that the Transylvanian armies were defeated, and the principality lost, the Polish general got the command of about ten thousand ill-disciplined troops, demoralized by defeats. He arrived on the 15th in the camp; and, within ten days, defeated the Austrians in three battles, and took the capital of the province. His victorious progress. however, was checked on the 21st of January, 1849, by a defeat at Hermanstadt; he had to retreat towards Hungary, losing nearly all his artillery, continually harrassed by the Austrians. On the 7th of February he was reinforced, and defeated the enemy at the bridge of Piski, advanced again towards Hermanstadt, was once more beaten at Mediash on the first days of March; but whilst the Austrians concentrated their forces in order to crush him completely, he passed between their armies, and, boldly advancing to Hermanstadt, surprised and put to flight the Russian garrison, and so completely bewildered the Austrian generals, that they precipitately evacuated the principality. On the 15th of March, Colonel Ihász expelled the Russians from the defiles of Vöröstorony, and completed the reconquest of Transylvania. Bem tried now to pacify the Wallachian population, who had risen in a servile war against the landlords, checked the continual Austrian endeavours to penetrate into the country from Wallachia, reorganized his army, recruited his health, and proposed a most daring plan of campaign through Southern Hungary to Croatia and the outlying provinces of Austria, which, however, was rejected by the government, as it involved a greater outlay of money than could be afforded. In June the Russian armies advanced into Transylvania, and their superior numbers, though several times checked by Bern's strategy, overpowered the Hungarian troops within six weeks. Bem went to Hungary, took the command of the Southern army, was wounded and defeated at Temesvar on the 9th of August, and had, after Georgey's treason at Vilagos, to cut his way to Turkey. There he embraced the faith of Mohammed, took the name of Amurat Pasha, and was sent to Aleppo, where he died in December, 1850, up to his last breath occupied with plans for the reorganization of the Turkish army. His worth is attested by the unbounded popularity he enjoyed in Hungary and Transylvania. Nobody found fault with him but the minister of finances, who was often unable to provide for the generosity with which the general rewarded his army after every success. Bold in victory, and still bolder after a defeat, he out-generalled the Austrians; his agreeable manners 