Immediately on his arrival he began to put his manuscripts in form for the press, and in 1786, published, in London, his Sketches of the Mythology and Manners of the Hindoos. Returning some time after this to India, he published, at Calcutta, in 1790, the first volume of his travels, under the title of A Journey from Bengal to England, and was just about to print a second, when he died at Nagpoor, whither he had been sent on an embassy, some time in the year 1792. In 1798, a complete edition of his travels was published in two quarto volumes, but so negligently edited, that it has been doubted whether the second volume was compiled from the manuscripts of Forster, of whom no account was given, nor of the manner in which his papers were obtained. The work, though not gaining the reputation it deserved, received great commendation from the literary world, and was translated into German by Meineis, and into French, with the addition of notes and two maps, by Langlès, who has written a short memoir of Forster, in the Biographie Universelle.
Few travels have been more adventurous and hazardous than those of Forster; yet the gay and spirited manner in which the account of them is written, gives no indication of any apprehension on the part of the author, who seems to have been as much at home in the deserts of Khorasan, as on the banks of the Thames. Indeed, had he not preserved, during his travels, the unreserved, unsuspicious, and familiar manner which his disguise as a Mohammedan rendered necessary, he would neither have had so good an opportunity of seeing the manners and dispositions of his infidel associates, nor have lived, perhaps, to relate them.
EDWARD DANIEL CLARKE.
This distinguished traveler and antiquarian, son of the Rev. Edward
Clarke, was born at Willingdon, in the county of Sussex, on the 5th of
June 1769. Whilst very young, he gave proofs of a roving disposition,
and of a fondness for natural history and chemistry, and many amusing
anecdotes are related of his conduct under the influence of these predilections.
He received the rudiments of education at an academy in the village
of Uckfield; and, in 1779, was sent to the grammar school at Tunbridge,
then under the superintendence of the celebrated Vicessimus Knox.
Here he made but little classical progress, but his fondness for books was
evinced by his habit of reading late at night, when all his schoolfellows
were asleep, for which purpose he spent great part of his pocket-money in
purchasing candles. In 1786, shortly after which his father died, he
entered Jesus College, Cambridge, where he obtained the situation of
chapel clerk, to the duties of which office he was scrupulously attentive,
but distinguished himself in no branch of university learning, excepting
that of English declamation. He devoted himself, however, with great
assiduity to his self-selected studies, which consisted of history, antiquity,
and every variety of learning comprehended under the term of belles lettres. Natural history, and particularly mineralogy, also occupied great
part of his time; and he evinced a capacity for scientific pursuits, by the
construction of a large balloon at Oxford, and of an orrery at home, for
the purpose of delivering lectures to his sister, his only auditor. His sole
