Towards the close of the following century, these monasteries received the successive visits of SONNINI, of William George BROWNE, and of General Count ANDRÉOSSI. [Sidenote: AND THOSE OF SONNINI, BROWNE, AND OTHERS.] SONNINI says nothing of books. BROWNE saw but few—among them an Arabo-Coptic _Lexicon_, the works of St. Gregory, and the _Old_ and _New Testaments_ in Arabic—although he was told by the superior that they had nearly eight hundred volumes, with none of which they would part. [Sidenote: Browne, _Travels in Africa_, &c., p. 43.] General ANDRÉOSSI, on the other hand, speaks slightingly of the books as merely ‘ascetic works, ... some in Arabic, and some in Coptic, with an Arabic translation in the margin;’ [Sidenote: Huntington, _Observations_ (repr. in Ray’s Coll.).] but adds, ‘We brought away some of the latter class, which appear to have a date of six centuries.’ This was in 1799. [Sidenote: Andréossi, _Vallées des Lac de Nation_, pass.] BROWNE died in 1814; SONNINI DE MANONCOURT, in 1812; Count ANDRÉOSSI survived until 1828. In the year 1827, the late Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND (then Lord PRUDHOE) made more elaborate researches. His immediate object was a philological one, his Lordship desiring to further Mr. TATTAM’S labours on a Coptic and Arabic Dictionary. [Sidenote: Lord Prudhoe’s _Narrative_, &c., as abridged in _Quarterly Review_, vol. lxxvii, pp. 45, seq.] Hearing that ‘Libraries were said to be preserved, both at the Baramous and Syrian convents,’ he proceeded to El Baramous, accompanied by Mr. LINART, and encamped outside the walls. ‘The monks in this convent,’ says the Duke, ‘about twelve in number, appeared poor and ignorant. They looked on us with great jealousy, and denied having any books, except those in the church, which they showed us.’ But having been judiciously mollified by some little seductive present, on the next day, ‘in a moment of good humour, they agreed to show us their Library. From it I selected a certain number of Manuscripts, which, with the _Lexicon_ (_Selim_) already mentioned, were carried into the monk’s room. A long deliberation ensued, ... as to my offer to purchase them. Only one could write, and at last it was agreed that he should copy the _Selim_, which copy and the MSS. I had collected were to be mine, in exchange for a fixed sum of dollars, to which I added a present of rice, coffee, tobacco, and such other articles as I had to offer.’ After narrating the acquisition of a few other MSS. at the Syrian convent, or Convent of St. Mary Deipara, his Lordship proceeds:—‘These manuscripts I presented to Mr. TATTAM, and gave him some account of the small room with its trap-door, through which I descended, candle in hand, to examine the manuscripts, where books, and parts of books, and scattered leaves, in Coptic, Ethiopic, Syriac, and Arabic, were lying in a mass, on which I stood.... In appearance, it seemed as if, on some sudden emergency, the