We made our way at length to the Frank quarter, in the S. E. part of the city, through narrow, crooked, dirty streets and lanes, running between dead walls or ill-built houses with flat roofs. The Frank quarter is near the eastern port, and consists of a broad street or place, surrounded by large houses in the Italian style. We paid our respects to Mr. Gliddon, Consul of the United States, to whom I had an official letter; and he immediately sent his Kawwâs or Janizary to procure us lodgings, and to pass our luggage at the custom-house. During our stay in Alexandria, and afterwards in Cairo, we were greatly indebted to the courtesy and kind offices of Mr. Gliddon; and I take pleasure in this opportunity of tendering to him my grateful acknowledgments.

It was now the third day of the great festival of the Muhammedans, (the Lesser Bairam of the Turks,) which follows the fast of Ramadân, and continues three days. All was of course joy and rejoicing among the population; bands of jugglers were exhibiting their feats in the open places of the streets; the ships of war in the harbour were gaily decked with flags and streamers; and at noon the thunder of their cannon proclaimed a salute in honour of the day. This was the first and only Muhammedan festival, which we had an opportunity of seeing.

Of ancient Alexandria, that renowned city, which contained 600,000 inhabitants, and was second only to Rome itself, scarcely a vestige now remains. The hand of time and the hand of barbarism have both swept over it with merciless fury, and buried its ancient glory in the dust and in the sea. Her illustrious schools of theology, astronomy, and various other sciences; her noble library, unique in ancient history; her light-house, one of the seven wonders of the world; all have utterly vanished away, and 'the places there

of know them no more.' Her former site, thickly strown with fragments of bricks and tiles, showing that even the materials of her former structures have perished, has been dug over, and the foundations of her edifices turned up, in search of stones to build the modern navy-yard and other works of the Pasha.The only surviving remains of the ancient city are, a few cisterns still in use; the catacombs on the shore west of the city; the granite obelisk of Thothmes III, with its fallen brother, brought hither from Heliopolis, and usually called Cleopatra's Needles; and the column of Diocletian, more commonly known as Pompey's Pillar. This last is upon the highest part of the ancient site, between the modern city and Lake Mareotis. There it stands, towering in loneliness and desolation, the survivor of that splendour which it was intended to heighten; while near at hand the straggling and neglected tombs of a Muhammedan cemetery only serve to render the desolation more mournful. The catacombs are nearly filled with earth, and are difficult to be explored. They consist of halls and apartments with niches for the dead, and with ornaments in the Greek style of architecture. But they are chiefly interesting as being the first Egyptian sepulchres which the traveller meets.-The population of the modern city is reckoned by the best judges at about 40,000 souls.

If the traveller feels on landing in Alexandria, that he has now entered the borders of the oriental world, he is not less strongly reminded of the same fact, when he comes to leave that city, and set off for the interior of Egypt. Until now he has had all the conveniences of travel which exist in Europe and America; he has had only to await the departure of a steamer, and be

1) See Note I, at the end of the volume.

take himself on board with bag and baggage, without further thought or care. But travelling in Egypt and Syria, is quite a different thing. Here are neither roads, nor public conveyances, nor public houses; and the traveller is thrown back wholly upon his own resources. In Egypt he must hire a boat for himself, unless he can find a companion to share it with him; he must provide his own bed and cooking-utensils, and also his provisions for the journey, except such as he can procure at the villages along the Nile; and withal and above all he must have a servant, who can at the same time act as cook, purveyor, and interpreter. He will soon find himself very much in the power of this important personage, who will usually be able neither to read nor write; and the discomforts and vexations of this relation of dependence will probably continue more and more to press upon him, until he has himself learned something of the Arabic language, or is fortunate enough (as I was) to fall in with a companion to whom the language is familiar.If the traveller has time, he will do well to purchase the chief necessaries at Alexandria. He needs them just as much during the voyage to Cairo, as afterwards; and he will thus save time and avoid care in the latter city.

Most travellers, on arriving at Alexandria, suppose they have only to take a boat directly from that city along the canal and the Nile to Cairo; and it may be some days before they learn, that at 'Atfeh-where the canal leaves the Nile-they will be compelled to hire another boat; the canal being there shut off from the river by a dam with sluices, but without locks. At this point every thing which passes between Alexandria and Cairo has to be transshipped; to the great inconvenience of the public and the special annoyance of travellers just arrived in the country. The boats

on the canal and river are much the same,-long, narrow, and sharp, with a low cabin at the stern in which one can rarely stand erect; and usually having two low masts with immense lateen sails, their long yards turning around the top of the mast as on a pivot. The cabins for the most part will accommodate only two persons to sit (cross-legged) and sleep in. If a party consists of more, a larger boat will be necessary; which enhances the expense and commonly the length of the voyage.

It was on a delightful morning, Jan. 5th, 1838, that we found ourselves floating for the first time on the bosom of the mighty Nile. In Alexandria we had almost daily showers of rain; and during the night that we had lain by at 'Atfeh, a heavy shower had fallen, clearing the atmosphere, and leaving behind it a fine north wind, which was driving us onward cheerily against the powerful current. It was a moment of excitement; indeed a new emotion was awakened by the first day's sail upon this noble stream, so closely associated with the earliest and choicest recollections of childhood and manhood. It was a glorious sight to look upon the mighty river, rolling its waters for nearly fifteen hundred miles, without a single tributary, through a region which but for it would be a desert; and rendering this desert by its waters the garden of the world. The Rosetta branch of the Nile, where we came upon it, reminded me strongly of the Rhine at Cologne, in its general breadth and current, and in the general character of its banks. The water of the Nile is celebrated for its deliciousness; and is deserving of its fame in this respect. Strangers are apt to drink too freely of it at first; and not unfrequently experience a slight attack of dysentery in consequence. The water is slightly turbid; but becomes clear by filtering through the porous jars of the country; or on

being left to stand in jars, the sides of which have been rubbed with almond-paste.

We had been told in Alexandria that we should probably reach Cairo in three days; but our fine wind lasted only for one day; and it was not until after a voyage of five days in all, that we landed at Bûlak, the port of Cairo. For a whole day previous, we had seen the great pyramids, towering upon the southern horizon. Several other travellers, about the same time, had still longer passages. Our luggage and ourselves were speedily mounted on donkies; and we were soon cantering along the straight road that leads to the gate of Cairo, two English miles distant. This gate opens on the middle of the N. W. side of the great place or square el-Ezbekîyeh; not far from which, on the southern side, lies the Frank quarter. Here we found lodgings in a hotel which had formerly been kept by an Italian; but was now nominally under English management.

At Cairo we found we had fallen, for the present, on evil times. Mr. G. R. Gliddon, the American Consul, was absent in the United States. The English Vice-Consul, to whom I had been particularly addressed, was at first absent; and on his return found himself honoured or burdened by a new appointment, which for the time overwhelmed him with a chaotic mass of business; so that he hardly knew which way to turn. Messrs. Lieder and Kruse, Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, to whom I had letters from the Society in London, and who afterwards rendered us most important services, were at the time confined to their houses by illness. Mr. Gliddon senior had been so kind as to place at our disposal the Janizary of the American Consulate, both during the time of our stay in Cairo, and for our further voyage on the Nile; yet this did not help us much at present; VOL. I.

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