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Bey, to whofe family they attached themfelves. One of them now known by the name of Huffein Bey, attained the higheft honours in the Mamaluke aristocracy, though he has never been invefted with the pellife by the Pafhà of Egypt, a neceffary ceremony for the establishment of his rank. Ibrahim, being probably the best brazier of the three, became chief engineer, and mafter of the ordnance to Murat Bey. The third brother, more enterprising than the others, having attached to his perfon a confiderable number of dependents, amaffed fome wealth, and made a powerful party among the Beys,-took advantage of a moment of confufion and revolution in the kingdom of Darfour, and marched thither with fome thousand armed horfemen, and with the means of levying a large body of the natives: by the affiftance of the Greek artifans and mechanics he took with him, he founded four pieces of cannon, and waged a foccessful war for fome time against the King of Darfour. At the time of the French invafion, Murat Bey was on the point of fending him a thousand chofen Mamalukes, who would have enabled him to Arike a decifive blow, and would have feated him on the throne. But this event deprived him of a reinforcement he was in need of; and his troops gradually waking away, he retreated to a defile among the mountains; where, being left unmolefted by the King,. he in a short time fucceeded in conciliating by affable manners and good offices the wandering tribes in the neighbourhood. He built them a mofque as a place of worship, without incurring any fufpicion; but, as foon as he had completed the building, he con verted it into a fortrefs, mounted his guns, again fet at defiance the power of Darfour, and made every preparation for a renewal of the conteft, whenever a more favourable turn of affairs in Egypt fhould enable him to take the field with recruited strength.

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As one principal object we had in view was to penetrate as far as we could into the country above the Cataracts, we wished if poffible to pafs them with the fmalleft of our boats. For this purpose we embarked in it at Es Souan the 22d of November; and, having a trong northerly breeze in our favour, we foon pailed the limits of the antient town. We had not, however, proceeded above half a mile further, when we found ourselves in the midst of rocky islands, which it was in many places extremely difficult to avoid, and where we were frequently in imminent danger of being dashed against the rocks; the falls of water were Japid, and in adverse directions, and the channels very narrow; the meeting of contrary currents formed eddies which would have fwamped a fmaller boat, and which placed us in the most critical fituation. By main ftrength of oars, and with all fails fet, we continued to advance, and were able to pafs feveral of thefe rapids; when at last the current became fo much too powerful for the boar, that though it blew hard, and we had fix oars out, we fcarcely made any way. In this fituation, as there were no hopes of fuccefs, and every chance of being driven against a rock, we

judged

judged it most prudent to return: this was a difficult manœuvre ; fortunately our reis and crew were good, and we had need of all their activity and skill. We were however foon landed in fafety on a fandy beach on the eastern fhore, whence we explored a dry and rocky bed, in which the Nile flows during the inundation, and which is the course that the boats take, which then afcend the river with comparative facility; the granite iflets are then a confiderable depth below the furface of the water, and the north wind is in that feafon stronger and lefs variable. From the upper extremity of this channel we had a view of the celebrated Cataracts of Syene, which are formed by a great number of granite rocks croffing the bed of the river, here nearly a mile and a half broad: thefe rocks do not appear when the water is at the higheft, and then there is no fall, only a very rapid current. When the river is quite low, they will of courfe form as many falls, or cafcades, as there are channels between the rocks, which occafion a conftant clafh or din to be heard at the distance of feveral leagues. Cicero fays, the inhabitants in the neighbourhood were deafened by the noife; and feveral perfons with whom we converfed affured us of this fact-We certainly obferved that they were particularly dull of hearing. On rejoining our boat we returned by an caftern paffage, by which we avoided the iflands, but which is impracticable in going up, as, in the few difficult paffes, the high mountains to the north and weft frequently occafion dangerous and critical calms.

"Paffing with our boat to the weft of Elephantine, we landed on the weft bank of the river, and walked a mile over the fands up to an old Coptic monaftery called Deir el Garbié, which appears to have been once well inhabited and endowed. It is defended by a handfome outer wall of hewn ftone; but has long been entirely deferted. We found among the ruins the fragment of a Greek infcription, with the name of Diocletian.

"Foiled in this attempt to pafs the Cataracts with our boat, we had endeavoured, when on our fecond vifit to Elfi Bey, to difpofe him to affift us on our journey onward by land. He called a native of Derdé, one of the moft confiderable towns on this fide of Ibrim, and queftioned him as to the practicability of the undertaking. We were concerned to receive from him every kind of difcouraging information, from the difficulty of the roads, and the inhofpitality of the inhabitants. A fhekh of the Ababdé repeated the fame thing, and defcribed the feveral narrow paffes of the Nile, where the mountains approaching each other from the east and weft, place every boat that attempts the paffage at the mercy of the inhabitants; fome of whom at these spots are are armed with mufkets. The Bey alfo added, that, as yet, the people higher up are extremely difinclined to the introduction of any foreigners whatever among them, and affured us, that about eight years ago, Haffan Bey Gedaoui, then in Upper Egypt, and exiled from Cairo by Murat and Ibrahim, had fent 40 of his bett Mamalukes

Mamalukes among them, who were all put to the fword. Many other alarming ftories of this kind were added, and tremendous defcriptions of the danger of the rocks, the Cataracts, and the people; most of them probably unfounded, but all tending equally to show that none whom we had confulted intended to let us advance any further. One added, that had it not been for the Bey's prefence, they fhould not even have allowed us to penetrate thus far. Some of thefe difficulties we owed to our efcort of English foldiers, which, as its first movements alarmed Elfi, and drove him beyond the Cataracts, had now fpread the alarm over the whole of the Upper country. The inhabitants had declared, that as they have not for a long time fubmitted to the Turks, have never acknowledged the fovereignty of the Mamalukes *, and were never vifited by the French, fo they are determined to prevent all approaches of the English :-and at last the man who gave us this account, in answer to our further inftances, faid, If they will go, let them go-but they must take their chance, and be anfwerable for their own fafety t." P. 31.

At p. 81 there occurs a teftimony in favour of Bruce as far as his excurfion over the Defert from Sennaar to Egypt is concerned. Of this indeed, and of his having visited moft of the places which he defcribes, little doubt, it is to be prefumed, can now remain. But whoever peruses Mr. Salt's Narrative of his Travels in Abyffinia, and examines Lord Valentia's excellent Chart of the Red Sea, will not with much confidence undertake to vindicate his general accuracy. In his various defcriptions of the antiquities which were the object of examination, the prefent author demonftrates himfelf to be very familiarly acquainted with all the ancient writers on thefe fubjects, and with the Egyptian customs and manners at the remoteft periods; and this portion of his work will confequently be found to be enlivened with various claffical anecdotes and allufions. This appears no where more confpicuous than in his defcription of Eleuthias, p. 90; and as it feems juft to exhibit him alfo in his character of an accom. plished scholar, we fubjoin one more specimen.

"The Beys likewife have an intereft in increafing the diffi culties of penetrating further fouth than the Cataracts, as they ever look to a retreat in that country as their last resource, in the event of a temporary expulfion from Egypt."

"The ignorance of the lowest among thefe Berberi is fuch as to make them believe that Europeans can take poffeffion of a country by magic, as foon as they are allowed to fet their foot in it. Can these be the defcendants of the Aborigines of Egypt, the inventors of arts and sciences ?"

BRIT, CRIT. VOL. XXXVII. JAN. 1811.

"The

"The incurfion of the Blemmyes into Upper Egypt, in the reign of Probus, is an event which has received very little illuf tration from history. This people, about whom fuch fabulous circumftances are related, were natives of the interior of Africa, and by fome were confounded with the Troglodyte. They feem to have taken poffeffion of the diftricts of Coptos and Ptolemais about the middle of the third century, whence they were expelled by the Emperor, a fhort time after he had restored peace to the provinces of Ifauria and Pamphylia.

In

"The ftate of religion and manners which prevailed in Egypt during the fecond and third centuries may be tolerably well col. tected from a cotemporary writer, Vopifcus the Syracufan. his Life of Saturninus he tells us, that when Aurelian gave him the command of the eastern frontier he prohibited him from entering Egypt. The experience of the Emperor had taught him to be cauticas how he afforded to a native of Gaul an opportunity of exciting a revolt: he was aware that the Egyptians were na turally inconftant, paffionate, infolent, and a vain-glorious people; that they were ever ready to affert their pretended liberties, ager for innovations, which formed the fubject of their fongs and ballads; that their talents for poetry, epigram and wit, were ever turned against their magiftrates; and that they were all fmatterers in abftrufe fcience, in prophecy, and in medicine. They were chiefly Chriftians and Samaritans; and as fuch the Pagan hiftorian affects to deferibe them as of courfe diffatisfied with the prefent times...

"In fupport of this character of the inhabitants of Egypt, Vopifcus cites what he calls a letter from the Emperor Adrian to the Conful Servian, extracted from the works of Phlegon, his freedman; but which from its style and character would appear to be of a later date and by a meaner hand. It conveys a very exaggerated account of the feditious and turbulent difpofition of the Egyptians of that time: and, contrary to many better authenticated narratives of the moral practices of the Chriftians of that æra, it reprefents thofe of Egypt in verý odious colours.

"It is poffible, indeed, that an oppreffive government, the impofition of burthenfome and continually increafing taxes, may have debased the character of the nation, and that fome indivi. duals may have fought their worldly intercits in an attempt to unite the old worship of the gods of Greece and of Rome with the new doctrines, which were rapidly making their way over the Roman world: but, the doctrines of the Chriftian religion were Aill the fame as were promulgated by Chrift and by his apoftles; and we have the mott fatisfactory teftimony of the good conduct and fubmiffive temper of the earlier profeffors of Chriftianity, inPliny's celebrated letter to the Emperor Trajan.

That, however, which is attributed to Adrian is a curious document, as illuftrative of the manners and prejudices of the times, of the vices which more or lefs had their fway under the

corrupt

corrupt governments of imperial Rome, and of the opinions profeffed by fome pagans of thofe manners and vices peculiar to Egypt. It may be confidered, likewife, as containing fentiments which a pagan writer might naturally indulge, against a country wherein a belief in the divine fource of the Chriftian revelation had made a more rapid progrefs than in moft other parts of the empire.

"In the following tranflation of this epiftle, I have adhered as clofely to the letter of the original as is compatible with the bad tafte and affected language in which it is written:

"Adrian Auguftus to the Conful Servian, grecting:-I am convinced, my friend Servian, that all the inhabitants of Egypt, of whom you made honourable mention to me, are trifling, wavering, and changing at every change of public rumour: the worfhippers of Serapis are Chriftians; and those who call themselves followers of Chrift pay their devotions to Serapis. Every chief of a Jewish fynagogue, every Samaritan, each Chriftian priest, the mathematicians, foothfayers, and phyficians in the Gynmafia, all acknowledge Serapis,*. The patriarch himfelf, whenever he goes into Egypt, is obliged by fome to worship Serapis, by others, Chrift. The people are of all others the most inclined to sedition, vain, and infolent. Alexandria is opulent, wealthy, popu lous; without an idle inhabitant. Some are glafs-blowers; others manufacturers of paper; others again of linen cloth. Here is to be feen and hired every defcription of artifan. Even the blind, and the gouty in hand or foot, may be employed. They have one God, (Serapis,) whom the Chriftians, and Jews, and Gentiles worship. I could with that the city practifed a purer morality, and fhowed itfelf worthy of its pre-eminence in fize and dignity over the whole of Egypt. I have conceded to it every point; I have reftored its antient privileges; and have conferred upon it fo many more, that when I was there I received the thanks of the inhabitants, and immediately on my departure they complimented my fon Verus. You have heard, too, what they faid about Antoninus:-I wish them no other curfe +, than that they may be fed with their own chickens, which are hatched in a way I am afhamed to relate. I have forwarded to you three drinking-cups, which have the property of changing their co

"The meaning given to this paffage by Cafaubon is, that the Jews, Samaritans, and Chriftians were fo fond of Hellenizing, that, when their interefts required it, they willingly affected a knowledge of the fciences, pretended to the gift of prophecy, and attended the athletic exercifes at the Gymnafia." "Nihil illis opto, nifi ut fuis pullis alantur."

This fpecies of manufactory was peculiar to Egypt; and the glafs affumed, under different circumftances, a myrtle, fapphire, and hyacinth colour. Pliny obferves, that no other fubftance was more pliant, or more fufceptible of painting.”

D

lour.

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