The great Oasis lies at the distance of seven days' journey from the ancient city of Abydos, quite in a western direction, and was called by the Egyptians ore or, (Ouase Psoy,) that is, the Oasis of Psoy, which was the name of the capital nearest to it.

The small Oasis lies to the north of the preceding one, and near the celebrated lake of Moris. The Greeks, whose imagination embellished even the deserts, gave to this situation the name of the happy island, or rather, the island of the happy. The Egyptians called it the or&ge пeuxe, (Ouase Pemsje,) the Oasis of Pemsje, because it was situated near the town of that name.

The Oasis of Ammon, so called because it was near the oracle of Ammon, lay about twelve days' journey to the westward of Memphis, and of this place, as well as of the ruins of the temple belonging to this great deity of Egypt, Mr. Brown has given a correct account in his Travels through Syria. Some curious notions may also be collected from Belzoni, though not always correct in regard to history.

But to return.

Besides Lybia and the three Oases, the Egyptian monarchy contained also all the tract of land which lies between the Nile and the Red Sea. And during the beautiful period of its splendour under the Pharaoh Sesookhris, the Osymandias of the Greeks, and the Pharaoh Sethosis, Ramesses, the

Sesostris of Diodorus, countries still more distant, and people still more civilized, acknowledged the authority of these victorious sovereigns.

This historical fact proves that the Red Sea was not the boundary of the Egyptian monarchy towards the east. Beyond its shores the Egyptians had founded colonies, who spoke the same language as the people of Thebes and Memphis. Of this there seems to be not a shadow of doubt. The celebrated traveller Carsten Niébuhr, in one of his excursions to mount Sinai, which the Arabs call Djebbel Mousa,-the mountain of Moses, discovered on the east of the Red sea, that is, in Arabia, a very extraordinary monument, bearing evident marks of its Egyptian origin; and on the summit of another mountain, called by the Arabians Djebbel el Mokatteb, that is, the "written mountain," he found the foundation of a vast building, full of sepulchral stones, six or seven feet long, covered with hieroglyphics similar to those of the Thebaide.

The existence of this cemetery is an incontrovertible proof of the extent of the Egyptian power beyond the eastern coast of the Red Sea. The reason of such an establishment, unless it be for the encouragement of commerce, or military expeditions, cannot now be ascertained, nor can we guess at the epoch of the first settlement of these colonies. Every possible reason leads us to suppose that the Egyptian monarchs took an early possession of the eastern shores of the Red Sea.

It is asserted that the Pharaoh Sethosis Ramesses made the first successful attempt. Some writers pretend that this prince lived 1409 years before Christ; but the account which Niebuhr gives of the monument he saw on Mount Sinai, evinces a much greater antiquity.

Such were the political boundaries of Egypt during the period of its greatest splendour. But this great power did not last long. With the death of Sethosis, or Sesostris, it seems that the Egyptians lost the ability and spirit of making further conquests, or even of retaining those they had made. The descendants of this great prince by little and little lost all the acquisitions made by their predecessors; and after that time the authority of the Pharaohs was confined within the limits assigned by nature to the Egyptian territory, that is, the whole valley of the Nile.

This narrow tract of land was then called, and has since been called, strictly speaking, Egypt; although this denomination has been extended also to that portion of land which the waters of the Nile overflowed during the inundation. For this we have the authority of Strabo and Herodotus ; and this last writer relates, in confirmation of this assertion, that the inhabitants of two cities, Marea and Apis, being harassed by the Egyptians, on account of some religious ceremonies, applied to the oracle of Ammon, to know whether they could be dispensed from following the religious customs of their masters. The reasons they assigned for

such an exemption, were, that as they spoke a language which was not the language of Egypt, and dwelt in cities situated beyond the Delta, on the western boundaries of Egypt towards Lybia, they could not be considered as Egyptians, and therefore they should not be compelled to follow the religious customs of the Egyptians, which were contrary to their own. To this demand the oracle gave the following answer. "That all the country which the Nile inundated by its overflowing belonged to Egypt; and that all the inhabitants of the country below the city of Elephantina, who drank the waters of this river, were Egyptians."

At first sight, and according to the literal meaning of this sentence, we should imagine that the inhabitants of Marea and Apis had gained the cause, because both these cities being very far from the Delta, it was impossible for the inhabitants to taste the waters of the Nile. But the fact was not so. For the meaning of the oracle was, that although the overflowing of this river did not reach Marea and Apis, yet their inhabitants were Egyptians, because " they drank the waters of this river," which were carried to both these cities by means of canals, during the time of the inundation, and preserved in cisterns for the rest of the year.

This river in fact, seems to have been, if not the first, certainly one of the first causes of the prosperity of Egypt; and it is without doubt, one of the most remarkable singularities which draw on this country the attention of mankind. This mag

nificent river, by its periodical inundation, imparts fertility and life to that portion of the country which it bathes with its waters. Without this beneficial influence, Egypt would be a sandy desert, like those immense solitudes by which it is surrounded. It is this river, it is the Nile therefore, which is the preserver, and I may almost say, the creator of the land over which it runs throughout its course.

The ancient Egyptians were fully persuaded of the force of this truth. They knew that without the Nile, Egypt, instead of supplying foreign nations with corn, would have been obliged to beg this article from them; or rather, could not possibly be inhabited; and knowing how to appreciate every thing which tended to the benefit of their country, they paid a kind of worship to this river, which they looked upon as sacred. Plutarch in fact, informs us, that the Egyptians gave to the Nile the name of the father and the saviour of Egypt.

The obscurity of its origin seemed to add fresh weight to this general feeling of the people. From time immemorial, no one has been able to ascertain its source; and even at the present moment, the opinions of the learned differ very widely upon this subject, not less than they did amongst the ancients.

Herodotus confesses, that no one of the Egyptians, Lybians, or Greeks, whom he consulted during his travels in Egypt, knew any thing of the