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T R A V E
I N
E G Y P
AND
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U B I
B Y
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FREDERICK LEWIS NORDEN. F. R. S. Captain of the Danish Navy.
Tranflated from the Original
Publifked by command of his Majefly the King of Denmark :
AND
Enlarged with obfervations from ancient and modem authors, that have written on the antiquities of Egypt,
By DR. PETER TEMPLEMAN. LONDON,
Printed for LOCKYER DAVIS and CHARLES REYMERS in Holborn ; Printers to the Royal Society. MDCCLVII.
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I
TO THE
KING.
S I R;
AW O R K undertaken by the orders of an illuftrious king for the advancement of learning and knowledge, and publiftied under the direction of a Royal Society of Sciences, that owes its birth to the glorious pattern which was given to the reft of Europe by one of your Majefty’s predeceftors in the Throne, lays a kind of claim to your Royal protection ; under which the arts and fciences have been fo much advanced^ that Our Royal Society , which fet the example to all others, ftill remains unequalled by any.
The tranflater of this work has a further rea- fon for prefuming to throw himfelf at your Ma- jefty’s feet ; his view has been to improve on the original, and he is certain that he cannot make a more aufpicious beginning than by addrefling it to your facred Majefty.
a 2
In
DEDICATION.
n reading the following account of a country, was once the model to other nations, but is funk, through tyranny, into the greateft lorance and brutality ; one cannot but refled: with tranfport on our own happinefs in this country, under the reign of a wife, juft, and beneficent Prince ; whofe paternal affedion towards his peo- ple extends itfelf to the fecuring the bleflings they enjoy to the lateft pofterity.
That your majefty may long live to reap the fruits of your unwearied care and afliduity for the welfare of this kingdom, is the ardent prayer of
Tour MAJESTY’S
moji humble and
mojl dutiful fubjetf,
Peter Templeman.
ADVERTISEMENT.
TH E credit of Mr. Norden’s relations, and the reception his work has met with, were judged inducements fufficient to accommodate,, at a lefs expenfive rate, thofe to whom the purchafe of two volumes in folio might be difagreeable.
Concerning the prefent edition, left the reader fhould be led to confider it in the light of an abridge- ment., it may not be improper to fay, that it contains not only the whole of the author’s obfervations, but thofe additional ones alfo, with which the editor thought it neceflary to illuftrate th t folio edition.
A manifeft inferiority, however, muft be acknow- ledged to lie in the want of the numerous inimitable ' defigns , which the original ftands enriched withal : To fupply this deficiency, nothing more could be done than to engrave, upon a fmaller fcale , as many of the moft remarkable ones, as could be comprifed within the compafs of our prefent plan.
That the reader may be made acquainted with every particular, concerning the publication of thefe travels, ' the two following prefaces are inferted •, tho’ the contents of them are, in a great meafure, relative to the refpe&ive editions to which they were originally prefixed.
a 3
PR E-
J
THE
TRANSLATE R’S
/
Preface to the Folio Edition.
THE merit of thefe Travels by Mr. Norden is already too well eftablifhed to need any recommendation from me, and is the reafon that no pains nor coft have been fpared to render the Eng- lifh edition as pompous as the original. The beauti- ful fimplicity of the defigns , and the exadtnefs with which they were drawn on the fpot, are, I believe, fuperior to any thing of the kind that has ever been publilhed.
The curious 'may here find the fchool of the Gre- cian architecture, and the learned will fee a kind of comment on the defcriptions that the ancients have given of the Egyptian edifices.
In the feveral charts of the Nile, the reader is de- lighted with landfkips of the country on each fide, here fees level lawns, and there frightful precipices ■, is one while charmed with groves of palm trees, at an- other time ftruck with admiration of the numerous cities that border on the river, with crefcents towring to the Iky. Ruins, monuments, magnificent build- ings, cataracts, deferts, haunts of wild beafts or men as favage as they, every thing that can attradl the eye, or affedt the imagination, is expofed to the view. In fhort, the reader feems to accompany the author in his
a 4 voyage.
viii PREFACE.
voyage, and to fhare all his pleafures without under- going the fatigue and dangers.
The ftyle of the author is plain and narrative, with- out any affeded ornaments of expreflion ; and I have endeavoured to obferve the fame fimplicity in the tranflation.
There is no greater excellence, and yet nothing more uncommon, than to adapt the ftyle to the nature of the fubjed ; and I am of opinion, that there is not more bombaft and fuftian in poetry than in profe : we have had treadles of phy fick dreft up in all the flow - ers of rhetorick, and the admirers of fuch authors have called them Ciceronian , tho’ they do great injuftice by fuch imputation to Cicero, v/ho did not write epiftles in the ftyle that he wrote orations and fet fpeeches \ for fuch the greateft part of his philofophical works fhould be confidered.
The feveral little ftories that are interfperfed, which may feem to ordinary readers to be trifling, are per- haps the beft method of painting the manners of a people, and I am fure it is the moft natural and fatis- fadory. We here fee that they ftill retain the cha- rader which C^sar gave of the inhabitants of Alex- andria in particular, “ That he knew them to be de- ceitful, meaning one thing and pretending another.” And one cannot but be fenfibly affeded, that a people once fo glorious, who tranfmitted forms of govern- ment, laws, religion, arts, and fciences to the reft of mankind, fliould at prefent be funk in the grofteft ig- norance and barbarity.
As 'to the additions by the tranflater, they are chiefly taken from the moft valuable authors amongft the ancients and moderns, who have written any thing relating to the country and antiquities of Egypt. Thefe extrads might have been more large and numerous, but would then perhaps have diverted the attention of the reader too much from the principal author.
i
Some
IX
P R EFACE
Some errors have efcaped the Gentlemen of the Royal Society of Sciences at Copenhagen, who were entrufted with the revifal and publication of thele Travels : All which having been carefully corrected, as far as it was poflible for me to do, will, I hope, give the trandation an additional merit.
When the firft volume of this work made its ap- pearance, fome years fince, many among the learned and curious of this nation exprefied their defire that the public Ihould be furnifhed with an Englijh edition of it : but the expence of engraving fo large a number of plates, and the improbability, to fay the leaft, of getting them executed any thing comparable to the originals, were reafons fufficient to deter from fo arduous an undertaking thofe to whom it was ftrongly recommended. The method that appeared eligible to tire proprietors of the prefent edition, perhaps the only method that could prudently be fixed upon to bring out an edition truly valuable, was to attempt the pur- chafe of the original plates : and, the intereft they were favoured with proving fuperior to that of others of their profefiion in foreign countries, who alio ap- plied, they fucceeded.
The advantage of being in pofiefiion of the original plates, beyond any thing that was to be expected from imitadons, the judicious reader will eafily conceive upon perufing the preface, written by the Gentlemen of the Royal Society of Sciences at Copenhagen. And I may add, that, as the number of copies, taken off for the French edition, was extremely inconfiderable, and the moft careful regard has been paid to the choice of fuch a paper as has not failed to do juftice to the engravings, I do not doubt but, upon a comparifonr the impreflions of the Englijh edition will be found even to have a preference to thofe of the French.
It is proper to mention, that the Arabic names on the plates are frequently erroneous, for the author in- genuoufiy owns that he did not underftand that lan- guage.
X
PREFACE.
guage. It was almoft impoffible to make the necef- fary alterations, and I am perfuadedthe generality of readers will think an incorre&nefs in that article of no great importance. Nor has any alteration been made with regard to the French references and explanations : as an attempt to erafe and re-engrave fuch a quantity of writing muft unavoidably have injured many of the plates, it was thought more advifeable that they ikould remain in their original ftate. I have taken care however to fupply the Englijh reader with a tranf- lation of them, in the table prefixed to each volume.
PREFACE
PREFACE
T O
The FRENCH Edition in folio.
TH E Egyptians boaft of being one of the moft ancient people of the univerfe. Few nations in effect can difpute with them this prero- gative. Their pretenfions, in this refpebt, are founded v on a multitude of monuments, that have the ftamp of the remoteft antiquity j titles, which are fo much the more refpe&able, as the authors of all ages have fpoken of them with admiration.
A country rendered famous by fo many wonders of antiquity, could not fail to attract the attention of the curious, and become one of the favourite obje&s of their ftudy. Thefe latter times efpecially, have pro- duced a number of travellers and learned men of different nations of Europe, whofe relations and re- fearches have much more contributed to make us ac- quainted with Egypt, and to clear up its antiquities, than all the works publifhed before on this fubjedt.
But notwithftanding this affiftance, we were ftill very far from being perfectly informed of every thing that is important and fingular in Egypt. Perions of tafte and learning, whofe curiofity wanted much of being fully fatisfied, found divers faults in all the de- fcriptions of this country, not excepting the moft mo- dern. They judged, that certain articles were not i treated
xii PREFACE,
treated with fufficient exattnefs and fidelity, that feve- ral others had been totally omitted, or that at lead, if they were touched on, it had been done very fuper- fkially •, infomuch that they could by no means con- fider thofe relations as finifhed, and in all points wor- thy of credit.
The work of the late Mr. Nor dent, which we now offer the public, appears to us to fupply in part, what the preceding defcriptions of Egypt had left deficient. Several illuftrious perfons, and learned men of the find clafs, in foreign countries, have judged of it as we have done-, and their approbation has not a little con- tributed to the plealure we enjoyed in feeing ourfelves intruded with the care of publifhing this new voyage to Egypt.
Before we enter into any detail on the fubject of the work itfelf, and of what has relation to it, we think ourfelves obliged to inform the publick of the princi- pal circumftances of the author’s life. We are in- debted for this account to Mr. de Roemeling, com- mander of the naval forces of the king, an intimate friend of our author, and we have been favoured with feveral explanations by Mr. Nor den, brother of the perfon we are now going to fpeak of.
Frederick Lewis Noreven was born at Gluck - ftadt, the 22d of October, 1708. His father, George Nor den, lieutenant colonel of artillery, married Ca- tharine Henrichsen, a native, as well as himfelf, of the town of Renfbourg, by whom he had five fons. As he propofed to bring. them all up to the profeffion of arms, he took a particular care to prepare them for it betimes, and made them learn the modern lan- guages, hiftory, geography, drawing and the ma- thematicks. The third, and the younged of his . fons died early in life, when they were officers of the artillery. The elded: died captain of the artillery in 1733. The fecond and the fourth furvived. The one, not long fince a captain of foot, has quitted the
fervice.
PREFACE. xiii
fervice, and the other is the traveller, that has diftin- guifhed himfelf fo advantageoufly by the work we publifh.
Being defigned for the fea'fervice, he entered, in 1722, into the corps of Cadets ; an eftablifhment in which fome choice young men are educated at the exr pence of the king, and inftruCted in all the arts and fciences, which contribute to form good fea-officers.
Mr. Norden made, in fuch a fciiool, all the pro- grefs, that could be expected from fo fine a genius, efpecially in the mathematics, in the art of building veflels, and in drawing. The ftudy of drawing in par- ticular, made his principal amufement, and he took to it in fuch a manner as to dilcover already an uncom- mon talent. Nature-, in his tafte, was the beft ori- ginal he could follow. He conftantly imitated her, and took a pleafure in reprefenting her in every objcCt that offered itfelf to his fight ; not confining himfelf to copy the works '■of another, any further than was neceftary to catch the tafte, and to appropriate to him- felf the manner of the great mafters.
Death deprived him of his father in 1728, but his fortune did not fuifer by it. The late Mr. de Lerche, knight of the order of the elephant, grand mafter of the ceremonies, difcovered his happy difpo- fitions, and judged them worthy to be encouraged and employed. The late king Christian vith, of glo- rious memory, having put into the hands of this noble- men a collection of charts and topographical plans, in order to get a part of them retouched, and others amended, he gave this talk to the young Norden, and had reafon to be fatisfied with the care and fkill that he had fhewn in them. But a work of this kind ferving only to draw him off from the employments belonging to his condition, he obtained, by the inter- ceflion of his protestor, the liberty of being difpenfed from it, to enter into a career more conformable to his genius, and more proper to perfect him in the
pro-
5dv PREFACE,
profeflion he had embraced. Mr. de Lerche, hav- ing prefented him to the king towards the end of the year 1732, his majefty refolved that he fhould travel, and bellowed on him a penfion with that view. He was named, moreover, lecond lieutenant. The admiralty preferibed to him to apply himfelf in his voyages to the art of building vefiels, and in particular to what concerns the conftruCtion of gallies and rowing- vef- fels, which are made ufe of principally in the Medi- terranean.
He fet out, a little time after, for Holland, where the affrftances that . this country offered , in all thofe kinds which he had propofed to himfelf to cultivate, engaged him to prolong his continuance. He con- tracted an intimacy there with feveral admirers of an- tiquities and of the polite arts, with whom he has ever fince kept up a friendly correlpondence, and commu- nication of knowledge. He did not fail likewife there to make an acquaintance with feveral diftinguifhed ar- tifts, of whom we fhall name only John de Reyter, a fkilful defigner and engraver ; who, charmed with his ardour to be inftrufted, took a particular pleafure in teaching him to engrave with aqua fortis.
At length he quitted Holland in the year 1734, to go to Marfeilles. After having carefully informed himfelf there, in every thing that could have a relation to the principal defign of his voyage, he embarked for Leghorn, where he redoubled his application for executing the talk that had been impoled on him. He there got models made of different kinds of row- ing-veflels, which are ftill to be feen in the chamber of models at the old Holm a.
He fpent near three years in Italy, where, in the midft of all the pleafures that are enjoyed in this coun- try, he relifhed only that of perfecting his tafte, and
3 A place within the city of Copenhagen, where are the yards and arfenals of the admiralty.
of
XV
PREFACE, of enlarging his knowledge. The intimacies that he formed there with abundance of perfons of diftinCtion, were fo much the more pleafing to him, as he owed them folely to his own perfonal merit •, and the accefs that was granted him to the cabinets of antiquities, of medals, and of works of painting and fculpture, efpe- cially at Rome and at Florence, was a new adiftance, of which he did not fail to take the advantage. His acknowledged talents gained him the diftinCtion of being made an adociate to the academy of drawing at Florence.
It was in this city that he had received from the late king, in the year 1737, an orderto go into Egypt ; a period of his life, upon which Ave fnall fpeak more at large, when we come to give an account of the work now offered to the public, and of the circumftances that have given rife to it. It will be fufficient to men- tion here, that Mr. Norden returned from Egypt in 1738, after having fpent there near a year; that he landed at Leghorn, having in his palfage gone afhcre at Medina -, and that after having made a tour to Venice, where he ftayed but a little time, he returned by land into his own country, to make a report of' the fuccefs of his voyages.
During his abfence the king had advanced him a degree. When the count of Dannelkiold-Samfoe, who was at the head of the affairs of the marine, prefented him to his majefty ; his majefty was pleafed to name him captain lieutenant, and a little time after he was made captain of the royal navy, and named a mem- ber of the commidion eftablilhed for the building of velfels.
He had no fooner taken pofieffion of this new em- ploy, but the war broke out between England and Spain. In this conjuncture, the count of Dannelkiold- Samfoe, who is always intent upon the glory and pro- fperity of the date, propofed to the king to permit di- vers officers of his navy, to go and ferve in quality of
volun-
xvi PREFACE,
volunteers in the fleets of the powers at war, whilft their own country enjoyed the fw$ets of peace. He af- fociated, with the approbation of his majefty, Mr. Nor. den to his nephew the count Ulric Adolphus of Dannefkiold-Samfoe, at that time captain of a man of war, to make together fome expeditions aboard the Englifh fquadrons. We ftilJ regret the lofs of this young noblemen, whom death ravifhed from us in the flower of his age, at the time, when, being arrived at the degree of rear-admiral b, he was going glorioufly to fulfil the great expectations that had been conceived of him.
The count of Dannefkiold and Mr. Norden fet out with Mr. de Roe me ling, and arrived at Lon- don in February 1740. Mr. Norden was received there with fo much the more favour amongfl all, as his reputation of being a well informed traveller, and of great abilities, had gone before him ; feveral of the moft diftinguifhed perfons of the court, and the Prince of Wales himfelf, who was defirous to fee the defigns of his work upon Egypt, fhewed him as much kind- nefs, as the men of learning did efteem, in a country, where merit and knowledge obtain the greatefl titles.
The following fummer, our three countrymen went aboard the fleet commanded by Sir John Norris. They had reafon to be fatisfied with the civilities that the admiral fhewed them, and with the gracious re- ception of the Duke of Cumberland, who went aboard the admiral with an intention of making the expedi- tion as a volunteer. It is well known that the expe- dition projefled did not take place.
The fleet being returned back into the ports of England, the count of Dannefkiold, Mr. de Roeme- ling and Mr. Norden fet out again, in the month of October 1740, under the command of Sir Chalo- ner Ogle, who was to go to America, to reinforce
b Schout-by-nacht.
admi-
PREFACE. xvii
admiral Vernon. The defign was to befiege Cartha- gena. Mr. Norden could have given us a very good account of that enterprife. He had even begun it and had drawn leveral Sketches. But other employments made him afterwards lay afide this defign. The expe- dition being ended, our volunteers returned back into England in the autumn of 1741.
At his return to London, Mr. Norden was re- ceived there more agreeably than ever. His acquaint- ance with the English made him adopt their folid tafte, and the advantages he had got from his expe- ditions gave a new luftre to his merit. Pie pafed the winter and a part of the year following at Lon- don, and was admitted there a member of the Royal Society.
It was about this time, that his health began to de- cline confiderably. His great application to labour very foon exhaufted a body already much worn by the fatigues of war and of fea, and whole weak and de- licate conftitution was not correfponding to the adtive ardour of his mind. He found himfelf attacked with a confumption, and was in danger of his life. In hopes that the change of climate would cor'.; ibute to recover him, he propofed to himfelf in the iummer'of 1742 to make a tour in France, and to viftt, with the count of Dannelkiold, the coafts and ports of chat kingdom,
Befor - to fee Pai fure was
der, as Mr. Norden had juft recovered from at Lonr don. At length death deprived us of him at Pans, on the 22d of September 1742, and interrupted the courfe of a life, which promiled to be ftill extremely ufeful. The fincere regret of feveral perfons of dif- tindlion in foreign countries followed him to the tomb, and his country will always place him in the number of thole diftinguilhed men, who have done it honour.
b Such
e they made this progrefs, they were willing ris, and to make fome ltay there. T iiis plea- difturbed by a new attack of the farhe difor-
xviii P R E F A C E.
Such have been the principal events of the life of our author. We fliull now make our readers ac- quainted with the work that they have before them, >and in order to inform them better of what imports them, to know, we lhall begin with giving a more particular account of the voyage into Egypt, which is the fubjecTt of it.
It was by the orders of the late king Christian ^ith, of glorious memory, that this voyage was un- ' dertaken. This prince, founder of our fociety, and whofe memory will be inviolably facred to it, had joined to the love lie bore his people, and to a con- ftant application to make his kingdom fiourifh, a par- ticular tafle for arts and learning, which he took a pleafure in encouraging by a royal liberality. With the defign of enriching the learned world by new dif- coveries concerning Egypt, and of making advantage of an exa<5l knowledge of this country, in order to give a greater extent to the navigation of the Danifh nation, his Mcjefly was defirous of having a circum- ftantial account of a country, lo difbant and fo famous, but an account made by an intelligent man, and whofe fidelity could not be queflioned. No one was more capable than Mr. Norden to latisfy all the views of the king.
He was then in the flower of his age, lively, dif- cret, of great abilities, and of a courage that no dan- ger nor fatigue difheartened, together with this of a fine tafle, and, which might be depended upon, a fkil- ful obferver, a great dcjigner , and a good mathema- tician. There was ftill more than this ; a ftrong de- fire in him of examining, upon the fpot, the wonders of Egypt, had preceded the orders of his mailer.
Being at Florence, he had found an opportunity of contracting an acquaintance with the baron de Stosch, fo well known for his learning, and fine ca- binet of entaglios, medals, and other antiquities. The conformity of their tailes very foon united them -into
a clofer
PREFACE. xix
a clofer intimacy. The converfation that they had every day together, turned commonly on polite lite- rature, and principally on hiftory and antiquities. Mr. de Stosch, full of admiration for thofe of Egypt, of- ten regretted the uncertainty and defedtivenefs of the accounts of that country, as well ancient as modern. Our traveller entered eafily into the notions of his friend. Infenfibly he let himfelf be carried away with a defire of feeing the borders of the Nile. The glory he found in informing the publick of fo manyintereft- ing Angularities, made all the difficulties vanifh from his fight, which he miift lurmount in order to arrive thither.
In this difpolition he received at Florence the or- ders of the court. He obeyed them with zeal, and with eagernefs made the preparations for his voyage, guided by the knowledge of Mr. de Stosch, and by the relations of ocular witnefles, that he met with at Leghorn.
He embarked there in 1737 for Alexandria, where he landed in the month of June, after a voyage of thirty days.
He faw all that was the molt curious at Alexan- dria and in the adjacent parts, and purfued his rout to Cairo, where he arrived the 7th of July. Eeing obliged by a great ficknefs, joined with other circum- ftances, to make a ftay there of more than four months, he did not fail to examine every thing, whe- ther in the town, or in the neighbourhood, and to go and fee the pyramids, fituated at fome diftance from that capital.
At length on the 17th of November embarking on the Nile to continue his voyage, he traverfed the Upper Egypt in going up the river, faw in his paflage Girge, the capital of that country, and landed at Ef- fuaen or Syene, where he got himfelf conveyed to the firft catarafl of the Nile. He afterwards attempted to coaft along the borders of the river, refolving to
b 2 go
XX
PREFACE, to go to the fecond cataraCt, but. they reached only to D'erri in Nubia, where infurmountable obftacles hin- dered him from advancing any farther.
He began to return back to Cairo the 6th of Ja- nuary 1738, continuing to fail upon the Nile, and landed the 21ft of February. In going down the river, he did not negleCt to give a greater exa&nefs and extenfivenel's to the obfervations he had made in going up, and to add fome new ones. He made fome likewife in repairing through the Lower Egypt, principally at Cairo and at Alexandria, from whence he fat out towards the end of May to return into Eu- rope, furnifhed with good memoirs upon every thing that had appeared to him interefting and worthy of at- tention, in the countries he had travelled through.
These memoirs were compofed of obfervations writ- ten on loofe Iheets of paper, the greateft part of which concerned the Lower Egypt, and of a continued and circumftantial journal of the voyage of the author, from the 1 7th of November 1737, when he embarked at Cairo to penetrate into the Upper-Egypt, till his return the 21ft of February 1738.
But that which extremely enhanced the value of his papers, w7as an ample collection of defigns and iketches, made on the fpot, to which were joined the necelfary explications and remarks. * The author had every where noted the dimenlions, drawn views, and taken plans. We have called him an exact defigner. Befides that, his knowledge in architecture enabled him to reprefent juftly thofe magnificent monuments of Egypt ; and laltly, the ftudy he had made of the mathematicks furniihed him with the means of draw- ing with fuccefs, and upon obfervations of the utmofl: exaCtnels, the great chart of the Nile, which he has given. It takes up twenty nine plates, and we dare afiert, that it furpafles all of the kind that have hi- therto appeared.
When he was returned into his own country, all 4. thefe
XXI
PREFACE thefe affiftances enabled him to give the king an exact and circumftantial account of the refearches he had made in his travels, and to enter into the molt parti- cular details, in order to clear up thole points, which he thought the worthielt of engaging the attention of that prince. His defigns efpecially gave him the op- portunity of placing before the eyes of the king the moll remarkable objedts, and as they made him recollect the minutelt circumftances, the defcriptions, that he added to them, tranfported one almolt upon the fpot.
His majefty exprelfed to him his fatisfadtion in the molt gracious terms, and was defirous that he fhould draw up immediately an account of his voyage, in or- der that it might be publifhed for the initrudtion of the curious and learned.
Mr. Norden did not delay to execute a command that did him fo much honour. Ele had eltablifhed with the baron de Stosch, ever fince their leparation in 1727, a correfpondence by letters, of which the an- tiquities of Egypt were the only fubjedt. The reader will not be dilpleafed to find at the end of this preface a fpecimen of them, taken from the firlt tome of the Nouvelles literaires of Florence. Befides this corref- pondence, which he continued to keep up, he con- fulted alfo feveral intelligent perfons of his own coun- try, and took the utmolt pains to render the work, which he had in hand, interelting and inftrudtive.
He firlt reviewed and retouched the defigns. Af- terwards he began to dilpole and to tranfiate from the Danifh language, into French, his obfervations on the Lower Egypt, and the remarks which he had made for the explanation of the defigns relative to that coun- try, and to compofe an account of it in form, which referred to the defigns , and corredted the relations that had hitherto been given.
The fundtions attached to his condition, and the 'afliduity with which he gave himfelf up to them, mult naturally retard the progrefs of the work.
b 3
No
Sr'.rii P R EFAG E.
No fooner had he put in order ther defcription of Alexandria, and of the Pyramids, than his voyage to England, and the expeditions which we have men- tioned, cccafioned him to defer this work to a more peaceable time. He took with him indeed a part of his papers, thinking he Ihould find, from time to time, an hour of leifure to continue his work. But he was obliged to leave the whole at London, except- ing his journal, which he tranflated from the Danifh language into French. It was however duiing his firit expedition that he wrote his remarks on the Pyrami- dographia of Mr. John Greaves, which we have in- ferted in the firft volume.
Martin Folkes efquire, whofe death the repu- blick of letters will long regret, and to whom Mr. Nor den addrefied thofe remarks, had feen fome parts of his work, and had fpoke of them with praife to fe- veral people of tafte. Our author at his return to England, was foon fenfible of the effedts of Mr. Folkes’s recommendation. Fie was, as we have al- ready mentioned, admitted member of the illufcrious fociety, of which that gentleman was then prefidcnt.
On this occafion he thought proper to give the pu- blick an idea of fome ruins and coloflal ftatues at Thebes in Egypt, in an Englilh difiertation, dedicated to the Royal Society, entitled, Drawings of fome ruins and coloffal ftatues at Thebes in Egypt , with an account of the fame in a letter to the Royal Society , mdccxli. This efiay (which is properly nothing but a piece of his journal, that you have in the fecond volume c) with the four plates, which belong to it, gained him new applaules, and reanimated the defire that the publick had fhewn of feeing the work compleated. His pre- mature death deprived him of the enjoyment of a glory he could not have failed to acquire from thence.
c See page 63 — 69. vol. 21 this edit.
Though
XX ui.
PREFACE.
Though he died far difta.nt from his country, yet his memoirs upon Egypt have been preferved to us. When he faw> his end approach, he took care to put all the loofe papers that might have any relation to his voyage to Egypt, into fafe and faithful hands. The count of Dannefkiold, a profeffed patron of the author during his life, ihewed himfelf zealous for his glory after his deceafe, and teftified a great refpedf for the precious truft that had been committed to him. He informed the king of it, and his Majefty ordered that a finishing hand ihould be put to the work, and that the defigns fhould be engraven by the famous Mark Tuscher ofNurenberg.
This ingenious man had joined to engraving and painting a tafte of polite literature and of the elegant works of antiquity, a knowledge alfo of the mathema- ticks, and above all a great fkill in architecture, which gave him a vifible fuperiority over common artifts. Befides that he was almoft the only perfon capable of acquitting himfelf with fuccefs of the talk that was re- quired, he had been for feveral years connected in friendlhip with the author. This friendfhip, the ties of which had been formed in Italy, was renewed at London, where the voyage of Egypt was the ordinary fubjedt of their converfations. The Sieur T.uscher had feized the ideas of his friend, and the dejigns of the voyage into Egypt were almoft as familiar to him, as to the author himfelf. Infomuch that he had, to oblige Mr. Norden, engraven the two firft plates of the elfay printed at London, in 1741.
One fingle circumftance oppofed fo fuitable a choice. The Sieur Tuscher, though very fkilful in the art of engraving, had propofed to himfelf to quit the grav- ing tool, and to confine himfelf intirely to the pencil, which he had always preferred to it. He confented, however, to take upon him a work, which would con- tribute to illuftrate the memory of his friend, and came for that purpofe to Copenhagen ; where, having been
b 4 de-
xxiv PREFACE,
designed to be aprofefTor of the Royal academy ofpaint- ing, of fculpture, and architecture, he would have feen his reputation increafe, which was already fo well eftablifhed, if death had not taken him off in the midft of his career.
At his arrival at. Copenhagen, the defigns were put into his hands, that he might fet about the engraving of them, and he worked at it with ardour, animated by the tender friendfhip and efteem he had for the de- ceafed.
The work was in this condition, when the king Frederick vth, our prelent glorious monarch, a little after his acceffion to the throne, gave orders to our fociety to take on them the care of putting it in a condition to be publifhed. We were ftill deploring the death of our auguft founder. The love that his fon bore towards the fciences difeovered itfelf imme- diately, and the polite arts in Denmark perceived, that tho’ the country had changed its king, yet the fame protector continued to them.
The engraving of the plates required the leaf; part of our attention. The work of the Sieur Tuscher continually advanced. At his death all the plates were engraven, excepting the laft, which reprefents the view of Derri, and which we were obliged to commit to other hands. He had even already drawn the por- traiture of the author and adorned the plate with a medal, which he had contrived for doing honour to the memory of his friend. But the infirmities which preceded his death, did not permit him to finifh him- felf the engraving of them.
The memoirs required more application to be di- gefted and prepared for the prefs. It was neceffary to collect together with care the fcattered fhreds of the work, to difpofe them in a manner the molt fuitable to the plan, to tranflate into French what was ftill only in the Danifh language, to retouch the ftyle, where it was negligent, and laftly to act in the beft
manner
xxr
PREFACE, manner we could for carrying the whole to that point of perfection, which the circumitances permitted it to arrive at.
When we examined things minutely, we faw too well the difference there would be between the articles reviewed and finifhed by the author, and thofe to which he had not been able to give the finifhing hand. How ftrong foever the temptation might be to fupply the vacuities of his account, and to clear up any obfcu- rities, by the affiftances that other writers, ancient and modern, might furnifh, fome folid reafons prohibited us from taking this meafure.
We had declared in exprefs terms, in the propo- fals of the fubfcription, that we would follow exactly the journals of the author in the condition that he had left them, and it appears, that the deceafed himfelf was defirous of preferving his work free from any mix- ture of others notions, by a kind of act of his laft will, which he has left written with his own hand upon one of his loofe papers, and which we have never loft fight of in the arrangement of his memoirs. Thefe are his expreffions : “If thefe papers fall into any other hands, they muft not expect to find in them a corn- pleat defcription of the places that I have feen. They are only memorandums written upon the fpot, and which contain nothing but the courfe of my voyage, the accidents that have happened to me in it, and the remarks that I have been able to make. If I relate any particular that is little interefting, it fhould be confidered, that it may be of fervice to inform thofe perfons who may have the fame voyage to make. The whole is written with a good intention, and with- out any embellifhment. Truth alone is my guide. I willingly permit any cenfure upon the ftyle ; it has need of correction. But I earneftly entreat that no other alteration be made. I do not defire that my ob- fervations fhould be efteemed beyond their due value. I have done my belt. I have not wrote a fyilable that
I am
xxvi PREFACE.
I am not thoroughly convinced of. I would not avail tnyfelf of the proverb, That travellers have a privilege of lying. The reader may believe me upon my word, and rely on the authenticity of my defigns .”
Determined by thefe confiderations, we have made it an inviolable law to ourfelves, to give the memoirs of the author in their utmoft purity, without adcdng any thing to them of our own, and without making any alteration in them, except with regard to the ftyle and the arrangement of the articles.
Our fcrupulous attention not to deviate from this principle will appear by an evident inftance. In the remarks of the author upon the Pyramidographia of Mr. John Greaves, which make a part of the firfb Volume, mention is made, (p. 1 33.) of the fepulchre of Os y man dias, and of the circle of gold that Cam- eyses took from it. Mr. Norden, after having given his fentiment of it, adds, that the reader may fee, in his deftgns , the place where tire circle might have been fixed. He had, without doubt, in view the 1 1 2th plate d, which reprefents the ruins of the palace of Memnon, and where we fee in effedt a figure drawn upon the ground, which refembles very much the print of a circle. Yet in the account giveiTby our author, which relates to that plate, we find not a fingle word referring to that fubjeft. Nothing would have been more eafy than to have fupplied it of our- felves. But rather than give any addition to the au- thor, we have left this flight omiflion to his account, contenting ourfelves with giving notice of it to the reader in this place.
W e cannot conclude this preface without applaud- ing the teftimonies that fo many perfons, both at home and in foreign countries, have given of their
It is the third of the elfay printed at London, in 1741, and the only one that was engraven by the hand of our author. See plate vi. of this edition.
efteem
PREFACE. xxvii
efteem for learning, and the polite arts, by favouring the publication of a work, which may not be unufe- ful to their advancement. The Englifn nation in par- ticular needed not to give this frefh inftance of the re- fpecfts they had Ihewn to the author, to recall to our minds on this occalion, that it is owing to their gene- rous way of thinking, and to their exquifite tafte, that the learned world has already acquired the knowledge of a great part of the moll beautiful monuments of antiquity. Fired with an ardour that does honour to learning and to thofe that cultivate it, we on our part have had no other view, in directing the imprefiion of the author’s collections, but the intereffc of the pu- blick, and the fatisfaction of having omitted no care to fulfill intirely our engagements. We hope that it will be acknowledged on the perufal of this work, and that, in favour of our exactnefs in all the eflential points, feme indulgence will be Ihewn for a delay which divers accumulated circum fiances, and too long to be mentioned in particular, have rendered una- voidable.
xxviii EXTRACT FROM THE
An extratt from the Nouvelles Literal res, publijhed at Florence , in the year 1740.
Franjlatcd from the Italian.
Numb. XXX. Florence , July 22, 1740.
TH E baron de Stosch, eminent for fo many rare accomplifhments, has communicated to us four letters, which he received from captain Nor den, a Danifh gentleman, well verfed in drawing and mecha- nicks, and of a refined tafte in the polite arts ; whom, in regard to his great abilities and fingular merit, his majefty the king of Denmark commanded, fome years fince, to undertake a voyage to Egypt, to make ob- fervations, and to take drawings of the moll remark- able monuments of antiquity, in order that an exadt defeription of them might be given, and worthy of credit. Thefe letters afford informations of a very curious nature, fome of which appear to be criticifms upon Maillet’s defeription, of whom we mult in confequence fay, that he was neither a diligent, nor an exadt obferver. We fhall give thefe letters, tranfiated from their originals in French, for the fubjedt of this and the enfuing paper. The firft letter, written from captain Nor den to the baron de S. dated Grand Cairo , July 28, 1737, contains as follows : “ In Alexan-
dria I had the pleafure to be employed in examining the valuable remains of antiquity, which are there to be found. They are fufficiently known to you, from the many deferiptions, which have already been given of them •, but affure yourfelf that they far furpafs every thing that has been faid on the fubjedt. If I remem-
l
NOUV ELLES LIT ERAIRES. xxix
ber right, you have Maillet’s defcription ; but he is an author, whofe relations are idle tales. I know not well how to pardon him, for having foenormoufly maimed the beautiful column of Pompe y. From the defign which he gives of it, one would be induced to think it of no value •, whereas in viewing the column itfelf, you obferve in it the fineft proportion that can be imagined. I have made an exatt defign of it, which I fhall one day have the pleafure of fhewing you. What he fays of the bafis, that it is much ruined, and that the whole column refts upon a fingle (tone, is a notorious falfity. It is on one fide only, that the Arabs have damaged it : the three other fides are al- moft entire, .and extremely well fuftain the great weight of this magnificent mafs. I have alfo given defigns of the four fides of the obelifk, commonly- called Cleopatra’s, and are already defcribed by Pliny, with the other, which is actually upon the ground, and which, as well as the firft, was of old placed in the temple of C>esar. The hieroglyphics upon the two contiguous fides, are very beautiful ; but the others have greatly buffered from wind and damps : I have therefore reprefented them exaftly as they are. You fhall fee all this, and judge whether Mr. Maillet was capable of giving a juft idea of thefe fine monuments. The worft of it is, that he does the fame with regard to the reft, of which, at prefent, it is impoffible for me to give you an ample detail. I fhall, one day or other, communicate to you the remarks I have made, and that I am conti- nuing to make on this fubjebt.” As the baron de S. had, in anfwer to this letter, communicated to cap- tain Norden divers obfervations from ancient hiftory, in which he was wonderfully fkilled, that they might be compared, if poffible, with the monuments of che Upper Egypt, towards which Mr. Norden was then fetting forward, the latter, after his voyage, having left the Levant, in order to return to Denmark, and
being
xxx EXTRACT FROM THE being arrived at Venice, wrote to the baron de S. the following, dated Sept. 20, 1738. “ I have feveral
times wrote to you, during my ftay in Egypt •, but not having received any anfwer, 1 was unwilling to divert you from your occupations by a correfpondence little interefting, and which the diftance rendered fo irregular. At prefent, as I am at this place, I would not deprive myfelf of the pleafure of difeharging my duty by this letter, and affuring you that the light you have afforded me, has been of great fervice to me in vifiting the ineftimable antiquities of that famous kingdom. I have made my obfervations upon many of them, and I have alfo drawn , and meafured the greateft part *, the whole, however, with much fatigue, and no fmall danger, finqe the country beyond Cairo is, to fay the truth, almoft impaffable to travellers. We penetrated, however, as far as a veffei was cap- able of being navigated upon the Nile, that is, to the fecond cataradt, and is as far as there are any antiqui- ties to be obferved ; it has furnifhed me with a great extent for drawing, with all poffible exadtnefs, a geo- graphical chart, from Grand Cairo to Derri. I may, perhaps, fome time or other, put together all my papers, and exhibit fuch a work as, in my opinion, has never yet made its appearance. I have met with many particulars that Strabo fpeaks of, and among the reft the two grand coloffes mentioned in his writ- ings, the defigns of which, as well as many others, I have by me •, and 1 have alfo feen, fo far as I am able to conjedture, the remains of the ftatue ol Mem non. The palace of Memnon is entire, and ornamented with ftgnincative hieroglyphics of great beauty, where the incruftated colours are as well preferved, as if they had been applied but yefterday. I could have wilhed to ftiew you my whole collection of above two hundred defigns , by returning home your way. But my per- mifiion to undertake the voyage to Egypt, and my orders to return to my own country, and to fee Venice
NOUVELLES LITE RAIRES. xxxi in my paffage, being joined together, I am not at liberty to go out of my way, and I fet out next week in order to continue my route to Copenhagen, with- out (topping.” The two other letters will appear in another paper.
Numb. XXXI. Florence, July 29, 1740.
Continuation of the correfpondence of captain Norden with baron the Stosch.
BARON de Stosch m anfwer to captain Nor- den’s lad letter written from Venice, fent him an account of the authors who had defcribed Egypt, advifed him to have his deftgns engraved, and de fired to be informed whether he had obferved the famous temple of C/Esar, fpoken of by Philo Judeus, and which Cesar made his habitation. The relation of this great temple is in Philo’s book upon the legation to Caius, and begins with thefe words : OJJe yog toiStgv Tiutvo f oiov to riyofitvov t7n<oetltft>ttt
Kotitrotqos yius : where the hidorian defcribes it in the mod precile -and exaft manner, and fpeaks of it as one of the mod furpniing edifices of antiquity. Captain Norden replied to all thefe points, Oft. 25, 1738, in his paffage through Hamburgh, where he received the baron’s letter : “ From the honour of yours of the 27th ult. which came to hand the 25th indant upon my arrival at this place, I have the happinefs to find myfelf condantly in your favour, and heartily return you thanks for the informations you have given me, concerning the authors who have written on Egypt. In regard to your advice, to get my deftgns engraved, that matter yet remains undetermined, not only as I am ignorant whether his majedy, who, you
well
xxxii I XTR ACT FROM THE
well know, made me undertake thefe travels, will think proper to give his permiffion, but alio as I fliould be unwilling to expofe myfelf, till I am certain that my work is new, and that the fame obfervations have not already been furnifhed by others. I fhould be better ab’c to determine this affair, had I the opportunity oi fhewing you my defigns ; but this is an advantage I could not obtain. Your friend Mr. Zanetti at Venice has feen them, but he has fo highly applauded them, that I know not well what to think of it. If you are inclined, you might afk him after news, and by that means I may perhaps be able to form fome judgment of my performance. The great temple that Philo fpeaks of, has been fituated between the little Pharillon and the new town, to the left as you enter the great port of Alexandria. At this time there are only two obelifks, one of which is yet Handing in its old place, the other is broken, and almoft buried in ruins. Except the former, I have not found any columns Handing, but a great number broken in pieces, of which fome lye in the water, and others have been ufed in the towers of the old wall, erefted by the Saracens as an inclofure to the town. The columns of the market place, which you fpeak of, have no connection with this temple : There are half a dozen in the Hreet of Rofetto. They have been employed to make a gallery, which the houfes reH upon, ancl it is at the fame time a fhelter to foot paffengers, as at Padoua and in the place of St. Mark at Venice. I have taken defigns of the obelifks, and a view and plan of the whole.” Ar- riving at length at Copenhagen, captain Norden wrote again to the Baron de S. a long letter, dated April 19, 1 739, an extracH of which follows. “ I hope to get the Scotch author you tell me of” [Mr. Alex- ander Gorden, w'homthe Baron de S. had propoled to him, for illuHrating the ancient paintings] “ but as he treats only of the paintings upon the cafes of the mummies, he will be of no great ufe to me in explaining
NO UVE LLES LIE ER AIRES, xxxlii thofe wonderful ones that I have feenupon an infinite number of ancient buildings, or in giving the lealfc idea of them. Imagine to yourfelf, in the extent of an Italian league, palaces with columns thirty two french feet in circumference, cafed with fandy {tones cu in fquares, and all over covered within and without with paintings, reprefenting the worfhip of the deities of the country, the ceremonies and cuftoms of the inha- bitants, their manner of making war and of failing, together with love-devices intermixed. Confider like- wile that the manner of painting is fo totally different from any thing in practice at this time, as to make it neceffary for me to give you fome flight idea of it. A painting eighty feet high, and proportionably broad, is divided into two ranges of gigantic figures in bas- relief , and covered with moft exquifite colours, fuited to the drapery and naked parts of the figure. But what is ftill more wonderful is this, that the azure, the yellow, the green, and the other colours made ufe of, are as well prefer ved, as if they had been laid on but yefterday, and fo ftrongly fixed to the ftone, that I was never able to feparate them in the leaft degree. The intermediate fpace between thefe coloffal figures is filled with an infinity of other paintings and hiero- glyphics, of which a great part is eafily intelligible by every obferver, wnilft others, which are in the talle of thofe upon the obelifks, and which without doubt contain the hiftory and defcription of the pidlure, are no longer underftood. What a change, here, has time produced ! that which was defigned to explain the pifture, is underftood only by the pifture itfelf. The mfide of the temples and palaces does not indeed con- tain reprefentations of fuch immoderate fize ; but the whole is filled in the fame manner. You will afk me whether the defign is good, and has tafte ? yes, fir, the whole is executed with much greater exaftnefs than the idols of granite, which we both have feen in the capitol. The reafon of this is plain j the material, of
c which
xxxlv EXTRACT, tic.
which thofe idols are made, is extremely hard, whereas that of the figures, which I have fo lately feen, is of a much fofter nature. You would know too if I have copied any one of them. Affuredly. I have a fmall delineation which reprefents a part of a fepulchral grott, that is entirely hiftorical c. But why nothing more, you will fay. Nobody, fir, fhould be required to do impoffibilities : I have been obliged to fet bounds to my ambition, and to treat of this magnificence of an- tiquity in general only. Had I entered into a minute examination of particular beauties, I never fhould have made an end. I own 1 often found myfelf under ftrong temptation to undertake it, but when I reflected upon my defign, it conftantly happened that nothing was concluded upon, and the moments were fo precious in this country, that I was under a neceffity of retiring, all enchanted as I was. I fhould never conclude ; if I attempted to communicate to you exabtly every thing I have feen in this fource of all the fciences. Let them talk to me no more of Rome ; let Greece be filent, if jfhe would not be convibted of having known nothing but what flie derived from Egypt. What venerable architecture ! What magnificence ! What mechanicks ! What other nation ever had courage to undertake works fo furprifing ! They in truth furpafs all ideas that can be formed of them ; and I cannot help la- menting, that I fliall fcarce obtain credit, though I exprefs myfelf without the leaft exaggeration.” — This Danifn gentleman, with an underflanding fo culti- vated, is at this time on board admiral Haddock’s fquadron at Port Mahon d in quality of a volunteer.
'« Plate CXXV. Vol. II. Fol. ed.
d Jt was in admiral Norris’s fleet that Mr. Norden then ferved, as has been mentioned in that part of the preface which gives an account of the author’s life.
THE
[ XXXV ]
TH E tranflater imagines it will be no unaccept- able addition to the work, to give the add refs that Mr. Nor.de n wrote to the Prefident and Fellows of the Royal Society, in the treatife he publilhed at London upon his admifilon into that illuftrious Body, which is mentioned in the tranllation of the preface to the French edition, p. 12. Fie has therefore extracted it, together with the quotations from ancient and mo- dern authors.
“ To Martin Folkes Efq. Prefident, and to the reft of the Council and Fellows of the Royal Society of London , for improving natural knowledge.
Gentle men,
THE plates I have the honour to lay before you, are taken from four of the drawings, which I made about four years fince, by the command of his Majefty the king of Denmark, my gracious and royal m after, from fome of the remains of antiquity, that are ftill found difperfed, almoft all over the kingdom of Egypt.
And as thefe may poflibly be of ufe to illuftrate fome paftages in antient authors, who have taken notice of the ftatue of Memnon, I have fubjoined molt of thofe paftages ; to which I have added, what I have met with in modern books alfo, relating to the fame fubjedt •, together with an extradt from my own jour- nal, of what I obferved on the fpot, and wrote down there immediately after I had taken the. draw- ings, for the more ready underftanding the lame.
I present them to you, gentlemen, as to perfons of the molt extenfrve knowledge and learning, thereby qualified to judge of all works of antiquity, to com- pare one with another the divers writings of the an- tients, and to corredt the feveral errors and inaccu- racies, to which they, as well as die moderns, may have been fubjedt.
I lay -claim myfelf to no erudition, ancf defire you c 2 will
XXXVI
ADDRESS, etc.
will only look upon what I fay, as the report of a faith- ful traveller, and of one who pretends to no more, than having feen with fome care, and related honeftly what he has feen.
The three firft drawings were executed upon the place juft as you fee them : J have not fince been wil- ling fo much as to fin i Hr them •, much lefs would I have ventured to add any thing by way of ornament or embellifhment. - The laft drawing, which exhibits the plan, was made fince 1 came away, but from the fketch and meafures I took alfo upon the fpot, when I was at Thebes.
The marvellous and the agreeable which frequently recommend works to the multitude, but which at the fame time deftroy the true fruit that Ihould be ga- thered from relations of this fort, have always ap- peared to me unworthy of a traveller ; and more par- ticularly of one who treats of places fo far diftant, that it is very difficult for others to examine into the truth of his reports : for this realon, I am here defirous to affure my readers, that in whatever I may hereafter have occafion to publifh of my obfervations on the places I have feen, it is my fixed refolution to purfue no other rule, than that of delivering, with truth and fimplicity, fuch accounts as I am able to give of thofe places, and of the things 1 have there thought beft deferving to be taken notice of.
It is upon this account only, that I have thought thefe few drawings worthy to be laid before you : and I flatter myfelf, gentlemen, that you will accept them as a fmall token of my fincere refpecft, and of my thank- fulnefs for the honour you have beenpleafed to do me, in admitting me a member of your iiluftrious Society ; being with great truth.
London, the 7 th of January 1741.
Gentlemen,
Tour mcjl humble
and mojl obedient fervant ,
F. L. Norden.”
[ xxxvii ]
\
Pa ([ ages from ancient and modern Authors referred to in the foregoing letter.
Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 816.
HI C cum duo Coloffi effent de folido lapide inter fe propinqui, alter adhuc extat, alterius ve i fuperiores a fede partes corruerunt, terrae (ut fama eft) motu.
Creditum etiam eft, femel quotidie fonitumquen- dam, veluti iftus haud magni, edi a parte, quae in fede ac bafi remanfit.
Ipse cum ^Elio Gallo adefiem, & cum reliqua multitudine amicorum, ac militum, qui cum eo erant, circiter horam primam fonitum audivi; utrum a baft, five a Coloffo, an vero ab earn circumftantium aliquo editus fuerit, non habeo affirmare : cum propter in- certitudinem caufae quidvis potius credere fubeat, quam ex lapidibus fic compofitis fonum edi.
Plinius, lib. xxxvi. cap. 7. NoN'abfimilis illi narratur in Thebis delubro Sera- pis, utputant Memnonis ftatus dicatus : quern quo- tidiano lolis ortu contacftum radiis crepare dicunt.
Tacitus Annal. lib. ii. cap. 61.
Coeterum Germanicus aliis quoque miraculis intendit animum, quorum pr^cipua fuere Memno- nis faxea effigies, ubi radiis fobs i£la eft vocalem fo- num reddens.
Pausanias Attic, cap. 42.
Eum certe in fabricandis muris ab Appolline ad- jutum Megarenses affirmant, atque eum de quo dixi lapidem ubi citharam depofuit, pro teftimonio ha- bent. Reddit enim, calculo ft quis earn percuflerit, eundem quern pulfae fides fonum : quse mihi res plane admirabdis vifa eft : quanquam Coloflum, qui The- bis iEgyptiis eft trans Nilum, non longe ab eo loco, qu^ Syringes appejlantur, majore utique cum ad- miratione fpedavi.
Statua
xxxviii PASSAGES FROM AUTHORS.
Statua ibi eft fedentis hominis ; earn multi Mem- nonis nominant : quem ex Ethiopia in iEgyptum venifle, ac Sufas etiam ufque penetrafle tradunt. At ipft Thebani Memnonem efle negant, nam Phame- nophem fuifle indigenam hominem dicunt. Audivi etiam qui Sesostris illam ftatuam efle dicerent : earn Cambyses diftidit : & nunc etiam fuperior pars aver- tice ad medium truncum humi negleda jacet : reli- quum adhuc federe vide 'cur, ac quotidie ftib ipfum folis ortum, fonum edit qualem vel citharae vel lyree nervi, ft forte dum tenduntur rumpantur.
Philostr atus, De vita Apollonii, lib. vi. cap,. 3.
Locum enim ubi templum fundatum fuerat, anti- quo foro ftmilem dicunt efle. Extant ejufmodi fora quaedam in vetuftif e is cfvitatibus, ubi & columna- rum vifuntur fragment a, & parietum queedam vefti- gia. Prasterea fedes & limina & Mercurii ftmulachra, partim manu, partim vetuftate confumpta, lllic etiam confpici dicunt. Ipftus vero Memnonis ftatua ado- lefcentis impuberis imaginem referens, ad folis radios converfa eft. Eft autem ex nigro lapide fabricata, atque utroque pede folum attingens juxtaD^DALi fta- tuariam artem : eredao autem manus fedi innituntur hominis furgere volentis ftmilitudinem exprimentes. Cum vero folis radius ftatuam attingeret (id au- tem circa folis ortum evenire perhibent) turn vero fu- pramodum admirabilis vifa eft. Tunc enim ftatuam loqui perhibent, ubi primum folis radius ad ejus os pervenit.
Philostr atus Iconum , lib. i.
Ipse autem Memnon in nigrum transformatus eft in ^Ethiopia lapidem, & figurant quidem fedentis : fpeciem vero illam pure, & folis radii ftatuam petunt. Sol enim Memnonis os veluti pledro percutiens, inde vocem elidere, loquacique fophifmate invento diem falari videtur.
Luciani Toxaris feu amicitia.
Memnonem autem vocem edere exoriente foie.
Luci-
PASSAGES FROM AUTHORS, xxxix
Luc i an i P hilopfeu.de s.
Ouum in iEgypto verfarer adliuc adolefcens, a parte videlicet dodtrinse gratia tranfmifius, cupiebam navigio profedtus in Coptum, illinc adiens Memno- nem, miraculum illud audire, eum videlicet fonum reddentem ad orientem folem. Ilium igituraudivi non hoc vulgari modo quo audiunt alii fonum quempiam inanem, fed mihi oracula etiam edidit Memnon ipfe aperto ore feptem verfibus : quod nifi efiet fupervaca- neum, ipfos vobis verfus recenferem.
Tzetzes Chiliad, vi. Hift. 6 4.
In patriam autem relatus, fepultus eft domi.
Et columna huic fuit rubri varii lapidis
Fabrefadta, Return autem die mittit cantum,
Velut laetatus matris praefentia.
Nodtu autem flebile quoddam contra canit carmen.
Dionysii Periegefis , v. 249.
T'nebas prifcas centum portas habentes, ubi refonans
Memnon exorientem fuam faiutat Auroram.
Juvenalis Sat. 15.
Dimidio magicae refonant ubi Memnone cliordae.
Vansleb relation d'un voyage d’ Egypt c, p.410. where
he gives the following remark from father Porta is.
A une lieue de^a il y a une ancienne ville apellee Habu , ou Ton voit aufTi plufieurs belles curiofites, & entre autres des mornies. On y decouvre de fort loing 2 ftatues, l’une d’un homme, & l’autre d’une femme, les gens du pais appellent celle-la Sciama & celle-ci Fama : elles paroiffent etre pour les moins, aufii gran- des que V Abulhon ou le Sphinx qui eft vis-a-vis dit Cayre. Pres de ce lieu il y a un village ou Ton de- couvre du Nil deux ftatues, qui paroiftent fi nouvelles, qu’a les voir on diroit, que l’ouvrier vient de les achever.
2
Mail-
xl PASSAGES FROM AUTHORS. Maillet defer ipt. de P Egypt e, lettre 8m£, fpqaking of ' Thebes ;
Personne n’ignore que e’etoitdans cette ville cue fe voyoit cette celebre ftatue de Memnon, dont il eft tant parle dans l’hiftoire. Quoiqu’il en foit, il ne refte pas plus de traces de ce Coloffe que Cambyses lit, dit on, mettre en pieces.
Memoires des Mijfions de la Compagnie de Jefus dans le Le- vant, tom. 5™e.
Plan d’un ouvrage fur V Egypt e ancienne & mo- dernq, par 1 zEere Sicard, chap. xi.
Au couchant du Nil.
3. Les deux Coloftes, dont parle Strabon , chargez d’inferiptions Creques & Latines.
4. Restes du prdais de Memnon & fa ftatue co- loflale.
Es T A M P ES.
Plan des deux Coloftes au couchant du palais de Memnon, & de fa ftatue.
Tom. viime.
Discours fur I’Egypte, par le Pere Sicard de la C. de J. Chap. vii.
Thebes.
• — — Sans parler des temples de
Venus & de Memnon, des galleries pleines de hie- roglyphes, & des colonnes, il y a des chofes que l’on peut dire etre uniques dans le monde ; ffavoir les fepulchres des Rois de Thebes , & trois ftatues colof- fales, les deux premieres, dont a tant parle Strabon, font remplie d’une vingtaine d’inferiptions foit Grecques foit Latines : la troifieme eft la ftatue du Roi Mem- non, qui, felon la tradition des anciens Egyptiens , ren- doit un fon au lever du foleil.
TRA-
TRAVELS
I N -
EGYPT AND NUBIA.
• \
Ancient Alexandria3.
TH E ancient Alexandria lias been fubjefted to fomany revolutions, and lb often ruined, that we fhould have at prefent fome difficulty to find it, if the fituation of its ports, and fome antique monuments, did not direft us to its true place.
3 Ch Curtius relates, “That Alexander, in his return from Jupiter Ammon, when he came from the fea to the lake Mareotis, not far diftant from the ifland Pharos, having obferved the nature of the place, determined at firft to build a new city in the ifland itfelf: but afterwards, when it appeared the ifland was notfpacious enough for a great city, hechofe the place where Alexandria now ftands, which derives its appellation from the name of the founder. Having included all the ground that lay between the lake and the fea, he afligned for the walls a circuit of eight yjladia, that is, ten Roman miles.” 1. iv. cap. 8.
Cje s a r gives the following account of Alexandria, as it was in his time : “ The Pharos is a tower exceeding high, and of wonderful ftrufture, fituated on an ifland ; from which it took its name. This ifland, oppofed to Alexandria, forms an harbour; but vaft heaps of ftones, fetched from the mountainous countries, having been thrown into the fea to the length of nine hundred paces, it is
B Thofe
2
TRAVELS IN EGYPT Thofe infallible guides will lead me to defcribe, in a kind of order, what I have been able to obferve ; I do not propofe however to give a complete defcrip- tion, nor to write the entire hiflory of the rife and fall of this great city. My only aim is, to communicate faithfully what I have feen and been able to remark, concerning the prefent ftate of the ancient and new city. The order that I fliall obferve, will be fuch as my memorandums will furnifli we with •, and if I do not explain myfelf fometimes with fufficient clearnefs, the dejigm that I have drawn upon the fpot, will com- plete the idea, that the reader will have conceived by the relation I am going to give.
The old and the new port at this time at Alexandria are what they called formerly the ports of Africa and
now joined by a narrow road and bridge to the town. In this ifland are habitations of Egyptians, and rows of houfes that in extent refemble a town : and whatever fhips, through ignorance, or by flrefs of weather, have turned a little out of their courfe ; the inhabitants are wont to plunder them like pirates. Without their leave, who are in pofTeffton of Pharos, there can be no entrance for Clips into the harbour, on account of the narrownefs of the paffage.
“ Alexandria is almoftfecure from lire ; becaufe the buildings are without raftering and timber ; and the feveral parts are held together by mortar and arches, and covered at top by rough ftone or mofaic work.
“The whole city alrr.oft is hollowed, and has fubterraneous canals reaching to the Nile; by which water is conveyed into private houfes, where by degrees it grows clear, and lets fall a Pediment ; this the owners of houfes and their families are wont to make ufe of : for what is brought dire&ly by the river Nile is fo muddy and foul, that it occafions many and various difeafes, but the common people are obliged to be content with it, becaufe there is no fountain in the whole city.” Cap. ult. et Hirtii Com. de Bello Alex. c. i. et v.
F. Vanslee mentions the difeafes chief y occcifoned by the Nile s water , to be a loofenefs and an itching over the whole body.
C./esar here places the di dance of the ifland Pharos at nine hundred paces from the continent, allowing a little more for the extent of the bridge. All the ancient writers agree in afligningit pretty much the fame diftance, except Homer ; who defcribes it as being a whole day’s fail from Egypt, even with a fair wind, Odyf. l.iv. ver. 354.
AND NUBIA. 2
of Aha. The firft is referved for the Turks ; the fecond is open to the Europeans. They differ the one from the other in this, that the old is much more neat, and has much deeper water than the new, where they are obliged to put, at certain diftances, empty calks under the cables, that they might not be fretted and ■worn by the bottom, winch is ftony. But if this pre- caution preferves the cables, the vefiels are ftill always expofed to the rifque of being loft. The anchor not holding fo well in this manner, a tempeftuous wind eafily loofens the vefiel, which, when once it drives, is cait away even in the harbour, becaufe it has not fufficient room, nor fufficient depth, to make its anchor held again. A French veflel was loft in this manner, the year before my arrival at Alexandria.
The entrance of the new port is defended by two caftles, of a bad Turkifh ftru&ure, and which have nothing remarkable but their fituation •, fince they have fucceeded edifices very renowned in hiftory.
That which they call the Great Pharillon, has in the middle a little tower, the fummit of which terminates in a lanthorn, that they light up every night ; but which does not give much light, becaufe the lamps
Lucan has given the reafon for this diverfity, in a writer fo corred as Homer is in his geography, in the following lines;
Tunc claultrum pelagi cepitPharon : infula quondam In media ftetitilla mari, fub tempore vatis Proteos : at nunc ell Pelloeis proxima muris.
And Pliny affigns the natural caufe. “ Nafcuntur enim [fcili- cet terra] nec fluminum tantum inve&u, ficuc Echinades infulae ab Acheloo amne ccngellte, majorque pars /Egypti a Nilo, in quain a Pharo infula nottis et diei curfum fuiffe Homero credimus ; fed et receflu naaris, ficureidem de Circeis.” 1. ii. c. 8;.
Dr. Pocockl obferves, “ That among the remains of Alex- andria, the moll extraordinary are thofe citterns which were built under their houfes, fupported by two or three Hones of arches on columns, in order to receive the Nile water by the canal, as they do at this day.” page 6.
B 2
are
4 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
are ill fupplied. This caftle has been built upon the ifland of Pharos, which it occupies fo entirely, that if there are ftill fome remains of that marvel of the world, that Ptolemy had cauled to be erected there, they continue concealed from the curious. It is the lame with regard to the other caftle, known under the name of the Little Pharillon. There are no foot-fteps of the famous library b, which, in the time of the Ptole- mies, was confidered as the moft beautiful that had ever been feen.
Each of thefe two iflands is joined to the terra firma by a mole. That of the ifland of Pharos is extremely long. It appeared to me to be three thou fan d feet in extent, and is made partly of bricks and partly of free- ftone. It is vaulted through its whole length ; its arches are in the gothic tafte, and the water can pafs underneath. It refembles in that the remains of the mole of Pouzzol, that they commonly give for Cali- gula’s bridge. It is not credible that the Saracens or the Turks have been the inventors of it. If they have found there the ruins of an ancient mole, they have fo disfigured them, in repairing them, that we obferve not the leaft feature, that favours the elegant ages of antiquity.
The mole, which gives pafiage to the Little Pha- rillon, has nothing particular but two zigzages, which,
b Seneca fpeaks of this library as confifting of four hun- dred thoufand, and A. Gellius feven hundred thoufand vo- lumes : a number vaflly fuperior, I believe, to that of any li- brary now in the world ! I know it will be faid, that the volumes at that time were much fmaller than they are now, fince the in- vention of printing; but then it mull be confidered, on the other hand, that printing multiplies the fame objedt by a variety of im- preffions, and it is the number of editions of the fame book, that fwells the bulk of our modern libraries. This noble library was unfortunately deftroyed by Ca:sar, who being obliged, as Plu- tarch relates, to preferve himfelf by fetting fire to the enemy’s fleet, the flames fpread from the dock to the great library, and de- voured that illuftrious monument of the good take of the kings of Egypt.
in
AND NUBIA. 5
in cafe of need, may ferve for its defence. 1'he Pha- rillons and their moles, one at the right, the other at the left of the port, conduct you infenfibly to the fhore •, but it is proper to advertife, that precifely at the entrance of the port, you have to pafs rocks, feme of which are underneath, and others above the furface of the water. It is necefiary to avoid them with care. For this purpofe they take Turkilh pilots, appointed for this bufinefs, and who come out to meet vefiels at adiftance from the port : you are then fecure of arriv- ing within the port, and of riding there with the other veflels, that are moored along the whole length of the great mole, as in the deepeft place.
Nothing is more beautiful than to fee, from thence, that mixture of antique and modern monu- ments, which, on whatever fide you turn yourfelf, of- fer themfelves to the view. When you have palfed the Little Pharillon, you difeover a row of great tow- ers, joined one to another by the ruins of a thick wall. One fingle obelilk Handing, has fufficient height to make itfelf remarked in a place, where the wall is fall- en down. If you turn yourfelf a little further, you perceive that the towers appear again • but they pre- fent themfelves only in a kind of diftant view. The new Alexandria makes a figure afterwards with its minarets c ; and above this town, but in a diftant view, rifes the column of Pompey, a moft majeftic monu- ment. You difeover likewife hills, that Teem to con- fift of afhes, and fome other towers. At length the view terminates in a great fquare building, that ferves for a magazine of powder, and which joins the great mole.
t
After having landed, we crofied the new town, and took the rout of the obelilk, where we did not ar- rive, till after having clambered over ruined walls,
c A kind of tower, or fteeple, placed near the Mahometan mofques. They maintain there cryers, who call the people to prayers, to fupply the want of bells.
B 3
which
6 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
which give, through a tower of ftone work, a free palfage, quite to the foot of that antique monument ; and no fooner have you approached it than you fee, on one fide, another, which has, long fince, been obliged to give way, and is at prefent almolt entirely buried.
The obelilk which is Handing, and which they Hill call the obelilk of Cleopatra, Ihews that it is the place, where the palace of that queen was, to which they gave likewife the name of Caesar’s palace. There remains no other footftep of that magnificent building •, which is the reafon that I lhail Hop only to oblerve the obelilk.
This obelilk of Cleopatra is fituated, almolt in the middle, between the new city and the Little Pharil- lon. Its bafe, of which a part is buried under ground, is raifed twenty feet above the level of the lea. Between this monument and the port, runs a thick wall, flanked, on each fide of the obelilk, by a great tower •, but this wall has been fo ruined, that its height is almolt equal •to the bafe of the obelilk. The infide of the wall is but at ten feet diltance from this monument *, and the out- fide but at four or five paces from the fea. All the front of this wall, quite into the port, is full of an in- finite quantity of ruins of columns, freezes, or other pieces of architecture, -which have belonged to a mag- nificent edifice. They are of divers forts of marble. I have perceived there fome granite, and verd antique. Towards the country, the obelilk has behind it a very large plain, which has been fo often raked into, that all the foil feems to have palled through a fieve. There grows only here and there a little grafs ; and even that is of fo bad a fu'ofcance, that it withers im- mediately. Plate III.
As to the obelilk in itfelf, it is of a fingle piece of granite marble. It fuffices to fay, that there are only two of its four faces, which are well preferred ; the two others are effaced, and you fcarce fee in them the hieroglyphics, with which they were anciently covered,
Ths
AND NUBIA. 7
The obelifk that is thrown down appears to have been broken ; but that which may be decyphered of its hieroglyphics gives one reafon to judge, that it con- tained the fame figures, and in the fame order, as thofe of the obelifk which is {landing.
The reader will be furprized, without doubt, that the Roman emperors did no'c get that obelifk tranf- ported to Rome, rather than others which it was ne- ceffary to fetch from a great diftance. But if one con- fiders the two faces, which have been Ipoiled by the injury of time, it will be thought a fufficient reafon for not taking it away ; and this reafon difpenfes us from having recourfe to any others.
Some ancient authors have written, that thefetwo obelifks were in their time in the palace of Cleopa- tra ; but they do not tell us, who caufed them to be placed there. It is probable, that thefe monuments are much more ancient than the city of Alexandria, and that they were brought from fome place in Egypt, for the ornament of this palace. This conjecture has fo much the more foundation, as it is known, that at the time of the foundation of Alexandria, they no longer made any of thefe monuments, covered with hieroglyphics, of which they had already long fince loft both the knowledge and the ufe.
The two fides of fuch hard ftone, fpoiled and ef- faced, fhews the great difference there is between the climate of Alexandria, and that of all the reft of Egypt ; for it is neither fire, nor a brutal hand, that has damaged thefe ftones. One fees clearly, that it is only the injury of time, that has eaten fome of the figures, and which has effaced fome others, tho’ they were very deeply engraven.
As the defigns give exaffly the contours of the figures, which cover the faces of this obelifk, I fhall forbear entering into a larger detail. Thus, after hav- ing given all that I know, with regard to this monu- ment, I quit it, to examine what is found at the foot
B 4 of
8 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
of the walls, and along the fea-finore, from the obelifk quite towards the Little Pharillon.
I have already faid, that in the front of the obe- lifk, we find a great quantity of divers forts of marble, which appear to have been employed in fome magni- ficent edifice. We eafily judge, that they are the ru- ins of the palace, which was fituated in the place where the obelifk is. It is only becaufe they are in the fea, that they remain there. The accefs is too difficult to draw them from thence, and to carry them away. It has not been the fame with regard to thofe, which, having fallen, continued upon the ground. They have carried a part of them away, to tranfport them elfewhere ; and the reft has been employed in the new Alexandria. There is therefore no reafon to be fur- prifed, if, in the fpace we are going over, one finds no more ruins of fuch choice materials. In reality, one perceives there only works of brick burnt by the fire and very hard. They deferve, however, our attention, fince they prefent themfelves with an air of antiquity. Some vaulted canals, open and in part filled up ; apartments half deftroyed ; whole walls thrown down, without the bricks being detached •, all this proves that they are not works of a modern conftruftion. Unfor- tunately, thefe ruins make fo confuted a chaos, that one cannot form to one’s felf a juft idea of the edi- fices, which were in this quarter; all that one can imagine is, that thefe buildings belonged to the pa- lace, and that they were employed in different ufes, fuch as to ferve for common fewers, private houfes, guard-houfes, and other like things.
Curiosity leads us no further on that fide. There would ftill remain to be examined the Little Pharillon, but the garrifon does not. permit the entrance of it. We mult therefore be fatisfied with going to fee what thofe great towers are, joined by fuch thick walls. One has no difficulty to conceive, that it is the inclofure of the ancient Alexandria. But of what age is this in- clofure ?
AND NUBIA. 9
clofure ? This is a point on which one may venture to give one’s fentiment, after having examined the ob- ject near, and aftery having well confidered it.
Those towers, which form as it were bulwarks, are not all of an equal bignefs, nor of the fame figure, nor of the fame conftruction. There are fome of them round; others are fquare; others of an oval figure ; and thefe lad: are fometimes cut by a flrait line in one of their fides.
They differ, in like manner, in their infide. There are fome that have a double wall, and at the entrance winding flairs that lead up to the top of the tower. Some offer nothing for a paffage, but a hole in the vault, and through which it was neceffary to pafs by the affiftance of a l'caling-ladder. Generally fpeaking, the entrances of thefe towers are very fmall and very narrow, and look out upon the infide of the curtain, or wall of communication. Their different flories are formed by arches, fupported fometimes by a column, fometimes by feveral ; and there are even fome, that are fupported by a large pofl. The port-holes, that go all round thefe bulwarks, are narrow, but grow wider within. They refemble thofe which one fees in feveral ancient caftles of England. One obferves no wells in thefe towers ; yet I doubt not but they had fome : it is probable that they have been neglected, and filled up in length of time. All the towers are built of free-flone, and of a very maffive architecture. In the lowed: part we fee, all round and at certain dis- tances, fhafts of columns of different forts of marble, and they have been placed there in fuch a manner, that, when you fee them from a didance, you take them for cannon guns, which come out of their port- holes. We perceive likewife, here and there, fome fquare pieces of marble made ufe of ; but all the body of the building, as I have already faid, is formed of free-flones ; and they are of a fandy kind, fuch as thofe of Portland, or of Bentheim,
The
IO TRAVELS IN EGYPT The walls, which make the joining of the towers, and which, with them, have compofed the circuit of the town, are not, throughout the whole, of the fame breadth, nor of the fame height, nor of the fame con- ftruCiion. Some may be about twenty feet thick, whilft others are more or lefs. Their height reaches to thirty or forty feet. One cannot, however, be af- fured, by the mere view of thefe ruins, that all the inclofure of the town has been built in the mariner that I have remarked, in fpeaking of the wall near the obe- lifk ; but it had, on the infide, a walk, almoft in the fame talle, as that which we fee in the inclofure of the palace of Aurelian at Rome.
There remains nothing more for me to mention, with regard to this inclofure, but that the towers as well as the walls, at lead thofe that are to be feen, are all very much damaged, and in feveral places entirely ruined. After that, the only point is to know, if, from what hath been juft now oblerved, and from what hiftory informs us, we may decide, whether this inclofure is of the time of the firft foundation of Alexandria, or at what time it might have been made.
If we are to credit hiftory, and what that tells us of the grandeur of the ancient Alexandria, it would be very difficult for us to limit it to an inclofure of fo little extent. But without engaging ourfelves in what one willies it might have been, we may better con- fine ourfelves to confider what remains of that famous city.
Oxe perceives at firft a very maffive architecture, and fuch as it was proper it ffiould be to fuftain the Ihocks of battering-rams. But that may be the work of any age. Let us apply ourfelves therefore to particulars, which may be able to make us perceive the difference between one age and another-, and, in this cafe, one can fcarce take advantage of any thing but the columns, which fupport the arches on the infide, and of the lhafts
' of
AND NUBIA. ii
of columns that fliewthemfelves without. The columns have capitals, which manifeftly do not appear to be or the age of Alexander. The tafte of them is too much Saracen, to carry back their origin fo high. But, it will be faid, an arch fallen, and repaired by the Sa- racens, might have produced the fame effedt. There remains therefore nothing but the lhafts of the co- lumns of different marbles, which fhew, that the work is neither of the firft foundation of the city, nor of the time of the Ptolemies, nor of that of the Romans. There are none but Barbarians, that could have made fo odd an ufe of pieces of a material fo precious in Egypt, as is the foreign marble. Thefe columns have been, without doubt, drawn out of the ruins of Ale- xandria : and perhaps even out of the palace of Cleo- patra ; for if they had been brought from Mem- phis, fuch as they are, we fhould have difcerned hie- roglyphics on them ; but we perceive neither hierogly- phics on thefe columns, nor on the fquare pieces of marble, made ufe of up and down. Let us conclude, therefore, that this inclofure was not made, till the Saracens, after having ruined Alexandria, found them- felves obliged to fortify themfelves there, in order to make advantage of its ports; and that of all the ground of the ancient city, they included only fo much of it as was then neceflary to them, for their defence, and for the fecurity of their commerce.
After having made the tour of the ancient city, it is proper to fee v/hat is contained within its inclofure ; where we find fcarce any thing atprefentbut ruins and rubbifh, excepting a very fmall number of mofques, churches, gardens, and fome cifterns, which may be confidered as entire, fince they are ftill tolerably well kept up, in order to furnifh water to the new city.
We know fo well at prefent the obelilk of Cleo- patra, and its fituation, that it is commodious to fet out from thence, in order to proceed to obferve the churches of St. Mark and St, Catharine, which
are
i2 TRAVELS IN EGYPT are neareft to it. Thefe two Churches belong to the Chriftians, and are at prefent ferved by Greek priefts, and by Coptic priefls. In other refpedts, they re- ferable each other fo much, that one Tingle defcription will fufiice for both. They have nothing which claims our regard but the name of church which they bear ; and they are fo dark, fo dirty, and fo full of lamps, that one fhould take them rather for pagodes d, than for temples, where the true God is adored.
That of St. Mark has nothing particular but an old chair of wood, which they pafs off, if I remember well, for that of the Evangelift, whole name the church bears. I do not however afcertain the fadt, becaufe I did not take notice of it fufficiently, to re- coiled! it with certainty c. That which I can warrant is, that the holy Evangelift is infinitely better lodged in his church at Venice, than in that of Alexandria.
In the Church of St. Catharine, they fhew, with great veneration, a piece of a column, upon which they pretend that this faint had her head cut off; and fome red fpots they fhew you, which, they fay, are drops of her blood.
In the neighbourhood of this church one meets with the bank of St. Catharine, which is a little hill formed out of the ruins of the town. There is alfo another of the fame kind and of the fame bignefs. Both have been dug up and turned fo often, that they are properly nothing but a heap of dull. In order to find there any thing, you muft go after rain •, the run- ning of the water leaves then bare fome graven ftones, or other little things, which have efcaped the view of thofe that have raked into them before, or which have been rejedled, as little worthy of their attention. The Saracens have adled in the fame manner here, as the
d The word pagode is ufed for an idolatrous temple, as well as for the idol itfelf.
c Dr. Pococke mentions it likewife as the patriarchal chair.
Goths
AND NUBIA. 13
Goths and Vandals at Rome. They have picked out the ftone from the ring with a fharp pointed iron ; have taken the gold, and thrown away the ftone, which one finds commonly damaged by this violence. It is rare to difccver there at prelent any thing curious.
I have feen an infinite number of thefe ftcnes •, I have even purchafed fome, without being able to fay, that I have acquired fo much as one that is well cut.
Before I got out of the town, I call my eye upon fome finafts of columns of granite marble, which are ftill Handing, here and there, upon the road that leads to the gate of Rofetto. There may be about half a dozen of them i but they inform us nothing, except that all this long ftreet muft have had, on each fide, porticos for walking, near the houles, under Ihelter. What remains of them gives one reafon to judge, that they were all of the fame bignefs ; but it is not fo eafy to decide, whether they were of any order of archi- tecture, or made in the Egyptian tafte. They are funk one third into the ground •, and have all loft their capitals. They have their furface fmooth, and the cir- cumference larger towards the bottom than towards the top. This is all that I have remarked in them •, but it is not enough to found any reafonable con- jecture. However, I could not avoid fpeaking of them, becaufe they have certainly a right to hold a place amongft the antiquities, which fubfift at Ale- xandria.
After having purfued the road, which leads to the gate of Rofetto, I palled that gate, to go to the fine column, commonly called the column of Pom- pey. It is placed upon an eminence, from whence we have two beautiful views ; the one looking upon Alexandria j the other upon the flat country, that ex- tends itfelf along the Nile, and that furrounds the ca- lilh, or canal, dug beyond the gate of Rofetto, for conveying the water of the Nile to Alexandria. But I lhall lpeak more of this canal hereafter : let us con- fine
i
14 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
fine ourfelves at prefent to the column of Pompev. Plate III.
This column fiiould not be ftyled, properly fpeak- ing, an Egyptian monument, tho’ the materials, of •which it is made, have been drawn from the quar- ries of that country. It is apparently the greateft and the moll magnificent column that the Corinthian order has produced. If the reader will call his eyes upon the dcfign that I give of it, there will remain for me very little to fay concerning this fuperb monument. Every one is able to judge of it himfelf ; efpecially when I Ihall mention, that the fnaft is of one fingle piece of granite marble ; that the capital is of another piece of marble •, and the pedeftal of a greyifh ftone, refembling the flint Hone, for the hardnels and grain. With regard to the dimenfions, they are marked upon the plate, which gives the dtfign of this column f.
* The dimenfons of this pillar not being given upon the plate , I Jhall fupply them from Dr. Pococke.
“ The pillar, commonly called Pompey’s pillar, is fituated on a fmall height, about a quarter of a mile to the fouth of the walls, and may be fuppofed to have been erefted after Strabo’s time, as he makes no mention of fuch an extraordinary monument : It might be fet up either in honour of T itus, or Adrian, who were in Egypt. Near it are fome fragments of granite pillars, four feet diameter ; and it appears plainly, from many old foundations, that there has been fome magnificent building there, in the area of which, it is probable, this pillar was eredted ; and fome Arabian hiftorians (on what authority I know not) call it the palace of Julius Caesar. This famous pillar is of red granite. Befides the foundation, it confifts of three Hones ; the capital, which is judged to be about eight or nine feet deep, is of the Corinthian order, the leaves being perfectly plain, and not the lead indented, and feem to be the plain laurel or bay leaf. Some failors have found means to get to the top, which has a hole in it, from which it is judged that there was a ftatue fixed on the top of the pillar; the ihaft of the pillar, taking in the upper torus of the bafe, is of one ftone, the remainder of the bafe and pedeftal of another, and all is raifed on a foundation built of feveral ftones, in the nature of two plinths, of two teer of ftone, the lower fetting out four inches beyond the upper, as that fets out a foot beyond the plinth that is over it. This foundation is four feet nine inches high, and the
With
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AND N.UBIA. 15
With regard to the foundation on which the pe- deftal and the column reft, it is open on one ftde. An Arab, it is faid, having dug under this foundation, placed there a box of gun-powder, in order to blow up the' column and to make himfelf mailer of the treafures, which he imagined to be buried underneath. Unhappily for him, he was not a good miner. His enterprife mifcarried. The mine blew up, and dif-
pedeftal, and part of the bafe, which is of one done, are twelve feet and a half high. I found the whole height, by the ftiadow, to be one hundred and fourteen feet, which agrees pretty nearly with the account fome authors have given ; fo that taking out the above meafures, and half a foot for the upper torus, the height of the lhaft is eighty eight feet nine inches, that is, about ten diameters of the column, for I found the diameter of it to be about nine feet ; the die of the pedeftal is twelve feet two inches fquare, and the plinth is two feet wider. I obferved the fwell in the pillar, and that it leans a little to the fouth weft. The pillar is well preferved, except that it has fealed away a very little to the fouth, and more to the north eaft ; the face of the foundation is reprefented in the draught of the pillar, as it is to the weft fouth weft, where fome of the ftones have been taken away, fo as to fhew the middle ftone, which has been fo much talked of, as if the pillar refted on that alone ; whereas the work remains all round, on which the pillar is raifed ; and yet it is indeed probable that the main weight of the pillar does reft on this ftone, which on that fide is about four feet wide, and appeared to me to be a mixture of alabafter, and flints of a great variety of colours, and has hieroglyphics on it. When I returned a fecond time to Alexandria, this part was repaired in fuch a manner, that the lower plinth is made a feat for people to fit on ; and fo it is no more to be feen in its ancient Hate.” vol. i. p. 8.
Da. £haw obferves, “ That the foliage of the capital is badly executed. A great part of the foundation, which is made up of feveral different pieces of ftone and marble, hath been re- moved, in expectation, as may be fuppofed, of finding a treafure. At prefent therefore the whole fabrick feems to reft intirely upon a block of white marble, fcarce two yards fquare, which, upon be- ing touched w'ith a key, gives a found like a bell. Some of the broken pieces of marble are inferibed with hieroglyphics; a cir- cumftance which may induce us to fufpedt, that this pillar was not eredted by the Egyptians, but by the Greeks or Romans ; nay, later perhaps than Strabo, who, otherwife, it may be prefumed, would not have omitted the defeription of it.” p 338.
i ranged
16 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
ranged only four Pones, which made part of the foun- dation, of which the three other fides remained intire. The only good, which refulted from it, was, that the curious were afterwards able to fee what Pones had been employed in this foundation. , I have obferved there a piece of white oriental marble, quite full of hieroglyphics, fo well prelerved, that it has been eafy for me to draw them exadtly. Another large piece, which is removed from its place, and which, notwith- Panding, lies bare, is of Sicilian marble, yellowifi and fpotted with red : This has equally its hierogly- phics, but fo damaged, that I have not been able to draw any thing from it. A piece of a little column had likewife ferved for this foundation, as well as fome other pieces of marble, that have nothing re- markable.
I have already faid, that the damage has been only on one fide. That which has been taken away of the foundation leaves at moP a void of three feet, underneath the pedePal •, and the middle, as well as the three other fides, continue in their original folidity. Paul Lucas, however, who has not been content with giving us a drawing that is not exaft cf this co- lumn, reprefents it to us as rePing only upon a fin- gle Pone in the middle. In the main one may pafs. over this fault, as well as fo many others ; but that a conful general ?, who has refided fixteen years at Cai- ro, who pretends to have feen better than any other tra- veller, and who has been long enough at Alexandria, to be able to examine this column, Piould have con- tented himfelfwith copying the drawing that he found in Paul Lucas, s a matter inconceivable. Perhaps he had reafons of policy for ading in this manner. He formed the projedl of tranfporting this column to France; and representing it as rePing only upon a fingle Pone, it appeared fo much the more eafy to re-
6 Monfieur De Maillet.
move,
I
AND NUBIA. if
move, and to put on board a vefiel. J will own. how- ever, that what they fay of it, both the one and the other, is more exact than the drawing which they give.
After having confidered the column of Pompey, and the other objects of which I have made mention, nothing offers itfelf to the fight but an open country. , I am told, however, that there are in the neighbour-' hood catacombs , and that a quarter of a league’s tra- velling brings us thither. That was enough to engage me to' take this journey. We arrived very foon at the place defigned ; we entered •, and found a long fub- terraneous walk, which has nothing particular. It relembles, for its breadth, the catacombs of Naples. It was not worth our while to flop here any longer s. .We took therefore the rout of the califch, or canal of Cleopatra, which furni flies frefh water to Ale- xandria, throughout the whole year.
Upon our defcending the hill, we entered into a plain, quite covered with bufhes that bear nothing but capers ; and advancing further, we got into a wood, or forefl of date trees. Their fruitfulnefs fhews, that they receive benefit from the neighbourhood of the ca- lifch, whole waters are carried to them by fome water- ing canals, that are made by art between the trees. We croffed this wood, and came at length to the califch.
The borders of this canal are covered with different forts of trees, and peopled by divers flying-camps of Bedouins, or wandering Arabs. They are there to
s Dr. Pococke obferves, “ That to the weft, beyond the canal of Canopus, and near a fheik’s burial place, are fome ca- tacombs ; they confift of feveral apartments cut in the rock, on each fide of an open gallery : on both fides of thefe apart;, ents are three ftories of holes, big enough to depofit the bodies in. — The moft extraordinary catacombs are towards the further end, and may be reckoned amongll: the fined that have been difcovered, being beautiful rooms cut out of a rock, and niches in many of them, Co as to depofite the bodies in, adorned with a fort of doric pilafters on each fide.” vol. i. p. 9.
c
feed
i8 TRAVELS IN EGYPT feed their flocks, by which they maintain themfelves in food, but live in other refpects in great poverty. They would be very glad of being more at their eafe and I have not forgot, that one day, as I went out early at the gate of Rofetto, twenty of them had a ^ great defire to rob me ; and they would have put their 'defign into execution, if a janiflary, that attended me, had not hindered them. Thefe Arabs refemble fwal- lows ; as long as they enjoy, in one place, fine wea- ther and abundance, they continue there ; but as foon as a fcarcity of provifions comes, they change their ha- bitation, and go to feek more fertile places. It is to thefe changes of abode, as well as to their poverty, that they owe the liberty they enjoy. It would be very difficult for them to prefer ve that liberty, if they had more fubftance than they have.
The califch, as hiftory informs us, was made to fa- cilitate commerce, and to carry goods from Cairo to Alexandria, without expofing them to pafs the Bogas, or mouth of the Nile, becaufe they would run a rifk of being loft. They found by it likewife another ad- vantage in this, that the city of Alexandria, being deftitute of frefli water, might be abundantly pro- vided with it, by means of this canal. At prefent, it is not in a condition to anfwer all thefe purpofes : Be- ing merely an hollow in the ground, without being fupported by any lining of ftone work, it has by de- grees been filled up. The decay of commerce, and the ruin of the country, no longer permit the inhabi- tants to furnifh the expence, that would be requifite every year, to keep this canal in the neceflary repairs. It refembles at prefent a ditch ill kept up ; and there runs in it fcarce water enough to fupply the refervoirs for the confumption of the new Alexandria. I pafied it without being wet-ffiod in the month of June. There is however one place in it lined with walls *, it is where the aqueduct begins, which you can trace die whole
length
AND NUBIA. 19
length of the plain, and even quite to Alexandria. For though it be under ground, the vent holes that it has, at certain alliances, fhew diffidently the rout that it takes, in order to difcharge itfelf into the re- fervoirs or cifterns, which are found only in what we have obferved to be the ancient city-. At the time when that city fubfifted, ail the ground that it oc-, cupied was made hollow for refervoirs, the greatell part of which are at prefent filled up. There remain of them no more than half a dozen •, and indeed they are not well taken care of.
It would be fuperfluous to undertake to give here the defcription of one of thefe refervoirs h. I lhall only advertife one thing, which is, that all the arches ap- pear to be made of bricks, and covered with a matter impenetrable by water. This matter is precifely the fame as that with which the walls and refervoirs are covered, that one fees at Baire and at Rome, in the baths of divers Emperors.
The greatell part of the columns, that fupport the arches of thefe refervoirs, are of different forts, and mod of them in a Gothic talle, or rather in a Saracen. It is not conceivable, that they have been placed in fuch a manner from the beginning. An entire de- druclion has occafioned, without doubt, that fome have taken the places of others. They have repaired the refervoirs that were the lead ruined, and for that pur-
h “ The canal of Canopus comes to the walls near Pompey’s pillar, having run to the weft of it: it has a paftage under the walls, and from that part a foftee has been cut along the outfide of the walls to the fea ; but the water is not only conveyed to the cifterns from the canal, as it there enters the city, but alfo before, from feveral parts of the canal, by paflages under ground to the higher parts of the city. There are entrances down to thefe paf- fages in feveral parts, in order to clean them : the cifterns alfo muft be cleanfed ; and the defcent down to them is by round wells, in which there are holes on each fide, at about two feet diftance, to put the feet in to defcend by ; they draw up the water by a wind- lafs, and carry it in leather bags on camels to the houfes.” p. 6.
C 2 pole
*io TRAVELS IN EGYPT pofe would make ufe of what coft the lead: to employ in the work. We may judge from thence in what manner the reft muft have been treated.
Of all the refervoirs, which are made ufe of at pre- fent, that which is near the. gate of Rofetto preferves the longeft its water, probably becaufe it lies lower than the reft. When any of thefe are empty, they take care to clean them againft the time of the increafe of the Nile ; for it muft be obferved, that thefe refer- voirs cannot empty themfelves. They are made to receive water and to retain it, and not to let it run off. They are emptied by means of pumps with chains, or ropes of pitchers ; and when they would convey water to the new town, they fill bags of goat {kins with water, and load the backs of camels or affes. The neceftity they are under of emptying, by dint of la- bour, thefe refervoirs, {hews the reafon, why they have filled up fo great a number of them. The con- fumption not being fo great in the new town, as it was in the ancient, the water would have become cor- rupted, and would have infallibly caufed difeafes by its noxious fmell. Befides that there was no way of fupporting the expence, which would have been ne- ceffary to cleanfe them every year ; if they had {top- ped up the canals of the aquedudt, that convey the water, they would have been in danger of making a general fink. In fine, they remedied another incon- venience •, the greateft part of the refervoirs being half ruined, it was better to fill them up, than to be ex- poled to the accidents, that the keeping of them up might have occafioned, from day to day. This is all that I am able to fay, concerning the refervoirs of A- lexandria. The defigns , and the meafures with which they are accompanied, will give the reader a compleat >idea of them.
There remains nothing elfe to obferve in the in- clofure of the ancient Alexandria, but the gate of Rofetto, and another gate, through which you go
from
AND NUBIA. it
from the old town to enter into the new, after having gone acrofs the great fquare of the former. Thefe two gates are built in the fame tafte with the reft of the in- clofure. That of Roletto has fome little towers at each angle •, the other, which is near a great baftion, has but a plain opening in the wall. The folding doors of the gate are of wood, and are covered with plates of iron, extremely rufted.
As it is better to finifh all we have to fay concern- ing the antiques, before we pafs to the modern, it is proper to take a turn towards the old port, on the border of which we fhall find remains of antiquity, be- longing to the ancient Alexandria, or at leaft to its fuburbs.
The old port, otherwife called the port of Africa, has on one fide the Great Pharillon, which defends it, as it makes likewife the defence of the new port. Op- pofite the Great Pharillon, and upon the neck of land which forms the old port, there is another little caftle, for the fecurity of the fame port on that fide •, and in front a part of the new town joins itfelf to the old. It is from this place we fet out, to go and examine fome remains of antiquity, which confift of fepulchral grots, fubterraneous temples, little harbours, or baths, (Ur.
The fepulchral grots begin from the place, where the ruins of the old city terminate, and they run to a great diftance along the border of the fea. They are all dug in the rock-, fometimes one over another, fometimes one afide of another, according as the fitu- ation of the ground has permitted. Avarice, or the hope of finding fomething there, has caufed them all to be opened. I have net feen a fingle one fhut up ; and have abfolutely found nothing within them. It is eafy to judge, by their fliape, and by their great number, of the ufe, for which they were defigned. We may fay, that in general they have only a fuffi- tient breadth to contain two dead bodies, one lying
c 3 hY
22 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
by another. Their length exceeds but very little that of a man-, a;id. they have more or lei's height, ac- cording to the difpolition of the rock. The greateft part have been opened by violence ; and that which remains of them intire is not ornamented either with fculpture or painting.
What we have mentioned is too barren a fpot, to continue there any longer. It is better to caft our eyes on thofe little hollow places of the Ihore, which they made ufe of for agreeable retreats ; where they diverted themfelves with enjoying the cool air ; and from whence, without being feen, but when they chofe it, they faw every thing that palled in the port1.
‘ As Homer travelled into Egypt, it is highly probable that he took the idea of Proteus's cave from thefe retirements in rocks, which he fawj and that all his images were drawn from natural views.
h-Ifto; P khuA,. ajasi ion dupiScSyxei,
Tima'S*, dig t| aAo; c-i ; i ytgoit aXs©* nif*EgT/jf,
Tlsoiri V7ca Zi^vgoio, pgixi xuhupQds,
Ex S’ sXSih xoi [ACij utto a Trswt yXa£ vgdcuv. Odyf. 1. IV. V. 400.
Inftead of which Mr. Pope reprefents Proteus as lafiing on the Ihore.
“ When thro’ the zone of heav’n the mounted fun “ Hath journey’d half, and half remains to run,
“ The feer, while Zephyrs curl the fwelling deep,
“ Bajks on the breezy fare, in grateful deep,
“ His oozy limbs.”
Which grofs error in Mr. Pope is the more to be wondered at, fince Virgil might have led him into the true meaning, by hav- ing given an account of Proteus, which he copied from Homer ;
Ipfa ego te, medios cum Sol accenderit reftus.
Cum dtiunt herbre, et pecori jam gratior umbra eft.
In fccrcta fenis ducam, quo feifus ab undis
Se recepit j Georgic. 1. iv. ver. 401.
Eft fpeeus in gens
Exeji latere in montis, quo plurima vento
Cogitur, inque fmus lcindit fefe unda reductos. ver. 418.
<c I will myfelf conduft to thee on thy way,
{' When next the fouthing Sun, inflames the day:
AND NUBIA. 23
Some rocks, that jut out, furnifhed a charming fitu- ation ; and natural grottos, which thole rocks had made, gave the opportunity of forming there, with the afliftance of the chiflel, real places of pleafure. Ii\ effe<5t, we find entire apartments made in this manner; and benches, contrived in the rock, afford feats where you may be fecured from the wet ; and where you may bathe in the water of the fea, which occupies all the bottom of the grotto. On the outfide, they had little harbours, at which they arrived in boats, that were there fheltered from all forts of winds. If they would enjoy the view of the port, they eafily found upon the rock, without the grotto, fome place that was fhaded from the heat of the fun. All thefe agreeable retreats, which are in great number, have however no other ornament. The places, where the chiflel has paflfed, are fmcoth; but the reft has the natural fhape of the rock.
At thirty or forty paces from the border of the fea, and oppofite the point of the peninfula, which forms the port, we find a fubterraneous monument, to which they commonly give the name of a temple. The only entrance is by a little opening, upon the defcent of the eminence which makes the boundary of the port on that fide. We entered it, lighted by flam- beaux, and we were obliged to walk ftooping in a very low paffage, which, at the end of twenty paces, introduced us into a hall, pretty large and fquare. The top is a fmooth cieling, and the four fides and the bottom are full of fand, as well as of the ex- crements of bats, and other animals that retreat thither.
“ When the dry herbage thirfts for dews in vain,
“ And fheep in lhadej, avoid the parching plain.
“ Then will I lead thee to his fecret feat ;
“ When weary with his toil, and fcorch’d with heat,
“ The wayward feer frequents his cool retreat."
• Dryden
1
C 4
We
24 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
W e are not yet, properly fpeaking, arrived at the temple. As foon as we have paffed another alley, we meet with fomething more beautiful. We find a fouterrain of a round figure, the top of which is cut in form of an arch it has four gates, one oppo- fite to another; each of which is adorned with an architrave, a cornifh, and a pediment with a crefcent on the top. One of thefe gates ferves for an entrance ; the others form each a kind of niche, much lower than the fouterrain, and which contains only a cheft, faved out of the rock in hollowing in it, and fuf- ficiently large to contain a dead body.
This defeription, as well as the plan and the fec- tion of the fouterrain, w ill enable the reader to judge, that what is given out, in the country, for a tem- ple, mull have been the tomb of fome great lord, or perhaps even of a king. However,' as there is neither infeription nor fculpture, that can let us know to what purpofe this edifice has ferved, I leave it to every one to affign the ufe for which it was deftined,
I fhall only remark, that the gallery, which conti- nues beyond this pretended temple, feems to fhew, that there are further on other edifices of this na- ture. The common opinion likewife is, that there are, in the neighbourhood, other like louterrains ; but they are not known : probably becaufe the en- trance into them is fo well clofed, that it could ne-. ver be difeovered ; or becaufe, after having opened them, they have been fo negledted, that the hole has been flopped up by the fap.d •, and the fame thing wrill happen, according to all appearance, to that, of which I have been fpeaking, fince the entrance be- comes daily fmaller, and the alley lower. I think myfelf happy, however, in having feen enough of it, to give a juft idea, and to preferve the memory of it.
In mounting up the fame rock, one meets with great fofTes, of which they know not either the deitination, or the time in which they were dug. They are cut
per.
AND NUBIA. 25
perpendicularly from the furface downwards, and may have forty feet of depth upon fifty of length, and twenty of breadth. Their fldes are very even ; but the bottom is fo filled with land, that one can fcarce difcover the upper fart of a canal, which muff, one would think, have led to fome fubterraneous place. It is well known, without my mentioning it, that it is not in trie power of a traveller to get fuch places cleanfed, in order to fatisfy his curio- fity. Whoever knows the country, cannot require of us fo hazardous an attempt •, and thofe who, without having feen any thing, imagine that we may do every thing that feems practicable to them, need only travel in Egypt, to be convinced, that it is more eafy to judge than to aCt as one would.
We fhould now pafs to the defcription of the new Alexandria ; but before I quit the ancient, I have ftill many things to fay, and reflections to make, with regard to it. It is not fufflcient to have made the tour of this ancient city, to have gone out of its inclofure to fee the column of Pomp ey, to have entered into the catacombs, which are in the neigh- bourhood, to have feen the canal of Cleopatra, to have gone over the borders of the old port, and the adjoining ground, which had appeared to deferve our examination ; there is always fomething omitted upon fuch occafions, and fometimes we leave too much to be fupplied by the imagination. It would feem, for example, in reading the defcription, that I have given of the inclofure of the old city, that one may trace it all round, without finding any in- terruption. It is however certain, that there are fpaces, where there remain neither bulwarks, nor walls. To have a juft idea of the condition of the ground, which was occupied by the ancient city, there is fomething elfe to be obferved befldes the antiquities, which fubfift. The modern edifices therm felves, the bank of St. Catharine, and the neigh- _
pouring
£: .. 5 tn •
w
’ v
2 6 TRAVELS IN EGYPT bouring plain of the obelifk, together with the anti- quities, do not fill entirely the whole fpace. It is pro- per to add, that the reft differs fcarce at all from the foil, which is near the obelifk •, that the whole has been turned up and raked into ; that what was valu- able has been carried away ; and that if there is yet any thing, which is worth the labour, it muff: be fcarched for very deep in the earth, or in the refervoirs that have been choaked up.
On the other hand, l'ome queftions naturally prefent themfelves, that deferve an anfwer : “From whence did they draw, will it be faid, that enormous quantity of marble and of granite, which were employed in the building of the firft Alexandria ; and what is become of it all, ffnce the deftruCticn of that great city ?” If I do not undertake to give a pofitive anfwer to thefe en- quiries, I fhall venture at leaft conjectures, which may carry fome fhew of reafon with them.
Every one, I believe, will agree with me, that it would have been abfurd to have fetched from a dif- tance, what they had, in fome meafure, ready to their hands; andthat if they had attempted it, they would never have been able to carry this city to that height of magnificence, wherein it was feen even from its firft foundation, or a little time after, under the Pto- lemies. It is therefore natural to fuppofe, that the firft Alexandria derived its greateft luftre from the de- ftruCtion of Memphis ; and this reafon is fo much the more probable, as there is abfolutely requifite a place for conveying the ruins of that great city, of which there have remained fcarce any the flighted: foot-fteps, capable of marking out the place where it was. It is necefiary, however, to remove fome objections that offer themfelves.
It will be faid. That it is not conceivable, that Alexander, fo generous a warrior, fhould have been inclined to deftroy a city fo magnificent as Mem- phis, in order to build another with his own name.
Neither
AND NUBIA. *7
Neither is it what I mean. I would not load the me- mory of Alexander, more than that of the Popes, who have made no difficulty of permitting the de- ftrudtion of a part of the antiquities of Rome, in or- der to build fuperb palaces for their own families.
Memphis, they will add, without doubt, fubfifted fill in the time of Alexander, and under the Pto- lemies. I agree it did. But in what manner did it fubfift ? Pretty much as the ancient Alexandria fu'o- fifts in our time ; or at the moft, as it fubfifted in the time of the Saracens. Is it in reality to be believed, that the Perfians have Ihewn more favour to Memphis, than to the other cities of Egypt ? Would thofe, who exterminated the gods, have fpared the temples? When Alexander entered into Egypt, was not the fplendor of religion eclipfed in Memphis ? The prin- cipal priefts had retired into delarts, and Cambyses had carried away the idols. We may conceive from thence, the condition of the temples, that were no longer frequented, that were abhorred by the Perfians, and that they employed to the vileft of ufes. In this cafe, Alexander and his fucceffors might very well take from them, without being facrilegious, and with- out drawing on themfelves the hatred of the people, who mull fee, even with pleafure, that the materials of their ruined temples were employed in edifices, where the worlhip of their ancient gods would be re- eftablilhed.
This great objection being thus removed, we have only to examine how they were able to tranfport that immenfe quantity of materials. But did not the Nile,* [ and the canal of Cleopatra, afford very eafy con-- ’ veyances ? It will be faid, Was the canal there at that time ? There is do doubt of it. They could not form the projedt of building a town in fuch a place, with- out thinking at firft of a canal. The place was un- provided of frefh water, and there was r.o means of procuring it any, but by deriving it from the Nile,
beyond
25 TRAVELS IN EGYPT beyond the Rofetto, where the canal commences ; for the water of that river, mixed with the water of the fea, at its mouth, is not drinkable ; and to go and fetch it by fea would have required at lead two days voyage; one for the going, the other for returning. Beiides, there was no means of making ufe of great fiat-bottom veflels, capable of containing a great deal of water •, becaufe they would not have been proper to pafs the fea ; and, on the other hand, lefs veflels, that' would have drawn more water, would not have found fufficient depth at the mouth of the Nile. There was then an abfolute neceflity of beginning by the canal, and this canal mult be navigable •, for if they had merely in view to furnifh the town with water, they would have been content with making an aquedudt of ftone work. But they dug a canal -, and at this canal commenced the aqueduct, which carried water to the town ; whilft the canal itfelf took its rout to- wards the fea, where it emptied itfelf in the neighbour- hood of Alexandria. The name of Cleopatra, which it preferves Hill at prefent, is not a reafon for confining ourfelves, with regard to the time when it was firft dug. A repair, made by a queen fo famous, fome diverfion that fhe might have taken there, or a feaft that fhe had given, might eafily have occafioned that name. However, the neceflity of a canal being inconteftible, it is for me a certain guide ; and I ad- here to that, without troubling myfelf to fearch for other reafons, than thofe that have been alledged.
However certain this proof may appear, yet there is ftill a difficulty offers itfelf, capable of difranging our whole fyftem, if there was no means of removing it. How comes it to pafs, it will be faid, if the ruins of Memphis have ferved for the building of the firft Alexandria, that we find not, except upon the obelifk, and upon the (tones, which form the foundation of the column of Pompev, any of the figures, with which every column, and every piece of marble,
brought
AND NUBIA. 29
brought from Memphis, muft have been covered, or adorned ? It is eafily leen, that I mean hieroglyphics-, for it is certain that, excepting thofe of the obelifk, and of the foundation of the column of Pompey, we perceive not any at Alexandria : fome pieces of gra- nite, broken, and drawn out of the foundations of fome ancient edifice, are of no weight and confequence in the affair. It is certain, that the ruins that are found in the fea, over againft the obelifk, and that I conjectured to have belonged to the palace of Cleo- patra, have no hieroglyphics : the Ihafts of pillars, and the pieces of marble employed in the bulwarks, have not any neither. It is proper, therefore, to fearch for fome way of reconciling this contradiction, and to give a good account of the affair, in order to render our proof acceptable ^ this is what I fhall at- tempt to execute.
At the time of Alexander, and under his fuc- ceffors, the tafte of Egyptian architecture was no lon- ger in vogue. Greece, though fhe had drawn from Egypt the firft principles of that art, had fubftituted there an architecture much more light, and adorned in a quite different manner. The Greeks, not hav- ing the immenfe riches of the Egyptians, nor, like them, abundance of materials, nor multitudes of workmen, renounced that folid architecture. They even confidered it afterwards as defective, and pro- ducing nothing but heavy piles of building, and with- out tafte. They fixed rules for the different orders of architecture, and they carried them fo far, that they came even to think themfelves the firft inventors of that art.
Alexander, imbued inhis youth with the principles of his country, difdained to adopt thofe of a kingdom he had fubdued ; and befides, it would not have re- dounded to his honour to raife there buildings which would have been inferior to the leaff of thofe, that
30 TRAVELS IN E G Y P T be eafily admitted, that all the temples and all the palaces, which this prince or his lucceTors railed, were built in the talle, and according to the rules of Greece. The materials, which they took from the ruins of Memphis, could not be employed, without being falhioned a-new, according to the order of that archi- tedhire. This order was extremely light in compari- , fon of the other : thus there was a great deal to take away. They refpedted not hieroglyphics, of which they had no longer any knowledge. The Greeks looked on them even with envy, becaufe they con- tained the myfteries of religion, and of thole arts, of which they pretended to be the foie inventors. Let us not then be furprized, if we find no hieroglyphics upon marbles, that are taken out of the ruins of A- lexandria. It was not likely that there fhould be any on them. If the rules of the new architecture did not require thofe hieroglyphics to be taken away, yet Hill they would have effaced them, that they' might not have appeared in edifices, with which they had no con- nexion. What an indecency, for example, would it have been, to have employed a column, covered with hieroglyphics, together with a column of the Corin- thian order ?
We fhould properly confider the ruins of Memphis only as a rough quarry, from whence they drew Hones, in order to cut them into a fuitable fafhion. It would have been impofiible to colledi together all the pieces in fuch a manner, that they could have ferved for edifices, like thofe wherein they had been employed. As foon as one fuppofes, that thofe edifices were in ruins, one mull expedt in them nothing that is intire ; and there would have been likewife an impofiibility of re-eftablilhing what was wanting. Reafons of am- bition and of jealoufy, as we have obferved, oppofed any fuch attempt ; and we cannot be ignorant of the obftrudtion that a natural caufe occafioned, fince, in the time of Alexander, they were become as igno- rant
AND NUBIA. 31
jant in the knowledge of hieroglyphics, as we are at prefent.
I might enlarge further on this fubjedt •, but I per- fuade myfelf, that the reafons, I have juft given, are convincing. I content myfelf therefore with remark- ing only, that the pieces of marble, covered with hie- roglyphics, which are round at the foundation of Pom- •» pey’s column, prove, that in fadt they have brought fome from Memphis ; and that they were unwilling'’ to make ufe of them, without altering them, unlels in places where they thought them for ever concealed from the eyes of fpedlators.
There remains only one point to examine. What ' is become, will it be faid, of that great quantity of ruins, that the general deftrudtion of fo great a city as * Alexandria muft have occafioned ? I anfwer, that, as far as I have been able, I have affigned them fuitable places in Alexandria itfelf, where they mull be deeply buried under ground. Let the reader confider, how much the ancient pavement of Rome has been raifed, on account of the lacking and ruin of that ancient ca- pital of the world, and he will be eafily perfuaded, that the fame thing has happened to Alexandria^ Moreover, is it not certain that, at all times, they * ,s have tranfported into Europe a great number of thele ruins ? they continue to do it in like manner every day •, and at the time 1 was there, I have feen large pieces of columns, and other remains of antiquities, put on board French veflels. Indeed, they take away
k Mr. Addison, in his remarks on Italy, takes notice, that “ It is generally obferved, that modern Rome Hands higher than the ancient; fome have computed it about fourteen or fifteen feet, taking one place with another. '1 he reafon given for it is, that the prefent city Hands upon the ruins of the former ; and indeed I have often obferved, that where any confiderable pile of building Hood anciently, one Hill finds a riling ground, or a. little kind of hill, doubtlefs made up of the rubbifli of th<* ruined edifice.”
32 - TRAVELS IN EGYPT
in this manner but little at a time ; but, in fucceffion of time, it makes a great fum. If Alexandria was under a government lefs fufpicious and referved, one might examine things more nearly, and give reafons perhaps more evident : for want of that, the reader mult be content with the few obfervations, that it is poffible to make in fuch a country as this.
• I recollect a thing at prefent, which I ough't not to pafs over in filence, tho’ it be only to let the reader fee, that I have attended to it. That great and fuperb column, which one fees without the gate of Rofetto, is called the column of Pompey ; but no one, I believe, can tell us, from whence that denomination is derived. We know that Caesar fhed tears at the death of that great commander 1 ; but who will tell us that he had erefted for him this magnificent monu- ment ? The filence of ancient authors upon this point is furprizing. I do not undertake, any more than they, to give the hiftory of it. A man muft be a con- jurer to do it. I fhall only remark, that as this co- lumn is of the Corinthian order, that feems to fix its erection to the time of the Ptolemies. I fay its erec- tion, and not the making of it ; for I believe it Egyp- tian in its origin, and changed afterwards into the form, in which we fee it at prefent. An infcription, that one difcovers with difficulty upon one of the fides of the pedeftal, might, without doubt, give fome light mto it ; but time has fo litrie fpared it, that it is not
Effudit, gemitufque expreffit peftore lmto.
Non aliter manifefta putans abfcondere mentis Gandia, quam lacrymis. Lucan. 1. ix.
*' And ftrait the ready tears, that flay’d till now,
“ Swift at command with pious femblance flow :
“ As if detefting, from the fight he turns,
“ And groaning, with a heart triumphant mourns. “ He fears his impious thoughts {hould be defcry’d, “ And feeks in tears the fwelling joy to hide.”
1 lacrymas non fponte cadentes
Rows,
decypher-
A N D N U B I A. 33
decypherable. A traveller, that had obferved it twenty years ago, pretends to have been able to diftinguifli, that it was written in Greek charadfers. I reft it upon his authority. I know only, that the traditions, which the Arabians have tranfmitted to us of it, are fo fabu- lous, that it is better to rank them with the tales of Roland and his horfe, than to mention them amongft obfervations and remarks that are ferious.
What I had to fay with regard to ancient Alexan- dria might be concluded here ; but I forefee, that l'ome will aik me about the tomb of Alexander, about the ferapium, the mufeum, LL. and that others, perhaps, will go fo far as to require me to give a plan of the quarters of this ancient city.
To give an anfwer to the firft, I fliall fay, that I informed myfelf with care concerning thofe ancient edifices, and that I made many enquiries, in order to find out the places at leaft, where they have been erefled. All my care has been ulelefs fo that if 1 have put, in the beginning of this work, the mufeum in the place where the Little Pharillon is at prefent, I have been determined to it by what the lxx interpre- ters have faid m. If however it may be judged more proper to place it nearer the palace, and to fituate it between that edifice and the Little Pharillon, I fee no- thing to objedt to it n. I would advife, indeed, the confining it to the border of the fea, that is to fay, near the port, without enteringpany further into the affair, and without attempting to place there whole quarters, as the author0 of the remarks upon Cesar’s com-
m The trandator imagines there is an error in the French, edition, and that it (hould be, what has been faid of the feventy in- terpreters ; for Justin Martyr mentions that he favv in Pharos the marks of the cells dill fubfiding. Cohort, ad Grac. pag. 1 4.
n Strabo exprefsly fays, “ That the mufeum is a part of the palace, having a walk with feats, and a large building.” 1. xvii. P- 793-
0 1 imagine that it mull be dodlor Clarke whom the author means in this place j and I mud own, it is pity that lo judicious an
D men-
34 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
mentaries, printed in England, has taken it into his head to do. Lie has followed the defigns of Palla- dio, who had made ufe of the liberty of painters, quid- libet audendi , a liberty fcarce excufable in him ; but which becomes a crime in a ferious author, who makes a commentary upon commentaries ; as it only ferves to amufe the minds of his readers with faife ideas. Whoever has been upon the fpot, and has feen the fituation, cannot forbear remarking the falfity of fuch a plan, made with a view of clearing up what C^sar has- faid ; but which, on the contrary, ferves only to miflead thofe, who fhall take it for their guide. I fay this however without pretending to refleft on the reft of the work, which may have its merit. I meant only to lpeak of the plan of Alexandria.
The tomb of Alexander, which, according to the report of an author of the fifteenth century, fub- fifted Hill in his time, and was refpebted by the Sara- cens, is no longer to be feen ; even the tradition of the people concerning it is entirely loft. I have fought, without fucceis, for this tomb j I have in vain endea- voured to inform myfelf about it. Such a difcovery is perhaps referved for fome other traveller p.
It is the fame with regard to the ferapium. Its ruins may lie under fome of the banks, which I have
editor, as dodtor Clarke was in other reipedts, ffiould have made ufe of fuch modern materials ■- for his prints in that pompous edition, and negle&ed the collection of antiques, which he might have been furnilhed with in many particulars.
P Strabo fays, “ That a part of the palace likewife is what they call X-V«, fepulchre, which was an inclofed place, in which were the tombs of the kings, and that of Alexander : his bo- dy was depofited in a golden coffin ; which being taken away, it Was put into one of glafs.” 1 am fatisfied that tbe common reading in Strabo is faife , and that it Jbould be as 1 have written it , and tranflated it. Vid. pag. 794. ed. Par. 1620.
Suetonius obferves, “ That Augustus took a view of the corps of Alexander the Great, taken out of its flirine, and with the utmoll veneration fluttered flowers over it, and adorned it with a golden crown.”
mentioned.
AND NUBIA. 35
mentioned. But I have perceived nothing that could have belonged to that magnificent temple <b
To take a plan of the quarters of the ancient city, was a talk that exceeded my abilities. There are not ruins enough (landing, to aflign to each quarter its true place. I have been obliged to confine myfelf to mark the fituation of the ports, and leave to every one the liberty of forming a plan of the quarters, according to the defcriptions, that the ancients have given us of them. If my relation and my defigns can be of any aflillance to them, I (hall be much pleafed at it: if not, I am content with having performed the duty of a traveller, who fees, and who writes nothing but what he has feen. If I have prefumed to advance my own fentiments on certain things, I have not done it in fo abfolute a manner as not to leave every one the liberty of thinking as he pleafes : If I have omitted feme particulars, which have efcaped my enquiries, fo much the better for thofe who (hall come after me ; they may enrich their relations by my omifiions ; and if it has happened to me to repeat what was known already, the reader (hould not be difpleafed with me for having afeertained fafts by a new teftimony r.
s Strabo mentions, “ That the ferapium is fituated in a very fandy place, infomuch. that vail heaps of fand are raifed by the winds.” From this circumfianc^ I think it evident, that the Jera - pium could not he fituated near the Nile ; for the Jlime of fo muddy a river would necefarily compact more firmly the fands.
r The author having omitted to give an account of Rofetto, it may not he unacceptable to the reader to have the following , from Dr, Po- COCKE.
“ Rosetto is on the weft fide of the branch of the Nile; an- tiently called Bolbitinum, which Herodotus fays was made by art. This town is called by the Egyptians Rafchid, and is efteemed one of the moft pleafant places in Egypt ; it is near two miles in length, confifting of about two or three ftreets. Any one that fees the hills about Rofetto, would judge that they have been the ancient barriers of the fea, and conclude that the fea had not loft more ground than the fpace between the hills and the water. The fine country of Delta, on the other fide of the Nile, and two beau-
D z tifc'l
36 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
tiful iflands a little below the town, make the profpeft very de- lightful ; the country to the north is improved with mod pleafant gardens of oranges, lemons, and citrons, and aimoll: all forts of fruits, with the agreeable variety of groves of palm trees, and fmall lakes in different parts ; and when the fields are green with rice, which is much cultivated here, it adds a great beauty to the coun- try. Great part of the land of Rofetto belongs to Mecca, and they have a tradition, that a relation of Mahomet was there, and lived at a place where they have built a mofque towards the north end of the town. They have alfo a notion, that if Mecca were taken from them, the devotion of it would be removed to this place.
They have a great manufactory of firiped and other coarfe linens ; but the chief bufinefs of the place is the carriage of goods between this town and Cairo ■, all European merchandizes being brought to this place from Alexandria by fea, and loaded on other boats to be carried to Cairo, as thofe brought from Cairo on the Nile, are here put into large boats to be fent to Alexandria. For this purpofe the Europeans have their vice-confuls and faClors here to tranfaft their bufinefs, and letters are brought regularly from Alexandria by land, to be fent by boats to Cairo, on the days they fet forwards ; but letters of greater confequence, that require difpatch, are fent by foot meftengers acrofs the deferts direSly to Cairo. Tho’ Rofetto is fo near the fea, yet the water is very good, unlefs when the north wind blows very ftrong, or the Nile is at the loweft, when the water is a little brackifn. It is remarkable that the Nile does not rife here above three or four feet, becaufe its banks are low, and the water fpreaas itfelf all over the country.
“ I saw in Rofetto two of thofe naked faints, who are com- monly natural fools, and are had in great veneration in Egypt ; one was a lufiy elderly man, the other a youth about eighteen years old. As the latter went along the ftreets, I obferved the people to kifs his hand. I was alfo told, that on Fridays; when the women go to the burial places, they frequently fit at the en- trance of them ; and that they not only kifs their hands, but Ihew them the fame refpeft that was paid to a certain heathen idol, and feem to expeft the fame kind advantage from it. I myfelf faw one of thefe faints fitting at a mofque door in the high road with- out the gates of Cairo, with a woman on each fide of him, at the time when the caravan was going to Mecca, and a multitude of people were pafiing by, who are fo accuftomed to fuch fights, that they took no notice of it.
I went about two miles north to the caftle of Rofetto, on the weft fide of the river; it is afquare building, with round tow- ers at the corners ; there are port-holes near the bottom of it : I obferved about them feveral pieces of yellow marbie, many of which had hieroglyphics on them, and might be the pieces of fome broken cbeliik. — This caftle is built of brick, caied with
ftone.
AND NUBIA.
37
flone, and is faid to be the work of Keyck. Hey, who lived, as I am informed, about three hundred years ago; bur I ihould ra- ther think it was built about the time of the holy wars, and that this bey might repair it, and make the port-holes. A little lower down, on the other fide of the river, is a platform of guns, and to the eall of it are fait lakes, where they colled a great quantity
“ At Rofetto I paid a vifit to Cosmas, the Greek patriarch of Alexandria, whofe ufual refidence is at Cairo. As I was intro- duced by the dragoman, or interpreter from the confui, 1 had all the honours done me that are ufual at an eailern vifit. Firfi a lighted pipe is offered, brought by the fervantto you, then a faucer of fweet meats is carried about, and a little in a fmall fpoon given to every perfon After the coffee is ferved, the fervants bring to every one a bafon of fherbet, with a handkerchief on the arm for them to wipe after they have drank; and when it is time to go away, they fprinkle rofe water on the hands, with which the guelt rubs hi face ; then the incenfe is brought, which he receives lean- ing the head forward, and holding out his garment on each lide to take the fmoak. This compliment is paid only where they would fhew a particular regard, and the mafter makes a fign for it, when he thinks it is time the vifit fhould end, or the gueil of- fers to go away ; which is never done when the vifitcr is much fuperior, till he makes a motion to go. In thefe vifits, every thing is done with the greatell decency, and moll profound filencc ; their flaves or fervants are (landing at the bottom of the room, with their hands joined before them, and with the utmoft attention watch every motion of their mailer, who commands them by figns.” vol. i. p. 13.
New Alexandria.
IT may juflly be faid, that in the new city of Alexandria we find a poor orphan, whofe foie inhe- ritance has been the venerable name of its father. The vafl extent of the ancient city is contradled in the new, to a little neck of land, between the two ports. The moft fuperb temples are changed into plain mofques ; the moft magnificent palaces, into houfes of a bad ftrufture •, the royal feat is become a prifon for flaves ; an opulent and numerous people
of fait.
haj
3$ TRAVELS IN EGYPT has given way to a fmall number of foreign traders, and to a multitude of wretches, that are the fervants of thofc on whom they depend : a place formerly lb famous for the extent of its commerce, is no longer any thing more than a mere place of embarking •, in fine, it is not a phoenix, that revives from its own alhes, it is at molt a reptile, fprung from the dirt, the dull, and corruption, with which the Alcoran has infecked the whole country.
This is, in general, the portraiture of the Alexan- dria of our time. It fcarce deferves that we lhould give a defcription of it in form. I cannot, however, decline this talk, which mult be ufeful to the travel- ler : As it is the place he firlt lands at, he ought to begin there to accuftom himfelf to the manners of the country, and learn to bear the contempt of a people, unpolilhed and unaffable to ftrangers •, to form to him- felf an idea of the inconveniencies and difagreeablenefs, that he may expect in going farther and, in one word, perform a kind of probationerlhip of his travels in Egypt. It is proper, therefore, that he lhould be mimicked in what experience has taught thofe, who have gone before him.
The port is fufficiently known, and the manner in which it is entered. 1 have mentioned it in the pre- ceding defcription. Upon your arrival at the city, you repair to the cuftom-houfe, where the traveller pays fome trifle for his baggage. It will be fearched per- haps, but there is nothing to be feared. They con- fidcr not at Alexandria any goods as counterband, with regard to a traveller. The merchant, to whom he is recommended, commonly takes the trouble of this, as well as of furnilhing him with lodging and board.
All merchandizes, that enter into Egypt by this port, pay there a duty, according to the tax that the Grand Seignior has impofed upon his fubjects, or ra- ther according to the tariffs that he has, fettled with the powers of Enropc, whofe fubjecks traffic at Alex- andria,
AND NUBIA. 39
andria, where, for the fake of good order, they main- tain confuls. The merchants, whofe fovereigns are not in alliance with the Port, pay at. the fame rate as his own fubjects. The bafnaw of Cairo, every two years, lets out in farm this cuftom-houfe, for the pro- fit of the Grand Seignior. Pie adjudges it to the beft bidder, provided that he gives good and fufficient fe- curity. It commonly falls to the lot of the Jews, be- caufe they have the art of getting the favour of the bafhaw, either by prefents or by intrigues. They are not fubjedt to have many competitors. The Turk- ifh merchant does not aim at it, that he might not ap- pear too rich, and incur the rifques that would follow. Neither are the Chriftians defirous of concerning them- felves with it, becaufe they know before-hand, that the oppreffions they would draw on themfelves, would foon abforb all the profit of the farm. There are none but Jews, therefore, that afpire to it •, and they have fufficient jealoufy amongft themfelves to outbid one another, and by that means raife the price of the farm.
The reader will imagine, without doubt, that the Europeans muft have a very profitable trade, fince, according to their treaties, they pay always fo much per cent, lefs than thofe who are fubjedted to the tax of the Grand Seignior, amongft whom are comprifed the Jews, both foreigners and natives, as well as the nations that have no conful. But he will be unde- ceived, as foon as he ffiall know, that they can never fell fo cheap as the Turks and Jews eftabliffied at Alexandria, and who have a fufficient fubftance for carrying on a great trade. Thefe laft condudt the af- fair in the following manner.
As foon the cuftom-houfe is farmed out, they agree with the fanner of the cuftoms to pay him fo vcwxchper cent, of the commodities, that they ffiall im- port, during the whole time of his farming them. By that means they are at once upon a par with the Francs, and fometimes they give even lefs than the
D 4 Francs.
40 TRAVELS IN EGYPT Francs. In e fleck, the farmer knows before-hand, that if he does not a<5t in this manner with them, they will import but few commodities during the two years of his farming : if, on the contrary, he makes a good agreement with them, they will take care to fupply their magazines, not only for the time prefent, but likewife for the future. It is eafily perceived, that not every one can adl in this manner •, fince it is requifite that the farmer fliould have fome alfurance that there will be a great trade ; and a man, that is not rich, cannot import a great quantity of commodities. Tie is, for this reafon, excluded trom this privilege ; and as he cannot fell at the current price, and no one will give him more, he continues without bufmefs, is ruined, and always poor. The contrary happens to the others, they grow richer and richer, and get at laft to eftablilh a kind of monopoly.
There may be at Alexandria a dozen of thefe Jew merchants, in good circumftances. The others be- gin only under them, and fell by retail, what the rich import by wholefale. Thefe laft render themfelves, by this means, very powerful in their nation, and go- vern it almcft as fovereigns. He that refufes to obey them, has no longer any fliare in trade, and confe- quently becomes in a little time miferable. His example induces the reft to fubmit themfelves to all that the rich decide. Their fentences are like thole of the judge, to whom the Jews have but leldcm re- courfe, fince, in all their wants, they are under a kind of neceffity of applying themfelves to the rich men of their own nation, and of adhering to what they pronounce.
I have been led infenfibly by the cuftom-houfe to fpeak of the Jews : I lhall therefore take this oppor- tunity of adding fome other remarks, which concern them. The moft confiderable amongft them are d- moft all foreigners, and natives of Conftantinople, Portugal, or Leghorn. It muft not be imagined,
how-
AND NUBIA. 41
however, that thofe of Alexandria are the heads of the families. They refide commonly at Leghorn, and exr- tend from thence their branches to Alexandria, to Cairo, to Aleppo, to Conftantinople, to Tunis, to Tripoli, and, in a word, to all the trafficking towns of the Mediterranean, efpecially in the Levant. They have neither particular privileges, nor any declared protection ; but they have the artifice to procure it by their intrigues. They always attach themfelves to the ftrongeft, that is to fay, to the chiefs of the govern- ment, who refide at Cairo. It colls them fomething indeed, but they make themfelves amends for it elfe- where •, for they turn this protection to fuch advan- tage, that they commonly get the preference, on all occafions, where there is any profit to be had. This gains them refpect among the Turks, andfecures them from the oppreffions and infults, to which other na- tions, more privileged than theirs, are often expofed. Two facts, that I am going to mention, might induce one to think, that they have not a great regard for the Jews at Alexandria. A farmer of the cuftoms was killed there, a little while ago *, and an houfe was let on fire by the populace, who caufed all that were within it to perifii in the flames. But fuch accidents may happen here to every body, in like circumftances. The farmer was killed by a janifiary, of whom he re- fufed to take lefs than the duty impofed; and the houfe was fet on fire, in a popular infurredtion, becaufe the people of the houfe would not furrender a man, who had retired into it, after having wounded, or beaten a Turk. There was no legal fatisfa&ion to be had •, it is not the faffiion here. The criminal takes flight, and they are commonly fatisfied with that ; becaufe their maxim is, that a thing done is not to be undone. However, fince the murder cf the farmer, there is always a guard at the cuftom-houfe.
Since I have gone lb far as to fpeak of one na- tion, it is proper likewife to make known the reft ;
and.
42 TRAVELS IN EGYPT and, that I may difpofe my narration in fome order, I fhall give the firft rank to the Turks, as they hold the reins of government. They keep garrifons in the two Fharillons, and they have one jikewife in the city itfelf. It confifts of a fmall number of janifiaries and afiafs. The governor, who commands them, is an aga, and has his refidence in one of the ancient bulwarks. There is likewife a cadis, who judges in civil caufes. The other Turks who dwell at Alexan- dria, are, for the moll part, artifans or fhop-keepers. There is amongft them but a very fmall number of merchants •, who are commonly in good circtmftances, tho’ they do not let it appear much ; as I have men- tioned before.
The Chriftian Copj;i, Greeks, and Armenians, that are natives of this country, are to be met with in great numbers at Alexandria; yet they make no great figure. They maintain themfelves, pretty nearly, on the fame footing as the Turks ; with this difference, that they are generally defpifed. There are however among the Greeks and Armenians forne foreigners, that are mer- chants, and grow rich. The Copti patriarch in this city fills the lee of St. Mark, tho’ he refides com- monly at Cairo. He calls himfelf fucceffor of that holy apoftle and evangelift ; and in that quality he pre- tends to be on a par with the Pope. If he was at the fame time a temporal fovereign as well as the Pope, he would not fail, without doubt, of making his preten- fions valid : but as he lives in flavery, like the reft of his nation, his power is confined to the governing the evii confciences of his flock.
I hope the gentlemen of Europe will not take it ill, that I mention them the laft : my intention was good ; for I was not willing to confound them with the other inhabitants of Alexandria. Indeed, as they are ftrangers there, it was not reafonable to affign them the firft rank. It is proper to remark, that all Europeans pafs here under the name of Francs ; thofe
AND NUBIA. 43
who dwell here are the French and the Englifh ; the former flatter themfelves with having more refped, but the latter perhaps have a better trade.
The French maintain here a conful, dependent on the conlul of Grand Cairo. The court of France com- monly gives a plenipotentiary power to its ambafiador at Conffantinople, and it is he that fills up the vacant polls. This conful has, for his affiftants, a chancel- lor and a drogman ; each with a commiflion from the court as well as himlelf. He commonly confines him- l'elf to the government of his houfhold : the chancel- lor has the charge of correfpondence, and determines differences between merchants and captains of fhips of that nation •, and the drogman takes on him the affairs, which concern the interefl: of the French relatively to the Turks.
According to the treaties agreed on between the two courts, the privileges of the French are very con- fiderable ; but their ftrength is too fmall at Alexandria, to be able to maintain thefe advantages. They have 'no more than a dozen merchants there, of whom one alone, an Italian by nation, traffics on his own ac- count : the others are only faftors of divers merchants of Cairo, to whom they have the care of fending the merchandizes, that are landed here.
I have already given an idea of the manner that is here taken for diminifhing their privileges, with re- gard to the duties of the cuftom-houfe. The fadl that I am going to mention, will fhew how they main- tain themfelves in thofe privileges. I have been a wit- neis of the affair, at the time I was at Alexandria, to reimbark in order to return into Europe.
For fome years certain Greek women, of a bad character, had kept a kind ofpublick houfe, where the French lailors went to drink, when they came to the city. The diforders that were committed there, had engaged the conful to exert all his power, for putting down this publick houfe ; but thefe women had taken
fuch
44 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
fiich precautions, that all his attempts were in vain. They had chofen for protestor a janifiary • who was one of thofe bravadoes, that on occafion never want friends amongfl their comrades.
At the beginning, this fellow contented himfelf with taking upon him to be mailer of the publick houfe, and rebuked the French failors when they made a noife ; but when the conful of the nation iffued an order, that no Frenchmen fhould frequent that pub- lick houle, this janiifary declared himfelf an enemy to all thofe of that nation. He did not confine himfelf to words and to threats ; he infulted, upon all occafions, thofe that he met. The government of Alexandria refufed to punifh this janifiary •, whether it v/as becaufe they feared him, or becaufe they did not chufe to give fatisfadlion to the French, without being well paid for it. In the mean time the janifiary became, day after day, fo infupportable, that no Frenchman could go out of his houfe, without being expofed to ill treat- ment by him. Their fafety fuffered much in this af- fair, and their pride perhaps Hill more. It was necef- fary therefore to apply to the government of Cairo ; and they obtained there, in theufual form, that a fious, or a black-head of the porte a of the janifiaries, Ihould be fent to Alexandria, with full power to take cog- nizance of this affair,' and to eflablifh proper meafures for the fecurity of the French. They took care to gain the favour of the judge, and agreed with him on the method they fhould take, for feizing the janifiary, who, being informed of the danger that threatned him, put himfelf, the day before the arrival of the fious, under the protection of the affafs, hoping, by that means, to ward off the blow.
At length the fious being arrived at Alexandria, declared himfelf, according to his orders, fovereign judge for the time of his commiffion. The day, that
» The military claftes amongft the Turks are called Porta-
he
AND NUBIA. 45
he armointed to take cognizance of this affair, all the
x x O 7
French had notice given them to keep at home ; and the gate of the conful’s houfe was guarded by the janif- faries, whom that nation maintains : there was none but the drogman appeared in publick.
On that day, early in the morning, the fious or- dered all the Greek women of the publick houfe to be apprehended, and they were embarked on board a French velfel, that immediately fet fail for the ifland' of Cyprus, where it had orders to land them. The janiffary did not fhew himfeif on this occafion, neither did he move off-, becaufe he thought, that the pro- tection he had taken among the affafs was a lufficient fecurity.
As foon as the fious had received intelligence of the departure of the Greek women, he held a grand council, to which he fent for the janiffary and his ac- complices. They came thither, without fhewing the lead; fear, and followed by all the populace, curious to fee the iffue of this affair. The fious received them very civilly. He made them fit down on each fide of him, and difcourfed at firftwith them on indifferent things. The converfation fell afterwards upon the ftep they had taken in changing their porte, by leav- ing that Of the janiffaries to go to that of the af- fafs ; and they had no fooner admitted the faCt, than the fious himfeif feized the criminal janiffary, whilft his attendants did the fame with regard to the others. They at once took from them their arms, which they carried concealed under their cloaths loaded them with chains ; and in this condition embarked them on board a pinnace, that immediately fet fail.
This violent procedure caufed a fudden infurreClion of the populace, and all thofe who belonged to the porte of the affafs. The fious perceiving it, got up into a balcony -, and after having ordered filence to be made, he read, with a loud voice, the two plenipo- tentiary powers, with which he was invefted. As one
of
4 6 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
of thefe plenipotentiary powers had been ifiued by the porte of the afiafs, and no body there could find fault with it, every one retired. The fious having been in- formed by the French, that the janifiary was going to enter into that porte, had taken the precaution of having orders from thencg. The janifiary, who did not know this, ran headlong into the fnare ; for if he had had the leaft notice of it, he needed only to have with- drawn for fome time ; and might have returned after the departure of the fious, when the procefs would have been over.
The French had taken care not to appear to have concerned themfelves in this affair. Neither was there any mention made of them in the plenipotentiary powers. Notwithstanding that, they were confidered as the aggrelfors ; and the wives of thofe wretches that had been embarked, imagining that they were going to be drowned without the harbour, ran through the town like tnad women, afiembled their friends, and went direftly towards the conful’s houfe, uttering curfes and imprecations againft: the French. In vain did the janifiaries, that were fent for, endeavour to Hop this raging mob : a fhower of ftones obliged them to take flicker in the conful’s houfe. The mutinous became by that means more infolent. They broke the glafs windows, and were preparing to beat down the houfe, when the janifiaries received a reinforcement of fome of their own people, that were fent them by the Englilh conful, and of a certain number of other ja- nifiaries, that the fious gave orders to march to their aid. The affair then changed its appearance. The janifiaries played off fo well their bludgeons, that the brawling women and the mutinous mob took to flight.
They ran, however, about the fcreets till it was night •, and did all that they could to animate the populace, and to induce them to revenge. But the tumult was appeafed all at once, as foon as “hey wrere informed that the prifoners wrere fent to the cafile of
Beau-
AND NUBIA. 47
Beaukier, from whence they were to go into banifh- ment. It was judged that they deferved this punish- ment; and no body concerned himfelf about them any more.
There were none but the French nation that ap- peared a little perplexed at the mildnefs of this punilh- ment. They had imagined, that the criminals would have bedn at lead Strangled, in order that an example of feverity might have Served to prevent the like in- fults for the future : whereas a mere banilhment gave them reafon to fear, that there would always be found fome infolent perfon, capable of giving uneafinefs to a whole nation. That which gave them ftill more difcontent, was the uncertainty of the duration of this exile. They were apprehenfive of feeing thefe fedi- tious people return, and of being expofed to greater infults from them. This affair, however, occafioned to the French a great deal of expence ; we Ihall fee hereafter from whence fuch an expence was derived, and what prejudice fuch levies brought to their com- merce. In the mean time I am going to mention fomething of their conful, and of that of the Englilh.
I found that the French conful affumed to him- felf, over his own nation, a power, that might in- deed be tolerated. The chancellor, and the drogman, that he had in my time, underftood their bufinefs ; and that was the reafon that every one was content. It is ufual among the French of Alexandria to fhew an ex- treme refpect for their conful. In order to make him more conliderable in the minds of the Turks, and of the other nations, they endeavour to give an high idea of his perfon, and to illuftrate his birth in fuch a man- ner, that it is not their fault, if he is not confidered as iffued from the blood royal. If by chance he take a tour to Rofetto, he carries a white flag at the malt of his pinnace •, and when he goes out of the port, as likewile when he returns into it, he is faluted by a ge- neral difcharge of the cannon of the French veffeis.
He
48 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
He refides, together with the greateft part of his nation, in a vaft hotel, where he has a church and a chaplain. The other French dwell in feparate houfes. He does not traffic himfelf, at leafl as far as appears ; and he goes out but very rarely, that he might not expofe his perfon and his character. The airs that he gives himfelf among!! his own people, do not permit him to converfe much with them : thus he pays for his grandeur by a very irkfome life to a man that would like fociety.
I quit for a moment the French, but fhall return to them in fpeaking of their commerce. In the mean time, let us fee how the Englilh aft. We have no- thing near lo much to fay of them as of the former.
' They have at Alexandria no more than two merchants, of whom one is the conful, and is dependent on that of Cairo. They keep themfelves quiet, and conduft themfelves without making much noile. If any nice affair is to be undertaken, they withdraw themfelves from it, and leave to the French the honour of remov- ing all difficulties.
When any benefit refults from it, they have their fhare ; and if affairs turn out ill, they fecure them- felves in the beft manner they can. This is all that I can fay of the nations eftablifhed at Alexandria. There are no other but thofe that I have mentioned. The French, however, proteftan Italian, and fome Greeks, who pafs for their own people. I am now going to conclude what remains for me to fay of the commerce of this nation.
The trade of the French is very confiderable at Alexandria. They receive every year feveral lliips, which they freight with commodities, that are brought from Cairo. The veffels they make ufe of for this in- tercourfe, are feluccas, barks, and tartanes. There go thither very few other veffels ; becaufe every veffel, that does not bear a bowfprit, pays lefs for the main- tenance of the ports, £dV. They name them cara- , vaniers.
AND NUBIA. 49
Vaniers, on account that, as the caravans, they go from place to place, to take in a lading in the belt manner they can. This would be the place of fpeak- ing of the divers forts of commodities, that the French nation carries to Alexandria, and of thofe, that it draws from Egypt •, but, to lay the truth, I do not recoiled! this affair fufficiently, to give it in detail as is requifite ; and it is better to fay nothing of it, than to fpeak of it imperfectly b. 1 chule therefore to touch on the queftion that I promifed to explain ; namely, why the French are obliged to raife the price of their commodities.
We need not fearch for the caufe in any thing elle than the idle expences, to which that nation is ex- pofed •, for befides that all fhips pay a pretty great du- ty of confulfhip •, they are moreover obliged to pay a certain tax, that is impofed, either upon vellels, or upon goods. This tax is deftined to fupply the charges that the common fafety requires •, and to indemnify the feveral perfons who have fuffered any oppreffions from the Turks. It is the conful that raifes or falls this tax, according as circumffances require. Yet I do not think that he is abfolutely the mailer, to order
b F. Vansleb gives the following account.
“ The trade of the French merchants in this city, is the greateft that they have in all the ealtern parts ; for there is no place in Turkey where fo many French fhips come as into this haven; from the beginning of the year 1672, to the month of June, there was no lefs than nineteen French fhips that came hi- ther, and in the month of June I reckoned fourteen.
“ This is a confiderable number, but not to be compared with the number of veflels that frequented this haven heretofore ; for M. Lucasole, who did the office of chancellor of the French nation, told me, that he remembers that there have been at Ale- xandria, in one year, ninety four French ffiips.”
The reader may fee in Vansleb an exact account of all the commodi- ties that are carried from Egypt into Europe , whether it be ly the way of Marfeilles , or by that of Leghorn , or by Venice , with their ordinary price in the year 1673; and likewife an account of the commodities that are fent from Europe into Egypt,
Bo TRAVELS IN EGYPT it as he pleafes j but it depends, without doubt, on the French ambalfador at Conftantinople, who muft approve the reprefentations of the confuls of Alexan- dria and of Cairo, before they can pafs into acts. Yet, whatever may be the aathority, by virtue of which they levy thefe duties, it may be faid, that they are very chargeable to the nation, which really lofes, by that means, much more than one can imagine.
The Englilh know not any contributions of that kind. They have the duty of eonfullhip to pay ; and that is all. Moreover, that great fubordination, that the French are obliged to oblerve with regard to their conful, is not in ufe among the Englilh. They aft more roundly one with another and there is no re- fpeft, any farther than decency, or fome private in- i tereft, may require it. There arrives every year a good number of Englilh veflels at Alexandria •, but they are not always laden on the account of that na- tion. The Jews, and even the Turks, often freight them, and on board thefe velfels carry on a profitable trade.
The Venetians and the Dutch have formerly had fettlements and confuls at Alexandria*, but great bankruptcies, even of their confuls themfelves, have entirely ruined that commerce. The Turks, who are not to be bantered, where their intereft is concerned, refufe to admit any longer confuls from thofe two na- tions, till they have indemnified the lolfes, that were fuftained on account of the preceding confuls. As the fums, in this cafe, are great, and that neither the one nor the other have any hopes of a confiderable profit, they have never fince attempted ferioully the re-efta- blilhment of this branch of their commerce. Per- haps likewife they are not willing to undertake it, on account of the confequences that might follow, if a whole nation took upon itlelf to pay the debts of a particular perfon. The few velfels, that the Vene- tians, or the Dutch, fend to Alexandria, are, as well
as
AND NUBIA. 51
as their cargoes, at the mercy of the farmer of the customs, who is reputed their conful •, they make an agreement with him for the cuitom-houfe duties, and they get off fometimes tolerably well, i he Vene- tians, however, appear commonly under French co- lours, and enjoy this protection, as far as that can give it them, with regard to commerce.
The Swedes, tho’ in alliance with the Port, go but very feldom to Alexandria. At the time I was there, one veffel from that nation came thither. It expected to enjoy at leaft the privileges that are granted to the Venetians and the Dutch •, but the farmer of the cuf- toms refufed to treat with it on that footing : info- much that it was obliged to pay the duties, in their utmoft extent j which furely could not encourage it to return again.
There are, I think, no other European nations that trade to Alexandria. The Turkifh vefiels, which frequent its port, are fome fultanas, that go thither annually, to receive, in merchandizes, the carrat ( tax ) of the Grand Seignior. The bafhaw of Cairo is ap- pointed to colleCt it, and to tranfmit it, under the in- fpeftion of a bey of Cairo, who accompanies it quite to Conftantinople.
There was likewife at Alexandria, about the time I was there, a Turkifh lquadron; which came thither in order to tranfport the three thoufand men, that Egypt furnifhed, for its quota, during the war between the Port and the Emperor of Germany. The half of this quota confifted of janiffaries ; the other half of af- fafs. Thefe two corps behaved fo ill, during the two months that they remained at Alexandria, that no one could come thither from Cairo in fafety. They pil- laged every where about ; and amongft other robbe- ries, took away a thoufand fequins ( about 500 l.Jier- ling) that a French merchant fent to be embarked and tranfmitted into Europe. He imagined, that his mo- ney ran no rifk, becaufe he had trufted it to fome ja-
, E 2 nifiaries.
52 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
niffaries, who are maintained by that nation ; but thefe were attacked by an enemy fuperior in number, and one of them being dangeroufly wounded, they delivered up the money to the conquerors. The con- ful employed all his power to get this money reftored j but, notwithftanding all the lteps he took ; notwith- ftanding all he could offer to die commanders of thefe troops, he obtained nothing ; and, at my departure from Alexandria, they confidered thofe thoufand le- quins as irrecoverably loft.
The diforders got to fuch an height afterwards, even in the city of Alexandria itfelf, that thejanif- faries and affafs came to blows. The reservoirs not being furniftied with a fufficient quantity of water, to fupply the wants of fo great a number of fupernume- rary perfons ; the conteft was, who fhould make them- felves matters of them : together with this, the hatred, which always fubfifts between thefe two portes, had animated them to fuch a degree, that their officers had a good deal of difficulty to hinder them from cutting each others throats •, and would never have fucceeded in it, if they had not taken the method of haftening their departure. By this means alone they re-eftab- liffied dilcipline among their troops, and delivered the city of Alexandria from an heavy burthen, that fcarce < left it the liberty of minding its moft neceffary affairs. I was not an eye-witnefs of the fafts I have been men- tioning ; but as I arrived at Alexandria immediately after the departure of thefe troops, the memory of the riots, they had committed there, was ftill fo recent, that it was not poffible to doubt of the recitals, nor the complaints that every one made of them.
This difgreffion, which I thought neceffary, has hindered me from fpeaking of the faicks and vergues> Turkifh veflels, that one fees every day in the port of Alexandria. The firft, as being the largeft, go to Damiata, and to divers other ports of the Levant ; and the vergues are ordinarily employed to go to Ro-
i fettOc
AND NUBIA. 53
fetto. Thefe veflels bring from Damiata and Ro- fetto the merchandizes of Europe, depofited in thole two towns ; and they carry thither the merchandizes of Cairo, that are defigned to be fent into Europe.
There remains for me nothing more to fay, than that during my continuance at Alexandria for three weeks, I went, by way of jaunt, to fee fome places, that are but a few leagues diftant from it. I faw, amongll others, in thefe expeditions.
The caftle of Bokkier, fituatedon a point of land, that advances a little way into the fea, between the city of Alexandria and the weftern mouth of the Nile.
The town and caftle of Rofetto, which is on the right hand, as you enter by the fame mouth of the river.
The village of Deruth, on the border of the Nile, to the fouth of Rofetto, and to the eaft of Alexandria.
The mofque of Scheck-Ghadder, on the border of the Nile, upon the left hand as you enter it.
The mofque of Carullo-Merefel.
Another mofque, at four leagues to the fouth of Rofetto.
I have drawn views of all thefe places on the fpot, whither I went for that purpofe •, and I reprefent them in the manner that they appeared to me.
There is no need of mentioning, that thefe places are fituated in the Delta, or in its neighbourhood, nor of enquiring why the part of lower Egypt, that is in- cluded between the Mediterranean and the two arms of the Nile, which begin to be formed at Cairo, has had the name of Delta. All thofe who have read the defcriptions of this country, or who have call an eye upon the maps, that have been given of it, muft have perceived, that the origin of this name is owing to the refemblance, that this diftrift has to the triangular figure of the Greek letter A c.
e Herodotus relates, “ That it was {aid by the Egyptians, and he declares it to be his own opinion, that the Delta was for-
E 3 The
54 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
The reader muff not be furprized that I fpeak not of divers other places. I pafs them over in filence •, becaufe I was not at them. Nothing gave me hopes of find- ing there any thing worthy of attention. Befides that, it was neceffary for me to make hafte, in order to pe- netrate into the upper Egypt which was the princi- pal aim of my voyage, and the objeft of my curiofity.
Yet, before I quit Alexandria, I am going to dis- charge the promife I made above, of mentioning the manner in which a traveller ought to conduct him- felf in Egypt. I ffiiall give notice, however, that what I write, is not for thofe who go thither with the view of trafficking there, or of making their fortune. Such perfons will be placed with fome merchant, who will take care to inftrudt them early in all they have need of, for making their way. My intention is only to inform thofe, who, like myfelf, go into Egypt, to fatisfy their curiofity, and to make enquiries tending to the advantage of the republic of letters.
I begin therefore with faying, that I obferved in Egypt one has need of a good banker, much more than any where elfe. In another country it is fuffici- ent that a banker furniflies you with money ; but in Egypt, it is requifite, befides, that he ferve you as an holt, and in fome meafure as a protedlor. The reader will imagine that, in luch a country, there are no inns capable of receiving what we call a gentleman. It is neceffary, therefore, that the banker lhould fupply you with the neceffaries of life, either at his own
merly covered by water, and that it was lately, as may be faid, a new difcovered land.” 1. ii. c. i This opinion of Herodotus confirms 'what 1 mentioned before concerning the if and Pharos, 'lukich Homer faces at the dfance of a 'whole day's Jail from Egypt.
Diodorus Siculus fays, “ That all Egypt was formerly fea, and that the land was formed by degrees from the mud brought down from Ethiopia by the Nile.” 1. iii. So that Egypt, from 'whence ewe derive, as the original fource, almofi all the arts and fcier.ces, is it- / (If lut a modern country .
houfe.
AND N US I A. 55
houfe, or with one of his acquaintance. If the bank- er. is of a nation that has a ccnful, this minifter com- monly takes upon himfelf the charge of the protec- tion, you Hand in need of ; and if he is a Jew, and of a good character, he will not fail of credit to fecure the traveller from any infult.
If, after being provided with a good banker, which is, in my opinion, the mod; neceffary thing, you would go further into the country, and fatisfy your curiofity,
I advile you much to drels yourfelf immediately in the Turkifh manner ; for, tho9 one may appear at Alex- andria in habits of the European mode, it is much better to drefs yourfelf like the Francs, and by the fight of them to have already modelled yourfelf. By that means you pafs, as knowing the cuftoms and ufages of the country, and are lefs fubjeX to the re- flexions of thofe that pafs by you. A pair of whif- kers, and a grave and l'olemn air likewile, are well employed here ; they give you a greater conformity with the natives of the country.
A traveller will take afterwards a janiflary into his fervice ; and, if it is poflible, he will chufe one that has been accuftomed to ferve the Francs. You get janiflaries for a fmall matter. They commonly underftand what is called lingua franca d. They ac- company a traveller wherever it is permitted him to go. No one will infult him in their company. If they meet a man of diftinXion, they can give him an account of the perfon they efcort ; and if they fee the lower fort of people running towards you, they keep them at a diftance, by threats. The bankers know the janiflaries that are to be hired \ and you may truft to their recommendation.
d It is a kind of jargon, compofed of Italian, Spanifh, French, vulgar Greek, and other languages. In this language, if it may be fo called, nothing but the infinitive mood of each verb is ufed; this ferving for all the tenfes and moods of the conjugation.
E 4
Be-
•%
56 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
%
Before his arrival at Alexandria, a traveller fhould have read the ancient authors, and have formed in his mind a l'cheme of the things, that he would either examine or compare. But as the country has l'o much changed its face, the traveller had need that fome one fhould put him in a right track. He may ealily make acquaintance with the divers European nations that are fettled in the country ; and he will be able to get great affifbances from them. Pie fhould take care, however, not to give himfelf up to them with too much credu-r lity. There reigns commonly a great deal of jealoufy among thefe gentlemen. We fhould endeavour to know their characters, and be attached only to fuch as can be of the greatelt fervice : the drogman of the French nation, for example, is commonly a man brought up in the country, and that underltands per-* fedtly the language and cuftoms of it. By this means, if he be the leaf! curious, he mult be able to direct you to the places, where there is any thing to be feen. You fhould not negleCt the inltrudtions he is capable of giving you, but ought to rely abfolutely on no one but yourfelf. A thing, that one perfon will not deign to look at, may defervedly draw the attention of an- other, and give lights, that will have elcaped perfons that were lefs attentive. All thofe, with whom a tra- veller makes an acquaintance, offer civilly to attend him in vifiting the antiquities of the country. Their kindnefs is not to be refufed ; but at the firft trial, you will find, that they will confine themfelves to common things j and if you would go further, they will en- deavour to divert you from it ; whether it be becaufe they begin to grow tired, or becaufe they fear to expole themfelves to fome accidents. You have nothing of all that to fear, when you have the company of a ja- niffary. He is accuftomed to fmoak his pipe, and to be idle : he finds thefe two forts of pleafure with a traveller that he accompanies •, thus he regards little the time that paffes in flopping at one place. I ought,
however.
AND NUBIA. 57
however, to advertife, that it is not proper, that a traveller fhould carry his curiofity fo far, as to be de- firous of penetrating into places which the Turks do not permit the entrance of, fuch as fortrefles and mofques. Perhaps he may be able to perfuade his ja- niffary to carry him thither, intereft has great fway over thofe fort of people. They are not proof againft prefents. But it would be always imprudent to ex- pofe ones felf to the danger. It may happen once that you will efcape without harm ; yet it will be always an hundred to one that you will be the dupe of your own curiofity. I advife you never to be eager of vifiting places that are prohibited, unlefs you are beforehand allured of a permiflion, of fuch a nature as to fecure you from hazards ; and unlefs you are convinced, that the thing is worth the trouble that you give yourfelf, in order to get the fight of it.
The converfation of the people, with whom one makes an acquaintance in the country, gives com- monly into the marvellous. They relate a thoufand accidents that, they pretend, have happened to travel- lers, or to others. If we gave credit to fuch perfons, we fhould fcarce go beyond the walls of the ancient Alexandria ; or at moft advance no farther than Cairo ; but in the main, I chufe rather to confide in my own experience, than rely on the reports of people igno- rant or credulous. I dare at leaft afilire the traveller, that if he defigns to go no further than Cairo, and takes never fo little precaution, the ordinary rout will bring him thither with the utmoft fafety.
W e have no need of drogman, or interpreter, fo long as we do not go out of Alexandria. If you have an intention of going further, it is proper to provide yourfelf at leaft with a valet that underftands Arabic, A difpute, that might arife between the people of the boat, on which you are embarked, or between them and the pafiengers that are natives of the country,
would
5s TRAVELS IN EGYPT
$
would be capable of frightening you, if you had not feme one, who could tell you what is the matter.
In cafe that you find at Alexandria an opportunity of travelling in company, either with miflionaries, or with merchants of any European nation, you ought not to mifs the occafion ; for befides the advantage of the language, that we commonly find by that means, you may always rely more on the report of thofe honeft people, than on that of a rafeal of a valet, Jew or Greek, who often has the impudence to make you believe fome danger, in order to render himfelf more neceffary.
Before I leave this fubjeft, I fhall add one rule, which you ought to follow, even at Alexandria, and which mufl be exadtly obferved throughout all Egypt. It is, never to dig at the foot of any piece of antiquity, nor to break any ftone of any monument whatfoever. You muft be content with feeing what is expoled to the fight, and thofe places where you can clamber up, or to which you can get by creeping. Whatever plea- fure there might be in viewing an antique monument throughout the whole, it is neceffary to debar yourfelf of it. The confequences would be too dangerous. A conful of France attempted to dig near the obeliflc of Cleopatra at Alexandria, in order to have the juft dimenfions of it. He had taken care to afk a permif- fion for doing it, which he did not obtain but with a great deal of difficulty. Notwithftanding that, it was not poffible for him to get to the end of his defign ; in proportion as he caufed it to be dug in the day, they filled up, at night, the hole that he had got to be made. This obftinate oppofition arifes from hence, that the people, as well great as ftnall, are perfuaded, that all the antique monuments contain fome hidden treafiire. They cannot imagine, that mere curiofity fhould engage the Europeans to go into Egypt, only to dig the ground there : on the contrary, they are fo perfuaded of our avarice, that they do not permit us
to
AND NUBIA. 59
to rake into any place. If you take it into your head to do it in fecret, and they come to find it out, they confxder you as robbers. They maintain, that you have feized the treafure, which they liippofed to be in that place j and, in order to have the better hold upon thofe that have raked the ground, they make this pre- tended treafure amount to an excefiive price.
On e would think, that the grandees of the country, infatuated with this opinion, fihould never ceafe to rake into the earth, and to deftroy all the remains of antiquity. It is, in effeft, what feveral of them have applied themfelves to •, and divers precious remains of antique monuments have perifhed by that means. But as they have not found any thing, they were at length tired of the expence. Yet they have not, for all that, got rid of their foolifli imagination ; on the contrary, they have joined to it another notion, Hill more filly, in fuppofing, that all thefe treafures are inchanted ; that in proportion as they are approached, they link deeper and deeper in the ground ; and that there are none but the Franks, who are capable of breaking thefe charms ; for they pafs generally in Egypt for great conjurors.
Another reafon Hill has diverted them from thefe forts of refearches. Two of thofe, who had made themfelves famous by this enterprize of digging the ground, to feek for treafures, fell into the hands of their fuperiors, who did not fpare them, and would never believe, that thofe men had difcovered nothing. They accufed them of having found treafures, and of denying it, in order that no body might go lhares with them. They impofed on them every day new oppreflions, under frivolous pretences ; and, in fine, made them pay the profits of a refearch, from which they had never drawn any advantage.
The antiquities that we find at Alexandria, as well of medals as of Hones ingraved, and of other like things, are difcovered, as I have already remarked
above.
' 60 TRAVELS IN EGYPT
above, without digging, and only when the ground is wafhed by rain. If on fome occafions they turn up the earth, it is done under other pretences, as to draw out Hones for building, &c. But that is done, with- out touching, in any manner, thofe antique pieces, which are Handing ; and which, by this happy jea- loufy, have been preferved in the midft of a barba- rous people, who other wife have no great refpedt for them.
Isay nothing of the peril, to which a Hranger ex- pofes himfelf, if he has the weaknefs to engage in any love intrigue. I fuppofe that a man, who goes into Egypt, to inflrufl himfelf by an inquiry into antiqui- ty, would ' be moderate enough, and fufficiently re- ferred, to have nothing to fear on that head. If, how- ever, there fhould be any one, that has need of an an- tidote againft fo mad a pafllon, it is fufficient to refer him to the recitals, that all thofe, who have frequented Alexandria and Cairo, will be able to give him. He will learn, that young merchants have been unhappily afiaffinated in thefe two cities ; that others, after hav- ing ruined themfelves, by making prefents to the ja- nilfaries to engage them to fecrefy, have found them- felves at laft deceived to fuch a degree, that, inftead of having enjoyed fome women of diflinftion, they have facrificed themfelves to the vilefl proflitutes, who, at a great price, have regaled them with a difeafe, which they have kept for their whole lives, as no one there was capable of curing them.
Lastly, in Egypt, we ought to avoid, Hill more than any where elfe, all occafions of being infulted by the people of the country. But, if unhappily it falls out, that you are expofed to their inlults, it is wife and prudent to give a deaf ear, and to feem not to perceive it, At moft, you may go fo far as to threat- en •, but beware of linking a Muflulman. If you are fortunate enough to efcape being murdered, it would coll you all that you are worth ; and, what would
AND NUBIA. 6 1
give one likewife great uneafinefs, the friends of the perfon, that has given the blow, would be drawn into the affair, and would not be able to extricate them- felves, without a large fum of money. If however you are determined to have fatisfachon for any infult, it is necefiary to apply yourfelf to the judge-, but it wall coil fo dear, that you will have no defire of hav- ing recourle to him a fecond time.
If there is any thing elfe, that a traveller ought to know, he will learn it in a few days after his ar- rival in the country. It was proper to inftrudt him in the articles that I have been mentioning. Perhaps it might be too late to be informed of them upon the fpot : befides, a man is apt not to believe all that he hears faid. For my part, I Ihould have been greatly pleafed to have been informed of them beforehand ; this is the reafon of my publifhing them, for the ad- vantage of thofe, who may be in the fame circum- ftances with myfelf.
New Cairo.
I Arrived at Grand Cairo the 7th of July, 1737.
This capital of Egypt, that they call likewife bare- ly Cairo, and