The Author's Travels in Egypt-Voyage in the Red Sea, till his Arrival at Mafuah.

R. BRUCE failed from Sidon, on the 15th of June, 1768, bound for the Island of Cyprus, the wind being favourable, and the weather clear and hot. On the 16th, at dawn of day, our traveller faw a high hill, which from its particular form, defcribed by Strabo, he took for Mount Olympus. It is very fingular, that Cyprus fhould be fo long undifcovered; fhips had been used in the Mediterranean 1700 years before Chrift; yet, though only a day's failing from the Continent of Afia on the north and east, and little more from that of Africa on the fouth, it was not known at the building of Tyre, a little before the Trojan war, that is, 500 years after fhips had been paffing to and fro in the furrounding feas.

A great many medals, though very few of them good, are dug up in Cyprus; filver ones, of very excellent workmanship, are found near Paphos, of very little value in the eyes of antiquarians, being chiefly of towns, of the fize of thofe found at Crete and Rhodes, and all the lands of the Archipelago. Intaglios there are fome

few,

few, part in very excellent Greek ftyle, and generally upon better flones than ufual in the islands.

On the 17th of June they left Lernica, about four o'clock in the afternoon, and on the 18th, a little be fore twelve o'clock, a very fresh and favourable breeze came from the N. W. and they pointed their rectly, as they thought, upon Alexandria.

prow di

The 20th of June, early in the morning, our traveller had a difant profpect of Alexandria rifing from the fea. On the first view of the city, the mixture of old monuments, fuch as the Column of Pompey, with the high moorish towers and fteeples, raife our expectations of the confequence of the ruins we are to find; but the moment we are in port, the illufion ends, and we diftinguifh the immenfe Herculean works of ancient times, now few in number, from the ill-imagined, ill-con-ftructed, and imperfect buildings, of the feveral barbarous mafters of Alexandria in later ages. There are two ports, the Old and the New, which are by no means fafe, as many veffels are frequently loft while riding at anchor.

Alexandria has been often taken fince the time of Cæfar. It was at laft deftroyed by the Venetians and: Cypriots, upon, or rather after the releafe of St. Lewis. The building of the prefent gates and walls, which some have thought to be antique, does not feem earlier than the laft refloration in the 13th century. Some parts of the gates and walls may be of older date; (and probably were those of the last Caliphs before Salidan) but, except there, and the pieces of columns which lie horizontally in different parts of the wall, every thing elfe is apparently of very late times, and the work has been huddled together in great hafte. There is nothing beautiful or pleafant in the prefent Alexandria, but a handsome street of modern houfes, where a very active and intelligent number of merchants live upon the miferable remnants of that trade, which made its glory in the first times. It is thinly inhabited, and there is a tradition among the natives, that, more than once, it has been in agitation to abandon it altogether, and retire to Rofetto, or Cairo, but that they have been withheld by the opinion of divers faints from Arabia, who have affured them, that Mecca being deftroyed,

(as

(as it must be as they think by the Ruffians) Alexandria is then to become the holy place, and that Mahomet's body is to be tranfported thither.

On Mr. Bruce's arrival at Alexandria, he found that the plague had raged in that city and neighbourhood from the beginning of March, and that two days only before their arrival, people had begun to open their houfes and communicate with each other; but it was no matter, St. John's day was paft, the miraculous nucta, or dew, had fallen, and every body went about their ordinary bufinefs in fafety, and without fear. Here Mr. Bruce received his inftruments, and found them in good condition.

Our traveller being now prepared for any enterprife, he left with eagernefs the thread-bare enquiries into the meagre remains of this once-famous capital of Egypt.. The journey to Rofetto is always perforined by land, as the mouth of the branch of the Nile leading to Rofetto, called the Bogaz, is very fhallow and dangerous to pafs, and often tedious; befides, nobody wishes to be a partner for any time in a voyage with Egyptian failors, if he can poffibly avoid it. The journey by land is alfo reputed dangerous, and people travel burdened with arms, which they are determined never to use.

All Egypt is full of deep duft and fand, from the beginning of March to the first of the inundation. It is this fine powder and fand, raised and loofened by the heat of the fun, and want of dew, and not being tied faft, as it were, by any root or vegetation, which the Nile carries off with it, and buries in the fea, and which many ignorantly fuppofe comes from Abyffinia, where every river runs in a bed of rock. When you leave the fea, you strike off nearly at right angles, and purfue your journey to the eastward. Here heaps of flone and trunks of pillars are fet up to guide you in your road, through moving fands, which ftand in hillocks, in proper directions, and which conduct you fafely to Rofetto, furrounded on one fide by these hills of fand, which feem ready to cover it.

Rofetto is upon that branch of the Nile which was called the Bolbuttic Branch, and is about four miles from the fea. It is a large, clean, neat town, or village,

upon

upon the eastern fide of the Nile. It is about three miles long, much frequented by ftudious and religious Mahometans; among thefe too are a confiderable number of merchants, it being the entrepot between Cairo and Alexandria, and vice verfa; here too the merchants have their factors, who fuperintend and watch over the merchandise which paffes the Bogaz to and from Cairo. There are many gardens, and much ver dure, about Rofetto; the ground is low, and retains long the moisture it imbibes from the overflowing of the Nile. Here also are many curious plants and flow-ers brought from different countries.

On the 30th of June, Mr. Bruce embarked for Cairò. There are wonderful tales told at Alexandria as well as at Cairo, of the danger of paffing over the desert to Rofetto. After you embark on the Nile in your way to Cairo, you hear of pilots, and masters of veffels, who land you among robbers to fhare your plunder, and twenty fuch like ftories, all of them of old date, and which perhaps happened long ago, or never happened at all. But provided the government of Cairo is fet tled, and you do not land at villages in ftrife with each other, (in which circumstances no perfon of any nation is fafe) you must be very unfortunate indeed if any great accident befal you between Alexandria and Cairo.

They arrived at Cairo in the beginning of July, recommended to the very hofpitable houfe of Julian and Bertran, to whom Mr. Bruce imparted his refolution of purfuing his journey to Abyffinia. The wildness of the intention feemed to ftrike them greatly, on which account they endeavoured all they could to perfuade him against it, but, feeing him refolved, they offered kindly their most effectual fervices.

That part of Cairo, in which the French are settled, is exceedingly commodious, and fit for retirement. It confifts of one long ftreet, where all the merchants of that nation live together. It is fhut at one end, by large gates, where there is a guard, and these are kept conftantly clofe in the time of the plague. At the other end is a large garden tolerably kept, in which there are feveral pleafant walks and feats; all the enjoyment that Chriftians can hope for, among this vile people, reduces itself

to

to peace, and quiet; nobody feeks for more. There are, however, wicked emiffaries who are constantly employed by threats, lies, and extravagant demands, to torment them, and keep them from enjoying that repofe, which would content them instead of freedom, and more folid happiness, in their own country.

There are perhaps four hundred inhabitants in Cairo, who have abfolute power, and adminifter what they call justice, in their own way, and according to their own views. But fortunately, in Mr. Bruce's time, this many-headed monfter was no more; there was but one Ali Bey, and there was neither inferior nor fuperior jurifdiction exercifed, but by his officers only. This happy ftate did not last long. In order to be a Bey, the perfon must have been a flave, and bought for money at a market. Every Bey has a great number of fervants, flaves to him, as he was to others before; thefe are his guards, and thefe he promotes to places in his household, according as they are qualified.

It is very extraordinary, to find a race of men in power, all agree to leave their fucceffion to ftrangers, in preference to their own children, for a number of ages; and that no one fhould ever have attempted to make his fon fucceed him, either in dignity or eftate, in preference to a flave, whom he has bought for money like a beast.

The inftant that Mr. Bruce arrived at Cairo, was perhaps the only one in which he ever could have been allowed, fingle and unprotected as he was, to have made his intended journey. Ali Bey, lately known in Europe by various narratives of the laft tranfactions of his life, after having undergone many changes of fortune, and been banished by his rivals from his capital, at last had enjoyed the fatisfaction of a return, and of making himself abfolute in Cairo.

After a variety of circumstances of little confequence to the reader, Mr. Bruce was admitted to an audience of the Bey. He was a much younger man than he had conceived him to be; he was fitting upon a large fofa, covered with crimson cloth of gold; his turban, his girdle, and the head of his dagger, all thick covered with fine brilliants; one in his turban, that ferved to fupport a fprig