common principles and paffions which united great numbers of the natives and others in hoftility to Buonaparte, fo there were circumftances allo which divided them against one another; while the common weakness of human nature, prevailing over fentiments of religion and duty, fubjected them to various arts of corruption, and thus tended naturally to draw them over to the fide of the most powerful party.

Egypt is commonly reckoned to be about 500 miles in length, and 160 in breadth. The borders of the Nile, from Abyffinia to Grand Cairo, form a narrow valley, which, with lefler vallies or openings into the hilly country, and the deferts on either fide, is called the Upper, and the whole country watered by the Nile from thence downward, the Lower Egypt. The two grand branches of the Nile, which part at Grand Cairo, together with the Mediterranean, into which they fall, form a triangle, called the Delta, of, which the ocean is the bale, the two branches of the Nile the fides, and Cairo the apex, or head. A great portion of this part of Egypt, being enriched by the overflowing of the Nile, is extremely fertile. No country in the world is more plenteously ftored than Egypt with corn, rice, flesh, fith, fugar, fruits, vegetables, and oil. The Delta produces oranges, lemons, figs, dates, almonds, and plantains in the greateft abundance. The extent of this famous country, that is, of the part of it now inhabited, does not feem, at firft fight, to correfpond with the defcriptions which have been left by the ancients of its twenty thousand towns and cities, feveral millions of inhabitants, and armies

kept by its ancient kings of three hundred thoufand men, executing the pyramids, the labyrinths, the grottos of Thebes, the lake Moeris, vaft canals, obelifks, temples, and pompous palaces. But although the reports by travellers, of Egypt, being even at this day a moft delicious garden be unanimoufly reprobated, by all the French who have fpoken or written on the fubject, fince their late expedition thither, the most intelligent and obfervant admit, that the extent to which the happy influence and dominion of the Nile, by means of industry and art, may have been carried in times paft, and yet carried in times to come, very much farther than at prefent, from the banks of the river over the arid defart. As a heavy counter-balance to these natural advantages, except in our winter, and the latter part of the autumnal months, the heat of the climate is oppreffive to all who are not accuftomed to it. The winds are

fometimes of fuch extreme heat and aridity, that their influence proves mortal. During the time these last, the streets are deferted, and the inhabitants almost blinded by drifts of fand, fo fubtle, that they infinuate themselves into the clofeft apartments: fo, that from this enemy there is no fuch thing as a perfectly fecure retreat. The vermin that infeft this land, to ftrangers particularly, is intolerable. And, in addition to all thefe evils, it is frequently vifited by the plague.

Since Egypt fell under the dominion of the Turks, it has been oftenfibly governed by a pacha, or,. as we pronounce the word, baflaw, who refided at Grand Cairo: but whole authority, for a long time paft, has been more nominal than [B2]

real.

real. The bafhaw was, in fact, little more than a fign and memorial of the refpect formerly paid, and fill profeffed, by all Muffelmen, to the eldelt fon of the prophet. Under the bafhaw there were inferior go vernors, under various defignations, in the different provinces, but the power of the fword was in the hands of the Mammalukes. A fmall number of Janiflaries indeed was retained at Cairo, and a few other places in the fervice of the Porte, of which they held landed poffeffions, in return for their fervice. In Up. per Egypt, there were fome Arabs who paid tribute to the grand fignior, or made prefents to the bahaw: and in the Lower Egypt, there were fome villages in the poffeflion of fheicks. But the real government or fovereignty of Egypt was poffeffed by the Mammalukes, originally foldiers of fortune, but who paid very little regard to the conditions on which they held their power and property. They came originally from the mountainous countries, between the Black Sea and Caucafus, and their armies were ftill recruited by boys from thofe countries, and other youth, the children of Chriftian flaves brought for fale to Grand Cairo. The laws of Mahomet enjoin great compaffion and tendernefs for flaves, and nothing is confidered as more pleafing and meritorious in the fight of God than their total eman cipation. The condition of the young flaves, who fell into the hands of the Mammalukes, was certainly among the gentleft lots of flavery. It was the road to fortune. They were brought up by the Mammalukes in the fame manner as their own children, and came, in time, to be almoft conndered as

fuch: nor did the circumftance of their having ever been in a state of flavery preclude them from any degree of preferment, even that of bey, which was the chief; who was chofen freely by a plurality of voices in a full council of officers: fo that the beys, elevated to power, neither by the accident of birth, nor the particular favour of any fovereign prince, but in fome degree at leaft, if not chiefly, by their own merit, were, for the most part, men of fuperior talents and unquestionable courage. The Mammalukes were all of them brave, even to excefs. In the battle of the Pyramids, the iffue of which gave the French a footing in Egypt, and of which fome notice has been taken in the laft volume of this work, they had the temerity to rush in between the compacted and fquare battalions of the French army; and there meet their fate. They, to a man, refufed quarter, and fought to the laft, fometimes when defperately and mortally wounded. They were accustomed, from their earliest years, to a dextrous management of the finest and most spirited horfes in the world. They were armed with fwords and piftols, mufkets, and lances. Their wealth and state difplayed in their arms, drefs, and equipage. Their habitations and houfchold furniture were wretched. It was their manner inceffantly to wheel round about an enemy in his front, flank, and rear, and to retreat as he advanced, unless they perceived an advantage, or were under a neceflity of coming to clofe action, while another divifion of them hung upon his rear, and endeavoured to furround and cut off detached parties, wherever they could find an opening. The gene

ral

tal fpirit of their warfare, like that of the ancient Scythians and the Arabs, was, to cut off supplies, and harafs and deftroy their enemy by repeated attacks, according to opportunities. But in different circumftances, their courage, as might be expected, was more or lefs impetuous and daring.

The beys were not all of them, without exception, of Chriftian origin, as has been commonly fuppofed. Of late years the annual number of flaves from Georgia, Mingrelia, and Circaffia, has been greatly diminished. In 1762, five of the beys were of Mahometan defcent and from the caufe juft mentioned, the proportion of the Mahometan to what we may call the Chriftian beys, has probably become greater.

The number of the beys, originally four-and-twenty, by the encroachments of the more powerful over the weaker, had been reduced, it is faid, to eighteen or twenty but on that point the accounts vary. They had frequent quarrels with one another, but thefe did not lead to fuch ferious and obftinate contefts as has been imagined. They did not draw the whole of their refources, whether of actual poffeffion or credit, and many thousands of unoffending people, into the vortex of protracted war, but quickly fettled their difputes by pitched encounters; in which they were accompanied and joined by the fmall corps of their refpective bodyguards. When the combat was over, the conqueror returned immediately to the capital, where moft of the bafhaws refided. The vanquifired party returned alfo thither, in a few days thereafter. If he fell in battle, another bey was chofen in his stead; and there was

an end of the matter. So that on the whole the difputes among the Mammalukes were not of fuch an inveterate nature, as to prevent a ready union against a common enemy.

There were about 10,000 Mammalukes clothed in one uniform, and which were at the difpofal of government; or rather that of the Beys, who feem to have confidered themfelves as forming, in fome refpects, a kind of republic. But, hefides thefe, each Mammaluke kept on foot, or could eafily raife bodies of men among his own vaffals.

There were in Egypt, befides the military and predominant cafte of the Mammalukes, a great number of Arabs, Jews, Greeks, and Cophts, who were Chriftians, and the defcendents of the ancient Egyptians. The Bedouin Arabs were attached to the Mahometan faith, and hoftile to firangers: but neither abfolutely proof against the power of money, nor the ufual influence of a career of victory amongst barbarians.

The

After his firft fucceffes, the reduction of Alexandria, Rofetta, Damietta, and Cairo, and, above all, the battle of the Pyramids, there was ground for hope, that many of the Arabs might be drawn over to the fide of the conqueror. Jews, as ufual, were at the fervice of the beft paymafter; not to make any account of the refentment they muft have felt at the treatment they received from the Turks and other Muflelmen. The Greeks and the Cophts, though greatly humbled in their minds, as in their fortunes, and the latter debafed almost to brutality, by a long series of tyranny and oppreffion, might yet be rouzed by kinder treatment, and better profpects, to a fenfe of natural dignity and freedom. The clouded profpects of Buonaparte were therefore, on the [B3]

whole,