indigo, senna, cassia, natron, flax, hemp, cotton, and all these in marvellous abundance. It has no oil, but this it obtains on the opposite coasts of Greece; neither does it grow tobacco or coffee, but these it finds by its side in Syria and Arabia. It is also destitute of wood, for the larger vegetables have not a sufficient depth of soil in the annual mud deposited by the Nile upon a sub-soil of gravel. Sycamores and palms are the only trees of Egypt. For want of fuel, the inhabitants burn cowdung. Egypt rears immense herds. Poultry of all sorts swarms there. It produces those admirable horses, so celebrated all over the world for their beauty, their spirit, their familiarity with their masters; and the useful camel, capable of living without food or drink for several days, whose foot sinks without fatigue in the moving sands, and which serves like a living ship for crossing the sandy

sea.

Every year prodigious caravans come to Cairo, meeting like the fleets of both sides of the desert. Some come from Syria and Arabia, others from Africa and the coasts of Barbary. They bring every production peculiar to the countries of the sun, gold, ivory, feathers, inimitable shawls, perfumes, gums, spices of all kinds, coffee, tobacco, wood, and slaves. Cairo becomes a magnificent mart of the most exquisite productions of the globe, of those which the mighty genius of the people of the West will never be able to imitate, because it is the sun which bestows them, and which their delicate taste will always make them covet. Thus the commerce of India is the only one to which the progress of nations will never put an end. There would, therefore, be no need to make Egypt a military post, in order to set about destroying by violence the commerce of the English. It would be sufficient to establish a mart there, with safety, laws, and European commodities, to draw thither the wealth of the world.

The population of Egypt is, like the towns that cover it, a mixture of the wreeks of several nations. Copts, the ancient inhabitants of Egypt, Arabs, who conquered Egypt from the Copts and Turks, the conquerors of the Arabs-such are the races whose remains lead a wretched life in a land of which they are unworthy. On the arrival of the French, the Copts amounted at most to two hundred thousand. Poor, despised, brutalized, they had devoted themselves, like all the proscribed classes, to the most ignoble occupations. The Arabs formed almost the entire mass of the population. They were descendants of the companions of the Prophet. Their condition was infinitely varied. Some, of high birth, carrying back their pedigree to Mahomet himself, great landed proprietors, possessing some traces of Arabian knowledge, combining with nobility the functions of the priesthood and the magistracy, were, by the title of sheiks, the real grandees of Egypt. In the divans, they represented the country, when its tyrants wished to address themselves to it. In the mosques, they formed a sort of universities, in which they taught the religion and the morality of the Koran, and a little philosophy and jurisprudence. The great mosque of Jemil-Azar was the first learned and religious body in the East. Next to these grandees came the smaller landholders, composing the second and more numerous class of the Arabs; then the great mass of the inhabitants, who had sunk into the state of absolute Helots. These last were hired peasants, cultivating the land by the name of fellahs, and living in abject poverty. There was a fourth class of Arabs, namely, the Bedouins or rovers; these would never attach themselves to the soil; they were the children of the desert. Mounted on horses or camels, driving before them numerous herds of cattle, they wandered about seeking pastures in the Oases, or coming annually to show the stripes of land susceptible of cultivation, situated on the borders of Egypt. Their trade was to escort caravans, or to lend their camels for the purposes of transport. But, faithless robbers, they frequently plundered the merchants whom they escorted, or to whom they lent their camels. Sometimes, even, violating the hospitality granted to them on the margin of the land capable of cultivation, they fell upon the valley of the Nile, which, five leagues in breadth, was easy of access, plundered the villages, and, remounting their horses, carried off their booty in the heart of the desert. Turkish negligence left their ravages almost always unpunished, and made as little opposition to the robbers of the desert as to its sands. These wandering Arabs, divided VOL. III.

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into tribes on both sides of the valley, amounted to one hundred or one hundred and twenty thousand, and could furnish from twenty to twenty-five thousand horse, brave, but fit only to harass an enemy, not to fight him.

The third and last race was that of the Turks; but it was not more numerous than the Copts; that is to say, it amounted to about two hundred thousand souls at most. It was divided into Turks and Mamelukes. The Turks, who had come since the last conquest of the sultans of Constantinople, were almost all enrolled in the list of the janizaries; but it is well known that in general they got their names inscribed in those lists merely that they might enjoy the privileges of janizaries, and that a very small number of them were really in the service. Very few of them composed the military force of the pacha. This pacha, sent from Constantinople, was the sultan's representative in Egypt; but, escorted only by a few janizaries, he found his authority invalidated by the very precautions which Sultan Selim had formerly taken to preserve it. That sultan, judging that Egypt was likely from its remoteness to throw off the dominion of Constantinople, and that a clever and ambitious pacha might create there an independent empire, devised a counterpoise and instituted a Mameluke soldiery. But, as it is impossible to conquer the physical conditions which render a country dependent or independent of another, instead of the pacha, it was the Mamelukes who had rendered themselves independent of Constantinople and masters of Egypt. The Mamelukes were slaves purchased in Circassia. Selected from among the handsomest boys of the Caucasus, carried young to Egypt, bred in ignorance of their origin, and in the practice of, and a fondness for, arms, they became the bravest and most agile horsemen in the world. They held it an honour to be without origin, to have been bought at a high price, and to be handsome and brave. They had twenty-four beys, who were their owners and their chiefs. Each of these beys had five or six hundred Mamelukes. It was a herd which they took care to feed, and which they bequeathed sometimes to a son, but more frequently to a favourite Mameluke, who became bey in his turn. Every Mameluke had two fellahs to wait upon him. The entire body consisted of nearly twelve thousand horse, with twenty-four thousand Helots as attendants. They were the real masters and tyrants of the country. They lived either on the produce of the lands belonging to the beys, or on the revenue arising from the numerous taxes imposed in every possible form. The Copts, whom we have already described as engaged in the most ignoble occupations, were their taxgatherers, their spies, their men of business; for the demoralized are always at the service of the strongest. The twenty-four beys, equal by right, were not so in fact. They made war upon one another, and the strongest, subduing the rest, enjoyed a sovereignty for life. He was wholly independent of the pacha representing the sultan of Constantinople, allowed him at most a sort of nullity at Cairo, and frequently refused him the miri, or land-tax, which, representing the right of conquest, belonged to the Porte.

Egypt was, therefore, an absolute feudality, like that of Europe in the middle

"The Mamelukes are an invincible race, inhabiting a burning desert, mounted on the fleetest horses in the world, and full of courage. They live with their wives and children in flying camps, which are never pitched two nights together in the same place. They are horrible savages, and yet they have some notion of gold and silver; a small quantity of it serves to excite their admiration."-Louis Bonaparte. E.

“The Mamelukes are admirable horsemen, and the bits in their horses' mouths are so powerful that the most fiery steeds are speedily checked, even at full career, by an ordinary hand. Their stirrups are extremely short, and give the rider geat power both in commanding his horse and striking with his sabre; and the pommel and back part of the saddle are so high, that the horsemen, though wounded, can scarcely lose his balance; he can even sleep without falling, as he would do in an arm-chair. The horse is burdened by no baggage or provisions, all of which are carried by the rider's servants; while the Mameluke himself, covered with shawls and turbans, is protected from the strokes of a sabre. They are all splendidly armed; in their girdle are always to be seen a pair of pistols and a poniard; from the saddle are suspended another pair of pistols and a hatchet; on one side is a sabre, on the other a blunderbuss, and the servant on foot carries a carbine. They seldom parry with the sword, as their fine blades would break in the collision, but avoid the strokes of their adversary by skill in wheeling their horse, while they trust to his impetus to sever his head from his body, without either cut or thrust."-Miot. E.

ages. It exhibited at once a conquered people, a conquering soldiery, in rebellion against its sovereign; and, lastly, an ancient brutalized class, at the service and in the pay of the strongest.

Two beys, superior to the rest, ruled Egypt at this moment. The one, Ibrahim Bey, wealthy, crafty, and powerful; the other, Mourad Bey, intrepid, valiant, and full of ardour. They had agreed upon a sort of division of authority, by which Ibrahim Bey had the civil, and Mourad Bey the military power. It was the business of the latter to fight; he excelled in it, and he possessed the affection of the Mamelukes, who were all eager to follow him.

Bonaparte, who, with the genius of the captain united the tact and the address of the founder, and who had, moreover, administered conquered countries enough to have made a particular art of it for himself, immediately perceived the line of policy which he had to pursue in Egypt. He must in the first place wrest that country from its real masters, the Mamelukes. It was they whom he had to fight and to destroy by arms and by policy. Besides, he had strong reasons to urge against them, for they had never ceased to ill-treat the French. As for the Porte, it was requisite that he should not appear to attack its sovereignty, but affect, on the contrary, to respect it. In the state to which it was reduced, that sovereignty was not to be dreaded. He could treat with the Porte, either for the cession of Egypt, by granting it certain advantages elsewhere, or for a partition of authority, in which there would be nothing detrimental; for the French, in leaving the pacha at Cairo and transferring to themselves the power of the Mamelukes, would not afford much cause for regret. As for the inhabitants, in order to make sure of their attachment, it would be requisite to gain the real population, namely, that of the Arabs. By respecting the sheiks, by flattering their old pride, by increasing their power, by encouraging a secret desire, which was found in them, as it had been found in Italy, and as it is found everywhere, that of the re-establishment of their ancient country, the Arab country, Bonaparte reckoned upon ruling the land and entirely attaching it to him. By afterwards sparing persons and property, among a people accustomed to consider conquest as conferring a right to murder, pillage, and devastation, he should produce a surprise that would be most advantageous to the French army. If, besides, the French were to respect women and the Prophet, the conquest of hearts would be as firmly secured as that of the soil.

Bonaparte conducted himself agreeably to these conclusions, which were equally just and profound. Endowed with an entirely eastern imagination, it was easy for him to assume the solemn and imposing style which was suited to the Arab race. He drew up proclamations, which were translated into Arabic and circulated in the country. To the pacha he wrote, "The French republic has resolved to send a powerful army to Egypt to put an end to the plunder of the beys, as it has been obliged to do several times during this century against the beys of Tunis and Algiers. Thou, who oughtest to be the ruler of the beys, and whom they, neverless, hold at Cairo without authority and without power, thou must view my arrival with pleasure. Thou art, doubtless, already apprized that I am not come to do anything against the Koran or the sultan. Thou knowest that the French nation is the only ally that the sultan has in Europe. Come then to meet me, and curse with me the impious race of the beys." Addressing the Egyptians, Bonaparte made use of these words: "People of Egypt, you will be told that I am come to overthrow your religion. Believe it not. Reply that I am come to restore your rights to you, to punish the usurpers, and that I have a much higher respect than the Mamelukes for God, his Prophet, and the Koran."* Adverting to the tyranny of the Mamelukes, he said, "Is there a fine estate?—it belongs to the Mamelukes. Is there

You will laugh outright, you witlings of Paris, at the Mahometan proclamation of the commander-in-chief. He is proof, however, against all your raillery, and the thing itself will certainly produce a most surprising effect."-Joubert's Correspondence. E.

"Our proclamation to the Egyptians has produced an effect altogether astonishing. The Bedouins, enemies of the Mamelukes, and who, properly speaking, are neither more nor less than intrepid robbers, sent us back, as soon as they had read it, thirty of our people whom they had made prisoners, with an offer of their services against the Mamelukes."-Louis Bonaparte. E.

a beautiful slave, a fine horse, a good house?-all belong to the Mamelukes. If Egypt is their farm, let them produce the lease which God has granted them of it. But God is just and merciful to the people, and he hath ordained that the empire of the Mamelukes shall be put an end to." Referring to the sentiments of the French, he added, "We, too, are true Mussulmans. Was it not we that destroyed the Pope, who said that war must be made upon the Mussulmans? Was it not we who destroyed the Knights of Malta, because those idiots believed that God had decreed that they should make war upon the Mussulmans? Thrice happy those who shall side with us. They shall prosper in their fortune and their rank. Happy they who shall be neuter! They will have time to become acquainted with us, and they will range themselves on our side. But wo, threefold wo, to those who shall arm for the Mamelukes and fight against us! For them there will be no hope; they shall perish."

To his soldiers Bonaparte said, "You are going to undertake a conquest, the effects of which on the civilization and the commerce of the world are incalculable. You will give the surest and the severest blow to England, until you shall have it in your power to strike her death-blow.

The people with whom we are going to live are Mahometans. The first article of their faith is this: There is no God but God, and Mahomet is his prophet.' Do not contradict them. Act towards them as you have acted towards the Jews, towards the Italians. Pay respect to their muftis and to their imans, as you have done to the rabbis and to the bishops. Show the same toleration for the ceremonies prescribed by the Koran and for the mosques, as you have done for the convents, for the synagogues, for the religion of Moses, and for that of Jesus Christ.* The Roman legions protected all religions. You will here find customs differing from those of Europe: you must habituate yourselves to them. The people among whom we are come treat women differently from us. Recollect that in every country he who violates is a coward.

"The first city that we shall come to was built by Alexander. We shall meet at every step with glorious recollections, worthy to excite the emulation of Frenchmen.'

Bonaparte immediately made his dispositions for establishing the French authority at Alexandria, and for quitting the Delta and gaining possession of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. It was the month of July; the Nile was about to inundate the country. He was anxious to reach Cairo before the inundation, and to employ the time during which it should last in establishing himself there. He ordered everything at Alexandria to be left in the same state as it was; that the religious exercises should be continued; and that justice should be administered as before by the cadis. His intention was merely to possess himself of the rights of the Mamelukes, and to appoint a commissioner to levy the accustomed imposts. He caused a divan, or municipal council, composed of the sheiks and principal persons of Alexandria, to be formed, in order to consult them on all the measures which the French authority would have to take. He left three thousand men in garrison at Alexandria, and gave the command of it to Kleber, whose wound was likely to keep him in a state of inactivity for a month or two. He directed a young officer of extraordinary merit, and who gave promise to France of becoming a great engineer, to put Alexandria in a state of defence, and to construct there all the necessary works. This was Colonel Cretin, who, in a short time, and at a small expense, executed superb works at Alexandria. Bonaparte then ordered the fleet to be put into a place of security. It was a question whether the large ships could enter the port of Alexandria. A commission of naval officers was appointed to sound the harbour and to make a report. Meanwhile, the fleet was anchored in the road of Aboukir. Bonaparte ordered Brueys to see to it, that this question should be speedily decided, and to proceed to Corfu if it should be ascertained that the ship could not enter the harbour of Alexandria.

"The French army, since the Revolution, had practised no sort of worship. In Italy even they never went to church. We took advantage of that circumstance to present the army to the Mussulmans as disposed to embrace their faith. This produced the very best effect, and the people ceased to regard them as idolaters.”—Montholon. E.

After he had attended to these points, he made preparations for marching. A considerable flotilla, laden with provisions, artillery, ammunition, and baggage, was to run along the coast to the Rosetta mouth, enter the Nile, and ascend the river at the same time as the French army. He then set out with the main body of the army, which, after leaving the two garrisons in Malta and Alexandria, was about thirty thousand strong. He had ordered his flotilla to proceed as high as Ramanieh, on the banks of the Nile. There he purposed to join it, and to proceed up the Nile parallel with it, in order to quit the Delta and to reach Upper Egypt, or Bahireh. There were two roads from Alexandria to Ramanieh; one through an inhabited country, along the sea-coast and the Nile, the other shorter and as the bird flies, but across the desert of Damanhour. Bonaparte, without hesitation, chose the shorter. It was of consequence that he should reach Cairo as speedily as possible. Desaix marched with the advanced guard. The main body followed at the distance of a few leagues. They broke up on the 18th of Messidor (July 6). When the soldiers found themselves amidst this boundless plain, with a shifting sand beneath their feet, a scorching sun over their head, no water, no shade, with nothing for the eye to rest upon but rare clumps of palm-trees, seeing no living creatures but small troops of Arab horsemen, who appeared and disappeared at the horizon, and sometimes concealed themselves behind sandhills to murder the laggards, they were profoundly dejected.* They had already conceived a liking for rest, after the long and obstinate campaigns in Italy. They had accompanied their general to a distant country, because their faith in him was implicit, because he had held forth to them the prospect of a land of promise, from which they should return rich enough to purchase each of them a field of six acres. But when they beheld this desert, their feelings were mingled with disappointment, which was aggravated to despair. They found all the wells, which at intervals border the road through the desert destroyed by the Arabs. There were left only a few drops of brackish water, wholly insufficient for quenching their thirst. They had been informed that they should find refreshments at Damanhour: they met with nothing there but miserable huts, and could not procure either bread or wine, but only lentils in great abundance, and a little water. They were obliged to proceed again into the desert. Bonaparte saw the brave Lannes and Murat themselves, take off their hats, dash them on the sand, and trample them under foot. He, however, overawed all.† His presence imposed silence, and sometimes restored cheerfulness. The soldiers would not impute their sufferings to him; they were angry with those who took pleasure in observing the country. On seeing the men of science stop to examine the slightest ruins they said that they should not have been there but for them, and revenged themselves with witticisms after their fashion. Caffarelli, in particular, brave as a grenadier, and inquisitive as a scholar, was considered by them as the

* "As the Hebrews wandering in the wilderness complained, and angrily asked Moses for the onions and fleshpots of Egypt, the French soldiers constantly regretted the luxuries of Italy. In vain were they assured that the country was the most fertile in the world, that it was even superior to Lombardy. How were they to be persuaded of this when they could get neither bread nor wine? We encamped on immense quantities of wheat, but there was neither mill nor oven in the country. The apprehensions of the soldiers increased daily, and rose to such a pitch that a great number of them said there was no great city of Cairo, and that the place bearing that name was a vast assemblage of mere huts, destitute of everything that could render life comfortable. To such a melancholy state of mind had they brought themselves, that two dragoons threw themselves, completely clothed, into the Nile, where they were drowned. The officers complained more loudly than the soldiers, because the comparison was proportionately more disadvantageous to them. In Eygpt they found neither the quarters, the good table, nor the luxuries of Italy. The commanderin-chief, wishing to set an example, used to bivouac in the midst of the army, and in the least commodious spots. No one had either tent or provisions. The dinner of Napoleon and his staff consisted of a dish of lentils. The soldiers passed the evening in political conversations, arguments, and complaints. Many of them having observed that wherever there were vestiges of antiquity they were carefully searched, vented their spite in invectives against the scientific men. Whenever they met with an ass they called him a savant."-Napoleon's Memoirs. E.

"One day Napoleon rushed among a group of discontented generals, and, addressing himself to the tallest, You have held mutinous language,' said he, with vehemence, and it is not your being six feet high that should save you from being shot in a couple of hours.'”—Las Cases. E.