368 Letters of an African Traveller. 



tlie best of my life. Forty centuries had been silent under my 

 feet, whilst I was ponderating- the cause and effects of the 

 creation. 



The following morning the rising sun illumined me, which 

 shone around the horizon with a pomp never dreamt of, either 

 by painter or by poet. 



From this place I wrote to you, to Dionigi, Morghen, Barto- 

 lomei, Pindemonte, Morichini, Ferroni, Vacea, ScarpeUini, 

 Camellieri, Delfico, to the cardinal Consalvi, to the chevalier 

 Fossombroni, and to other lights and souls of my country. 



I have scarcely mentioned to you the celebrated woman of 

 Mizraim ; she has been a prey to all the scourges of time, 

 so that we can only write upon her remains, " Here was 

 Memphis !" 



Turning from the pyramids I entered into Grand-Cairo, and 

 thence down to Alexandria, in order to expedite to you the 

 plan of my researches : for you and the Regent of England 

 were the first to second my efforts. 



During my above-mentioned sojourn, I went to pay homage 

 to the man who governs Egypt, worthy of being inserted in the 

 pages of history by the side of Moeris and Menes, or with 

 Evergetes and Ptolomy, son of Lagos. 



Returning to Grand-Cairo I repaired to Asia: and plunging 

 into the deserts of Etam and those of Kedar, to see on one 

 side Pharan, and on the other Casinus, which includes in its 

 bosom the bones of the great Roman yet unrevenged. 



As I left, and Egypt was deserting me, I was reminded what 

 Amru wrote to the great Omar, desirous of a picture of that 

 country : figure to yourself, O Prince of the Faithful, a vast 

 and arid desert, with a river in the middle which is attended 

 in its course by two opposite hills, the borders of the ground 

 rendered fertile by that flood so blessed by Heaven. Most 

 just is the picture, and in that too which afterwards follows. 



Continuing by single stations I passed the isthmus of Suez, 

 and the fragments of Rinocerure, Raffia, and Agrippiades, and 

 leaving behind me Besor, I comforted my weary eye with the 

 olives of Gerar, the happy land of the Philistines. 



