1824.] 
district would become a desert; from 
the cessation of irrigation, or by the 
death of the projector, or by some 
public commotion. It might have been 
begun by Sesostris, the first King of 
Egypt who had any idea of commer- 
cial enterprise, and of whose power 
and grandeur more is probably re- 
lated by Diodorus Siculus than is true, 
yet there is no doubt but he was a 
powerful sovereign, a great promoter 
of the sciences at home, and exer- 
cising’a paternal care over the many 
nations he conquered. His tradition- 
ary historians say, that he dug canals 
near Memphis to facilitate navigation, 
and to unite by water distant provinces 
with one another. Sesostris is said to 
have fitted out 400 ships on the Ara- 
bian gulph, in an expedition for India. 
The long and splendid reign of Sesos- 
tris does not appear to have confirmed 
the commercial habits of the Egyp- 
tians; for, on his death, they seem to 
have relapsed into their former state ; 
and, if he was the projector of the 
eanal, the remains of which exist 
between Suez and Cairo, and died 
before the undertaking was finished, 
probably bis successor did not prose- 
cute it. Perhaps this speculation may 
be corroborated on the authority of 
Strabo, that the Lower Egypt was 
nearly an uninhabited swamp, and the 
precaution that might intluence other 
kings of Egypt might not him ; by the 
canals, dikes, and drains, he made, he 
considerably improved Egypt; and, in 
D’Anville’s map, there is still the 
course of a wall marked out between 
Cairo and Pelusium, or Tineh. 
After the destruction of Thebes 
(vide Strabo), commerce descended to 
Memphis, whith in turn became the 
focus of wealth and activity, and the 
residence of the kings, who, like men of 
the same trade in other countries, 
lavishly squandered the produce of 
other men’s industry. Memphis, of 
which some idea may be formed from 
those colossal efforts of man, the Pyra- 
mids, and other stupendous ruins, fell, 
in its turn, in consequence of the bar- 
barous temper, military mania, and 
odious despotism, of regal tyrants; 
and Alexandria, in consequence of an 
opposite policy being pursued, suc- 
ceeded to itssplendour and commercial 
importance. This city was built by 
Alexander on the western side of one 
of the mouths of the Nile; this philoso- 
pher, who was the pupil and compa- 
nion of Aristotle, might be expected to. 
Proposal for an East-India Steam- Mail. 
483 
Select a situation combining every 
commercial advantage: his early death 
does not appear to have impeded the 
rapid progress of Alexandria. The 
influence of the common will of the 
people, and the inyiolability of the 
persons of ' Alexandria, collected the 
people, and. accumulated the riches of 
all nations under the reigns of the ear- 
lier Ptolemies. Under these sove- 
reigns, who were the patrons of the 
arts and sciences and commerce, 
Alexandria soon acquired unrivalled 
influence and wealth. Wise govern- 
ments should be contrasted with the 
rapine and despotism that so frequently 
desolate other states; wherever men 
have. justice, the arts and sciences 
flourish, and, wherever life and pro- 
perty are at the command of one ora 
few, they are extinguished. Despot- 
ism is like the Upas tree, it destroys 
every thing but itself: nothing but the 
hateful tyranny of kings has converted 
those fruitful regions into a wilderness, 
inhabited by brutal slaves. Ptolemy, 
the friend and successor of Alexander, 
erected a light-house on the island of 
Pharos, which was accounted, from its 
splendour, one of the seven wonders of 
the world, a work that shows his 
attention to the wants of the people. 
His son and successor, in order to 
unite the Red Sea with the Mediterra- 
nean, to facilitate the commerce 
between Arsinoe and Alexandria, and 
to destroy the trade that had begun to 
resuscitate at Tyre, began to dig a 
canal between Arsinoe (called after his 
sister) and Pelusium, a distance direct 
of about eighty miles, of thirty cubits 
depth, and 100 im breadth; (vide 
Strabo:) this canal would not have 
drained the Delta, as might be appre- 
hended, by the one from Suez to Cairo; 
and Ptolemy probably saw this objec- 
tion, by digging the other, or the one 
from Suez to Cairo, which would have 
been the most direct to Alexandria; 
but the turning of the course of the 
Nile would have destroyed the ferti- 
lity of the Delta, now. indispensible to 
the prosperity of Alexandria. From 
some cause, the Pelusian canal was 
never opened, and Ptolemy was “com- 
pelled to take to the route throagh 
Upper Egypt, supposed to be merely 
that used by the kings of Thebes and 
Memphis. Probably it was on account 
of the more difficult navigation of the 
top of the Red Sea, or Sea of Suez, 
that the canal was abandoned, as 
Ptolemy founded a city some distance 
down 
