110 -^ Letter from Cairo. 



and of procuring the hewn stones of the exterior structure. The appearance 

 of the second chamber, which, as I before stated, seems to have been exca- 

 vated in the living rock, confirms this opinion. Had this chamber been 

 built, the nicest manipulation could not have concealed the sutures of the 

 stones. They are very visible in the principal and loftier chamber, and in 

 the passages leading to it. That the neighbouring sphynx has been shaped 

 out from an original amorphous mass, there can be no doubt. The trans- 

 verse stratification, inclining about thirty degrees to the horizon, is visible 

 across its whole bulk. I am not aware of the existence of any authentic 

 account of the interior of this pyramid having ever been subjected to very 

 rigorous examination. It is said that a well, nearly choked with rubbish, 

 has been recently discovered. I did not see it, but it is possible that my 

 traitor Arab there found his resting place. The task, " terebrare cavas 

 uteri et tentare latebras," of this riddle of three thousand years, or more, 

 may be perhaps better prosecuted through this well, than by any other 

 direction of search. 



I returned late in the evening, and heartily tired, to my lodgings. Onr 

 host, the renegado Scot, received us. From this man, cold, shrewd, and 

 observant, I have got some insight into the strange state of things around 

 me. I will endeavour to compress his information, and my own observa- 

 tions and reflections, into as small a space as possible, for I am ashamed of 

 the length to which this letter has already extended. Here is a country 

 which was once, as is evident from her monuments, even if history were 

 altogether silent, a mighty empire. Six hundred years before Christ, 

 while she was yet in the zenith of her grandeur, it was pronounced by the 

 prophet Ezekiel that she should be, in a few years, utterly overthrown, 

 and that though she should be afterwards in some measure restoied, " she 

 should continue for ever a base kingdom." It is repeated that " she shall 

 be the basest of kingdoms ; neither shall she be exalted any more among 

 the nations." Her annals inform us how literally this prediction has hith- 

 erto been fulfilled. The prophecy is the actual history of Egypt, down to 

 the present day. Though the iron grasp of her semi-barbarous ruler has 

 pressed her discordant atoms into temporary cohesion, they will probably 

 fall asunder and be dispersed, when age debilitates, or death destroys, the 

 hand which holds them. The ill-compacted ball of empire will hardly hold 

 together under the shock of transmission to a successor. Mohammed Ali, 

 Pasha, though bold and sagacious, is after all but a barbarian. He has 

 encouraged agriculture, but he sweeps all its productions into his own 

 garners, at his own price. He has urged his wealthier subjects to under- 

 take manufactories, and lent them money to establish them ; but as soon 

 as they promise well, he takes them to himself, and is become the sole 

 manufacturer of his empire. He has built moles, excavated harbours, and 

 called all the elements of commerce into action ; but no one buys or sells 

 but as bis factor, or under his special license, and he is now the sole 



