EGMONT EGYPT. 



807 



EGMONT, LAMORAL, count of, was born in 1522, 

 of an illustrious family of Holland. He entered the 

 military service, and gained a high reputation under 

 Charles V. whom he accompanied to Africa in 1544. 

 He distinguished himself as general of cavalry, under 

 Philip II., in the battles of St Quentin (1557) and 

 Gravelines (1558). Philip having gone to Spain, 

 Egmont took part in the troubles in the Low Coun- 

 tries ; he endeavoured, however, to adjust the diffi- 

 culties between the duchess of Parma, who governed 

 the provinces, and the nobles confederated against 

 her. He even swore, in the presence of this princess, 

 to support the Roman Catholic faith, to punish the 

 sacrilegious, and to extirpate heretics. Still his con- 

 nexion with the prince of Orange and his most dis- 

 tinguished adherents, made him an object of suspicion 

 to the court of Aranjuez, and Egmont, with the 

 noble Pliilip of Montmorency, count Horn, became 

 the victims of hate and fanaticism. The duke of 

 Alva, who was sent by Philip II. to the Netherlands, 

 to reduce the insurgents, ordered them both to be 

 executed at Brussels, June 5, 1563. Egmont was 

 then in the 46th year of his age. He died with 

 heroic firmness. The French ambassador announced 

 the event to his court with these words : " I have 

 seen tliat head fall which twice made France trem- 

 ble." Egmont liad before written to Philip II., that 

 " he had never joined in any undertaking against the 

 Catholic religion, nor violated his duties as a loyal 

 subject." But an example was thought necessary to 

 strike terror into others. Philip II. expressed him- 

 self thus on the subject ; " he had caused those two 

 heads to fall, because a pair of such salmon heads 

 was worth more than many thousand frogs." Eg- 

 mont's line became extinct in Procopius Francis, 

 count of Egmont, general of cavalry to the king of 

 Spain, and brigadier in the French service, who died 

 without children, at Fraga, in Arragon (1707), at 

 the age of thirty-eight years. (See J. J. de Cloet's 

 Eloge historique du Comte d 1 Egmont, &c., Brussels, 

 1825.) Maximilian von Egmont, count of Buren, 

 general in the service of the emperor Charles V., who 

 distinguished himself in the wars against Francis I., 

 belonged to another line. A well known drama of 

 Goethe, called Egmont, is founded on the above catas- 

 trophe ; yet we cannot help thinking, that, if poetry 

 often gives to liistorical characters a fictitious eleva- 

 tion, the reverse has taken place in this instance, and 

 that Egmont in history, the father of a family, is 

 greater than Goethe's Egmont, a lover and imprudent 

 conspirator. 



EGMONT ISLAND, in the South Pacific ocean, 

 six miles long and four broad, is low, and full oi 

 trees. Lon. 138 30' West ; lat. 19 20* S. 



EGMONT ISLAND, or NEW GUERNSEY ; 

 principal island in the group called Queen Charlotte's 

 islands, in the South Pacific ocean. According to 

 the account given of them by captain Carteret, the 

 inhabitants are extremely nimble, vigorous, and active, 

 with a bravery undismayed by the fire of musketry. 

 They seem as fit to live in the water as on land. 

 The country in general is mountainous, covered with 

 woods, and intersected with many valleys and smal 

 rivers. This island is about fifty-four miles in length 

 and from twenty to thirty-two in breadth. Lon. 166' 

 E. ; lat. 11 S. 



EGRA, EGER, or CHEBBE ; a town in Bo 

 hernia, in Saatz, capital of a district ; seventy- 

 six miles west of Prague; Ion. 12 21' E. ; lat 

 50 3' N. ; population, 8111 ; houses, 740. It 

 was formerly imperial, and lias a castle, seven 

 churches, an hospital, and a Catholic gymnasium 

 Near it are some medicinal springs, the waters o 

 which are exported in bottles, sealed with the arms 

 of the town. Wallenstein was assassinated here in 



634. The population of the district, 23,000; 

 quare miles, 106. 



EGRA, or EGER ; a river which rises in Ba- 

 varia, and runs into the Elbe, near Leitmeritz, in 

 Bohemia. 



EGYPT; called by the Arabs, Mezr; by the 

 opts, Khemi; and by the Turks, El Kabit; formerly 



mighty empire, the seat of a high civilization, the 

 and of wonderful creations of human power, and 

 an object of endless curiosity to the philosophic 

 inquirer; now scarcely a fifth part inhabited, and 

 governed by a Turkish pacha or viceroy, (Moliammed 

 Ali) appointed or confirmed by the sultan ; but who 

 las recently rendered himself independent of the 

 3 orte, and made himself master of Palestine and Syria. 

 Sgypt lies in North Africa, between 22 and 32 N. 

 at. and 27 and 34 E. Ion. It is bounded on the N. 

 jy the Mediterranean sea, on the E. by the Red sea 

 and by Arabia, with which it is connected by the 

 sthmus of Suez, on the S. by Nubia, and on the W. 

 by Barca and the great desert. It contains about 

 200,000 square miles, of which only about 17,OOC 

 quare miles, in the valley of the Nile (600 miles 

 long, and from twelve to twenty-five broad), are sus- 

 ceptible of cultivation. The population is differently 

 estimated at from 2,500,000 to 4,000,000. Geogra- 

 phers divide it into Upper Egypt (Said), Middle Egypt 

 (Pbstani), and Lower Egypt (Bahart), including the 

 fertile Delta. These are again divided into twelve 

 provinces, each of which is governed by a bey, and 

 which, together, contain about 2500 cities and vil- 

 lages. Three chains of mountains run through the 

 country. The Nile (the Blue river) flows through it 

 in a northerly direction. Besides lake Moeris, cele- 

 brated in antiquity, at present called Birket Karun 

 (Charon's lake), and almost dried up, there are 

 others, especially the natron or salt lakes. The 

 climate is in general hot, and is moderate in Lower 

 Egypt only. The great heat produces the rankest 

 vegetation. The simoom (chamsiri), a formidable 

 south wind which blows at intervals during the first 

 fifty days after the vernal equinox, the plague, and 

 ophthalmia are the peculiar torments of Egypt. It 

 has but two seasons spring and summer : the latter 

 lasts from April to November. During this period, 

 the sky is always clear, and the weather hot. In the 

 spring, the nights are cool and refreshing. 



The greater part of the land is arid, and covered 

 with burning sands ; but wherever the waters of the 

 Nile are conducted in canals beyond the natural limits 

 of their overflow, the earth becomes fertile, and fruits 

 thrive with great luxuriance. Corn, rice, millet, 

 pulse, kitchen vegetables, melons, sugar cane, sweet 

 rush, papyrus (peculiar to the country), flax and 

 hemp, onions, carthamus or saffron, indigo, aloe, 

 jalap, coloquintida, saltwort (salsola soda), cardamom, 

 cotton, palm-groves, sycamores, tamarinds, cassia, 

 acacias, &c., cover the country. There is not a 

 great variety of garden flowers, but roses are raised 

 in large quantities, especially in the marshy Fayoum, 

 and rose-water forms an important article of export. 

 The soil consists of lime, with numerous shells and 

 petrifactions; it contains marble, alabaster, por- 

 phyry, jasper, granite, common salt, natron, salt- 

 petre, alum, &c. The woods and marshes, rivers and 

 plains, furnish a great variety of animals, including 

 horned cattle, buffaloes, asses, horses, camels, sheep 

 with large fat tails, dogs, cats, lions, tigers, hyaenas, 

 jackals, wolves, foxes, gazelles, giraffes, storks, ibises 

 (which devour the snakes in the mud of the Nile) 

 hens (the eggs of which are hatched in ovens), cro 

 codiles, river-horses, ichneumons, &c. 



The people consist of Copts (embracing, at most. 

 30,000 families), Arabs (who are the most numerous, 

 and are divided into Fellahs, or peasants and Bed- 



