EGYPT. 



811 



Turkish province, governed by a pacha. It has 

 since been the theatre of continual internal wars of 

 the Mameluke beys against the Turkish dominion, 

 which has been several times, especially under Ali 

 Bey (1766), nearly extinguished in this country. 

 From 1798 to 1801, Egypt was occupied by the 

 French (see the latter part of the present article). 



Tliis country has subsequently, more than ever, 

 engaged the attention of the statesman and scholar. 

 We behold a prince, who has divested himself of 

 many prejudices of his nation, and has taken Euro- 

 pean models for imitation, in order to establish anew 

 the kingdom of the Ptolemies. This prince, Mo- 

 hammed Ali Pacha, governs Egypt with unlimited 

 sway. He is particularly attentive to the public 

 security ; he takes, therefore, all Franks under his 

 immediate protection, and permits no abuse of the 

 Greeks. When the Morea was conquered by his 

 arms (1825), he caused all the Christian population 

 to be transplanted to the countries on the Nile. 

 He has done much for the commerce and industry, 

 as well as for the civilization of Egypt. He is the 

 greatest merchant of the country, and no others can 

 deal with foreign countries without his consent. 

 The income of the pacha, which has been estimated 

 at between six and seven million pounds, arises 

 from poll and land taxes, customs of the ports of 

 Cairo, Suez, Damietta, Alexandria, &c.; branches 

 of revenue farmed out, including various fisheries ; 

 from the mint, from the sale of the cotton, indigo, 

 silk, sugar, rice, saffron, wool, ivory, frankincense, 

 &c., which he monopolizes, purchasing them at a low 

 rate from his subjects, &c. The number of vessels, 

 which arrived at Alexandria in the year 1829, was 

 909 ; in 1828, the arrivals were 891 ; in 1827, they 

 were 605. Of the arrivals in 1829, 361 were Aus- 

 trian vessels, 1 American from Smyrna, 4 Danish, 

 44 French, 200 British and Ionian, 8 Dutch, 32 

 Papal, 1 Russian, 135 Sardinian, 19 Sicilian, 5 

 Spanish, 13 Swedish, and 26 Tuscan. Most of 

 the voyages were from the Archipelago, or from 

 Turkish ports. 



Some years since, Ibrahim, the pacha's son, forced 

 the Wahabites (q. v.) to withdraw to their deserts, and 

 his second son, Ismael Pacha, undertook an expedi- 

 tion into Nubia, in order to extend the authority of 

 his father there. Ismael penetrated (1820) from 

 Syene to Dongola, on the left bank of the Nile, 

 defeated the residue of the Mamelukes, and re- 

 duced Dongola to an Egyptian province. At the 

 same time, Mohammed completed the new canal of 

 Alexandria, called by him in honour of the sultan, 

 Mahmudie canal; a vast undertaking, commenced 

 January 8, 1819, under the superintendence of six 

 European engineers, with about 100,000 labourers ; 

 and their number, though more than 7000 men died 

 of contagious diseases, was gradually increased to 

 290,000, each of whom received about lOd. sterling, 

 per diem. The canal was completed on the 13th 

 September. It extends from below Saone, on the 

 Nile, to Pompey's pillar, and is 47 miles long, 90 

 feet wide, and 18 feet deep. This is the first essay 

 Cowards the execution of his plan of restoring the 

 ancient commerce of Alexandria with Arabia and 

 the Indies. Within a short time, he has established 

 a line of telegraphs, a printing-press at Boulac 

 near Cairo,* a military school, and a higher institu- 

 tion, for education, principally to form dragomans 

 (i. e., interpreters) and other public officers. The 

 teachers consist of French and Italian officers. 

 In 1826, he sent several young Egyptians to France, 

 to receive a European education. 



* Several works have already been issued from this press; 

 mon|? others, a Dizionirio Italiano et Arabiano, Bolaceo, 

 delta flump, reals, 1822, 2 touti. 



Under the government of Mohammed, all the 

 European travellers, whom the love of discovery now 

 draws in greater numbers than ever to those sepul- 

 chres and monuments of departed civilization, find 

 protection and support. But it is impossible to re- 

 move all the obstacles that suspicion, the hatred of 

 foreigners, and the avarice prevailing among the 

 Bedouin sheiks, throw in the way of the European. 

 Passing over the earlier travels of Brown, of Horne- 

 mann, and Burckhardt, (the two first of whom were 

 unable to discover any traces of the temple of Jupiter 

 Ammon), we will mention some of the latest. 

 Among these, the travels of Belzoni, in 1819, deserve 

 especial notice. The Italian chevalier Frediani has 

 published a pompous description of the ruins of 

 the temple of Jupiter Ammon, in his letters from 

 Schiwah, dated March 30, 1820 ; butGau, a Prussian 

 architect from Cologne (see Gau), contradicts the 

 accounts of Frediani; so also does Drovetti, late 

 consul-general of France in Egypt. These ruins the 

 French Cailliaud asserts he has examined and mea- 

 sured. He also discovered the old emerald mines in 

 the mountain Zabarah, and found them in the very 

 state in which they had been left by the engineers of 

 Ptolemy, with all their implements, from which we 

 can, in some degree, deduce the mode of mining 

 among the ancients. In 1820, Cailliaud accompanied 

 the son of the viceroy on the above mentioned expe- 

 dition to Dongola. The travels of Cailliaud to the 

 Oasis of Thebes, and the deserts to the east and west 

 of it, were published by Jomard. The travels of 

 Henry Light (a British captain of artillery) to Egypt, 

 Nubia, and the Holy Land, are not to be compared 

 with those of Burckhardt, but they are not without 

 interest, as far as respects the pacha of Egypt, Jeru- 

 salem, and the Druses. The four months' journey 

 of lieutenant Fitz-Clarence (aid to the marquis of 

 Hastings, governor-general of India), from Bombay 

 through India and Egypt, to London, (1818), are 

 more interesting. We ought to mention the travels 

 of two Englishmen (Waddington and Hanbury), who 

 accompanied the pacha on his expedition from Egypt 

 to Nubia, (1820). They pretend to have examined, 

 minutely, Dongola, and Darshegga, and to have dis- 

 covered the ancient Saba, subsequently called Meroe. 

 In 1824, captain N. F. Gordon, of the British navy, 

 undertook to travel up the Nile, to discover the 

 sources of the Behr-el-Abiad. He only reached 

 Villel-Medinet,(a day's journey from Sennaar), where 

 he died. Several Germans, also, have, within a 

 short time, undertaken scientific expeditions to the 

 East and Egypt; e. g., Seetzen, Sieber, whose book 

 of travels describes Crete, Cairo, and Jerusalem ; 

 and Ruppel, from Frankfort on the Maine. (See 

 Africa.) With the same view, the Prussian general 

 Menu von Minutoli undertook such a course of 

 travels in August, 1820. Ehrenberg, who accom- 

 panied him, has published, in Berlin, his discoveries 

 in natural history. They were supported in the 

 enterprise by the Prussian government. The gene- 

 ral returned to Germany in September, 1821, and 

 published an interesting work respecting his collec- 

 tions and discoveries. The travels in Egypt, how- 

 ever, which have excited most interest, are those 

 of Champollion, who, by various publications, greatly 

 increased our knowledge respecting this country. 



For a general account of what the late discoveries 

 have taught of the ancient history of Egypt, and for 

 a popular account of Egyptian antiquities, we must 

 refer the reader to the marquis Spineto's Lectures on 

 the Elements of Hieroglyphics and Egyptian Antiqui 

 ties (London, 1829). For information respecting 

 the Egyptian language, we refer to A compendious 

 Grammar of the Egyptian Language, as contained in / 

 (he Coptic and Sahidic Dialects, with Observations on 



