TRAVELS IN UPPER 



ships of tlii> kind never lose sight. Bnt it was 

 ncrcssaiy to wait a long tintie for a passage to 

 Dsjedda. I should have been, most probably, de- 

 tained there ?H11 longer, before 1 could have found 

 an opportunity of reaching the shores of Ethiopia. 

 These reflections determined me to take the route 

 of Upper Egypt, though it was not perfectly 

 free. A party of Mamelucs, attached to Ismael 

 Bey, whom Mourat had just put to flight, had 

 retired thither, and deranged the organization, 

 very faulty without doubt, but sometimes a pro- 

 tection of the government of these countries. 

 Besides, the disturbances, although in themselves 

 very trifling, had there opened a door for the 

 pillages of the Arabs and the piracies of the 

 fellahs ; and the dangers, always indeed existing 

 even in the moments of tranquillity, became in- 

 evitable, when the agitation, rarely interrupted, 

 tormented them with concussion upon concussion. 



But these circumstances did not alter my re- 

 solution ; and if the desire of visiting a country 

 unknown to me had not determined me to sur- 

 mount difficulties, the uneasiness I experienced 

 at Cairo, would have been sufficient to decide my 

 conduct. I was eager to quit a city, where the 

 traveller was shut up in a narrow enclosure, the 

 limits of which he could not transgress without 

 exposing himself, and without the danger of ex- 



posin 



