^S TRAVELS IN LTPER 



shipwreck. 1 he Nile is rnpid and narrow in this 

 place, and the force of the current, or the violence 

 of the wind, niay drive the boats against the rocks, 

 and dash them to pieces. At the time we passed, 

 the wind was furious, and the river extremely agi- 

 tated. 



The city of Manftloiit is very considerable, and 

 more handsome than that of Muilet. The streets 

 are broader and better planned. A country which 

 gives, in abundance, productions of every kind, 

 renders its situation agreeable ; and fruit-trees, 

 above which numerous palm-trees shoot forth their 

 branches, shade its walls. Its commerce consists 

 in grain of every kind, and in cloths, which arc 

 manufactured there in great quantities. The name 

 oiMaiijehmt, or Manf allot, as Father Vansleb writes 

 it, signifies, in Arabic, the place of Lofs exile ; be- 

 cause, from the report of the same Jesuit, who 

 grounds his opinion on the very suspicious tra- 

 dition of the Cophts, a certain Lot was exiled 

 thither by his brother, one of the ancient kings of 

 Egypt*. 



The KiascJu'fo( Manfeloiit was at Cairo, when I 

 departed from it. One of our merchants, who was 

 intimate with him, had given him information of 

 my intended journey. The honest Mameluc in- 



* Nouv. Relation d'Egypte, page 360. 



sisted 



