3o6 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



CHAP. LIV. 



Glance on ihe expedition of the French into Egypt — 

 Journey from Cairo to Rossctfa — Watering-ma- 

 chines — Loss of several animals — Attack on the 

 consul of Rossetta by the Bedouins — Birds of pas- 

 sage — Hedge-hog — Frogs — Reeds — Mastich — 

 Ramadan — Departure from Alexandria. 



More than five months spent in travelling over 

 Upper Egypt, that is to say, an extent in latitude, 

 of about a hundred and eighty leagues, watered 

 by the Nile above Cairo, and terminating at the 

 Cataracts, or at theTropic, and a frequent residence 

 in the principal parts of this country, may have 

 given me sufhcient information todehvermy opi- 

 nion on the late expedition of the French. There 

 are so many people who speak on this subject, with- 

 out knowing any thing of the nature of the soil and 

 of the climate of Egypt, or of the manners of its in- 

 habitants ; there are so many eulogists, as insipid as 

 they are ignorant ; there are so many detractors of a 

 dishonest character, that perhaps some degree of in- 

 terest will be excited by the frank and open decla- 

 ration of an observer, jealous of the glory and the 

 power of his country, to whom slavish adulation, 

 and the gloomy sourness of the malecontent, are 



equally 



