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14 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



thofe diiferent nations I could induce to walk with me ; and, 

 as I constantly fpoke Arabic, was taken for a * Bedowe by 

 all forts of people ; "but, notwithstanding the advantage this 

 freedom gave me, and of which I daily availed myfelf, I 

 never could hear a word of this monument from either 

 Greek, Jew, Moor, or Christian. 



Alexandria has been often taken fince the time of Ca> 

 far. It was at laSt destroyed by the Venetians and Cypriots, 

 upon, or rather after the releafe of St Lewis, and we may 

 fay of it as of Carthage, Pericre minis, its very ruins appear 

 no longer. 



The building of the prefent gates and walls, which fome 

 have thought to be antique, does not feem earlier than the 

 laft reftoration in the 1 3th century. Some parts of the gate 

 and walls may be of older date ; (and probably were thole of 

 the laft Caliphs before Salidan) but, except thefe, and the 

 pieces of columns which lie horizontally in different parts 

 of the wall, every thing elfe is apparently of very late times, 

 and the work has been huddled together in great hafte. 



It is in vain then to expect a plan of the city, or try to 

 trace here the Macedonian mantle of Dinofhares ; the 

 very veStiges of ancient ruins are covered, many yards deep, 

 by rubbifh, the remnant of the devastations of later times. 

 Cleopatra, were She to return to life again, would fcarcely 

 know where her palace was Situated, in this her own ca- 

 pital. 



There 



* A peafant Arab. 



