THE SOURCE OF THE NILE, 23 



their priefls, and moullahs, their foldiers, and people living 

 in the country, are, in point of manners, juit as bad as the 

 others. 



Rosetto is in lat. 31* 24' 15" N. ; it is the place where 

 we embark, for Cairo, which we accordingly did on June 

 the 30th. 



There is a wonderful deal of talk at Alexandria of the 

 danger of palling over the defert to Rofetto. The fame 

 conversation is held here. After you embark on the Nile 

 in your way to Cairo, you hear of pilots, and mafters oT 

 TefTcls, who land you among robbers to fhare your plunder, 

 and twenty fuch like {lories, all of them of old dare, and 

 which perhaps happened long ago, or never happened at 

 all. 



But provided the government of Cairo is fettlrd, and you 

 do not land at villages in ftrife with each other, (in which 

 circumftances no perfon of any nation is fafe) you mult be 

 very unfortunate indeed, if any great accident befal you be- 

 tween Alexandria and Cairo. 



For, from the conflant intercourfe between thefe two ci- 

 ties, and the valuable charge confided to thefe mafters of 

 veflels, they are all as well known, and at the leail as much" 

 under authority, as the boatmen on the river Thames ; and, 

 -if they mould have either killed, or robbed any perfon, it 

 mult be with a view to leave the country immediately ; elfe 

 either at Cairo, Rofetto, Fue, or Alexandria, wherever they 

 were firft caught, they would infallibly be hanged. 



■v. i. c C H A P. 



