THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 127 



not {ucceed among a people fond of war, by any other 

 means, but by giving them a minor for their king, who 

 was by the law of the land under her diredlion, as the coun- 

 try was, during his minority, under her regency. 



Although this, the ordinary ftate of the emprefs's poli- 

 tics, had hitherto anfwered well between the kingdoms, 

 when no other parties were engaged, the introdudion of a 

 third power, and its influence, totally changed that fyftem. 

 The Turks, an enemy not yet known in any formidable 

 line by the fouthe'rn part of Africa, or Afia, now appeared 

 under a form that made all thofe fouthern Hates tremble. 



Selim, emperor of Conftantinople, had defeated Canfo el 

 Gauri, Soldan of Egypt, and flain him in the field. After a 

 fecond battle he had taken Cairo, the capital of that country ; 

 and, under the fpecious pretence of a violation of the law 

 of nations, by Tomum Bey, the fuccelTor, who was faid to 

 have put his ambafTadors to death, he had hanged that 

 prince upon one of the principal gates of his own capital ; 

 and, by this execution, had totally dcflroyed the fucceflion of 

 the Mamalukes. Sinan Balha, the great general and mini- 

 fler of Selim, in a very few months over-ran all the pcninfu- 

 la of Arabia, to the verge of the Indian Ocean. 



These people, trained to war,. Mahomet had infpired with 

 cnthufiafm, and led them to the conqueft of the Eaft. Trade 

 and luxury had, after that, difarmed and reduced them to 

 much the fame fituation as, in a former age, they had been 

 found by Auguflus Caefar. Sinan Bafha, with a troop of 

 veterans, had, by degrees extirpated the native princes of 

 the country ; thofe that refilled, by force ; and thofe that 



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