12 TRAVELS IN Ul'PER 



trading from, andcopying Herodotus, Strabo, Dio- 

 dorus Siculus, and others. More fortunate than 

 Savary and many others, I had it in my power to 

 traverse the Sa&S, for this is the name given by the 

 Arabs to Upper Egypt, from ancient Cairo up to 

 Assouan ; and this consideration will perhaps ren- 

 der my work somewhat interesting. 



But what interest more powerful in favour of 

 travels through Egypt can be imagined, than to 

 reflect that it is no longer in the hands of the Ma- 

 nielucs who oppressed it ; thattheFrench, in break- 

 ing asunder the brazen yoke under which lived in 

 a state of brutal subjection the descendants of the 

 most illustrious nation of antiquity, present to them, 

 together with the gift of liberty, the means of re- 

 covering illumination and the sciences, the first do- 

 main of their ancestors ! Egypt such as I paint it, 

 will soon cease to be what I saw it. An immense 

 space of time is going to elapse in a few days, and 

 not long hence, nay during my own lifetime, I 

 shall be only an ancient traveller, as those of an- 

 tiquity at present are with respect to us. So many 

 prodigies were reserved for the greatest nation in 

 the universe. Cities shall rise again out of their 

 rubbish ; the monuments, to which all approach 

 was interdicted by ferocious usurpers, are going at 

 length to become objects of inspection ; those 

 which ignorance and barbarism took pains to an- 



4 nihilate 



