AND LOWER EGYPT. 8; 



Our course lay eastward, and the wind soon came 

 <o blow from that quarter. It not only remained 

 contrary for two days, but likewise became very 

 violent, and agitated the sea to such a degree that 

 the ship laboured exceedingly. The bird, the fore- 

 runner of storms *, appeared in our wake, and we 

 prepared for what was hastening to overtake us. 



On the 12th, with a clear sky, and our sails 

 filled with a favourable gale, we came in sight of 

 the island of Cerigo, the ancient Cythera, where 

 Venus landed when she arose out of the foam of 

 the ocean. Situated at the entrance of the Archi- 

 pelago of the Levant, that island actually consti- 

 tutes part of the French Republic, under the name 

 of the department of the Egean sea -f\ It befitted 

 the most amiable nation in the universe to possess 

 a spot which antiquity has consecrated to the love- 

 liest of goddesses. 



We likewise discovered, at a small distance from 

 the department of the Egean sea, four parched 

 rocks, uninhabited, and cut perpendicularly : Ovo 

 (the egg), whose form is, in reality, abundantly 



* L'Oiseau de itm^itC^—Jtrocellariapelagica, Lin. 



f " Department of the Egean sea! ! !" What ridiculous re- 

 publican jargon ! " The most amiable of nations — the loveliest 

 " of goddesses ! ! !" and all this nonsense in a grave book of tra- 

 vels through Hgypt. — H. H. 



e 4 similar 



