112 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



at Alexandria, and who have been the witnesses i 

 perhaps the victims, of this character of ferocity. 

 If, on the entrance of a victorious army, they knew 

 how to assume the appearance of good people, it 

 is not to be wondered at. The cruellest of men is 

 commonly the most abject : he has no valour, un- 

 less when he is sure of being the stronger ; he fawns 

 the moment he feels himself weak ; but he retains 

 his character of perfidy and treason, and those arms 

 of grovelling souls he will certainly employ, as 

 often as he thinks he can pass undiscovered. 



The Arabic is the language generally spoken at 

 Alexandria, as well as all over Egypt. But most 

 of the Alexandrians, those in particular whom com- 

 mercial intercourse brings into contact with the 

 merchants of Europe, speak likewise the Italian, 

 adopted in the ports of the Levant. The Moresco 

 or lingua Franca is likewise spoken there ; it is a 

 compound of bad Italian. Spanish, and Arabic. A 

 stranger could, more easily there than any where 

 else, provide himself with domestics, who, if they 

 were not of approved fidelity, had at least the fa- 

 cility of making themselves understood by persons 

 not well versed in the Arabic. A Serdar, an offi- 

 cer of no great consideration, had the command 

 there, and his power did not always extend so far 

 as to overawe an ungovernable populace. 



A wide 



