192. TRAVELS IN UPPER 



them the good- will of the chiefs of the country, 

 always disposed to favour those most who pay them 

 best, in a word, their activity in conducting opera- 

 tions which they take care to keep secret, all an- 

 nounce the project which they had conceived, and 

 which they had already in part effected, of appro- 

 priating to themselves the exclusive commerce of 

 India through the Red-sea. 



The city of Alexandria, so contracted in modern 

 times, did not furnish a consumption of any im- 

 portance. The commerce accordingly there car- 

 ried on is a commerce of deposit ; but, as I have 

 said, it was considerable, and may become im- 

 mense. The custom-houses returned very large 

 sums: the collection of this revenue was intrusted 

 to a company of Christian merchants of Syria. To 

 form a judgment of their address, it will be suffi- 

 cient to say that they had supplanted the Jews, to 

 whom that branch of the revenue had been for- 

 merly committed. 



The merchandise transported in European bot- 

 toms to Alexandria, is conveyed by water-carriage 

 to Cairo, from whence, after having furnished a 

 supply to the necessities and to the luxury of that 

 populous city, it is dispersed over all Arabia, over 

 Upper Egypt, and even over Abyssinia. Thelittle 

 barks employed in carrying goods from Alexandria 



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