212 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



the beauty of the landscape ; here, the cities dis- 

 play in vista their lofty and pointed turrets; there, 

 expand lakes and canals, a source of fecundity in- 

 exhaustible ; every where are distinguishable the 

 signs of an easy cultivation, of an eternal spring, 

 and of a fertility incessantly renovated and endlessly 

 varied *-. 



Rossetta is likewise the place of Egypt whose 

 tranquillity is the least liable to discomposure. 

 Nothing is known there of those insurrections, 

 those tumults, that restless agitation which disturb 

 the peace of the other cities. There the stranger 

 was in perfect security, and could walk about at his 

 ease, without being obliged to assume the dress of 

 the country, which it was impossible for him to do 

 in any other part of Egypt. He rambled over the 

 plains, he penetrated into enclosures, he traversed 

 the gardens in every direction, trampled vegetation 

 under his feet, while no one took offence at what 

 he did. In the course of those delightful excur- 

 sions, which I loved frequently to repeat, the hus- 

 bandman or the gardener invited me into his cot- 

 tage, and treated me with coffee. With the same 

 manners, the same usages, the same ignorance and 

 fanaticism, the inhabitants of Rossetta would have 

 remained, as those of the ruins of Alexandria, as 



* An idea may be formed of this part of Egypt, by casting the 

 eye over plate VIII. of this work. 



those 



