136 CHRONOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



In " A. D. 1498," the accession of Kansu Abu-Said, the thirty-ninth 

 Memluk sultan of Egypt, took place. 



In " A. D. 1499" (Marcel), the accession of Kansu Djan-balat, the 

 fortieth Memluk sultan of Egypt, took place. 



In "A. D. 1500" (Marcel), the accession of Toman-Bay, the forty- 

 first Memluk sultan of Egypt, took place. 



In "A. D. 1501," the accession of Kansu El-Gouri, the forty-second 

 Memluk sultan of Egypt, took place. He built at Cairo the mosque 

 which bears his name (Wilkinson, Thebes and Egypt, p. 297) ; and 

 sent a fleet down the Red Sea against the Portuguese, who had entered 

 the Indian Ocean. 



According to Wilkinson (Thebes and Egypt, p. 546), the use of 

 Kufic letters ceased in A. D. 1508. 



In the same year, according to Pereira, guaiacum (the product of 

 Guaiacum officinale) was first brought to Europe by Gonsalvo Ferrand; 

 who obtained the drug from the natives of St. Domingo. — Guaiacum 

 is noticed by Dalechamp (Annot. in Diosc), and by Monardes; and 

 Forskal (Mat. Med.) speaks of its medicinal use in Egypt. 



In "A. D. 1516," the accession of Toman-Bay II., the last of the 

 Borgite Memluk Dynasty, and the last sultan of Egypt, took place. 



The Turks having defeated the Egyptian army in Syria, partly 

 through the employment of artillery (Marcel, p. 189), the Turkish sul- 

 tan, Selim, entered Egypt in "A. D. 1517," and obtained possession of 

 the country. The sovereignty and Muslim spiritual authority were 

 now transferred to Constantinople; the Memluks were formed into an 

 aristocracy ; and from this time, the names of the Turkish sultans 

 were inserted on the Egyptian coins (Wilkinson, Thebes and Egypt, 

 p. 557).* 



In " A. D. 1520," the accession of Suliman II., the second Turkish 

 sultan who ruled Egypt, took place. The coins issued by him bear 

 the date of his accession only, agreeably to the uniform practice of the 

 Turkish sultans (Marcel, p. 200). 



Whether the celery (Apium dulce) is a European or Magellanic 

 plant, is a question to be decided by comparing specimens. The Straits 

 of Magellan were first visited by Europeans in the last-named year. — 

 Twenty-six years later, Belon found the " ache" cultivated and blanched 



* According to Pereira, the Spaniards first became acquainted with cochineal (Coccus 

 cacti) on their arrival in Mexico, about A. D. 1518. — Cochineal has doubtless been some- 

 times imported into Egypt; but I have met with no direct evidence of the fact. 



