EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 75 
There is another uncertain caravan from Morocco, which 
employs five thoufand camels for merchandife ; part pafles to 
Mecca, and part remains to tranfadt bufinefs, and await the 
return of the pilgrims. The other caravans are merely for the 
carriage of goods ; and the camels are fupplied by the Arabs, 
who rove through the deferts which form the boundaries of 
Egypt. 
The navigation of the Red Sea cannot be conduced upon 
worfe principles than it is by the Egyptians and Arabs. The 
fhips are conftrudted on a wrong plan, being fharp, while the 
fhallows and rocks require veffels that draw little water ; and 
they are overcharged with paflengers and goods. Hence the 
palTage would be dangerous, even if managed by able navi- 
gators ; but the mariners here are extremely unfkilful, and only 
pique themfelves on avoiding the funk rocks near the fhore, in 
which it muft be confefled they are very dextrous. The fhips 
employed by perfons refiding in Egypt are thirty-feven in num- 
ber, fo far as I could learn from an agent at Suez, and fo many 
are loft, that the continual building barely fupplies the ufual 
number. 
European imports in general have been fpecified under the 
head Alexandria. From Tunis and Tripoli are brought oil, 
red caps, of a particular manufacture, for which Tunis is 
famous, and fine flannel, ufed for garments by the Bedouins and 
others. From Syria arrive cotton, filk, crude and manufac- 
tured, foap, tobacco, beads of glafs. From Conftantinople, 
L 2 befides 
