SUEZ. 
353 
taken place ; but I understand that the Pacha has most faithfully 
promised to receive the duty only, and that sooner than take 
back their coffee, they are determined to trust him; and, accord- 
ingly, the whole is to go with my caravan. 
The disadvantac^es under which Suez has ever laboured, have 
been considerable from its situation ; at the extremity of a narrow 
sea, down w^hich the wind blows with irresistible force for at least 
nine months in the year. It was in early times some counterbalance 
to this, that a navigable canal extended from it to the most fertile 
province of Egypt, whence grain must always have been exported 
for the supply of Arabia. But even the advantages which water- 
carriage has over land, could not preserve to Suez the great trade 
of the Red Sea. The Ptolemies, many of whom seem to have been 
admirable judges of what was for the benefit of the country they 
ruled over, found it more advisable to establish a new emporium 
at Berenice, although it was necessary to convey the goods from 
that place upwards of two hundred miles over land, before they 
could be embarked on the Nile at Coptos, the modern Koust. 
Were Egypt to be once again tranquil, and under the control of 
one master, and even were the ancient canal to be cleansed, I still 
doubt whether Suez would become a place of great trade, for the 
improvement of the science of navigation has not yet extended to 
the discovery of any means, by which a vessel could resist the force 
of the northerly winds, which blow in the upper part of the Gulf; 
but as it is only at the island of Shaduan that they become so 
violent, Gosseir is always attainable ; and the diminution of the 
distance by land, from two hundred miles, to about one hundred 
and twenty, would fully repay the additional sea voyage of one 
