CAIRO. 383 
requested the Pacha to lend him some cannon to fire a salute on the 
occasion. The Pacha replied that he did not believe his story, and 
that if he did, he would not let him have the cannon. 
March 2. — The disturbances in Egypt during the last three years, 
had rendered a visit to the Pyramids too dangerous for individuals 
to venture, and I, consequently, had numerous applications from 
the Europeans who happened to be in Cairo, to permit them to attend 
me, with which, of course, I complied. The Pacha supplied my party 
with horses, and sent two Chaous Bashi to take care of us, as usual. 
About eleven we quitted the city, and passing among the innumera- 
ble hillocks, composed of broken pottery, decayed bricks, and sand, 
which rise to a gr€at height between New and Old Cairo, at length 
reached the convent of St. George, which is within the walls of the 
Citadel of the latter. It consists of a lofty round tower, divided 
into many apartments, and some square buildings, both of great 
antiquity. 
As the air is salubrious, and the vicinity to the river and the 
groves of the island of Rhoda renders the scene more pleasing than 
the narrow streets of the city, it was formerly the custom for many 
respectable families to come out and reside here during the summer 
months, the good fathers supplying them with provisions, and by 
the presents they received in return, adding somewhat to their own 
scanty pittance. The heavy contributions which Mohammed Ali 
was obliged to levy on that part of the country, which is under his 
control, in order to satisfy the rapacity of the Albanian banditti, 
who raised him to power, have ruined numbers, and have reduced 
the monks of St. George to so wretched a state, that they have been 
obliged to abandon this large convent, and retire to a smaller 
