466 
DIOGLESIAN'S PILLAR. 
unload close to the wharfs, it is only in a small part of the harbour, 
near to the causeway of the Pharos, that the little vessels of the 
Turkish empire can find a shelter from the northerly winds, in from 
two to five fathom water. The climate is by no means unpleasant, 
as the heat is tempered in summer by the strong gales, which almost 
constantly blow from the north, and carry with them the thick 
black clouds that, after breaking on the mountains of the interior of 
Africa, return in the floods of the Nile to fertilize the plains of 
Egypt. It is only a knowledge of this that can reconcile its inhabi- 
tants to seeing them constantly pass over their heads without once 
falling in a refreshing shower. 
The consuls of the European powers live together in tolerable 
amity, except when a war between their masters reduces them to 
the necessity of not visiting in public. The British and French 
Consuls General are indeed the leaders, and the rivalry between 
their countries rages with full force at Alexandria. Major Mis- 
sett is a man admirably adapted for his situation. He is well 
acquainted with the chiefs who rule over the different parts of this 
once flourishing, but now distracted, country, knows their wants 
and washes, and by a firm, but conciliatory, system of conduct, has 
baffled all the projects of the French, who still look back on Egypt 
with the steady determination of seizing on the first opportunity 
of re-conquering it. For this they have employed their emissaries 
in instigating the Beys against each other, and the Pacha against 
them all, and have thereby prevented tranquillity from being 
restored, which would, they justly think, preclude the possibility 
of their return. 
At the convention of El Arish, they prepared to leave a force 
