388 
disposition leading me to contemplate nature, rather 
thai i 1+t intrigues of men. 
During my stay I made several valuable and interest- 
ing acquisitions of natural history and antiquities. A 
very fine specimen of the flying fish, caught upon the 
coast, that I had in my possession, stuffed beginning to 
be a prey to the worms, I took a drawing 01 it. 
I passed nineteen days with my suite, encamped 
without the walls of the ancient Alexandria, and at a 
Short distance from the advanced posts of Elfi Bey. 
During my stay I had recourse to sea-bathing, and 
made a good collection of marine plants, which I ga- 
thered under the water. The captain pacha had the 
goodness to send me his physician every day, who 
came by sea in a boat. He also sent me confectionary, 
and many other things which he thought might be 
agreeable to me. The day before his departure, he 
presented me, in a very delicate manner, and without 
my asking for it, a letter to Mahomed Ali; another to 
the pacha of Damascus, and a firman for the sultan 
scherif of Mecca. The two letters were sealed; but 
the firman was rolled in a purse of white sattin, tied 
with a silken string, and closed with a little red wax; 
and had a small paper on the outside, on which was 
Written the address. The firman was conceived in the 
following terms: 
" God preserve it. 
" To the illustrious prince, the glory of princes, 
" heir of the prophets, and of divine glory. 
™ I present you my respects, with much submission 
and humility; for these sentiments proceed from a heart 
