ROSETTA. 3/3 
camp, English officers, on horses, on camels, or 
on foot, added to numerous boats filled with 
troops upon the water, gave to the place a 
character of gaiety never perhaps possessed by 
it in any former age. AH authors mention the 
beauty of its scenery, complaining only of the 
monotony and dulness of the city. At the tirafe 
we saw it, no such complaint could be made ; 
for, with unrivalled natural beauty, Rosetta then 
exhibited one of the liveliest and most varied 
pictures of human life which it is possible to 
behold. From the different people by whom it 
was thronged, its streets resembled an immense 
masquerade. There was hardly a nation in the 
Mediterranean but might have been then said to 
have had its representative in Rosetta; and the 
motley appearance thus caused was further 
diversified by the addition of English ladies from 
the fleet and from the army, who, in long white 
dresses, were riding about upon the asses of the 
country. 
Upon our arrival, we went to the quarters of 
Sir Sidney Smith. He was then with our army 
in the camp near Rachmanie; but we were 
conducted to a house he had kindly prepared 
for our reception, *' that the turbulence of war 
might not," as he was pleased to express it, 
" interfere with the arts of peace." This dwelling 
VOL. IIT. 2 A 
CHAP. 
IX. 
