APPROACH TO THE FORTRESS OF IBRIIVL 
“ This fortress,” says Mr. Roberts, “ approaches more in appearance to those of the 
Moslems, which I have seen in Spain, both in situation and in regularity of form. 
It is built on the very brink of a precipice like that of Ronda, and flanked at intervals 
with square towers of hewn or squared stone. The whole is now in a ruined condition, 
and, I believe, totally deserted. We did not see a human being near it.” 
Its height above the river is from two hundred to three hundred feet, and its 
look-out is over the arid sands of the desert and naked and desolate mountains. It 
is supposed to be the Primis Parva of the ancients — a station which Petronius, the 
Prefect of Egypt under Augustus, occupied and garrisoned after he had made a 
successful expedition against the Queen of the Ethiopians, Candace. The Romans, 
however, never attempted to pursue their conquests farther to the south on the Nile. 
Candace, knowing that the Roman Legions had been sent from the Thebaic! into 
Arabia, took advantage of their absence and marched an army upon Syene, now 
Assouan, and destroyed the garrisons of Elephantina and Pliilce. To revenge this insult, 
Petronius not only repulsed them, but, with his disciplined troops, pursued the army 
of Candace into her dominions, and drove them beyond her capital, Naputa, to take 
refuge in the deep recesses of her country. On his return he left a strong force at 
Primis, to keep the Ethiopians in check; but this was not long continued: the defeat 
which they had received from the Romans was a lesson not easily forgotten; and, at 
length, the station was abandoned, and they withdrew from a garrison so remote. 
The place is now deserted and in ruins, though it was not many years since Ibrahim 
Pacha was besieged there by the Memlooks, whom he had driven out of Egypt. 
He had taken up his position there, when they endeavoured to cut him off, but, owing 
to its great natural strength, he maintained it several months against their utmost 
efforts. The besiegers intercepted their provisions, and they were reduced to severe 
privations. At length relief came from Lower Egypt, the Memlooks fled, entered 
Dongola, murdered its sovereign, and established there the residue of a military power, 
which scarcely ever bad a parallel in history. Before or after the siege of Ibrim 
nearly every Memlook was sacrificed to the cruel but necessary policy of Mehemet Ali. 
Mr. Roberts has in this scene introduced the boat of the Nile, to show the manner in 
which the boatmen reef the large sail by ascending the yard. When the boat is 
about to put up for the night, a stake is driven into the ground, by which it is 
secured. In descending the river these huge sails are lowered and slung midships, 
forming an awning across the decks. The boat itself is allowed to float down with 
the current, unless the wind against it is fresh enough to require that it be tracked or 
rowed. 
Roberts’s Journal. 
Wilkinson’s Egypt and Thebes. 
