common principles and paffions which united great numbers of the natives and others in hoftility to Buonaparte, fo there were circumftances alfo which divided them against one another; while the common weakness of human nature, prevailing over fentiments of religion and duty, fubjected them to various arts of corruption, and thus tended naturally to draw them over to the fide of the most powerful party.

Egypt is commonly reckoned to be about 500 miles in length, and 160 in breadth. The borders of the Nile, from Abyffinia to Grand Cairo, form a narrow valley, which, with leffer vallies or openings into the hilly country, and the deferts on either fide, is called the Upper, and the whole country watered by the Nile from thence downward, the Lower Egypt. The two grand branches of the Nile, which part at Grand Cairo, together with the Mediterranean, into which they fall, form a triangle, called the Delta, of which the ocean is the bale, the two branches of the Nile the fides, and Cairo the apex, or head. A great portion of this part of Egypt, being enriched by the overflowing of the Nile, is extremely fertile. No country in the world is more plenteoufly ftored than Egypt with corn, rice, flesh, fifh, fugar, fruits, vegetables, and oil. The Delta produces oranges, lemons, figs, dates, almonds, and plantains in the greateft abundance. The extent of this famous country, that is, of the part of it now inhabited, does not feem, at firft fight, to correfpond with the defcriptions which have been left by the ancients of its twenty thoufand towns and cities, feveral millions of inhabitants, and armies

kept by its ancient kings of three hundred thousand men, executing the pyramids, the labyrinths, the grottos of Thebes, the lake Moeris, vaft canals, obelifks, temples, and pompous palaces. But although the reports by travellers, of Egypt, being even at this day a moft delicious garden be unanimously reprobated, by all the French who have fpoken or written on the fubjeft, fince their late expedition thither, the most intelligent and obfervant admit, that the extent to which the happy influence and dominion of the Nile, by means of induftry and art, may have been carried in times paft, and yet carried in times to come, very much farther than at prefent, from the banks of the river over the arid defart. As a heavy counter-balance to these natural advantages, except in our winter, and the latter part of the autumnal months, the heat of the climate is oppreffive to all who are not accuftomed to it. The winds are fometimes of fuch extreme heat and aridity, that their influence proves mortal. During the time thefe last, the streets are deferted, and the inhabitants almoft blinded by drifts of fand, fo fubtle, that they infinuate themfelves into the clofeft apartments: fo, that from this enemy there is no fuch thing as a perfectly fecure retreat. The vermin that infeft this land, to ftrangers particularly, is intolerable. And, in addition to all thefe evils, it is frequently vifited by the plague.

Since Egypt fell under the dominion of the Turks, it has been oftenfibly governed by a pacha, or, as we pronounce the word, bafhaw, who refided at Grand Cairo: but whofe authority, for a long time paft, has been more nominal than [B2]

rea!.

real. The bashaw was, in fact, little more than a fign and memorial of the refpect formerly paid, and fill profefied, by all Muffelmen, to the eldeft fon of the prophet. Under the bafhaw there were inferior governors, under various defignations, in the different provinces, but the power of the fword was in the hands of the Mammalukes. A fmall number of Janiflaries indeed was retained at Cairo, and a few other places in the fervice of the Porte, of which they held landed poffeffions, in return for their fervice. In Up. per Egypt, there were fome Arabs who paid tribute to the grand fignior, or made prefents to the bafhaw; and in the Lower Egypt, there were fome villages in the poffeffion of fheicks. But the real government or fovereignty of Egypt was poffeffed by the Mammalukes, originally foldiers of fortune, but who paid very little regard to the conditions on which they held their power and property. They came originally from the mountainous countries, between the Black Sea and Caucafus, and their armies were fill recruited by boys from thole countries, and other youth, the children of Chriftian flaves brought for fale to Grand Cairo. The laws of Mahomet enjoin great compaffion and tenderness for flaves, and nothing is confidered as more pleafing and meritorious in the fight of God than their total emancipation. The condition of the young flaves, who fell into the hands of the Mammalukes, was certainly among the gentleft lots of flavery. It was the road to fortune. They were brought up by the Mammalukes in the fame manner as their own children, and came, in time, to be almost condered as

fuch: nor did the circumstance of their having ever been in a state of flavery preclude them from any degree of preferment, even that of bey, which was the chief; who was chofen freely by a plurality of voices in a full council of officers: fo that the beys, elevated to power, neither by the accident of birth, nor the particular favour of any fovereign prince, but in fome degree at leaft, if not chiefly, by their own merit, were, for the most part, men of fuperior talents and unquestionable courage. The Mammalukes were all of them brave, even to excefs, In the battle of the Pyramids, the iffue of which gave the French a footing in Egypt, and of which fome notice has been taken in the last volume of this work, they had the temerity to rush in between the compacted and fquare battalions of the French army; and there meet their fate. They, to a man, refufed quarter, and fought to the laft, fometimes when defperately and mortally wounded. They were accustomed, from their earliest years, to a dextrous management of the finest and most spirited horles in the world. They were armed with fwords and pifiols, mufkets, and lances. Their wealth and state difplayed in their arms, drefs, and equipage. Their habitations and houfehold furniture were wretched. It was their manner inceffantly to wheel round about an enemy in his front, flank, and rear, and to retreat as he advanced, unless they perceived an advantage, or were under a neceflity of coming to close action, while another divifior of them hung upon his rear, and endeavoured to furround and cut off detached parties, wherever they could find an opening. The gene

of the ancient Scythians and the Arabs, was, to cut off fupplies, and harafs and deftroy their enemy by repeated attacks, according to opportunities. But in different circumftances, their courage, as might be expected, was more or lefs impetuous and daring.

The beys were not all of them, without exception, of Chriftian origir, as has been commonly fuppoled. Of late years the annual number of flaves from Georgia, Mingrelia, and Circaffia, has been greatly diminished. In 1762, five of the beys were of Mahometan defcent: and from the caufe juft mentioned, the proportion of the Mahometan to what we may call the Chriftian beys, has probably become greater.

The number of the beys, origirally four-and-twenty, by the encroachments of the more powerful over the weaker, had been reduced, it is faid, to eighteen or twenty: but on that point the accounts vary. They had frequent quarrels with one another, but thefe did not lead to fuch ferious and obftinate contelts as has been imagined. They did not draw the whole of their refources, whether of actual poffeffion or credit, and many thoufands of unoffending people, into the vortex of protracted war, but quickly fettled their difputes by pitched encounters; in which they were accompanied and joined by the fmall corps of their refpective bodyguards. When the combat was over, the conqueror returned immediately to the capital, where moft of the bafhaws refided. The vanquished party returned alfo thither, in a few days thereafter. If he fell in battle, another bey was chofen in his ftead; and there was

There were about 10,000 Mammalukes clothed in one uniform, and which were at the difpofal of government; or rather that of the Beys, who feem to have confidered themfelves as forming, in fome refpects, a kind of republic. But, befides thefe, each Mammaluke kept on foot, or could eafily raife bodies of men among his own vassals.

There were in Egypt, befides the military and predominant cafte of the Mammalukes, a great number of Arabs, Jews, Greeks, and Cophts, who were Chriftians, and the defcendents of the ancient Egyptians. The Bedouin Arabs were attached to the Mahometan faith, and hostile to ftrangers: but neither abfolutely proof against the power of money, nor the ufual influence of a career of victory amongst barbarians.

The

After his firft fuccefles, the reduction of Alexandria, Rofetta, Damietta, and Cairo, and, above all, the battle of the Pyramids, there was ground for hope, that many of the Arabs might be drawn over to the fide of the conqueror. Jews, as ufual, were at the fervice of the beft paymafter; not to make any account of the refentment they muft have felt at the treatment they received from the Turks and other Muffelmen. The Greeks and the Copirts, though greatly humbled in their minds, as in their fortunes, and the latter debafed almost to brutality, by a long feries of tyranny and oppreffion, might yet be rouzed by kinder treatment, and better profpects, to a fenfe of natural dignity and freedom. The clouded profpects of Buonaparte were therefore, on the [B3]

whole,

whole, brightened up by gleams of hope, fufficient to call the powers of his inventive and active mind into . full exertion.

The land-forces on board Buonaparte's fleet, when he took pofleflion of Malta, infantry, artillery, and cavalry, amounted to near 40,000. Four thoufand were left to garrifon that island; but, in return, fome thousands of the Maltese failors and foldiers joined him, as volunteers, in his expedition to Egypt. And the battle of Aboukir, which ruined the fleet, contributed to reinforce the army. To the 36,000 that remained, after leaving a garrifon in Malta, he added the volunteers of that place, under the defignation of the Maltefe legion: and the mariners, who efcaped from the wrecks of the fleet, to the number of 2 or 3,000, under that of the nautical legion. There were, on board the fhips of the line, frigates, and other veffels of war, in the port of Alexandria, about 4,000 men. The crews of the tranfports amounted to 2,000, and those of a flotilla, equipped on the Nile, to 1,500. So that there ftill remained, at the difpofal of the French commander, a force, land and marine, of near 50,000 men. The land force was difpofed along the courfe of the Nile, as far as Salachier, at the entrance of the defert. Here a ftrong fort was raised with great expedition: The old caftle of Cairo commanding that great city, whofe population has been calculated at 400,000, was repaired, or rather rebuilt and ftrengthened, according to the rules of modern fortification. Redoubts were caft up in other places; and the entrance into the harbour of Alexandria was defended by formidable batteries, raifed, on the

4

appearance of the British fleet, with wonderful celerity.

The first care of the general was to provide for the fupport of his troops, and the preservation of their health. The Egyptians, by nature a

The

foft and timid race, were naturally ftruck, after the arrival of the French, with terror. They fhut themfelves up in their own houses, and concealed whatever they had fit for being used as food. So that for feveral days the French were forced to subsist on their own naval ftores. But when the apprehenfions of the natives were removed, by the good difcipline of the French, the markets of Alexandria were fupplied with all forts of provifions, in the greatest abundance. Delta was fully fufficient to fupply all neceffaries, which could be conveyed to the French magazines, by the Nile, or by canals. The old canal that conveyed the waters of the Nile to Alexandria, with other canals, were cleared and repaired: Wind-mills were conftructed for the grinding of corn, the only mills known to the natives being handmills, and here and there mills wrought by oxen. The want of wine was found capable of being supplied by a fpirit extracted from dates. And the Egyptian inftitute, formed on the plan of that of France, had it in charge, from the commanderin-chief, to inquire whether Egypt did not furnish a fubftitute for hops for the making of beer. At Alexandria, and Grand Cairo, boards were inftituted for inquiring into the best means for the prevention of contagious diftempers, and in general for preferving the health of the feamen and foldiers: among the first fruits of which was the cleaning of thefe and other cities from many impuri

ties,

ties, and a recommendation of the bath, with directions for ufing it, to the French foldiers. At Cairo, a theatre was established for the amusement of the French; and music was introduced on all occafions. But, in fpite of every effort of this kind, the French army muft be diminished by the accidents of war in the procels of time, and that not very long, and by natural deaths and difeafe moulder away at laft to nothing, unless it thould, from time to time, be recruited by fresh fapplies of men. Buonaparte,therefore, in imitation of the Romans, and of Alexander the Great, whofe examples were still before him, determined to arrange, under his ftandard, the inhabitants of the country, which, as yet he had over-run, and that only in part, rather than conquered. He allured into his fervice, by liberal pay and the profpect of plunder, corps of Arabs and Greeks, and even a company of Janiffaries. The fons of the Mammalukes, who had fallen in battle, or fled from the country, above eight but under fixteen years of age, as well as thofe of their flaves, white or black, he brought into the demi-brigades to fupply the place of the French drummers, and players on the fife, whom he placed in the ranks, as fafileers. The young Mammalukes, from fixteen to twenty-four, were incorporated with the battalions.

The predominant paffions of the inhabitants of Egypt, were religious bigotry and fuperftition, and a jealoufy and indignation against any degree of familiarity with their women. Buonaparte, therefore, deemed it neceflary to inftruct and caution his army on thefe two important and delicate fubjects. In a proclamation, dated at head-quarters, on board the L'Orient, June 22,

1798, after declaring the object of the expedition, which was, 10 promote the general interests of civilization and commerce, and humble the naval power of England, and confidently promifing, after several fatiguing marches, and fome hoftile encounters, complete fuccefs, he told them, that the people, among whom they were going to live, were Mahometans; the first article of whole religious creed was, that "There is no God, but God, and Mahomet is his prophet." Do not contradict them, faid he. Conduct yourfelves towards them, as we have done towards the Jews and the Italians. Shew refpect to their muftis and their imans, and the ceremonies prefcribed by the Koran; as you have fhewn to the rabbis and the bishops. Cherish the fame fpirit of toleration for the mofques that you have entertained for the convents and the fynagogues, for the religion of Mofes, and of Jefus Chrift. The Roman legions protected all religions. You will find here ufages different from those of Europe. You will reconcile yourfelves to them by cuftom.

The people of the land into which we are about to enter differ from us in their mode of their treatment of women: but, in every country, he who offers violence to the women is a monfter. Buonaparte proceeded next to warn them againft giving way to a fpirit of plunder. Pillage, which can enrich only a very few, reflects difhonour on the whole; it dries up our refources, and converts into enemies thofe whom it is our intereft to have for friends." In conclufion, he reminded them that the city they were going to attack was built by Alexander, and that grand recollections, fitted to excite the [B4]

emulation