CHAP. XXXIII.

City of Cairo-It's Inhabitants-Europeans fettled there-It's fituation-It's government-Summary view of the revolutions of Egypt fince the time of Auguftus Mamelucs-Pacha of Cairo-Approaching downfall of the Ottoman EmpireAli Bey-Mourat Bey.

To fuppofe Cairo, in Arabic Mafr, refembling

one of our large cities in Europe, would be to entertain a very erroneous idea. The houfes have neither the form nor elegance of ours. The ftreets are very narrow, unpaved, and the houses that form them not ranged in a line. The fquares, vaft irregular places, without any buildings that adorn them, without any work of art to point out and embellish the centre, are most of them immenfe bafins of water during the inundation of the Nile, and fields, or gardens, when the river has retired to it's bed. Crowds of men of various nations poft through the fireets, joftle one another, difpute the way with the horfe of the Mameluc, the mule of the man of the law, the numerous camels which fupply the place of coaches, and the affes, which are the moft common beafts of the faddle.

This

This city, much longer than broad, covers a space of about three leagues.

Turks, Mame-
Cophts, Moors,

lucs, Greeks, Syrians, Arabs, Jews, and Europeans, inhabit it; and it's popula tion may be estimated at four hundred thoufand fouls. Inhabitants of another kind had likewife. taken up their abode in the midst of this confufed multitude of various nations. The terraces of the houfes were covered with kites and crows, who lived there in perfect fecurity, and whofe fharp fereams and hoarfe croakings mingled with the tumult of a restless and noify populace. The difgufting vul-, ture, the vultur percnopterus of naturalifts, the ak bobas (white father) of the Turks, the Pharoah's hen of the Europeans, added to this fingular and melancholy fociety. Living only on reptiles and the produce of layftalls, this filthy bird happily wants courage to attack more interefting objects. The plaintive and amorous turtle has no more to fear from it's talons than from the guns of the inhabitants, into whofe dwellings fhe enters, giving them practical, but ufelefs leffons of love and tendernefs, in the careffes and attention of domestic happiness,

The fplendour and prodigality of luxury were here contrafted with the rags and nakednefs of want; the exceffive opulence of thofe who bear rule, with the frightful poverty of the most nume$ 3

rous

rous clafs. The riches that trade conferred on the intermediate clafs were buried, or carefully concealed. Men who had acquired wealth dared not make use of it, except clandeftinely, left they fhould tempt the unbridled covetoufnefs of power, and expofe themselves to extortions, which a barbarous government fanctions under the name of avanies, and which, in fpite of all their fecrefy and caution, they cannot always efcape.

With whatever external splendour these men in power were clothed, they were not in reality lefs ignorant and favage. Though the garb was that of luxury, it was not the lefs the vesture of the moft complete barbaroufnefs; and if this appeared fill more hideous and ferocious in a populace exceedingly vile, it was only because here it was naked, and the eyes were not deceived by the glofs of magnificence. At Cairo a few arts were exercifed by foreigners, mechanical occupations were far from a ftate of perfection, and the fciences were abfolutely unknown. The two extremes approached each other in more points than one. The beys were equally ignorant, equally fanatic, equally fuperftitious, with the rude dregs of the people. Not one of either could read or write; the knowJedge of letters and of writing was reckoned a very great art, and, with that of arithmetic, was confined to the merchants and people of bufinefs. On

the

4

the other hand, the Mahometan priests, bewildered in the glocmy labyrinth of fchool-divinity, bufied themselves in attempts to understand and comment upon the reveries of the Koran. The fciences cultivated in the capital of Egypt went no farther; and to endeavour to extend their limits would have been a dangerous and ufelefs enterprife. Any thing beyond this would have been deemed a crime; and knowledge would have been ftifled for ever, had not the French undertaken to emancipate it from it's fhackles, and favour it's difplay; for, according to the philofophical reflection of Volney, where knowledge leads to nothing, nothing is done to acquire it, and the mind remains in a ftate of barbarifm.*

In fact, the mafs of the people in no place could be more barbarous than at Cairo. Foreigners, perfecuted, and even ill-treated under the most frivolous pretexts, lived there in perpetual fear. The French had feveral mercantile houfes there; and occupied a small district, fhut up by a large gate, which was guarded by janizaries. I fhall obferve, by the way, that the city was divided into feparate quarters in this manner. The Europeans called thefe divifions, thefe enclosures, countries; and that to which the French were confined, and where * Voyages en Egypte & en Syrie. Etat politique de l'Egypte. they

S4

they were more than once befieged, was called the country of the Franks. Here our countrymen, re`mote from all means of protection and affistance, fpent days embittered by perpetual anxiety. If the fuccefs of their commercial enterprises diffused a temporary fatisfaction among them, the profpect of an avanie perpetually before them foon checked it; and the fums of money or presents, with which they were forced to purchase an infecure tranquillity, from the almoft daily changes among the members of the government, greatly diminifhed the profit, which, far from immenfe on fome occafions, was in the end reduced to very little, in confequence of being diminifhed by a number of expenfive concomitants. Confined in their country, thefe merchants, a continual prey to anxiety, and too often not without caufe, were a ftriking example of what the defire of gain can effect, being obliged to forego their own habits, and affume the oriental garb. Woe to the European, who fhould venture to fhew himself in the ftreet in the dress of his own country he would infallibly have been knocked on the head, or torn to pieces.

But to wear the long garments ufed in the Eaft was not fufficient. It was neceffary that fome part of the drefs fhould be a diftinguishing mark, or, to fpeak more properly, a fignal of contempt

and pro

fcription.