On the return to Rosetta the travellers examined, a little to the south of Rachmanie, a mass of ruins, which had escaped the observation of the French, though D'Anville had marked the spot as the situation of the ancient Saïs. Dr. C. had no doubt that he was standing among the relics of that city, while beholding in irregular heaps the remains of massive foundations, and the still lofty ramparts of a vast enclosure. From the inhabitants of a neighbouring village he obtained a variety of curious antiquities, on which he has made several interesting observations; especially on a hieroglyphic tablet, now in the University Library at Cambridge, and of which a very large engraving is given in the book.

In one sense, any sculptured stone, any fragment of a column, or a sphinx, or a god, was a more interesting object than almost any of the living human beings expending their little mortal allotment of time on this enchanted ground. Our Author, however, took proper notice of their condition, character, and habits. The people of Caïro were suffering much, at the very time the English were in possession of the city,' from the barbarity of the Turks. One form in which it was exercised, was particularly atrocious. They murdered, without ceremony or restraint, wherever they met with them, the women who were known or suspected to have been married to, or to have cohabited with, men of the French army. They even accounted this a meritorious sort of religious sacrifice to the sanctity of the true faith. Multitudes were abandoned to this fate at the departure of the French, while some accompanied the embarkation. Our Author and his companions aided the escape of four young women, by dexterously managing to conceal them in their djerm in descending the Nile. The people had also a grievous recollection of that low villain General Menou, whose rapacity had omitted no expedient of extortion. Dr. C. gives, afterwards, a very amusing account of his interviews and negotiations with this base, and insolent, and irritable Mahomedan, (for such he pretended to have become,) respecting the antiquities which the French, at the time of their surrender at Alexandria, were designing secretly to carry off; especially the magnificent sarcophagus of Alexander, of which Dr. C. had privately received some slight intelligence, upon which he acted with a promptitude which resulted in the addition of this sumptuous relic to the riches of the British Museum.

In a polite interview with the gentlemen of the Egyptian Institute, he found them packing up some of those performances which have since resulted in the vast and superb work Description de l'Egypte. They acknowledged the limited scope which had been allowed to their researches, which, they said, had always been restricted to the march of their army.'

It was by means of a copy from a drawing finished by one of the chief engineers of the Institute, that Dr. C. has been enabled to give an elegant plan of the Catacombs near Alexandria, the Necropolis of the ancient Racotis, a city that was in ruins before the building of Alexandria. He spent six hours within these dark and solemn apartments, to which access is obtained by a strait descending perforation in the soft rock, not by the ancient entrance, which is now concealed. Even after all he had already beheld, of the labours of the Egyptians in accommodation or in honour of the dead, he contemplated with amazement this vast cemetery, with its temple of Serapis, (as he is inclined to judge one of the apartments may have been,) surrounded with regal tombs. In this supposed sanctuary, or close in its vicinity, he saw sculptured the orb with wings, which figure, if it is considered as the symbol of Serapis, as god of the shades, will tend, he remarks, to confirm Jablonski's opinion, that Serapis was a type of the infernal sun, that is to say, of the sun during its course through the lower hemisphere, or winter signs of the Zodiac; as Ammon was of the supernal, or path of the sun during the summer, months.' And it is ingeniously attempted to be shewn that even this explanation is perfectly compatible with the notion of those who believe that Serapis was no other than a mythological personation of the patriarch Joseph.

Considerable space is occupied with curious description, narration, and disquisition, concerning Pompey's Pillar. The examiners were very reasonably amazed at the manner in which they found this stupendous column supported, that is to say, upon a small prop of stone about four feet square:'; this is absolutely the sole base on which the pedestal rests. The inverted hieroglyphics on this stone, prove it to be the fragment of some structure in ruins before the pillar was. raised.

The Greek inscription on the pedestal, which had been noticed by Maillet and by Pococke, eluded the most accurate examination of Dr. C. and several attentive investigators with him, as it had baffled all the French inspectors, during their long residence in the country. The late Colonel Squire was the first that descried it. When recovered, it proves to be of as little consequence as many a compartment of hieroglyphics would doubtless be found, if their import could be elicited from under that sacred gloom of mystery which has such a power of giving a portentous character to the merest trifles. All that can be learned from this legend, rescued by lynx-eyed inquisition from eternal oblivion, and conjecturally restored in the vacant places of some irrecoverable letters, and even one whole line, is, that

"Posthumus Præfect of Egypt, and the People of the Metropolis, (honour') the most revered Emperor, the protecting Divinity of Alexandria, the Divine Hadrian or [Diocletian] Augustus."

The whole line supplied, is that which adds the people of the metropolis.' From the combination of a number of circumstances in Roman history with facts in ancient customs relative to monuments to the illustrious dead, and with circumstances observable about this column, Dr. C. deduces with considerable confidence the conjecture, or the opinion, that it is a monument raised to Pompey, by either Julius Cæsar or Hadrian; and he thinks it probably once bore on its summit an urn, there being in the stone a circular excavation exactly fitted for the position of the foot of such a funereal addition.

We must not stay to recount anecdotes, of considerable interest, respecting Gen. Menou, the contrasted, dignified, and Spartan habits of the English Commander-in-chief, Hutchinson, or the execrable villany of the Turkish Capudan Pasha, whom the English Commander took an opportunity of accosting, to the Moslem face and beard of him, and at the very head of his army, with the terms liar, coward, villain, as'sassin,' and every other opprobrious appellation he could think of, till he wept with rage and fear; and whom every reader will regret it could not have comported with a just policy for Sir J. Hutchinson to have ordered a company of Highlanders to seize and hang up in the very camp of the Mahomedans.

The travellers, having a widely extended peregrination yet in prospect, were now in haste-and we have still more reason to be so-to leave Egypt, a field where a vast measure of the wonderful and mysterious is still in reserve for inquisitive labourers who will, at some future period, be enabled to protract their residence and operations in perfect exemption from Arab and Mamluke robbers, and Turkish fanatics and assassins.

The long narrow stripe of sand from Alexandria to Aboukir, where our Author was to embark, seems to have no claim, but in virtue of some groves of date trees, to maintain its barren substance above the waters which are on each side working its destruction. In passing along this most dreary tract, he is led into interesting reflections and questions relative to its ancient geography; since this wretched line of desert ought to be the ground on which anciently stood the cities of Nicopolis, Taposiris Parva, and Canopus. How is it possible?-is the question forced upon the observer. The only answer is that afforded by the very palpable indications that large encroachments have been made by the sea; so

tiat, as Dr. C. remarks, the sites and remains of those cities are perhaps at this time under water. At one spot some stately fragments, bearing the ancient Egyptian character, were seen by Col. Squire, in the very act, as it were, of yielding to the invading element, being partly submerged, and no longer able to testify as to the extent of the kindred works, now, doubtless, swallowed up.

The Turkish frigate in which our travellers were privileged to pass over to Asia, was one of the most remarkable scenes into which they had ever been thrown, and would have been one of the most amusing it there had been no danger of starvation or of foundering. It was such a medley and hubbub of nations, and jargons, and customs, and passions, and fooleries, crammed and conflicting together, as might well have obliterated all remembrances and images of any objects less striking than those of Egypt. The seamanship too was incomparable, as might be guessed from the fact, of which they were assured, that the superannuated Captain of the frigate had never been to sea before his present voyage; that at the age of seventy he had espoused a relation of the Capudan Pasha's, and obtained in consequence his appointment to the frigate his nephew, a young man, had rather, 'more experience, and held a station similar to that of firstlieutenant in our ships.'

At night the spectacle on board was perhaps one of the most striking which persons unaccustomed to venture with Turkish mariners can possibly witness. The ship seemed to be left pretty much to her own discretion; every officer of the watch being fast asleep, the port-holes all open, an enormous quantity of canvas let loose, and the passengers between decks, with paper lanterns, snoozing over their lighted pipes; while the sparks from these pipes, with pieces of ignited fungus, were flying in all directions. Now and then an unexpected roll called forth murmuring ejaculations of "Alla!" or "Mahmoud!" and a few were seen squatting singly, counting their prayers by their beads.'

One anecdote in this unparalleled story of a voyage, is exquisitely characteristic of the true believers. Dr. C. having casually met with a sextant, which had been taken from a French prisoner, made an observation to ascertain the ship's position, and sent a respectful message to the captain, to inform him of the latitude, and the probable distance from Rhodes, Finica Bay, Cyprus, &c.' He was immediately summoned, and asked how he could pretend to know. The Doctor mentioned the sextant, and the observations daily practised on board English and other ships. The sextant was instantly ordered to make its appearance.

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This instrument being altogether incomprehensible to him, he contented himself with viewing it in every direction, except that in which it might be used; and, stroking his long beard, said to a Ragusan, "Thus it is always with these poor djours (infidels), they can make nothing out without some peeping contrivance of this kind now we Turks require no sextants-we (pointing with his finger to his forehead) we have our sextants here."'

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The adventurers approached and admired the mountainous coast of Lycia, sublimely irradiated, at the time, with lightnings; passed close to Rhodes; crossed the mouth of the Gulf of Glaucus; and quitted the ship at the island of Cos, where they staid long enough to collect a number of antique inscriptions, and to witness the refinement of Mahomedan jurisprudence, in a conviction of homicide by implication. A young man had destroyed himself in consequence of his being unsuccessful in his addresses to a young woman; the father of the girl was arrested and prosecuted on the incontrovertible allegation, that "if he had not had a daughter, the de"ceased would not have fallen in love; consequently, he would "not have been disappointed; consequently, he would not have "swallowed poison; consequently, he would not have died." The father was sentenced to pay, to the state we suppose, eighty piastres, the rated value of the young man's life.

An old crazy caïque, manned by four men of the island of Casos, was engaged for a run to Patmos, and any other spot in the Archipelago. At Patmos, having first rendered a very important service to a party of French prisoners of the army of Egypt, who had been landed there on their way back to France, our active adventurers eagerly invaded the library of the Monastery of the Apocalypse; and a highly entertaining account is given of their researches and negotiations. The whole collection of books was in a state of extreme neglect and disorder. The printed books indeed had the accommodation of shelves, and some of them were in good condition; and though the visitants soon discovered that the Superior could not read, he said those were his favourites. Being asked respecting a pile of parchment volumes which were seen on the floor at the end of the apartment, evidently in the manner of rubbish, he said with an expression of contempt, they were manuscripts.

It was indeed,' says Dr. C. a moment in which a literary traveller might be supposed to doubt the evidence of his senses, for the whole of this contemned heap consisted of Greek manuscripts, and some of them were of the highest antiquity.'

Our Author fell to digging in this heap with the most avaricious curiosity, and found the fairest specimen of Grecian calligraphy which has descended to modern times, a copy of