initial commit of ebook 17332HEADmain

140 files changed, 28870 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/17332-8.txt b/17332-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1423ce8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9064 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The
+Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12), by S. Rappoport
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12)
+
+Author: S. Rappoport
+
+Release Date: December 17, 2005 [EBook #17332]
+Last Updated: September 8, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF EGYPT
+
+From 330 B.C. to the Present Time
+
+
+By S. RAPPOPORT, Doctor of Philosophy, Basel; Member of the Ecole
+Langues Orientales, Paris; Russian, German, French Orientalist and
+Philologist
+
+VOL. XII.
+
+Containing over Twelve Hundred Colored Plates and Illustrations
+
+THE GROLIER SOCIETY
+
+PUBLISHERS, LONDON
+
+
+[Illustration: Spines]
+
+[Illustration: Cover]
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece] COLLECTION OF VASES, MODELLED AND PAINTED
+IN THE GRAND TEMPLE PHILAE ISLAND.
+
+
+[Illustration: 001.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+[Illustration: 002.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+_MODERN EGYPT_
+
+
+_EGYPT DURING THE CRUSADES--RISE OF THE OTTOMAN POWER--NAPOLEON
+IN EGYPT--THE RULE OP THE KHEDIVES--DISCOVERING THE SOURCE OF THE
+NILE--ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY._
+
+
+_Spread of Muhammedanism--Spirit of the Crusades--The Fati-mite
+Caliphs--Saladin’s brilliant reign--Capture of Damietta--Conquests of
+Beybars--Mamluks in power--Wars with Cyprus--Turkish misrule--Napoleon
+invades Egypt--Battle of the Pyramids--Policy of conciliation--Nelson
+destroys the French fleet--Napoleon in Syria--Battle at Mount
+Carmel--Napoleon returns to France--Negotiations for surrender--Kléber
+assassinated--French army surrenders--Rise of Mehemet Ali-Massacre of
+the Mamluks--Egyptian army reorganized--Ibrahim Pasha in Greece--Battle
+of Navarino-Revolt against Turkey-Character of Mehemet Ali--Reforms
+under his Rule--Ismail Pasha made Khedive--Financial difficulties
+of Egypt--England and France assume control--Tewfik Pasha becomes
+Khedive--Revolt of Arabi Pasha--The Mahdist insurrection--Death of
+General Gordon--Kitchener’s campaign against the Dervishes--Prosperity
+of Egypt under English control--Abbas Pasha becomes Khedive--Education,
+courts, and government of modern Egypt--The Nile; its valley, branches,
+and delta--Ancient irrigation systems--The Suez Canal, its inception and
+completion--The great dam at Aswan--Ancient search for the sources of
+the Nile--Modern discoveries in Central Africa--The Hieroglyphs--Origin
+of the alphabet--Egyptian literature--Mariettas discoveries--The
+German Egyptologists--Jeremiah verified--Maspero, Naville, and
+Petrie--Palæolithic man--Egyptian record of Israel--Egypt Exploration
+Fund--The royal tombs at Abydos--Chronology of the early kings--Steles,
+pottery, and jewelry-The temples of Abydos--Seals, statuettes, and
+ceramics._
+
+
+[Illustration: 003.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--THE CRUSADERS IN EGYPT
+
+
+_The Ideal of the Crusader: Saladin’s Campaign: Richard I. in Palestine:
+Siege of Damietta: St. Louis in Egypt: The Mamluks: Beybars’ Policy._
+
+
+The traditional history of the Christian Church has generally maintained
+that the Crusades were due solely to religious influence and sprang from
+ideal and moral motives: those hundreds of thousands of warriors who
+went out to the East were religious enthusiasts, prompted by the pious
+longings of their hearts, and Peter the Hermit, it was claimed, had
+received a divine message to call Christendom to arms, to preach
+a Crusade against the unbelievers and take possession of the Holy
+Sepulchre. That such ideal reasons should be attributed to a war like
+the Crusades, of a wide and far-reaching influence on the political and
+intellectual development of mediæval Europe, is not at all surprising.
+In the history of humanity there have been few wars in which the
+combatants on both sides were not convinced that they had drawn their
+swords for some noble purpose, for the cause of right and justice. That
+the motives prompting the vast display of arms witnessed during the
+Crusades, that the wanderings of those crowds to the East during two
+centuries, and the cruelties committed by the saintly warriors on their
+way to the Holy Sepulchre, should be attributed exclusively to ideal
+and religious sources is therefore quite natural. It is not to be
+denied that there was a religious factor in the Crusades; but that the
+religious motive was not the sole incentive has now been agreed upon
+by impartial historians; and in so far as the motives animating the
+Crusaders were religious motives, we are to look to powerful influences
+which gradually made themselves felt from without the ecclesiastical
+organisations. It was by no means a movement which the Church alone had
+called into being. On the contrary, only when the movement had grown
+ripe did Gregory VII. hasten to take steps to enable the Church to
+control it. The idea of a Crusade for the glory of religion had not
+sprung from the tenets of Christianity; it was given to mediaeval Europe
+by the Muhammedans.
+
+History can hardly boast of another example of so gigantic a conquest
+during so short a period as that gained by the first adherents of Islam.
+Like the fiery wind of the desert, they had broken from their retreats,
+animated by the promises of the Prophet, and spread the new doctrine far
+and wide. In 653 the scimitar of the Saracens enclosed an area as large
+as the Roman Empire under the Cæsars. Barely forty years elapsed after
+the death of the Prophet when the armies of Islam reached the Atlantic.
+Okba, the wild and gallant leader, rode into the sea on the western
+shore of Africa, and, whilst the seething waves reached to the saddle
+of his camel, he exclaimed: “Allah, I call thee as witness that I should
+have carried the knowledge of Thy name still farther, if these waves
+threatening to swallow me would not have prevented me from doing so.”
+ Not long after this, the flag of the crescent was waving from the
+Pyrenees to the Chinese mountains. In 711 the Saracens under General
+Tarik crossed the straits between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic,
+and landed on the rock which has since been called after him, “the hill
+of Tarik,” Jebel el-Tarik or Gibraltar. Spain was invaded and captured
+by the Moslems. For awhile it seemed as if on the other side of the
+Garonne the crescent would also supplant the cross, and only the victory
+of Charles Martel in 732 put a stop to the wave of Muhammedan conquest.
+
+Thus in a brief period Muhammedanism spread from the Nile Valley to the
+Mediterranean. Muhammed’s trenchant argument was the sword. He gave a
+distinct command to his followers to convince the infidels of the
+Power of truth on the battle-field. “The sword is a surer argument than
+books,” he said. Accordingly the Koran ordered war against unbelievers:
+“The sword is the key to heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the
+cause of Allah, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months
+of fasting and prayer; whoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven,
+and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied with the wings
+of angels and cherubim.” Before the battle commenced, the commanders
+reminded the warriors of the beautiful celestial houris who awaited the
+heroes slain in battle at the gates of Paradise.
+
+The first efforts having been crowned with success, the Moslems soon
+became convinced of the fulfilment of the prophecy that Allah had given
+them the world and wished them to subdue all unbelievers. Under the
+Caliph Omar, the Arabs had become a religious-political community of
+warriors, whose mission it was to conquer and plunder all civilised and
+cultured lands and to unfurl the banner of the crescent. They believed
+that “Paradise is under the shadow of the sword.” In this belief the
+followers of Muhammed engaged in battle without fear or anxiety, spurred
+to great deeds, reckless in the face of danger, happy to die and pass
+to the delights of Paradise. The “holy war” became an armed propaganda
+pleasing to Allah. It was, however, a form of propaganda quite unknown
+and amazing to Christendom. In the course of two centuries the crescent
+had supplanted the cross. Of what avail was the peaceful missionary’s
+preaching if province after province and country after country were
+taken possession of by the new religion that forced its way by means of
+fire and sword?
+
+Was it not natural that Christian Europe should conceive the idea
+of doing for their religion what the Moslems did for Islam! and that,
+following the example of Moslems in their “holy war,” Christians should
+emulate them in the Crusades?
+
+It must not be forgotten also that the Arabs, almost from the first
+appearance of Muhammedanism, were under the refining and elevating
+influences of art and science. While the rest of Europe was in the
+midnight of the Dark Ages, the Moorish universities of Spain were the
+beacon of the revival of learning. The Christian teacher was still
+manipulating the bones of the saints when the Arab physician was
+practising surgery. The monachal schools and monasteries in Italy,
+France, and Germany were still grappling with poor scholastic knowledge
+when Arab scholars were well advanced in the study of Aristotle and
+Plato. Stimulated by their acquaintance with the works of Ptolemy and
+Euclid, Galenus and Hippocrates, they extended their researches into the
+dominions of astronomy, mathematics, and medicine.
+
+[Illustration: 007.jpg ARABIC DECORATIVE PAINTING]
+
+The religious orders of the knights, a product of the Crusades, found
+their antitype in similar organisations of the Moslems, orders that had
+exactly the same tendencies and regulations. Such an order established
+for the spread of Islam and the protection of its followers was that of
+the Raabites or boundary-guards in the Pyrenean peninsula. These knights
+made a vow to carry, throughout their lives, arms in defence of the
+faith; they led an austere existence, were not allowed to fly in battle,
+but were compelled either to conquer or fall. Like the Templars or the
+Hospital Knights their whole endeavour was to gain universal dominion
+for their religion. The relation existing between the Moslems and
+the Christians before the Crusades was much closer than is generally
+imagined. Moslem soldiers often fought in the ranks of the Christian
+armies; and it was by no means rare to see a Christian ruler call
+upon Moslem warriors to assist him against his adversary. Pope Gregory
+rescued Rome from the hands of his imperial opponent, Henry of Germany,
+only with the aid of the Saracen soldiers.
+
+When, therefore, the influence of Muhammedanism began to assert itself
+throughout the south of Europe, it was natural that in a crude and
+stirring age, when strife was the dominant passion of the people, the
+idea of a holy war in the cause of faith was one in which Christian
+Europe was ready to take an example from the followers of Islam. The
+political, economical, and social state of affairs, the misery and
+suffering of the people, and even the hierarchy and the ascetic spirit
+of the time certainly made the minds of the people accessible to the
+idea of war; the spirit of unrest was pervasive and the time was ripe,
+but the influence of Islam was a prominent factor in giving to it an
+entirely religious aspect.
+
+But even in the means employed to incite the Christian warriors and
+the manner in which the Crusades were carried on, there is a great
+similarity between the Christian and the Muhammedan procedure. The
+Church, when espousing the cause of the Crusader, did exactly what
+Muhammed had done when he preached a holy war. The Church addressed
+itself to the weaknesses and passions of human nature. Fallen in
+battle, the Moslem, so he was told, would be admitted--be he victor
+or vanquished--to the joys of Paradise. The same prospect animated
+the Crusader and made him brave danger and die joyfully in defence of
+Christianity. “Let them kill the enemy or die. To submit to die for
+Christ, or to cause one of His enemies to die, is naught but glory,”
+ said Saint Bernard. Eloquently, vividly, and in glowing colours were
+the riches that awaited the warriors in the far East described: immense
+spoil would be taken from the unbelievers. Preachers did not even shrink
+from extolling the beauty of the women in the lands to be conquered.
+This fact recalls Muhammed’s promise to his believers that they would
+meet the ever-beautiful dark-eyed houris in the life after death. To the
+material, sensual allurements, the Church added spiritual blessings and
+eternal rewards, guaranteed to those who took the red cross. During the
+Crusades the Christians did their utmost to copy the cruelties of the
+Moslems. That contempt for human life, that entire absence of mercy and
+the sense of pity which is familiar in all countries where Islam has
+gained sway is characteristic also of the Crusades.
+
+Although the narrative of the Crusades belongs rather to the history of
+Europe than of any one country, it is so closely intertwined with the
+history of Egypt at this period that some digression is necessary. About
+twenty years after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Turks, in 1076, the
+Holy Sepulchre was visited by a hermit of the name of Peter, a native of
+Amiens, in the province of Picardy, France. His resentment and sympathy
+were excited by his own injuries and the oppression of the Christian
+name; he mingled his tears with those of the Patriarch, and earnestly
+inquired if no hope of relief from the Greek emperors of the East could
+be entertained. The Patriarch exposed the vices and weakness of the
+successors of Constantine. “I will rouse,” exclaimed the hermit, “the
+martial nations of Europe in your cause;” and Europe was obedient to the
+call of the hermit. The astonished Patriarch dismissed him with epistles
+of credit and complaint; and no sooner did he land at Bari than Peter
+hastened to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff. Pope Urban II. received
+him as a prophet, applauded his glorious design, promised to support it
+in a general council, and encouraged him to proclaim the deliverance
+of the Holy Land. Invigorated by the approbation of the pontiff, this
+zealous missionary traversed with speed and success the provinces of
+Italy and France. He preached to innumerable crowds in the churches, the
+streets, and the highways: the hermit entered with equal confidence the
+palace and the cottage; and the people of all classes were impetuously
+moved by his call to repentance and arms.
+
+The first Crusade was headed by Godefroy de Bouillon, Duke of Lower
+Lorraine; Baldwin, his brother; Hugo the Great, brother of the King of
+France; Robert, Duke of Normandy, son of William the Conqueror; Raymond
+of St. Gilles, Duke of Toulouse; and Bohemond, Prince of Tarentum.
+Towards the end of 1097 A.D. the invading force invested Antioch, and,
+after a siege of nine months, took it by storm. Edessa was also captured
+by the Crusaders, and in the middle of the summer of 1098 they reached
+Jerusalem, then in the hands of the Fatimites.
+
+El-Mustali b’Illah Abu’l Kasim, son of Mustanssir, was then on the
+throne, but he was only a nominal ruler, for El-Afdhal, a son of
+El-Gemali, had the chief voice in the affairs of the kingdom. It was the
+army of Kasim that had captured Jerusalem. The city was besieged by the
+Crusaders, and it surrendered to them after forty days. Twice did new
+expeditions arrive from Egypt and attempt to retake the city, but with
+disastrous results, and further expeditions were impossible for some
+time, owing to the internal disorders in Egypt. Mustali died after
+a reign of about four years; and some historians record, as a truly
+remarkable circumstance, that he was a Sunnite by creed, although he
+represented a Shiite dynasty.
+
+The next ruler, El-Amir, was the five-year-old son of Mustali, and
+El-Afdhal conducted the government until he became of age to govern.
+His first act was to put El-Afdhal to death. Under El-Amir the internal
+condition of Egypt continued unsatisfactory, and the Crusaders, who had
+been very successful in capturing the towns of Syria, were only deterred
+from an advance on Egypt by the death of their leader, Baldwin. In
+a.h. 524, some of the surviving partisans of El-Afdhal, it is said,
+put El-Amir to death, and a son of El-Afdhal assumed the direction of
+affairs, and appointed El-Hafiz, a grandson of Mustanssir as caliph.
+Afdual’s son, whose name was Abu Ali Ahmed, perished in a popular
+tumult. The new caliph had great trouble with his next three viziers,
+and at length abolished the office altogether. After reigning twenty
+years, he was succeeded by his licentious son, Dhafir, whose faults led
+to his death at the hand of his vizier, El-Abbas.
+
+For the ensuing six years the supreme power in Egypt was mainly the bone
+of contention between rival viziers, although El-Faiz, a boy of five,
+was nominally elected caliph on the death of Dhafir. El-Abbas was
+worsted by his rival, Tataë, and fled to Syria with a large sum of
+money; but he fell into the hands of the Crusaders, was returned to
+Tataë, and crucified.
+
+[Illustration: 013.jpg ENAMELLED GLASS CUP FROM ARABIA]
+
+The last of the Fatimite caliphs, El-Adid, in 555 a.h., was raised to
+the throne by Tataë, but his power was merely the shadow of sovereignty.
+Tataë’s tyranny, however, became so odious that the caliph had him
+assassinated a year after his accession, but he concealed the fact that
+he had instigated the murder. The caliph appointed Tataë’s son, El-Adil,
+as vizier in his stead. The governorship of Upper Egypt was at this time
+in the hands of the celebrated Shawir, whom El-Adil dispossessed, but
+in a test of battle, El-Adil was defeated and put to death. In his turn,
+Shawir yielded to the more powerful Ed-Durghan, and fled to Damascus.
+There he enlisted the aid of the Atabeg Sultan Nur ed-Din, who sent his
+army against Ed-Durghan, with the result that Shawir was reinstated in
+power in Egypt. He thereupon threw off his promised allegiance to Nur
+ed-Din, whose general, Shirkuh (who had led the Damascenes to Egypt),
+took up a strategic position. Shawir appealed for aid to the Crusaders,
+and with the help of Amaury, King of Jerusalem, Shawir besieged his
+friend Shirkuh. Nur ed-Din was successfully attacking the Crusaders
+elsewhere, and in the end a peace was negotiated, and the Damascenes
+left Egypt.
+
+Two years later, Nur ed-Din formulated a plan to punish the rebellious
+Shawir. Persecuted by Shirkuh, Nur ed-Din sent him with his army into
+Egypt. The Franks now joined with Shawir to defend the country, hoping
+thereby to baffle the schemes of Nur ed-Din. The Christian army was
+amazed at all the splendour of the caliph’s palace at Cairo. Shawir
+retreated to entice the invaders on, who, advancing beyond their base,
+were soon reduced to straits. Shirkuh then tried to come to terms with
+Shawir against the Christians as a common foe, but without success.
+He next thought of retreating, without fighting, with all his Egyptian
+plunder. Persuaded at length to fight, he defeated the Franks and
+finally came to terms with Shawir, whereby the Franco-Egyptian alliance
+came to an end, and he then left Egypt on receiving an indemnity, Shawir
+still remaining its ruler.
+
+[Illustration: 015.jpg GATE OF EL FUTUH AT CAIRO]
+
+The peace, however, did not last long, and Nur ed-Din sent Shirkuh again
+with many Frankish free-lancers against the ill-fated country. On the
+approach of the army towards Cairo, the vizier set fire to the ancient
+city of Fostât, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the
+invaders, and it burned continually for fifty days. El-Adid now sought
+aid of Nur ed-Din, who, actuated by zeal against the Franks, and by
+desire of conquest, once more despatched Shirkuh. In the meantime
+negotiations had been opened with Amaury to raise the siege of Cairo on
+payment of an enormous sum of money. But, before these conditions
+had been fulfilled, the approach of the Syrian army induced Amaury
+to retreat in haste. Shirkuh and Saladin entered the capital in
+great state, and were received with honour by the caliph, and
+with obsequiousness by Shawir, who was contriving a plot which was
+fortunately discovered, and for which he paid with his life. Shirkuh
+was then appointed vizier by El-Adid, but, dying very shortly, he was
+succeeded in that dignity by his nephew Saladin (A.D. 1169).
+
+Saladin inaugurated his reign with a series of brilliant successes.
+Egypt once again took an important place among the nations, and by the
+wars of Saladin it became the nucleus of a great empire. Military glory
+was never the sole aim of Saladin and his successors. They continued
+to extend to letters and the arts their willing patronage, and the
+beneficial effects of this were felt upon the civilisation of the
+country. Though ruler of Egypt, Saladin gained his greatest renown
+by his campaigns against the Crusaders in Syria. The inability of Nur
+ed-Din’s son, El-Malik es-Salih Ismail, to govern the Syrian dominions
+became an excuse for Saladin’s occupation of Syria as guardian of the
+young prince, and, once having assumed this function, he remained in
+fact the master of Syria. He continued to consolidate his power in these
+parts until the Crusaders, under Philip, Count of Flanders, laid siege
+to Antioch. Saladin now went out to meet them with the Egyptian army,
+and fought the fierce battle of Ascalon, which proved to be disastrous
+to himself, his army being totally defeated and his life endangered.
+After this, however, he was fortunate enough to gain certain minor
+advantages, and continued to hold his own until a famine broke out in
+Palestine which compelled him to come to terms with the Crusaders, and
+two years later a truce was concluded with the King of Jerusalem, and
+Saladin returned to Egypt.
+
+In the year 576 a.h., he again entered Syria and made war on
+Kilidj-Arslan, the Seljukide Sultan of Anatolia, and on Leon, King of
+Armenia, both of whom he forced to come to terms. Soon after his return,
+Saladin again left Egypt to prosecute a war with the Crusaders, since it
+was plain that neither side was desirous of remaining at peace. Through
+an incident which had just occurred, the wrath of the Crusaders had been
+kindled. A vessel bearing fifteen hundred pilgrims had been wrecked
+near Damietta, and its passengers captured. When the King of Jerusalem
+remonstrated, Saladin replied by complaining of the constant inroads
+made by Renaud de Châtillon. This restless warrior undertook an
+expedition against Eyleh, and for this purpose constructed boats at
+Kerak and conveyed them on camels to the sea. But this flotilla was
+repulsed, and the siege was raised by a fleet sent thither by El-Adil,
+the brother of Saladin, and his viceroy. A second expedition against
+Eyleh was still more unfortunate to the Franks, who were defeated and
+taken prisoners. On this occasion the captives were slain in the valley
+of Mina. Saladin then threatened Kerak, encamped at Tiberias, and
+ravaged the territory of the Franks. He next made a futile attempt to
+take Beirut. He was more successful in a campaign against Mesopotamia,
+which he reduced to submission, with the exception of Mosul. While
+absent here, the Crusaders did little except undertake several forays,
+and Saladin at length returned towards Palestine, winning many victories
+and conquering Aleppo on the way. He next ravaged Samaria, and at last
+received the fealty of the lord of Mosul, though he did not succeed in
+actually conquering the city.
+
+In the year 1186 war broke out again between Saladin and the Christian
+hosts. The sultan had respected a truce which he had made with
+Baldwin the Leper, King of Jerusalem, but the restless Renaud, who had
+previously attacked Eyleh, had broken through its stipulations. His
+plunder of a rich caravan enraged Saladin, who forthwith sent out orders
+to all his vassals and lieutenants to prepare for a Holy War. In the
+year 1187 he marched from Damascus to Kerak, where he laid close siege
+to Renaud. At the same time a large body of cavalry was sent on
+towards Nazareth under his son El-Afdhal. They were met by 730 Knights
+Hospitallers and Templars, aided by a few hundred foot-soldiers.
+Inspired by the heroic Jacques de Maillé, marshal of the Temple,
+they defied the large Saracen army. In the conflict which ensued, the
+Crusaders immortalised themselves by fighting until only three of their
+number were left alive, who, after the conflict was over, managed to
+escape.
+
+Soon after this, Saladin himself approached with a great army of eighty
+thousand men, and the Christians with all their forces hastened to meet
+him upon the shores of Lake Tiberias. The result of this battle proved
+to be the most disastrous defeat which the Christians had yet suffered.
+They were weakened by thirst, and on the second day of the conflict a
+part of their troops fled. But the knights nevertheless continued to
+make a heroic defence until they were overwhelmed by numbers and forced
+to flee to the hills of Hittûn. A great number of Crusaders fell in
+this conflict, and Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, and his brother,
+Renaud de Châtillon, were among the prisoners of war. The number of
+those taken was very great, and Saladin left an indelible stain upon
+a reign otherwise renowned for mercy and humanity by allowing the
+prisoners to be massacred. Tiberias, Acre, Nabulus, Jericho, Ramleh,
+Cæsarea, Arsûr, Jaffa, Beirut, and many other places now fell into the
+hands of the conqueror.
+
+[Illustration: 019.jpg ARAB DRINKING-VESSELS]
+
+Tyre successfully resisted Saladin’s attacks. Ascalon surrendered on
+favourable conditions, and, to crown all, Jerusalem itself fell a prey
+to his irresistible arms. The great clemency of Saladin is chronicled
+on this occasion by Christian historians, but the same was an offence to
+many of the Moslems and is but little referred to by their historians.
+
+Tyre was now again besieged and was on the point of capture when the
+besieged were relieved by the arrival of Conrad, son of the Marquis
+of Monferrat. The defence was now fought with such vigour that Saladin
+abandoned it and made an attack upon Tripoli, but with no better
+success, although he succeeded in forcing Bohemond, Prince of Antioch,
+and ruler of Tripoli, to submit on terms favourable to himself. After
+this, Saladin took part in the defence of the ever-memorable siege of
+Acre, which called forth deeds of gallantry and heroism on both sides,
+and which lasted for two years, during which it roused the interest
+of the whole of the Christian world. The invading army were in time
+reinforced by the redoubtable Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England,
+and Philip II. of France, and, breaking down all opposition, they
+captured the city, and floated upon its walls the banners of the cross
+in the year 1191 A.D. Unfortunately for the good name of the Christians,
+an act of ferocious barbarity marred the lustre of their triumph, for
+2,700 Moslems were cut down in cold blood in consequence of the failure
+of Saladin to fulfil the terms of the capitulation; and the palliative
+plea that the massacre was perpetrated in the heat of the assault can
+scarcely be urged in extenuation of this enormity. While many historians
+have laid the blame on King Richard, the historian Michaud believes
+it rather to have been decided on in a council of the chiefs of the
+Crusade.
+
+After a period of rest and debauchery, the army of the Crusaders, led on
+by King Richard, began to march towards Jerusalem. Saladin harassed his
+advance and rendered the strongholds on the way defenceless and ravaged
+the whole country. Richard was nevertheless ever victorious. His great
+personal bravery struck terror into the Moslems, and he won an important
+victory over them at Arsûr. Dissensions now broke out among chiefs of
+the Crusaders, and Richard himself proved to be a very uncertain
+leader in regard to the strategy of the campaign. So serious were
+these drawbacks that the ultimate aim of the enterprise was thereby
+frustrated, and the Crusaders never attained to their great object,
+which was the re-conquest of Jerusalem. At the time when the Christian
+armies were in possession of all the cities along the coast, from Jaffa
+to Tyre, and the hosts of Saladin were seriously disorganised, a treaty
+was concluded and King Richard sailed back on the return journey to
+England. The glory acquired by Saladin, and the famous campaigns of
+Richard Cour de Lion, have rendered the Third Crusade the most memorable
+in history, and the exploits of the heroes on both sides shed a lustre
+on the arms of both Moslems and Christians.
+
+Saladin died about a year after the conclusion of this peace, at
+Damascus, A.D. 1193, at the age of fifty-seven. With less rashness and
+bravery than Richard, Saladin possessed a firmer character and one far
+better calculated to carry on a religious war. He paid more attention to
+the results of his enterprises; more master of himself, he was more
+fit to command others. When mounting the throne of the Atabegs, Saladin
+obeyed rather his destiny than his inclinations; but, when once firmly
+seated, he was governed by only two passions,--that of reigning and
+that of securing the triumph of the Koran. On all other subjects he
+was moderate, and when a kingdom or the glory of the Prophet was not
+in question, the son of Ayyub was admired as the most just and mild of
+Muhammedans. The stern devotion and ardent fanaticism that made him take
+up arms against the Christians only rendered him cruel and barbarous
+in one single instance. He displayed the virtues of peace amidst the
+horrors of war. “From the bosom of the camps,” says an Oriental poet,
+“he covered the nations with the wings of his justice, and poured upon
+his cities the plenteous showers of his liberality.” During his reign
+many remarkable public works were executed. The Muhammedans, always
+governed by fear, were astonished that a sovereign could inspire them
+with so much love, and followed him with joy to battle. His generosity,
+his clemency, and particularly his respect for an oath, were often the
+subjects of admiration to the Christians, whom he rendered so miserable
+by his victories, and of whose power in Asia he had completed the
+overthrow. Previous to his death, Saladm had divided the kingdom
+between his three sons; El-Afdhal received Damascus, Southern Syria,
+and Palestine, with the title of sultan; El-Aziz obtained the kingdom of
+Egypt, and Ez Zahir the princedom of Aleppo.
+
+El-Aziz undertook a campaign against Syria, but was defeated and obliged
+to retreat to Cairo on account of a mutiny among his troops. El-Afdhal
+pursued him, and had already pressed forward as far as Bilbeis, when
+El-Adil, who had hitherto espoused his cause, fearing that he might
+become too powerful, forced him to conclude a peace. The only advantage
+he obtained was that he regained possession of Jerusalem and the
+southern part of Syria. Soon after, El-Adil prevailed upon his nephew
+Aziz, with whom he stood on friendly terms, to renew the war and to
+take Damascus; El-Afdhal was betrayed, and only Sarchod was left to him,
+whereas El-Adil occupied Damascus and forced Aziz to return to Egypt
+again (June, 1196). After Aziz’s death, in November, 1198, El-Afdhal was
+summoned by some of the emirs to act as regent in Egypt. Others called
+upon El-Adil to adopt the same course. El-Afdhal, however, became master
+of Egypt, and besieged Damascus, reinforced by his brother Zahir, who
+feared his uncle’s ambition no less than himself. The agreement between
+the brothers, however, did not last long; their armies separated, and
+El-Afdhal was obliged to raise the siege and retreat to Egypt. He was
+pursued by his uncle, and forced, after several skirmishes, to surrender
+the capital and content himself once more with Sarchod and one or two
+towns on the Euphrates (February, 1200). El-Adil ruled for a short time
+in the name of El-Aziz’s son; he soon came forward as sultan, forced
+Zahir to recognise him as his suzerain, and appointed his son El-Muzzain
+as governor of Damascus; the towns which belonged to him in Mesopotamia
+were distributed among his other sons, and he thus became, to a certain
+extent, the overlord of all the lands conquered by Saladin. His son,
+El-Ashraf, later became lord of Chelat in Armenia, and his descendant,
+Masud, Kamil’s son, obtained possession of happy Arabia; so that the
+name Malik Adil was pronounced in all the Moslem chancels from the
+borders of Georgia to the Gulf of Aden.
+
+[Illustration: 025.jpg VASE IN THE ABBOTT COLLECTION, NEW YORK]
+
+El-Adil was so much engaged with wars against the Moslem princes,--the
+princes of Nissibis and Mardin,--and also with repulsing El-Afdhal, who
+wished to recover his lost kingdom, that he was unable to proceed with
+any force against the Crusaders; he took unwilling measures against them
+when they actually broke the peace, and was always ready to conclude
+a new treaty. He took Jaffa by storm when the pilgrims, armed by Henry
+VI., came to Palestine and interfered with the Moslem devotions, and
+when the chancellor Conrad thereupon seized Sidon and Beirut, El-Adil
+contented himself with laying waste the former town and hindering
+the capture of the fortress Joron; Beirut he allowed to fall into
+the enemy’s hands. Still later he permitted several attacks of the
+Christians--such as the devastation of the town Fuah, situated on the
+Rosetta arm of the Nile--to pass unnoticed, and even bought peace at
+the expense of the districts of Ramleh and Lydda, which had formerly
+belonged to him. It was not until the year 1206 that he acted upon the
+offensive against the regent, John of Ibelin, and even then he contented
+himself with slight advantages and concluded a new truce for thirty
+years.
+
+Shortly before his death, El-Adil, like his brother Saladin, narrowly
+escaped losing all his glory and the fruits of so many victories. Pope
+Honorius III. had successfully aroused the zeal of the Western
+nations for a new Crusade. Numerous well-armed and warlike-minded
+pilgrims--among whom were King Andreas of Hungary and Duke Leopold of
+Austria--landed at Acre in 1217, and King John of Jerusalem led them
+against the Moslems. El-Adil hastened from Egypt to the scene of action,
+but was forced to retreat to Damascus and to give up the whole of the
+southern district, with the exception of the well-fortified holy town,
+to be plundered by the Christians. In the following spring, whilst
+El-Adil was in Syria, a Christian fleet sailed to Damietta, and besieged
+the town. The attacking forces were composed of Germans and Hungarians,
+who had embarked at Spalato on the Adriatic for St. Jean d’Acre, where
+they spent a year in unfortunate expeditions and quarrels with the
+Christians of Syria. They were joined by a fleet of three hundred boats
+furnished by North Germans and Frisians, who, leaving the banks of
+the Rhine, had journeyed there by way of the Straits of Gibraltar,
+prolonging the journey by a year’s fighting in Portugal.
+
+The Christians then in Palestine had persuaded the Crusaders to begin
+with an attack on Egypt, and they had therefore chosen to land at
+Damietta. This was a large commercial town to the east of one of the
+arms of the Nile, which was defended by three walls and a large tower
+built on an island in the middle of the Nile, from which started the
+chains that barred the river.
+
+The Frisian sailors constructed a castle of wood, which was placed
+between the masts of two ships, and from which the Crusaders were able
+to leap to the tower, and thus they were able to blockade and starve
+the town. The siege was long, and an epidemic breaking out among the
+besiegers carried off a sixth of their number. The sultan tried to
+succour the besieged by floating down the stream corpses of camels,
+which were stuffed with provisions, but the Christians captured them. He
+then offered to give the Crusaders, on condition they would depart,
+the True Cross and all he possessed of the kingdom of Jerusalem; but
+Pelagius, the papal legate,--a Spanish monk who had himself named
+commander-in-chief,--rejected the offer.
+
+El-Adil was so stunned by the news of the success of the Christians
+that he died a few days after (August, 1218). El-Kamil, however, was not
+discouraged; he not only defended Damietta, but also harassed the enemy
+in their own camp by means of hordes of Bedouins. Not until he was
+forced, by a conspiracy of his troops in favour of his brother El-Faiz,
+to fly to Cairo, did the Christians succeed in getting across the Nile
+and completely surrounding Damietta. Order was soon restored in
+Egypt, owing to the arrival of Prince Muzzain, who had taken over the
+government of Damascus on the death of his father. The rebels were
+chastised, and both brothers proceeded towards Damietta: they could not
+succeed, however, in raising the siege, and the garrison diminished
+daily through hunger, sickness, and constant attacks, and the fortress
+soon fell into the hands of the Crusaders, almost without a blow
+(November 5, 1219). The Crusaders pillaged the town, taking from it four
+hundred thousand gold pieces. The Italians also settled there, and
+made it the seat of their commerce with Egypt. This conquest caused
+excitement in Europe, and the Pope called Pelagius “the second Joshua.”
+
+[Illustration: 027.jpg PUBLIC FOUNTAIN, CAIRO.]
+
+If the Franks had been more at peace among themselves, they might
+easily have pushed forward to Cairo after the fall of Damietta. But the
+greatest discontent prevailed between the papal legate, Pelagius, and
+King John of Brienne, so that the latter soon after left Egypt, while
+Pelagius was forced to wait for reinforcements before he could get away
+from Damietta.
+
+El-Kamil, meanwhile, reinforced his army with the help of the friendly
+Syrian princes, and, by destroying the channels and dams of the Nile
+canals, so endangered the Christian camp that they were soon forced
+to sue for peace, and offered to quit Damietta on the condition of an
+unmolested retreat. El-Kamil, equally anxious for peace, accepted these
+conditions (August, 1221). Scarcely had the Æyubites thus warded off:
+the threatening danger when they proceeded to fall out among themselves.
+
+After the death of El-Kamil, who in the end was generally regarded as
+overlord, a new war broke out, in March, 1238, between his son El-Adil
+II., who was reigning in Egypt, and his brother Ayyub, who occupied
+Damascus. Ayyub conquered Egypt, but, in his absence, his uncle Ismail,
+Prince of Balbek, seized upon Damascus and made a league with the Franks
+in Palestine and several of the Syrian princes. Through this unnatural
+league, Ismail, however, estranged not only the Moslem inhabitants of
+Syria, but also his own army. Part of the army deserted in consequence
+to Ayyub, who was thus enabled easily to subdue the allied army (1240).
+Another coalition was formed against him a few years later, and this
+time Da’ud of Kerak was one of the allies. Ayyub sent a strong army of
+Egyptians, negroes, and Mamluks under the future sultan, Beybars,
+to Syria. The Syrian troops fought unwillingly against their
+fellow-believers in the opposite ranks, and the wild Chariz-mites,
+who had also joined the ranks, inspired them with terror, so that they
+deserted the field of battle in the neighbourhood of Gaza (October,
+1244). The Christians, left to themselves, were not in a position to
+resist the enemy’s attacks; and the Egyptians made themselves masters
+of Jerusalem and Hebron, and in the following year obtained Damascus,
+Balbek, Ascalon, and Tiberias. In 1248 Ayyub came again into Syria, in
+order to chastise El-Malik en-Nasir, Prince of Aleppo, who had seized
+upon Hemessa when he heard of the coming Crusaders under Saint Louis.
+To this end he made peace with the natives of Aleppo, and returned to
+Jerusalem in order to make the necessary preparations for defence. The
+pilgrims, however, succeeded in landing, for Emir Fakhr ed-Din, the
+Egyptian commander, had taken to flight after a short skirmish, and the
+fortress was allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy (June, 1249).
+Ayyub now established a firm footing in the town of Cairo--which his
+father had founded--in a district intersected by canals, and harassed
+the Christian camp with his light cavalry. Louis was expecting
+reinforcements, but they did not arrive until the inundations of the
+Nile made any advance into the interior almost impossible. At last, on
+the 21st of December, the Christian army arrived at the canal of
+Ashmum Tanah, which alone separated them from the town of Mansuria.
+The Egyptians were now commanded by Emir Fakhr ed-Din. Ayyub had died
+a month before, but his wife, Shejret ed-Durr, kept his death a secret
+until his son Turan Shah should arrive from Mesopotamia. Fakhr ed-Din
+did everything in his power to retrieve his former error. He attacked
+the Christians when they were engaged in building a dam across
+the canal, hindering their work on the southern bank with his
+throwing-machines, destroying their towers with Greek fire; and when, in
+spite of all discouragements, their toilsome work was nearly finished,
+he rendered it useless by digging out a new basin, into which he
+conducted the water of the Ashmum canal.
+
+On the 8th of February, 1250, the French crossed the canal, but, instead
+of collecting there, as the king had commanded, so as to attack the
+enemy _en masse_, several troops pressed forward against the Egyptians,
+and many, including the Count of Artois, the king’s brother, were killed
+by the valiant enemy under Beybars. The battle remained long undecided,
+for the Egyptians had barricaded Cairo so well that it could only be
+stormed at the cost of many lives, and after the capture the army needed
+rest. The Egyptians took advantage of this delay to bring a fleet up
+in the rear of the Egyptian ships, which, in combination with the fleet
+stationed near Mansuria, attacked and completely destroyed them. As soon
+as they were masters of the Nile, the Egyptians landed troops below the
+Christian camp, which was thus completely cut off from Damietta, and
+soon suffered the greatest hardships from lack of provisions. Under
+these circumstances, Louis opened negotiations with Turan Shah, and
+when these proved fruitless, nothing remained for him but to return to
+Damietta. Although they began their retreat by night, they did not thus
+escape the vigilance of the Egyptians. The fugitives were overtaken on
+the following morning, and so shut in by the enemy that resistance was
+impossible. A large portion of the army was cut to pieces, in spite of
+their surrender; the rest, together with the king and his brother, were
+taken prisoners and brought in triumph to Cairo. Turan Shah treated the
+king with consideration and hastened to conclude peace with the Bahritic
+Mamluks,--so called because they had been brought up on the Nile (Bahr),
+on the island Rhodha,--as soon as the ransom money of his prisoners
+was assured. The Bahrites grumbled at this peace because it left the
+Christians in Palestine in possession of their towns, and they forthwith
+murdered Turan Shah, with the help of Shejret ed-Durr, whom he had
+maltreated (May 2, 1250).
+
+After Turan Shah’s death, his mother was proclaimed sultana, and the
+Mamluk Aibek became general of the army. Later, when the caliph of
+Baghdad revolted against the rule of a woman, Aibek assumed the title
+of sultan and married Shejret ed-Durr. He ruled again after some time
+in the name of a young descendant of Kamil, so as to be able to fight
+against the Ayyubids in Syria, who, with En-Nasir at their head, had
+taken possession of Damascus, with an appearance of right. A battle took
+place between Aibek and the Syrians (February, 1251), which was decided
+in favour of Aibek in consequence of the treachery of the Turks under
+Nasir. Aibek again assumed the title of sultan after the victory, but
+was soon after to be murdered by the Mamluks, who were unwilling to be
+subject to any control. He anticipated their plot, however, and slew
+their leader, the Emir Aktai, putting his followers to flight. He then
+demanded the diploma of investiture and the insignia of his office
+from the caliph, and also pressed the Prince of Mosul to grant him his
+daughter in marriage. His own wife, unable to endure such perfidy, had
+him murdered in his bath (April 10, 1257).
+
+[Illustration: 032b]
+
+When Beybars first ascended the throne, he assumed the name of Sultan
+Kahir (the over-ruler), but afterwards, when he was informed that this
+name had always brought misfortune to its bearer, he changed it to that
+of Sultan Zahir (the Glorious).
+
+Now that he was absolute master of Syria and Egypt, Beybars tried to
+obliterate the remembrance of the misdeeds he had formerly been guilty
+of by means of undertakings for the general good and for the furtherance
+of religion. He had the mosques repaired, founded pious institutions,
+designed new aqueducts, fortified Alexandria, had all the fortresses
+repaired and provisioned which the Mongols had razed to the ground, had
+a large number of great and small war-ships built, and established a
+regular post between Cairo and Damascus. In order to obtain a semblance
+of legitimacy, since he was but a usurper, Beybars recognised a nominal
+descendant of the house of Abbas as caliph, who, in the proper course
+of things, ought to invest him with the dominions of Syria and Egypt.
+Beybars bade his governors receive this descendant of the house of the
+Prophet with all suitable marks of honour, and invited him to come to
+Egypt. When he approached the capital, the sultan himself went out to
+meet him, followed by the vizier, the chief cadi, and the chief emirs
+and notabilities of the town. Even the Jews and Christians had to take
+part in the procession, carrying respectively the Tora and the Gospel.
+The caliph made his entrance into Cairo with the greatest pomp, rode
+through the town amidst the shouts of the multitude, and proceeded to
+the citadel, where Beybars had appointed him a magnificent dwelling.
+Some days afterwards the caliph had a reception of the chief cadi, the
+most celebrated theologians and lawyers of Egypt, and many notables of
+the capital. The Arabs who formed his escort and an eunuch from Baghdad
+testified to the identity of the caliph’s person, the chief cadi
+recognised their assertion as valid, and was the first to do homage to
+him as caliph. Thereupon the sultan arose, took the oath of allegiance
+to him and swore to uphold both the written laws of the Koran and
+those of tradition; to advance the good and hinder the evil, to fight
+zealously for the protection of the faith only, to impose lawful taxes,
+and to apply the taxes only to lawful purposes. After the sultan had
+finished, homage was done by the sheiks, the emirs, and the other chief
+officers of the kingdom. The caliph invested the sultan with power over
+all the kingdoms subject to Islam, as well as over all future conquests,
+whereupon the people of all classes were admitted to do homage likewise.
+Then command was sent out to all the distant princes and governors to do
+homage to the caliph, who has assumed the name of El-Mustanssir, and to
+place his name beside that of the sultan in their prayers and also on
+their coins.
+
+Beybars’ treatment of his viziers, governors, and other important emirs,
+one or other of whom he either imprisoned or executed on every possible
+occasion, was merciless, but he proceeded even more shamelessly against
+Malik Mughith, Prince of Kerak and Shaubek, whom he feared so much as
+one of the bravest descendants of the house of Ayyub that he stamped
+himself publicly as a perjured assassin, in order to get him out of
+the way. Beybars had at first, without any declaration of war, in fact,
+without any notification of it in Egypt, suddenly sent a detachment of
+troops under the leadership of Emir Bedr ed-Din Aidimri, which took the
+fortress Shaubek by surprise, and placed the Emir Saif ed-Din Bilban
+el-Mukhtasi in it as governor. In the next year, in order to win over
+Mughith, he liberated his son Aziz, whom Kotuz had captured at Damascus
+and imprisoned at Cairo; he also assured Mughith of his friendly
+intentions towards him and repeatedly urged him to arrange a meeting.
+El-Malik el-Mughith did not trust Beybars, and invented all kinds of
+reasons not to accept his invitations. Beybars resolved at last to calm
+the fears of his intended victim by means of a written oath. The fears
+of Mughith, however, were not allayed, and he hesitated to fall in with
+the wish of the sultan and to appear at his court. The following year,
+when the sultan came to Syria and again urged a meeting, he was at a
+loss for an excuse, and was forced either to acknowledge his mistrust
+or risk everything. He sent his mother first to Gaza, where she was
+received with the greatest friendliness by the sultan, and sent back
+laden with costly presents; on her return to Kerak, corrupted by the
+hospitality and generosity of the sultan, she persuaded her son to wait
+on him, as did also his ambassador Alamjad with equal zeal. Finally he
+set out from Kerak--when he had made his troops do homage to his son
+El-Malik el-Aziz--on a visit to the sultan, who wras then in Tur. The
+sultan rode out to meet him as far as Beisan. Malik Mughith wished to
+dismount when he perceived the sultan, but he would not permit this, and
+rode beside Mughith till he reached his own tent. Here he was separated
+from his followers, thrown into chains, and brought into the citadel
+of Cairo (a.h. 660). In order to palliate this crime, the sultan made
+public the correspondence of the Prince of Kerak with the Mongols, which
+it was thought would stamp the former as a traitor to Islam. The judges
+whom he brought with him, and amongst whom we find the celebrated
+historian Ibn Khallikan, who was then chief judge of Damascus, declared
+him guilty, but we only have historical proof of the sending of his son
+into Hulagu’s camp to beg that his province might be spared, at a time
+when all the princes of Syria, seized with panic, threw themselves at
+the feet of the Mongolian general. Be that as it may, he none the less
+committed a piece of treachery, since he had sworn not to call him to
+account for his former crimes. Beybars hoped, now that he had disposed
+of Malik Mughith, that the fortress Kerak would immediately surrender to
+his emissary, Emir Bedr ed-Din Beisari, but the governor of the fortress
+feared to trust the promises of a perjurer and offered resistance.
+Beybars therefore set out for Syria with all the necessary siege
+apparatus, constructed by the best engineers of Egypt and Syria. The
+garrison saw the impossibility of a long resistance and capitulated.
+
+The son of Malik Mughith, El-Malik el-Aziz, a boy of twelve, was
+honoured as prince and taken to Egypt, as also Mughith’s family. His
+emirs and officials were treated with consideration, but the prince was
+later thrown into prison. Nothing certain is known with regard to the
+death of Mughith. According to some reports, because he offended the
+wife of Beybars, when as a wandering Mamluk he once was staying with
+him, he was delivered over to the sultan’s wives and was put to death by
+them; another account says that he died of hunger in prison.
+
+After the conquest of Shekif, the sultan made an attack on the province
+of Tripoli because Prince Bok-mond, Governor of Antioch and Tripoli,
+was his bitterest enemy and the truest ally of the Mongolians, and had,
+moreover, at the time of Hulagu’s attack on Syria, made himself master
+of several places which till then had belonged to the Mussulmans. The
+whole land was wasted, all the houses destroyed, all Christians who fell
+into the hands of the troops were murdered, and several strongholds in
+the mountains conquered. Laden with rich booty, the Moslem army set out
+for Hemessa. From here Beybars proceeded towards Hamah and divided the
+army into three divisions; one division, under the Emir Bedr ed-Din
+Khaznadar (treasurer), was to take the direction of Suwaidiya, the port
+of Antioch; the second, under Emir Izz ed-Din Ighan, struck the route
+towards Der-besak; the third, which he led himself, proceeded in a
+straight line over Apamaa and Schoghr towards Antioch, which was the
+meeting-place for the two other emirs, and would so be shut in from the
+north, the west, and the south. On the 16th May the sultan found himself
+in front of the town, which contained a population of over one hundred
+thousand. Fighting soon ensued between the outposts of the sultan and
+the constable who advanced against him at the head of the militia. The
+latter was defeated, and the constable himself taken prisoner. On the 3d
+of Ramadhan the whole army had united and preparations were made for
+the siege. Meanwhile the sultan had already attempted to persuade the
+imprisoned constable to return to the town and enduce them to surrender,
+and to leave his own son behind as a hostage. But when several days had
+passed in fruitless discussions, at last the sultan gave the word for
+the attack. In spite of the resistance of the Christians, the walls
+were scaled on the same day, and the garrison retired thereupon into the
+citadel; the inhabitants were massacred or taken prisoner and all the
+houses plundered. No one could escape, for Beybars had blocked all the
+entrances. On the next day the garrison, women and children included,
+which numbered eight thousand, surrendered on account of lack of water
+and meal. The chiefs apparently made their escape during the confusion
+and fled into the mountains. The garrison only saved their lives by
+surrendering. Beybars had them chained and distributed as slaves amongst
+his troops; he then had the other prisoners and the rest of the booty
+brought together, and proceeded with the lawful distribution. When
+everything had been settled, the citadel was set on fire, but the
+conflagration was so great that the whole town was consumed.
+
+Beybars died soon after his return from Asia Minor (July 1, 1277).
+According to some reports his death was occasioned by a violent fever;
+other accounts say that he died in consequence of a poison which he had
+prepared for an Ayyubid and which he accidentally took himself. He had
+designated the eldest of his sons as his successor, under the name
+of El-Malik es-Said, and in order to give him a strong support he had
+married him to the daughter of the Emir Kilawun, one of his best and
+most influential generals. In spite of all this, however, es-Said was
+not able to maintain himself on the throne for any length of time.
+
+Kilawun conspired against his master, and was soon able to ascend the
+throne under the title of El-Malik el-Mansur. His fame as a warrior was
+already established, and he added to his successes during his ten
+years’ reign. His first task was to quell disturbances in Syria, and he
+despatched an army thither and captured Damascus. In the year 680 of
+the Hegira he took the field in person against a large force of Tatars,
+defeated them, and raised the siege of Rahabah. Eight years later he
+laid siege to Tripoli, then rich and flourishing after two centuries of
+Christian occupation, and the town was taken and its inhabitants killed.
+Other expeditions were undertaken against Nubia, but the Nubians, after
+they had been twice defeated, appear to have re-established themselves.
+
+[Illustration: 038.jpg COURT IN THE MORISTAN OF THE KILAWUN]
+
+The fortress of Acre was at this time the only important stronghold
+still retained by the Christians, and for its conquest Kilawun was
+making preparations when he died, on the 10th of November, 1290.
+Kilawun, says the modern historian Weil, has been unduly praised by
+historians, most of whom lived in the reign of his son. He was certainly
+not so bloodthirsty as Beybars, and he also oppressed his subjects less.
+He, too, cared more for the increase and establishment of his kingdom
+than for justice and good faith. He held no agreement sacred, if he
+could get any advantage by breaking it, as was shown by his behaviour
+towards the Crusaders and the descendants of Beybars. The most beautiful
+monument which he left behind him was a huge building outside Cairo,
+which included a hospital, a school, and his own tomb. The hospital was
+so large that every disease had a special room allotted to it; there
+were also apartments for women, and large storerooms for provisions and
+medical requirements, and a large auditorium in which the head doctor
+delivered his lectures on medicine. The expenses were so great--for
+even people of wealth were taken without compensation--that special
+administrators were appointed to oversee and keep an account of the
+necessary outlay. Besides these officers, several stewards and overseers
+were appointed to control the revenues devoted to the hospital by
+different institutions. Under the dome of the tomb the Koran and
+traditional charters were taught, and both teachers and scholars
+received their payment from the state. A large adjacent hall contained
+a library of many works on the Koran, tradition, language, medicine,
+practical theology, jurisprudence, and literature, and was kept in good
+condition by a special librarian and six officials. The school building
+contained four audience-halls for the teachers of the Islamite schools,
+and in addition to these a school for children, into which sixty poor
+orphans were received without any charge and provided with board,
+lodging, and clothes.
+
+Khalil, the son of Kilawun, who succeeded him, with the title of
+El-Malik el-Ashraf, was able to begin operations in the spring of 1291
+against Acre, and on the 18th of May, after an obstinate resistance, the
+town was taken by storm. Those who could not escape by water were either
+cut down or taken prisoner; the town was plundered, then burnt, and the
+fortifications razed to the ground.
+
+[Illustration: 043.jpg WINDOW IN THE MAUSOLEUM OF KILAWUN]
+
+After the fall of Acre, towns such as Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and others,
+which were still in the hands of the Christians, offered no resistance,
+and were either deserted by their inhabitants or given up to the enemy.
+El-Ashraf, now that he had cleared Syria of the Crusaders, turned his
+arms against the Mongols and their vassals. He began with the storming
+of Kalat er-rum, a fortress on the Upper Euphrates in the neighbourhood
+of Bireh, the possession of which was important both for the defence of
+Northern Syria and for attacks on Armenia and Asia Minor. In spite of
+many pompous declarations that this was only the beginning of greater
+conquests in Asia Minor and Irak, he retired as soon as the Ilkhan
+Kaikhatu sent a strong detachment of troops against him. Later on he
+threatened the Prince of Armenia-Minor with war, and obliged him to hand
+over certain border towns. He also exchanged some threatening letters
+with Kaikhatu. But neither reigned long enough to make these threats
+good, for Kaikhatu was soon after dethroned by Baidu, and Baidu in
+his turn by Gazan (1295), after many civil wars which had continually
+hindered him from carrying on a foreign war. El-Ashraf was murdered in
+1294, whilst hunting, by the regent Baidara, whom he had threatend to
+turn out of his office. Kara Sonkor, Lajin, El-Mansuri, and some of the
+other emirs had conspired with Baidara in the hope that, when once the
+deed was accomplished, all the chiefs in the kingdom would applaud their
+action, since El-Ashraf had slain and imprisoned many influential emirs,
+and was generally denounced as an irreligious man, who transgressed
+not only against the laws of Islam, but also against those of nature.
+Baidara, however, immediately proceeded to mount the throne, and a
+strong party, with the Emir Ketboga at its head, was formed against him.
+Ketboga called upon El-Ashraf’s Mamluks to take vengeance, pursued the
+rebels, and killed Baidara. He then returned to Cairo, and, after long
+negotiations with the governor of the capital, Muhammed, a younger
+brother of El-Ashraf, was proclaimed sultan, with the title of El-Malik
+en-Nasir.
+
+Muhammed en-Nasir occupies such an important place in the history of
+these times that the other Moslem princes may easily be grouped around
+him. He was only nine years old when he was summoned to be ruler of the
+kingdom of the Mamluks. Naturally he was the sultan only in name, and
+the real power lay in the hands of Ketboga and Vizier Shujai. These two
+lived in perfect harmony so long as they were merely occupied with
+the pursuit of their rivals,--not only the friends and followers of
+El-Ashraf’s murderer, but also the innocent ex-vizier of El-Ashraf,
+because he had treated them with contempt and was in possession of
+riches for which they were greedy. He shared the fate of the king’s
+assassins, for, in spite of the intercession of the ladies of the royal
+harem, he ended his life on the gallows. But as soon as the two rulers
+had got rid of their enemies and appeased their own avarice, their
+peaceful union was at an end, for each wished to have complete control
+over the sultan. Shujai had the Mamluks of the late sultan on his side;
+while Ketboga, who was a Mongol by birth, had with him all the Mongols
+and Kurds who had settled in the kingdom during Beybars’ reign. A Mongol
+warned Ketboga against Shujai, who had made all necessary preparations
+to throw his rival into prison, and he immediately was attacked by
+Ketboga and defeated after several attempts.
+
+Ketboga’s ambition was not yet fulfilled, although he was now supreme
+ruler. He first demanded homage as regent; as he met with no opposition,
+he conceived the idea of setting the sultan, Nasir, aside; and he hoped
+to carry out his plan with the assistance of Lajin and Kara Sonkor,
+El-Ashraf’s murderers, and their numerous following. He had the pardon
+of these two emirs proclaimed, whereupon they left their hiding-places
+and joined Ketboga, for it was to their interest also that the sultan
+should be put out of the way. This _coup d’état_ was a complete success
+(December, 1294), but in spite of these plans, Ketboga’s reign was both
+unfortunate and brief. The old emirs were vexed with him because he
+raised his own Mamluks to the highest posts of honour, and the clergy
+were displeased because he received favourably a number of Mongols,
+although they were heathens. The people blamed him for the severe famine
+which visited Egypt and Syria and which was followed by a terrible
+pestilence. Several emirs, with Lajin again at their head, conspired
+against him, and forced their way into his tent while he was on the way
+to Syria; overpowering the guard, they attempted to get possession of
+his person. He managed to escape, however, and so saved his life and
+liberty, but Lajin obtained possession of the throne, with the agreement
+of the other emirs. In spite of his advantages, both as man and as pious
+Moslem, and in spite of his brilliant victories over the princes of
+Armenia, Lajin was murdered, together with his successor, and Nasir, who
+was then living in Kerak, was recalled as sultan (January, 1299).
+
+Nasir was still too young to reign alone; he had to let himself be
+ruled by the emirs who had already assumed a kind of regency before his
+return. At the head of these emirs stood Sellar and Beybars Jashingir.
+Distrust and uneasiness existed between these two, one of whom was
+regent and the other prefect of the palace, for each wanted to assume
+the chief power; but soon their private intrigues were put into the
+background by a common danger. The Ilkhan Gazan was actively preparing
+for war against the Mamluk kingdom because the Governor of Aleppo
+had fallen upon Mardin, a town belonging to the Mongols, and brutally
+maltreated the inhabitants; also because the refugees from Egypt and
+Syria assured him that the moment was favourable for extending his
+dominion over these lands.
+
+The internal history of Egypt at this period offers nothing but tedious
+strifes between different emirs, and specially between the two most
+powerful, Beybars and Sellar, who would have often brought it to open
+warfare had not their friends and followers intervened. They agreed,
+however, on one point, namely, to keep the sultan as long as possible
+from taking over the reins of government, and to keep him as secluded
+as possible in order to deprive him of all influence. Whilst Sellar
+was wasting immense sums, the sultan was in fact almost starving. When
+Sellar went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, he paid the debts of all the
+Moslems who had retired to this town; he further distributed ten
+thousand malters of fruit amongst the poor people in the town, and so
+much money and provisions that they were able to live on it for a whole
+year. He also treated the inhabitants of Medina and Jiddah in an equally
+generous way. The sultan, who was hunting in Lower Egypt, at the
+same time tried in vain to obtain a small loan from the Alexandrian
+merchants, to buy a present for his wife. Finally, his vizier, who had
+granted him two thousand dinars ($5,060), was accused on Sellar’s return
+of embezzling the public money, was led round the town on a donkey, and
+beaten and tortured so long that he succumbed under his torments.
+
+In the year 1307, when Nasir was twenty-three years old, though still
+treated as a child, he attempted, with the help of the Emir Bektimur,
+who commanded the Mamluks in the palace, to seize the persons of his
+oppressors. The plan failed, for they had their spies everywhere, and
+the only result was that the sultan’s faithful servants were banished to
+Syria, and the sultan himself was more oppressed than ever. It was two
+years before he succeeded in deceiving his tyrants. He expressed the
+wish to make a pilgrimage to Mecca; this was granted, as the emirs saw
+nothing dangerous in it, and, moreover, as a religious duty, it could
+not be resisted. As soon as he reached the fortress Kerak, with the
+help of those soldiers in his escort who were devoted to his cause,
+and having deceived the governor by means of false letters, he obtained
+possession of the fortress, and immediately declared his independence of
+the guardianship of Sellar and Beybars. Sellar and Beybars, on hearing
+this, immediately summoned the sultan to return to Cairo; but, even
+before they received his answer, they realised that their rule was over,
+and that either they must quit the field, or Nasir must be dethroned.
+After long consideration amongst themselves, they proceeded to the
+choice of another sultan, and the choice fell on Beybars (April, 1309).
+Beybars accepted the proffered throne on the condition that Sellar also
+retained his place. He confirmed the other emirs also in their offices,
+hoping thereby to gain their support.
+
+[Illustration: 049.jpg INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE, KILAWUN]
+
+The change of government met with no resistance in Egypt, where the
+majority of the emirs had long been dependent on Beybars and Sellar.
+In Syria, on the other hand, the emirs acting as governors refused to
+acknowledge Beybars, partly from devotion to Nasir’s race, and partly
+because the choice had been made without their consent. Only Akush,
+Governor of Damascus, who was an old friend of Beybars, and like him a
+Circassian, took the oath of allegiance. The governors of Aleppo, Hamah,
+and Tripoli, together with the governors of Safed and Jerusalem, called
+upon Nasir to join them, and, with the help of his other followers,
+to reconquer Egypt. The cunning sultan, who saw that the time for open
+resistance had not yet arrived, since Egypt was as yet too unanimous,
+and Damascus also had joined the enemy, advised them to deceive Beybars
+and to take the oath of allegiance, which they could break later, as
+having been obtained by force. He himself feigned to submit to the new
+government, and even had the prayers carried on from the chancel in
+Beybars’ name. Beybars was deceived, although he knew with certainty
+that Nasir carried on a lively intercourse with the discontented
+emirs. He relied chiefly on Akush, who kept a strict watch over Nasir’s
+movements. The spies of Akush, however, were open to corruption, and
+they failed later to take steps to render Nasir harmless at the right
+moment. Beybars believed Nasir to be still in Kerak, when he was well
+on the way to Damascus; and when he finally received news of this, the
+rebellion had already gone so far that some of the troops who had been
+sent out against the sultan had already deserted to his side. The only
+possible way of allaying the storm was for Beybars to put himself at the
+head of his troops, and, joining forces with Akush, to offer battle
+to Nasir. The necessary courage and resolution failed him. Instead of
+having recourse to the sword, he applied to the caliph, who declared
+Nasir an exile, and summoned all believers to listen to the Sultan
+Beybars--whom he had consecrated--and to take part in the war against
+the rebel, Nasir. But the summons of the caliph, which was read in all
+the chancels, had not the slightest effect. The belief in the caliph had
+long disappeared, except in so far as he was considered a tool of the
+sultan on whom he depended. Even Beybars’ party mocked the caliph’s
+declaration, and wherever it was read manifestations were made in favour
+of the exile. Beybars, also, was now deserted by Sellar, and he at
+length was obliged to resign. Beybars was then seized and throttled by
+Nasir, and Sellar was starved to death.
+
+Nasir, who now came to the throne, had grown suspicious and treacherous
+on account of the many hardships and betrayals endured by him during
+his youth. He was, however, favourable to the Christians, and to such an
+extent that he received anonymous letters reproaching him for allowing
+Moslems to be oppressed by Christian officials. He found them to be
+experienced in financial matters, for, in spite of all decrees, they
+had never ceased to hold secretaryships in different states: they were,
+moreover, more unscrupulous than born Muhammedans, who always had
+more respect for law, custom, and public opinion. Certainly the sultan
+considered the ministers in whom he placed great confidence less
+dangerous if they were wow-Moslems, since he was their only support,
+whereas comrades in religion could always find plenty of support and
+might easily betray him.
+
+Nasir died on the 6th of June, 1341, at about fifty-eight years of age,
+after a reign of forty-three years. His rule, which did not actually
+begin until he mounted the throne for the third time, lasted thirty-two
+years. During this period he was absolute ruler in the strongest sense
+of the word; every important affair was decided by him alone. The emirs
+had to refer all matters to him, and were a constant source of suspicion
+and oversight. They might not speak to each other in his presence,
+nor visit each other without his consent. The mildest punishment for
+breaking such decrees was banishment to Syria. Nasir inspired them with
+fear rather than with love and respect, and, as soon as it was known
+that his illness was incurable, no one paid any further attention to
+him. He died as a pious Moslem and repentant sinner in the presence
+of some of his servants. His burial, which took place by night, was
+attended by a few emirs, and only one wax candle and one lamp were
+carried before the bier. As one of his biographers justly remarks, the
+rich sultan, whose dominion had extended from the borders of Abyssinia
+to Asia Minor and up the Euphrates as far as Tunis, and the father of
+a large family, ended his life like a stranger, was buried like a poor
+man, and brought to his grave like a man without wife or child. Nasir
+was the last sultan who ruled over the Bahritic Mamluk kingdom with a
+firm hand. After his death we read of one insurrection after another,
+and the sultans were either deposed or became mere slaves of the emirs.
+Abu Bekr, whom Nasir had appointed his successor, did not hold his own
+for quite two months, because he maltreated the discontented emirs
+and put his favourites in their places. An insurrection, with the Emir
+Kausun at its head, was formed against him; he was dethroned and his
+six-year-old brother Kujuk was proclaimed sultan in his stead. The
+dethroned sultan was banished to Upper Egypt, whither his elder brother
+Ahmed should have been brought; Ahmed, however, refused to leave his
+fortress of Kerak, and, finding support among the Syrian emirs, he
+conspired against Kausun, who was at this moment threatened also with an
+insurrection in Cairo. After several bloody battles, Kausun was forced
+to yield, and Ahmed was proclaimed sultan (January, 1342). Ahmed,
+however, preferred a quiet, peaceful life to the dangerous post
+of sultan, and not until he had received the most solemn oaths of
+allegiance did he proceed to his capital, where he arrived quite
+unexpectedly, so that no festivities had been prepared. After some time,
+he had all the Syrian emirs arrested by his Mam-luks, because they tried
+to usurp his powers; he then appointed a regent, and himself returned to
+Kerak, taking with him everything he had found in the sultan’s palace,
+and there he remained in spite of the entreaties of the faithful emirs,
+and lived simply for his own pleasure.
+
+The natural consequence of all this was Ahmed’s deposition in June,
+1342. His brother Ismail, a good-hearted youth of seventeen years, sent
+troops to Kerak to demand an oath of allegiance from Ahmed, but
+they could effect nothing, as the fortress was well fortified and
+provisioned, and, moreover, many of the emirs, both in Syria and Egypt,
+were still in league with Ahmed. Not until fresh troops had been sent,
+and Ahmed himself betrayed, did they succeed in taking the fortress;
+and Ahmed was put to death in 1344. Ahmed’s death made such a deep
+impression upon the weak sultan that he fell into a fit of depression
+which gradually increased until he died in August of the following year.
+
+[Illustration: 055.jpg FRIEZE IN MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASAN]
+
+His brother and successor, Shaban, was an utter profligate, cruel,
+faithless, avaricious, immoral, and pleasure-loving. Gladiators
+played an important part at his court, and he often took part in their
+contests. Horse-racing, cock-fights, and such like amusements occupied
+him much more than state affairs, and the whole court followed his
+example. As long as Shaban did not offend the emirs, he was at liberty
+to commit any atrocities he pleased, but, as soon as he seized their
+riches and imprisoned and tortured them, his downfall was certain.
+Ilbogha, Governor of Damascus, supported by the other Syrian emirs,
+sent him a list of his crimes and summoned him to abdicate. Meanwhile an
+insurrection had broken out in Cairo, and, although Shaban expressed
+his willingness to abdicate, he was murdered by the rebels in September,
+1346. His brother Haji met with a similar fate after a reign of fifteen
+months, though some accounts affirm that he was not murdered but only
+exiled.
+
+Haji was succeeded by his brother Hasan, who was still a minor; the
+emirs who ruled in his name competed for the highest posts until
+Baibagharus and his brother Menjik carried off the victory. These two
+ruled supreme for a time. The so-called “black death” was ravaging
+Egypt; many families were decimated, and their riches fell to the state.
+The disease, which differed from the ordinary pest in the blood-spitting
+and internal heat, raged in Europe and Asia, and spread the greatest
+consternation even amongst the Moslems, who generally regarded disease
+with a certain amount of indifference, as being a divine decree.
+According to Arabic sources, the black death had broken out in China and
+from there had spread over the Tatar-land of Kipjak; from here it took
+its course towards Constantinople, Asia Minor, and Syria on the one
+hand, and towards Greece, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany on the
+other, and was probably brought to Egypt from Syria. Not only men,
+but beasts and even plants were attacked. The ravages were nowhere
+so fearful as in Egypt; in the capital alone in a few days as many
+as fifteen or twenty thousand people were stricken. As the disease
+continued to rage for two years, there was soon a lack of men to plough
+the fields and carry on the necessary trades; and to increase the
+general distress, incursions were made by the tribes of Turcomans
+and Bedouins, who plundered the towns and villages. Scarcely had this
+desperate state of affairs begun to improve when court intrigues sprang
+up afresh, and only ended with the deposition of the sultan in August,
+1351. He was recalled after three years, during which his brother had
+reigned, and he was subsequently deposed and put to death in March,
+1361. Finally the descendants of Nasir, instead of his sons, began to
+rule. First came Muhammed Ibn Haji, who, as soon as he began to show
+signs of independence, was declared to be of unsound mind by his chief
+emir, Ilbogha; then Shaban, the son of Husain (May, 1363), who was
+strangled in March, 1377; and finally Husain’s eight-year-old son Ali.
+After repeated contests, Berkuk and Berekeh, two Circassian slaves,
+placed themselves at the head of the government. Berkuk, however, wished
+to be absolute, and soon put his co-regent out of the way (1389). He
+contented himself at first with being simply regent, and, even when Ali
+died, he declared his six-year-old brother Haji, sultan. The following
+year, when he discovered a conspiracy of the Mamluks against him, and
+when many of the older emirs were dead, he declared that it was for the
+good of the state that no longer a child, but a man capable of directing
+internal affairs and leading an army against the enemy, should take over
+the government. The assembly, whom he had bribed beforehand, supported
+him, and he was appointed sultan in November, 1382.
+
+The external history of Egypt during this time is but scanty. She
+suffered several defeats at the hands of the Turcomans in the north of
+Syria, lost her supremacy in Mecca through the influence of the princes
+of South Arabia, and both Alexandria and several other coast towns were
+attacked and plundered by European fleets. This last event occurred
+in Shaban’s reign in 1365. Peter of Lusignan, King of Cyprus, had, in
+league with the Genoese, the Venetians, and Knights of Rhodes, placed
+himself at the head of a new Crusade, and since his expedition was a
+secret even in Europe,--for he was thought to be advancing against the
+Turks,--it was easy for him to take the Egyptians by surprise, and all
+the more so because the Governor of Alexandria happened to be absent at
+the time. The militia tried in vain to prevent their landing, and the
+small garrison held out for but a short time, so that the prosperous and
+wealthy town was completely sacked and many prisoners were taken before
+the troops arrived from Cairo.
+
+[Illustration: 059.jpg INSIDE THE MOSQUE OF HASSAN]
+
+The Christians living in Egypt suffered from this attack of the King of
+Cyprus. They had to find ransom money for the Moslem prisoners and to
+provide means for fitting out a new fleet. All negotiations with Cyprus,
+Genoa, and Venice were immediately broken off. This event, however, had
+the effect of reconciling the Italian traders again with Egypt, and an
+embassy came both from Genoa and Venice, expressing regret at what had
+happened, with the assurance that the government had had no hint of the
+intentions of the King of Cyprus. Genoa also sent back sixty prisoners
+who had fallen to them as their share of the Alexandrian booty. As
+Egypt’s trade would also be at a standstill if they had no further
+negotiations with the Franks, who imported wood, metal, arms, oil,
+coral, wool, manufacturing and crystal wares in exchange for spices,
+cotton, and sugar, the former trade relations were re-established. The
+war with Cyprus continued, however; Alexandria was again threatened
+and Tripoli was surprised by the Cyprian fleet, whereupon a number of
+European merchants in Egypt were arrested. In the year 1370, after the
+death of Peter of Lusignan, peace and an exchange of prisoners were
+finally brought about. After this peace the Egyptians were able to
+concentrate their whole force against Leo VI., Prince of Smaller
+Armenia, who was brought as a prisoner to Cairo; and with him the
+supremacy of the Christians in this land was at an end: henceforth Egypt
+was ruled by Egyptian governors.
+
+Faraj, Berkuk’s son and successor, had to suffer for his father’s
+political mistakes. He had scarcely ascended the throne when the
+Ottomans seized Derenda, Albustan, and Malatia. Preparations for war
+were made, but given up again when it was seen that Bayazid could not
+advance any farther south. Faraj was only thirteen years old, and all
+the old intrigues amongst the emirs broke out again. In Cairo they
+fought in the streets for the post of regent; anarchy and confusion
+reigned in the Egyptian provinces, and the Syrians wished to revolt
+against the sultan. When at last peace was re-established in Egypt, and
+Syria was reduced, the latter country was again attacked by the hordes
+of Tamerlane.
+
+Tamerlane conquered the two important cities of Aleppo and Hemessa, and
+Faraj’s forces returned to Egypt. When the sultan’s ally, Bayazid, was
+defeated, Faraj concluded a peace with Tamerlane, at the price of
+the surrender of certain lands. In 1405 Tamerlane died, and Faraj was
+collecting troops for the purpose of recovering Syria when domestic
+troubles caused him to flee from Egypt, his own brother Abd el-Aziz
+heading the insurrection. In the belief that Faraj was dead, Aziz was
+proclaimed his successor, but three months later Faraj was restored,
+and it was not until 1412 that he was charged with illegal practices and
+beheaded, his body being left unburied like that of a common malefactor.
+The fact that criminal proceedings were brought against the sultan is
+evidence of a great advance in the spirit of civilisation, but the
+event must be regarded more as a proof of its possibility than as a
+demonstration of its establishment.
+
+[Illustration: 063.jpg MOSQUE OF BERKUK]
+
+The Caliph El-Mustain was then proclaimed sultan, but after some months
+he was dethroned and his former prime minister, Sheikh Mahmudi, took
+over the reins of government (November, 1412). Although Sheikh had
+obtained the throne of Egypt so easily, he experienced great difficulty
+in obtaining the recognition of the emirs. Newruz, Governor of Damascus,
+in league with the other governors, made a determined resistance, and
+he was obliged to send a strong army into Syria to put down the rebels.
+Newruz, after suffering one defeat, threw himself into the citadel of
+Damascus and capitulated, when Sheikh had sworn to keep the terms of
+the capitulation. Newruz’s ambassadors, however, had not a sufficient
+knowledge of Arabic to perceive that the oath was not binding, and
+when Newruz, trusting to this oath, appeared before Sheikh, he was
+immediately thrown into chains, and afterwards murdered in prison
+because the cadis declared the oath was not binding. In the next year
+(1415) Sheikh was obliged to make another expedition against Syria to
+re-conquer some of the places of which the smaller princes had taken
+possession during the civil war. One of these princes was the Prince
+Muhammed of Karaman, who had taken the town of Tarsus. Sheikh was
+summoned by Muhammed’s own brother to overcome him, which he easily
+succeeded in doing. Many other princes were forced to submit, and
+finally the town of Malatia, which the Turcoman Husain had stormed, was
+recaptured. The war against Husain and the Prince of Karaman was to have
+been continued, but Sheikh was forced to return home, owing to a wound
+in his foot. As soon as certain misunderstandings between Sheikh and
+Kara Yusuf had been cleared up, another army was despatched into Asia
+Minor, for Tarsus had been recaptured by the Prince of Karaman, who had
+driven out the Prince of Albustan, whom Sheikh had installed. Ibrahim,
+the sultan’s son, took command of this army, and occupied Caasarea,
+Nigdeh, and Kara-man. Whilst he was occupied in the interior of Asia
+Minor, the Governor of Damascus had defeated Mustapha, son of the Prince
+of Karaman, and the Prince Ibrahim of Ramadhan, near Adana, which latter
+town, as well as Tarsus, he had re-conquered.
+
+The Prince of Karaman, who now advanced against Caasarea, suffered a
+total defeat. Mustapha remained on the field of battle, but his father
+was taken prisoner and sent to Cairo, where he lingered in confinement
+until after the death of the sultan.
+
+[Illustration: 065.jpg THE TOMB OF BERKUK]
+
+Once again was Syria threatened by Kara Yusuf, but he was soon forced
+to return to Irak by the conspiracy of his own son, Shah Muhammed, who
+lived in Baghdad. As soon as this insurrection was put down, Kara
+Yusuf was obliged to give his whole attention to Shah Roch, the son of
+Tamerlane, who had raised himself to the highest power in Persia, and
+was now attempting to re-conquer the province of Aderbaijan. Kara Yusuf
+placed himself at the head of an army to protect this province,
+but suddenly died (November, 1420) on the way to Sultania, and his
+possessions were divided among his four sons, Shah Muhammed, Iskander,
+Ispahan, and Jihan Shah, who all, just as the descendants of Tamerlane
+had done, immediately began to quarrel among themselves.
+
+The sultan was already very ill when the news of Kara Yusufs death
+reached him. The death of Ibrahim, his son, whom he had caused to be
+poisoned, on his return from Asia Minor, weighed heavily upon him
+and hastened his death, which took place on January 13, 1421. He
+left immense riches behind him, but could not obtain a proper burial;
+everything was at once seized by the emirs, who did not trouble
+themselves in the least about his corpse. He had been by no means a good
+sultan; he had brought much misery upon the people, and had oppressed
+the emirs. But in spite of all he had many admirers who overlooked his
+misdeeds and cruelty, because he was a pious Moslem; that is, he did
+not openly transgress against the decrees of Islam, favoured the
+theologians, and distinguished himself as an orator and poet; he also
+founded a splendid mosque, a hospital, and a school for theology. His
+whole life abounds in contrasts. After he had broken his oath to Newruz,
+he spent several days in a cloister to make atonement for this crime,
+and was present at all the religious ceremonies and dances. Although he
+shed streams of blood to satisfy his avarice, he wore a woollen garment,
+and bade the preachers, when they mentioned his name after that of
+Muhammed, to descend a step on the staircase of the chancel. Under a
+religious sultan of this stamp, the position of the non-Muhammedans was
+by no means an enviable one. The Jews and Christians had to pay enormous
+taxes and the old decrees against them were renewed. Not only were they
+forced to wear special colours, but the length of their sleeves and
+head-bands was also decreed, and even the women were obliged to wear a
+distinctive costume.
+
+[Illustration: 067.jpg A TITLE-PAGE OF THE KORAN OF THE TIME OF SHABAN]
+
+Sheikh appointed his son Ahmed, one year old, as his successor, and
+named the emirs who were to act as regents until he became of age.
+Tatar, the most cunning and unscrupulous of these emirs, soon succeeded
+in obtaining the supreme power and demanded homage as sultan (August
+29, 1421); but he soon fell ill and died after a reign of about three
+months. He, too, appointed a young son as his successor and named the
+regents, but Bursbai also soon grasped the supreme power and ascended
+the throne in 1422. He had of course many insurrections to quell, but
+was not obliged to leave Egypt. As soon as peace was restored in Syria,
+Bursbai turned his attention to the European pirates, who had long been
+harassing the coasts of Syria and Egypt. They were partly Cypriots and
+partly Catalonians and Genoese, who started from Cyprus and landed their
+booty on this island. Bursbai resolved first to conquer this island.
+He despatched several ships with this object in view; they landed at
+Limasol, and, having burnt the ships in the harbour and plundered the
+town, they returned home. The favourable result of this expedition much
+encouraged the sultan, and in the following year he sent out a large
+fleet from Alexandria which landed in Famagosta. This town soon
+surrendered and the troops proceeded to plunder the neighbouring places,
+and defeated all the troops which Prince Henry of Lusignan sent out
+against them. When they had advanced as far as Limasol, the Egyptian
+commander, hearing that Janos, the King of Cyprus, was advancing with
+a large army against him, determined to return to Egypt to bring his
+enormous booty into safety. In July, 1426, a strong Egyptian fleet set
+out for the third time, landed east of Limasol, and took this fortress
+after a few days’ fighting. The Moslem army was, however, forced to
+retreat. But the Cypriots scattered instead of pursuing the enemy, and
+the Mamluks, seeing this, renewed their attack, slew many Christians
+and took the king prisoner. The capital, Nicosia, then capitulated,
+whereupon the Egyptian troops returned to Egypt with the captive king
+and were received with great jubilation. The King of Cyprus, after
+submitting to the greatest humiliations, was asked what ransom he could
+pay. He replied that he possessed nothing but his life, and stuck to
+this answer, although threatened with death. Meanwhile, Venetian and
+other European merchants negotiated for the ransom money, and the
+sultan finally contented himself with two hundred thousand dinars (about
+$500,000). Janos, however, was not set at liberty, but sent to Cyprus
+as the sultan’s vassal. After the death of Janos in 1432, his son, John
+II., still continued to pay tribute to Egypt, and when he died (1458)
+and his daughter Charlotte became Queen of Cyprus, James II., the
+natural son of John II., fled to Egypt and found a friendly reception at
+the sultan’s court.
+
+[Illustration: 069.jpg PRAYER-NICHE IN THE MOSQUE OF THE SULTAN MAHMUDI]
+
+The sultan then ruling was Inal, and he promised to re-install James as
+King of Cyprus. Meanwhile messengers arrived from the queen, offering a
+higher tribute, and Inal allowed himself to be persuaded by his emirs
+to acknowledge Charlotte as queen, and to hand James over to
+her ambassadors. But as soon as the ambassadors had left the
+audience-chamber, a tumult arose; the people declared that the sultan
+had only the advantage of the Franks--especially of Prince Louis of
+Savoy--in view, and they soon took such a threatening attitude that
+Inal was forced to declare himself for James again and renew his former
+preparations. In August, 1460, an Egyptian fleet bore James to Cyprus,
+and with the help of the Egyptian troops he soon obtained the island,
+with the exception of the fortress Cerines, which Queen Charlotte still
+had in her power. The majority of the Egyptian troops now returned to
+Egypt, and only some hundred men remained with James. Later, when the
+Genoese declared themselves on the side of Charlotte, fresh troops had
+to be sent out from Egypt, but, as soon as James had taken Famagosta and
+had no further need of them, he dismissed them (1464).
+
+Bursbai despised no means by which he might enrich himself; he
+appropriated the greater part of the inheritance of the Jews and
+Christians; he even taxed poor pilgrims, in spite of the fact that he
+was a pious Moslem, prayed much, fasted, and read the Koran. He turned
+Mecca into a money-market. At the very moment when pious pilgrims
+were praying for the forgiveness of their sins, one of his heralds was
+proclaiming: “Whoever buys wares and does not pay toll for them in Egypt
+has forfeited his life.” That is to say, all wares bought in Mecca or
+Jiddah had to go out of their way to Egypt in order to be laid under
+toll in this land.
+
+[Illustration: 071.jpg ORNAMENTAL PAGE FROM A KORAN OF THE FOURTEENTH
+CENTURY]
+
+In appointing his son Yusuf to the consulship, Bursbai counted on the
+devotedness of his Mamluks, and the Emir Jakmak, whom he appointed as
+his chief adviser, and, in fact, Yusuf’s coronation, in June, 1438, met
+with no resistance. After three months, however, Jakmak, feeling
+himself secure, quietly assumed the sultan’s place; at first he had much
+resistance to put down, but soon his prudence and resolution established
+him safely in spite of all opposition. As soon as the rebels in the
+interior had been dealt with, Yusuf, as a good Muhammedan, wished to
+attack the Christians, and chose the island of Rhodes as the scene of
+the Holy War, hoping to obtain this island as easily as Bursbai had
+obtained the island of Cyprus. But the Order of St. John, to whom this
+island belonged, had its spies in Egypt, so that the sultan’s intentions
+were discovered and preparations for defence were made. The only
+result of the sultan’s repeated expeditions was the devastation of some
+unimportant coast towns; all attempts on the capital failed, so that
+the siege was soon raised and peace concluded with the chief master of
+Rhodes (1444).
+
+Jakmak’s relations with the foreign chiefs were most friendly. He
+constantly exchanged letters and gifts with both Sultan Murad and Shah
+Roch. The sons of Kara Yelek and the princes of the houses of Ramadhan
+and Dudgadir submitted to him; also Jihangir, Kara Yelek’s grandson and
+Governor of Amid, tried to secure his friendship, as did the latter’s
+deadly enemy, Jihan Shah, the son of Kara Yusuf.
+
+[Illustration: 073.jpg MOSQUE OF KAIT BEY, CAIRO]
+
+Jakmak’s rule was mild compared with that of Bursbai, and we hear less
+of extraordinary taxes, extortions, executions, and violence of the
+Mamluks. Although he was beloved by the people and priests on account
+of his piety, he could not secure the succession of his son Osman, in
+favour of whom he abdicated fourteen days before his death (February,
+1453). Osman remained only a month and a half on the throne; he made
+himself odious to the emirs who did not belong to his Mamluks. The
+Mamluks of his predecessors conspired against him, and at their head
+stood his own Atabeg, the Emir Inal, a former Mamluk of Berkuk.
+Osman was warned, but he only mocked those who recommended him to
+watchfulness, since he believed his position to be unassailable. He
+had forgotten that his father was a usurper, who, although himself a
+perjurer, hoped to bind others by means of oaths. His eyes were not
+opened until he had lost all means of defence. He managed to hold out
+for seven days, after which the citadel was captured by the rebels, and
+he was forced to abdicate on the 19th of March. Inal became, even more
+than his predecessors had been, a slave to those Mamluks to whom he owed
+his kingdom. They committed the greatest atrocities and threatened
+the sultan himself when he tried to hold them in check. They plundered
+corpses on their way to the grave, and attacked the mosques during the
+hours of service in order to rob the pilgrims.
+
+They were so hated and feared that, when many of them were carried off
+by the plague, their deaths were recorded by a contemporary historian as
+a benefit to all classes of society.
+
+In the hour of his death (26th February, 1461), Inal appointed his son
+Ahmed as his successor, but the latter was no more able to maintain
+himself on the throne than his predecessors had been, in spite of his
+numerous good qualities. He was forced to submit in the strife with his
+emirs, and on the 28th of June, 1461, after a reign of four months and
+three days, he was dethroned, and the Emir Khosh Kadem, a former slave
+of the Sultan Sheikh, of Greek descent, was proclaimed in his stead.
+Khosh Kadem reigned for seven years with equity and benignity, and under
+one of his immediate successors, El-Ashraf Kait Bey, a struggle was
+begun with the Ottoman Turks. On the death of Muhammed II., dissensions
+had arisen between Bayazid II. and Jem. Jem, being defeated by Bayazid,
+retired to Egypt, which led to the invasion and conquest of Syria,
+hitherto held by the Sultan of Egypt. On surrendering Tarsus and Adana
+to Bayazid, Kait Bey was suffered to end his days in peace in A.D. 1495.
+After many dissensions, the brave and learned El-Ghuri ascended the
+throne, and Selim I., the Turkish sultan, soon found a pretext for an
+attack upon the Mamluk power. A long and sanguinary battle was fought
+near Aleppo, in which El-Ghuri was finally defeated through treachery.
+He was trampled to death by his own cavalry in their attempt to escape
+from the pursuing Ottomans. With his death, in A.D. 1516, Egypt lost her
+independence. Tuman Bey, a nephew of the deceased, fiercely contested
+the advance of the Ottomans, but was defeated and treacherously killed
+by the Turks.
+
+[Illustration: 076.jpg WADI FEIRAN, IN THE SINAI PENINSULA]
+
+A long period of Turkish misrule now opened for the ill-fated country,
+though some semblance of conciliation was attempted by Selim’s
+appointment of twenty-four Mamluk beys as subordinate rulers over
+twenty-four military provinces of Egypt. These beys were under the
+control of a Turkish pasha, whose council was formed of seven Turkish
+chiefs, while one of the Mamluk beys held the post of Sheikh el-Beled or
+Governor of the Metropolis.
+
+[Illustration: 077.jpg MAUSOLEUM OF EL-GHURI]
+
+For nearly two centuries the Turkish pashas were generally obeyed in
+Egypt, although there were frequent intrigues and quarrels on the part
+of competing Mamluk beys to secure possession of the coveted post
+of Sheikh el-Beled. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century the
+authority of the Turkish pashas had become merely nominal, while that
+of the beys had increased to such an extent that the government of Egypt
+became a military oligarchy. The weakness of the Turks left the way open
+for the rise of any adventurer of ability and ambition who might aspire
+to lead the Mamluks to overthrow the sovereignty of the Porte.
+
+In the year 1768 the celebrated Ali Bey headed a revolt against the
+Turks, which he maintained for several years with complete success. A
+period of good but vigorous government lasted Curing the years in which
+he successfully resisted the Ottoman power. Ali’s generals also gained
+for him considerable influence beyond the borders of Egypt. Muhammed Abu
+Dhahab was sent by him to Arabia and entered the sacred city of Mecca,
+where the sherif was deposed. Ali also despatched an expedition to the
+eastern shores of the Red Sea, and Muhammed Bey, after his successes in
+Arabia, invaded Syria and wrested that province from the power of the
+sultan. The victorious soldier, however, now plotted against his master
+and took the lead in a military revolt. As a result of this, Ali Bey
+fell into an ambuscade set by his own rebellious subjects, and died from
+poisoning m 1786. Thus terminated the career of the famous Mamluk, a man
+whose energy, talents, and ambition bear a strong resemblance to those
+of the later Mehe-met Ali.
+
+Muhammed Bey, the Mamluk who had revolted against Ali Bey, now tendered
+his allegiance to the Porte. To the title of Governor of the Metropolis
+was also added that of Pasha of Egypt. He subdued Syria, and died during
+the pillage of Acre.
+
+[Illustration: 080b.jpg Bonaparte in Egypt]
+
+     From painting by M. Orange
+
+After his death violent dissensions again broke out. The Porte supported
+Ismail Bey, who retained the post of Governor of the Metropolis (Sheikh
+el-Beled) until the terrible plague of 1790, in which he perished.
+
+His former rivals, Ibrahim and Murad, now returned; and eight years
+later were still in the leadership when the news was brought to Egypt
+that a fleet carrying thirty thousand men, under Bonaparte, had arrived
+at Alexandria on an expedition of conquest.
+
+[Illustration: 080.jpg]
+
+
+[Illustration: 081.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--THE FRENCH IN EGYPT
+
+
+_Napoleon’s campaign: Battles of the Pyramids and of Abukir: Siege of
+Acre: Kléber’s administration: The evacuation of Egypt._
+
+
+At the close of the eighteenth century Egypt’s destiny passed into the
+hands of the French. Napoleon’s descent upon Egypt was part of his
+vast strategic plan for the overthrow of Great Britain. He first of all
+notified the Directory of this design in September, 1797, in a letter
+sent from Italy. Late in the same year and during 1798 vast preparations
+had been in progress for the invasion of England. Napoleon then visited
+all the seaports in the north of France and Holland, and found that a
+direct invasion of England was a practical impossibility because the
+British held command over the sea. The suggested invasion of Egypt was
+now seriously considered. By the conquest of Egypt, it was contended,
+England would be cut off from the possession of India, and France,
+through Egypt, would dominate the trade to the Orient. From Egypt
+Napoleon could gather an army of Orientals and conquer the whole of the
+East, including India itself. On his return, England would prove to be
+too exhausted to withstand the French army at home and would fall a
+prey to the ambitions of the First Consul. The Directory assented to
+Bonaparte’s plans the more readily because they were anxious to keep
+so popular a leader, the idol of the army, at a great distance from the
+centre of government. While the preparations were in process, no one
+in England knew of this undertaking. The French fleet lay in various
+squadrons in ports of Italy, from which thirty thousand men were
+embarked.
+
+Bonaparte arrived at Toulon on May 9, 1798. His presence rejoiced the
+army, which had begun to murmur and to fear that he would not be at the
+head of the expedition. It was the old army of Italy, rich and covered
+with glory, and hence had much less zeal for making war; it required all
+the enthusiasm with which the general inspired his soldiers to induce
+them to embark and proceed to an unknown destination. On seeing him at
+Toulon, they were inflamed with ardour. Bonaparte, without acquainting
+them with their destination, exhorted the soldiers, telling them that
+they had great destinies to fulfil, and that “the genius of liberty,
+which had made the republic from her birth the arbitress of Europe,
+decreed that she should be so to the most remote seas and nations.”
+
+[Illustration: 083 BEDOUINS IN THE DESERT]
+
+The squadron of Admiral Brueys consisted of thirteen sail of the line,
+and carried about forty thousand men of all arms and ten thousand
+seamen. It had water for one month and provisions for two. It sailed on
+the 19th of May, amid the thunders of the cannons and the cheers of the
+whole army. Violent gales did some damage to a frigate on leaving the
+port, and Nelson, who was cruising with three sail of the line in search
+of the French fleet, suffered so severely from the same gales that he
+was obliged to bear up for the islands of St. Pierre to refit. He was
+thus kept at a distance from the French fleet, and did not see it pass.
+It steered first towards Genoa to join the convoy collected in that
+port, under the command of General Baraguay d’Hilliers. It then sailed
+for Corsica, to call for the convoy at Ajaccio commanded by Vaubois, and
+afterwards proceeded to the sea of Sicily to join the division of Civita
+Vecchia, under the command of Desaix.
+
+Bonaparte’s intention was to stop at Malta, and there to make by the
+way a bold attempt, the success of which he had long since prepared by
+secret intrigues. He meant to take possession of that island, which,
+commanding the navigation of the Mediterranean, became important to
+Egypt and could not fail soon to fall into the hands of the English,
+unless they were anticipated.
+
+Bonaparte made great efforts to join the division from Civita Vecchia;
+but this he could not accomplish until he was off Malta. The five
+hundred French sail came in sight of the island on June 9th, twenty-two
+days after leaving Toulon. This sight filled the city of Malta with
+consternation. The following day (June 10th) the French troops landed
+on the island, and completely invested Valetta, which contained a
+population of nearly thirty thousand souls, and was even then one of
+the strongest fortresses in Europe. The inhabitants were dismayed and
+clamoured for surrender, and the grand master, who possessed little
+energy, and recollected the generosity of the conqueror of Rivoli at
+Mantua, hoping to save his interest from shipwreck, released one of
+the French knights, whom he had thrown into prison when they refused to
+fight against their countrymen, and sent him to Bonaparte to negotiate.
+A treaty was soon concluded, by which the Knights of Malta gave up to
+France the sovereignty of Malta and the dependent islands. Thus France
+gained possession of the best harbour in the Mediterranean, and one of
+the strongest in the world. It required the ascendency of Bonaparte to
+obtain it without fighting; and it necessitated also the risk of losing
+some precious days, with the English in pursuit of him.
+
+The French fleet weighed anchor on the 19th of June, after a stay of
+ten days. The essential point now was not to fall in with the English.
+Nelson, having refitted at the islands of St. Pierre, had returned on
+June 1st to Toulon, but the French squadron had been gone twelve days.
+He had run from Toulon to the roads of Taglia-mon, and from the roads
+of Tagliamon to Naples, where he had arrived on June 20th, at the very
+moment when Bonaparte was leaving Malta. Learning that the French had
+been seen off Malta, he followed, determined to attack them, if he
+could overtake them. At one moment, the English squadron was only a few
+leagues distant from the immense French convoy, and neither party was
+aware of it. Nelson, supposing that the French were bound for Egypt,
+made sail for Alexandria, and arrived there before them; at not finding
+them, he flew to the Dardanelles to seek them there. By a singular fate,
+it was not till two days afterwards that the French expedition came in
+sight of Alexandria, on the 1st of July, which was very nearly six weeks
+since it sailed from Toulon. Bonaparte immediately sent on shore for the
+French consul. He learned that the English had made their appearance
+two days before, and, supposing them to be not far off, he resolved that
+very moment to attempt a landing. It was impossible to enter the harbour
+of Alexandria, for the place appeared disposed to defend itself;
+it became necessary, therefore, to land at some distance on the
+neighbouring coast, at an inlet called the Creek of the Marabou. The
+wind blew violently and the sea broke with fury over the reefs on the
+shore. It was near the close of the day, but Bonaparte gave the signal
+and resolved to go on shore immediately. He was the first to disembark,
+and, with great difficulty, four or five thousand men were landed in
+the course of the evening and the following night. Bonaparte resolved
+to march forthwith for Alexandria, in order to surprise the place and
+to prevent the Turks from making preparations for defence. The troops
+instantly commenced their march. Not a horse was yet landed: the staff
+of Bonaparte, and Caffarelli himself, notwithstanding his wooden leg,
+had to walk four or five leagues over the sands, and came at daybreak
+within sight of Alexandria.
+
+That ancient city no longer possessed its magnificent edifices, its
+innumerable houses, and its immense population. Three-fourths of it was
+in ruins. The Turks, the wealthy Egyptians, the European merchants dwelt
+in the modern town, which was the only part preserved. A few Arabs lived
+among the ruins of the ancient city: an old wall, flanked by towers,
+enclosed the new and the old town, and all around extended those sands
+which in Egypt are sure to advance wherever civilisation recedes. The
+four thousand French led by Bonaparte arrived there at daybreak. Upon
+this sandy beach they met with Arabs only, who, after firing a few
+musket-shots, fled to the desert. Napoleon divided his men into three
+columns. Bon, with the first column, marched on the right towards the
+Rosetta gate; Kléber, with the second, marched in the centre towards the
+gate of the Catacombs.
+
+The Arabs and the Turks, excellent soldiers behind a wall, kept up a
+steady fire, but the French mounted with ladders and got over the old
+wall. Kléber was the first who fell, seriously wounded on the forehead.
+The Arabs were driven from ruin to ruin, as far as the new town, and
+the combat seemed likely to be continued from street to street, and
+to become sanguinary, when a Turkish captain served as a mediator for
+negotiating an arrangement. Bonaparte declared that he had not come to
+ravage the country, or to wrest it from its ruler, but merely to deliver
+it from the domination of the Mamluks, and to revenge the outrages which
+they had committed against France. He promised that the authorities of
+the country should be upheld; that the ceremonies of religion should
+continue to be performed as before; that property should be respected.
+On these conditions, the resistance ceased, and the French were masters
+of Alexandria. Meanwhile, the remainder of the army had landed. It
+was immediately necessary to decide where to place the squadron
+safely--whether in the harbour or in one of the neighbouring roads;--to
+form at Alexandria an administration adapted to the manners of the
+country; and also to devise a plan of invasion in order to gain
+possession of Egypt.
+
+At this period the population of Egypt was, like the towns that covered
+it, a mixture of the wrecks of several nations,--Kopts, the survivors of
+the ancient inhabitants of the land; Arabs, who conquered Egypt from
+the Kopts; and Turks, the conquerors of the Arabs. On the arrival of
+the French, the Kopts amounted at most to two hundred thousand:
+poor, despised, brutalised, they had devoted themselves, like all the
+proscribed classes, to the most ignoble occupations. The Arabs formed
+almost the entire mass of the population. Their condition was infinitely
+varied: some were of high birth, carrying back their pedigree to
+Muhammed himself; and some were landed proprietors, possessing traces
+of Arabian knowledge, and combining with nobility the functions of the
+priesthood and the magistracy, who, under the title of sheikhs, were the
+real aristocracy of Egypt.
+
+[Illustration: 091.jpg THE PROPHET MUHAMMED]
+
+     The original of the illustration (upon the opposite page) is
+     to be seen in a finely illuminated MS. of the ninth century,
+     A. D., preserved in the India Office, London. The picture is
+     of peculiar interest, being the only known portrait of
+     Muhammed, who is evidently represented as receiving the
+     divine command to propagate Muhammedanism.
+
+In the divans, they represented the country, when its tyrants wished
+to address themselves to it; in the mosques, they formed a kind of
+university, in which they taught the religion and the morality of the
+Koran, and a little philosophy and jurisprudence. The great mosque of
+Jemil-Azar constituted the foremost learned and religious body in the
+East. Next to these grandees came the smaller landholders, composing the
+second and more numerous class of the Arabs; then the great mass of the
+inhabitants, who had sunk into the state of absolute helots. These last
+were hired peasants or fellahs who cultivated the land, and lived in
+abject poverty. There was also a class of Arabs, namely, the Bedouins
+or rovers, who would never attach themselves to the soil, but were the
+children of the desert. These wandering Arabs, divided into tribes
+on both sides of the valley, numbered nearly one hundred and twenty
+thousand, and could furnish from twenty to twenty-five thousand horse.
+They were brave, but fit only to harass the enemy, not to fight him. The
+third and last race was that of the Turks; but it was not more numerous
+than the Kopts, amounting to about two hundred thousand souls at most,
+and was divided into Turks and Mamluks. The Turks were nearly all
+enrolled in the list of janizaries; but it is well known that they
+frequently had their names inscribed in those lists, that they might
+enjoy the privileges of janizaries, and that a very small number of them
+were really in the service. Very few of them composed the military force
+of the pasha. This pasha, sent from Constantinople, was the sultan’s
+representative in Egypt; but, escorted by only a few janizaries, he
+found his authority invalidated by the very precautions which Sultan
+Selim had formerly taken to preserve it. That sultan, judging that
+Egypt was likely from its remoteness to throw off the dominion of
+Constantinople, and that a clever and ambitious pasha might create there
+an independent empire, had, as we have seen, devised a plan to frustrate
+such a motive, should it exist, by instituting a Mamluk soldiery; but it
+was the Mamluks, and not the pasha, who rendered themselves independent
+of Constantinople and the masters of Egypt.
+
+Egypt was at this time an absolute feudality, like that of Europe in
+the Middle Ages. It exhibited at once a conquered people, a conquering
+soldiery in rebellion against its sovereign, and, lastly, an ancient
+degenerate class, who served and were in the pay of the strongest.
+
+Two beys, superior to the rest, ruled Egypt: the one, Ibrahim Bey,
+wealthy, crafty, and powerful; the other, Murad Bey, intrepid,
+valiant, and full of ardour. They had agreed upon a sort of division
+of authority, by which Ibrahim Bey had the civil, and Murad Bey the
+military, power. It was the business of the latter to fight; he excelled
+in it, and he possessed the affection of the Mam-luks, who were all
+eager to follow him.
+
+Bonaparte immediately perceived the line of policy which he had to
+pursue in Egypt. He must, in the first place, wrest that country from
+its real masters, the Mam-luks; it was necessary for him to fight them,
+and to destroy them by arms and by policy. He had, moreover, strong
+reasons to urge against them; for they had never ceased to ill-treat the
+French. As for the Porte, it was requisite that he should not appear to
+attack its sovereignty, but affect, on the contrary, to respect it.
+In the state to which it was reduced, that sovereignty was not to be
+dreaded, and he could treat with the Porte, either for the cession of
+Egypt, by granting certain advantages elsewhere, or for a partition of
+authority, in which there would be nothing detrimental; for the French,
+in leaving the pasha at Cairo, and transferring to themselves the power
+of the Mamluks, would not occasion much regret. As for the inhabitants,
+in order to make sure of their attachment, it would be requisite to win
+over the Arab population. By respecting the sheikhs, by flattering their
+old pride, by increasing their power, by encouraging their secret desire
+for the re-establishment of their ancient glories, Bonaparte reckoned
+upon ruling the land, and attaching it entirely to him. By afterwards
+sparing persons and property, among a people accustomed to consider
+conquest as conferring a right to murder, pillage, and devastate, he
+would create a sentiment that would be most advantageous to the French
+army. If, furthermore, the French were to respect women and the Prophet,
+the conquest of hearts would be as firmly secured as that of the soil.
+
+Napoleon conducted himself agreeably to these conclusions, which
+were equally just and profound. He immediately made his plans for
+establishing the French authority at Alexandria, and for quitting the
+Delta and gaining possession of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. It was
+the month of July; the Nile was about to inundate the country. He was
+anxious to reach Cairo before the inundation, and to employ the time
+during which it should last in establishing himself there. He ordered
+everything at Alexandria to be left in the same state as formerly; that
+the religious exercises should be continued; and that justice should be
+administered as before by the cadis. His intention was merely to possess
+himself of the rights of the Mamluks, and to appoint a commissioner to
+levy the accustomed imposts. He caused a divan, or municipal council,
+composed of the sheikhs and principal persons of Alexandria, to be
+formed, in order to consult them on all the measures which the French
+authority would have to take. He left three thousand men in garrison in
+Alexandria, and gave the command of it to Kléber, whose wound was liable
+to keep him in a state of inactivity for a month or two. He directed a
+young Frenchman of extraordinary merit, and who gave promise of becoming
+a great engineer, to put Alexandria in a state of defence, and to
+construct there all the necessary works. This was Colonel Cretin,
+who, in a short time, and at a small expense, executed superb works at
+Alexandria. Bonaparte then ordered the fleet to be put in a place of
+security. It was a question whether the large ships could enter the port
+of Alexandria. A commission of naval officers was appointed to sound the
+harbour and make a report. Meanwhile, the fleet was anchored in the road
+of Abukir, and Bonaparte ordered Brueys to see to it that this question
+should be speedily decided, and to proceed to Corfu if it should be
+ascertained that the ships could not enter the harbour of Alexandria.
+
+After he had attended to all these matters, he made preparations for
+marching. A considerable flotilla, laden with provisions, artillery,
+ammunition, and baggage, was to run along the coast to the Rosetta
+mouth, enter the Nile, and ascend the river at the same time as the
+French army. He then set out with the main body of the army, which,
+after leaving the two garrisons in Malta and Alexandria, was about
+thirty thousand strong. He had ordered his flotilla to proceed as high
+as Ramanieh, on the banks of the Nile. There he purposed to join it, and
+to proceed up the Nile parallel with it, in order to quit the Delta and
+to reach Upper Egypt, or Bahireh. There were two roads from Alexandria
+to Ramanieh; one through an inhabited country, along the sea-coast and
+the Nile, and the other shorter and as the bird flies, but across the
+desert of Damanhour. Bonaparte, without hesitation, chose the shorter.
+It was of consequence that he should reach Cairo as speedily as
+possible. De-saix marched with the advanced guard, and the main body
+followed at a distance of a few leagues. They started on the 6th of
+July. When the soldiers found themselves amidst this boundless plain,
+with a shifting sand beneath their feet, a scorching sun over their
+heads, without water, without shade, with nothing for the eye to rest
+upon but rare clumps of palm-trees, seeing no living creatures but small
+troops of Arab horsemen, who appeared and disappeared at the horizon,
+and sometimes concealed themselves behind sand-hills to murder the
+laggards, they were profoundly dejected. They found all the wells, which
+at intervals border the road through the desert, destroyed by the Arabs.
+There were left only a few drops of brackish water, wholly insufficient
+for quenching their thirst.
+
+[Illustration: 097.jpg STREET DOGS]
+
+They had been informed that they should find refreshments at Damanhour,
+but they met with nothing there but miserable huts, and could procure
+neither bread nor wine; only lentils in great abundance, and a little
+water. They were obliged to proceed again into the desert. Bonaparte saw
+the brave Lannes and Murat take off their hats, dash them on the sand,
+and trample them under foot. He, however, overawed all: his presence
+imposed silence, and sometimes restored cheerfulness. The soldiers would
+not impute their sufferings to him, but grew angry with those who took
+pleasure in observing the country. On seeing the men of science stop to
+examine the slightest ruins, they said they should not have been there
+but for them, and revenged themselves with witticisms after their
+fashion. Caffarelli, in particular, brave as a grenadier, and
+inquisitive as a scholar, was considered by them as the man who had
+deceived the general and drawn him into this distant country. As he had
+lost a leg on the Rhine, they said, “He, for his part, laughs at this:
+he has one foot in France.” At last, after severe hardships, endured at
+first with impatience, and afterwards with gaiety and fortitude, they
+reached the Nile on the 10th of July, after a march of four days. At
+the sight of the Nile and of the water so much longed for, the soldiers
+flung themselves into it, and, bathing in its waves, forgot their
+fatigues. Desaix’ division, which from the advance-guard had become the
+rear-guard, saw two or three hundred Mamluks galloping before it, whom
+they dispersed by a few volleys of grape. These were the first that had
+been seen, which warned the French that they would speedily fall in with
+the hostile army. The brave Murad Bey, having received the intelligence
+of the arrival of Bonaparte, was actually collecting his forces around
+Cairo. Until they should have assembled, he was hovering with a thousand
+horse about the army, in order to watch its march.
+
+The army waited at Ramanieh for the arrival of the flotilla. It rested
+till July 13th, and set out on the same day for Chebreiss. Murad Bey was
+waiting there with his Mamluks. The flotilla, which had set out
+first and preceded the army, found itself engaged before it could be
+supported. Murad Bey had a flotilla also, and from the shore he joined
+his fire to that of his light Egyptian vessels. The French flotilla had
+to sustain a very severe combat. Perrée, a naval officer who commanded
+it, displayed extraordinary courage; he was supported by the cavalry,
+who had come dismounted to Egypt, and who, until they could equip
+themselves at the expense of the Mamluks, had taken their passage
+by water. Two gunboats were retaken from the enemy, and Perrée was
+repulsed.
+
+At that moment the army came up; it was composed of five divisions, and
+had not yet been in action with its singular enemies. To swiftness and
+the charge of horse, and to sabre-cuts, it would be necessary to
+oppose the immobility of the foot-soldier, his long bayonet, and masses
+presenting a front on every side. Bonaparte formed his five divisions
+into five squares, in the centre of which were placed the baggage and
+the staff. The artillery was at the angles. The five divisions flanked
+one another. Murad Bey flung upon these living citadels a thousand or
+twelve hundred intrepid horse; who, bearing down with loud shouts and
+at full gallop, discharging their pistols, and then drawing their
+formidable sabres, threw themselves upon the front of the squares.
+Encountering everywhere a hedge of bayonets and a tremendous fire, they
+hovered about the French ranks, Fell before them, or scampered off in
+the plain at the utmost speed of their horses. Murad Bey, after losing
+a few of his bravest men, retired for the purpose of proceeding to the
+point of the Delta, and awaiting them near Cairo at the head of all his
+forces.
+
+This action was sufficient to familiarise the army with this new kind of
+enemy, and to suggest to Bonaparte the kind of tactics which he ought to
+employ with them. He pursued his march towards Cairo, and the flotilla
+ascended the Nile abreast of the army. It marched without intermission
+during the following days, and, although the soldiers had fresh
+hardships to endure, they kept close to the Nile, and could bathe every
+night in its waters.
+
+The army now approached Cairo, where the decisive battle was to be
+fought. Murad Bey had collected here the greater part of his Mamluks,
+nearly ten thousand in number, and they were attended by double the
+number of fellahs, to whom arms were given, and who were obliged to
+fight behind the intrenchments. He had also assembled some thousands
+of janizaries, or spahis, dependent on the pasha, who, notwithstanding
+Bonaparte’s letter of conciliation, had suffered himself to be persuaded
+to join his oppressors. Murad Bey had made preparations for defence
+on the banks of the Nile. The great capital, Cairo, is situated on the
+right bank of the river, and on the opposite bank Murad Bey had pitched
+his tent, in a long plain extending from the river to the pyramids of
+Gizeh.
+
+On the 21st of July, the French army set itself in motion before
+daybreak. As they approached, they saw the minarets of Cairo shooting
+up; they saw the pyramids increase in height; they saw the swarming
+multitude which guarded Embabeh; they saw the glistening arms of ten
+thousand horsemen resplendent with gold and steel, and forming an
+immense line.
+
+[Illustration: GATHERING DATES]
+
+The face of Bonaparte beamed with enthusiasm. He began to gallop before
+the ranks of the soldiers, and, pointing to the pyramids, he exclaimed,
+“Consider, that from the summit of those pyramids forty centuries have
+their eyes fixed upon you.”
+
+In the battle of the Pyramids, as it was called, the enemy’s force
+of sixty thousand men was almost completely annihilated. The Mamluks,
+bewildered by European tactics, impaled themselves upon the bayonets
+of the French squares. Fifteen thousand men of all arms fell upon the
+field. The battle had cost the French scarcely a hundred killed and
+wounded; for, if defeat is terrible for broken squares, the loss is
+insignificant for victorious squares. The Mamluks had lost their
+best horsemen by fire or water: their forces were dispersed, and the
+possession of Cairo secured. The capital was in extraordinary agitation.
+It contained more than three hundred thousand inhabitants, many of whom
+were indulging in all sorts of excesses, and intending to profit by the
+tumult to pillage the rich palaces of the beys.
+
+The French flotilla, however, had not yet ascended the Nile, and there
+was no means of crossing to take possession of Cairo. Some French
+traders who happened to be there were sent to Bonaparte by the sheikhs
+to arrange concerning the occupation of the city. He procured a few
+light boats, or djerms, and sent across the river a detachment of
+troops, which at once restored tranquillity, and secured persons and
+property from the fury of the populace.
+
+Bonaparte established his headquarters at Gizeh, on the banks of the
+Nile, where Murad Bey had an imposing residence. A considerable store
+of provisions was found both at Gizeh and at Embabeh, and the soldiers
+could make amends for their long privations. No sooner had he settled
+in Cairo than he hastened to pursue the same policy which he had already
+adopted at Alexandria, and by which he hoped to gain the country.
+The essential point was to obtain from the sheikhs of the mosque of
+Jemil-Azar a declaration in favour of the French. It corresponded to
+a papal bull among Christians. On this occasion Bonaparte exerted his
+utmost address, and was completely successful. The great sheikhs issued
+the desired declaration, and exhorted the Egyptians to submit to the
+envoy of God, who reverenced the Prophet, and who had come to deliver
+his children from the tyranny of the Mamluks. Bonaparte established a
+divan at Cairo, as he had done at Alexandria, composed of the principal
+sheikhs, and the most distinguished inhabitants. This divan, or
+municipal council, was intended to serve him in gaining the minds of the
+Egyptians, by consulting it, and learning from it all the details of the
+internal administration. It was agreed that similar assemblies should
+be established in all the provinces, and that these subordinate divans
+should send deputies to the divan of Cairo, which would thus be the
+great national divan.
+
+Bonaparte resolved to leave the administration of justice to the cadis.
+In execution of his scheme of succeeding to the rights of the Mamluks,
+he seized their property, and caused the taxes previously imposed to
+continue to be levied for the benefit of the French army. For this
+purpose it was requisite that he should have the Kopts at his disposal.
+He omitted nothing to attach them to him, holding out hopes to them of
+an amelioration of their condition. He sent generals with detachments
+down the Nile to complete the occupation of the Delta, which the army
+had merely traversed, and sent others towards the Upper Nile, to take
+possession of Middle Egypt. Desaix was placed with a division at the
+entrance of Upper Egypt, which he was to conquer from Murad Bey, as
+soon as the waters of the Nile should subside in the autumn. Each of
+the generals, furnished with detailed instructions, was to repeat in
+the country what had been done at Alexandria and at Cairo. They were to
+court the sheikhs, to win the Kopts, and to establish the levy of the
+taxes in order to supply the wants of the army. Bonaparte was also
+attentive to keep up the relations with the neighbouring countries,
+in order to uphold and to appropriate to himself the rich commerce of
+Egypt. He appointed the Emir Hadgi, an officer annually chosen at Cairo,
+to protect the great caravan from Mecca. He wrote to all the French
+consuls on the coast of Barbary to inform the beys that the Emir Hadgi
+was appointed, and that the caravans might set out. At his desire the
+sheikhs wrote to the sherif of Mecca, to acquaint him that the pilgrims
+would be protected, and that the caravans would find safety and
+protection. The pasha of Cairo had followed Ibraham Bey to Belbeys.
+Bonaparte wrote to him, as well as to the several pashas of St. Jean
+d’Acre and Damascus, to assure them of the good disposition of the
+French towards the Sublime Porte. The Arabs were struck by the character
+of the young conqueror. They could not comprehend how it was that the
+mortal who wielded the thunderbolt should be so merciful. They called
+him the worthy son of the Prophet, the favourite of the great Allah, and
+sang in the great mosque a litany in his praise.
+
+Napoleon, in carrying out his policy of conciliating the natives, was
+present at the Nile festival, which is one of the greatest in Egypt.
+It was on the 18th of August that this festival was held. Bonaparte
+had ordered the whole army to be under arms, and had drawn it up on the
+banks of the canal. An immense concourse of people had assembled, who
+beheld with joy the brave man of the West attending their festivals.
+
+It was by such means that the young general, as profound a politician as
+he was a great captain, contrived to ingratiate himself with the people.
+While he flattered their prejudices for the moment, he laboured
+to diffuse among them the light of science by the creation of the
+celebrated Institute of Egypt. He collected the men of science and the
+artists whom he had brought with him, and, associating with them some of
+the best educated of his officers, established the institute, to which
+he appropriated a revenue and one of the most spacious palaces in Cairo.
+
+The conquest of the provinces of Lower and Middle Egypt had been
+effected without difficulty, and had cost only a few skirmishes with the
+Arabs. A forced march upon Belbeys had been sufficient to drive Ibrahim
+Bey into Syria, where Desaix awaited the autumn for wresting Upper Egypt
+from Murad Bey, who had retired thither with the wrecks of his army.
+
+Fortune was, meanwhile, preparing for Bonaparte the most terrible of all
+reverses. On leaving Alexandria, he had earnestly recommended to Admiral
+Brueys to secure his squadron from the English, either by taking it into
+the harbour of Alexandria, or by proceeding with it to Corfu; and he had
+particularly enjoined him not to leave it in the road of Abukir, for it
+was much better to fall in with an enemy when under sail than to receive
+him at anchor. A warm discussion had arisen on the question whether
+the ships of 80 and 120 guns could be carried into the harbour of
+Alexandria. As to the smaller ships, there was no doubt; but the larger
+would require lightening so much as to enable them to draw three feet
+less water. For this purpose it would be necessary to take out their
+guns, or to construct floats. On such conditions, Admiral Brueys
+resolved not to take his squadron into the harbour. The time which he
+spent, either in sounding the channels to the harbour, or in waiting for
+news from Cairo, caused his own destruction.
+
+Admiral Brueys was moored in the road of Abukir. This road is a very
+regular semicircle, and his thirteen ships formed a line parallel to
+the shore, and so disposed that he believed no British ship could pass
+between him and the shore, if an attack were made.
+
+Nelson, after visiting the Archipelago, and returning to the Adriatic,
+Naples, and Sicily, had at length obtained the certain knowledge of
+the landing of the French at Alexandria. He immediately steered in that
+direction in order to seek and put to flight their squadron. He sent a
+frigate to look out for it, and to reconnoitre its position. The English
+frigate, having made her observations, rejoined Nelson, who, being
+informed of all the particulars, immediately stood in for Abukir, and
+arrived there August 1, 1798, at about six o’clock in the evening.
+Admiral Brueys was at dinner. He immediately ordered the signal for
+battle to be given; but so unprepared was the squadron to receive the
+enemy, that the hammocks were not stowed away on board any of the ships,
+and part of the crews were on shore. The admiral despatched officers to
+send the seamen on board, and to demand part of those who were in the
+transports. He had no conception that Nelson would dare to attack him
+the same evening, and conceived that he should have time to receive the
+reinforcements for which he had applied.
+
+Nelson resolved to attack immediately, and to push in between the French
+ships and the shore at all hazards. “Before this time to-morrow” said
+he, “I shall have gained a peerage or Westminster Abbey.”
+
+The number of vessels was equal on both sides, namely, thirteen ships
+of war. The engagement lasted upwards of fifteen hours. All the crews
+performed prodigies of valour. The brave Captain Du Petit-Thouars had
+two of his limbs shot off. He ordered snuff to be brought him,
+and remained on his quarter-deck, and, like Brueys, waited till a
+cannon-ball despatched him. The entire French squadron, excepting the
+two ships and two frigates carried off by Villeneuve, was destroyed.
+Nelson had suffered so severely that he could not pursue the fugitives.
+Such was the famous battle of Abukir, the most disastrous that
+the French had ever sustained, and involved the most far-reaching
+consequences. The fleet which had carried the French to Egypt, which
+might have served to succour or to recruit them, which was to
+second their movements on the coast of Syria,--had there been any to
+execute,--which was to overawe the Porte, to force it to put up with
+false reasoning, and to oblige it to wink at the invasion of Egypt,
+which finally, in case of reverses, was to convey the French back to
+their country,--that fleet was destroyed. The French ships were burned.
+The news of this disaster spread rapidly in Egypt, and for a moment
+filled the army with despair. Bonaparte received the tidings with
+imperturbable composure. “Well,” he said, “we must die in this country,
+or get out of it as great as the ancients.” He wrote to Kléber: “This
+will oblige us to do greater things than we intended. We must hold
+ourselves in readiness.” The great soul of Kléber was worthy of
+this language: “Yes,” replied Kléber, “we must do great things. I am
+preparing my faculties.” The courage of these men supported the army,
+and restored its confidence.
+
+Bonaparte strove to divert the thoughts of the soldiers by various
+expeditions, and soon made them forget this disaster. On the festival of
+the foundation of the republic, he endeavoured to give a new stimulus to
+their imagination; he engraved on Pompey’s Pillar the names of the first
+forty soldiers slain in Egypt. They were the forty who had fallen in
+the attack on Alexandria; and the names of these men, sprung from the
+villages of France, were thus associated with the immortality of Pompey
+and Alexander.
+
+Bonaparte, after the battle of the Pyramids, found himself master of
+Egypt. He began to establish himself there, and sent his generals into
+the provinces to complete their conquest. Desaix, placed at the entrance
+of Upper Egypt with a division of about three thousand men, was directed
+to reduce the remnants of Murad Bey’s force in that province. It was in
+the preceding year (October, 1798), at the moment when the inundation
+was over, that Desaix had commenced his expedition. The enemy had
+retired before him, and did not wait for him till he reached Sediman;
+there, on October 7th, Desaix fought a sanguinary battle with the
+desperate remainder of Murad Bey’s forces. Two thousand French had to
+combat with four thousand Mamluks and eight thousand fellahs, intrenched
+in the village of Sediman. The battle was conducted in the same manner
+as that of the Pyramids, and like all those fought in Egypt. The fellahs
+were behind the walls of the village, and the horse in the plain. The
+field of battle was thickly strewn with slain. The French lost three
+hundred men. Desaix continued his march during the whole winter, and,
+after a series of actions, reduced Upper Egypt as far as the cataracts.
+He made himself equally feared for his bravery and beloved for his
+clemency. In Cairo, Bonaparte had been named Sultan Kebir, the Fire
+Sultan. In Upper Egypt, Desaix was called the “Just Sultan.”
+
+Bonaparte had meanwhile marched to Belbeys, to drive Ibrahim Bey into
+Syria, and he had collected by the way the wrecks of the caravan of
+Mecca, plundered by the Arabs. Returning to Cairo, he continued to
+establish there an entirely French administration. Thus passed the
+winter between 1798 and 1799 in the expectation of important events.
+During this interval, Bonaparte received intelligence of the declaration
+of war by the Porte, and of the preparations which it was making against
+him with the aid of the English. Two armies were being formed, one at
+Rhodes, the other in Syria. These two armies were to act simultaneously
+in the spring of 1799, the one by landing at Abukir near Alexandria, the
+other by crossing the desert which separates Syria from Egypt. Bonaparte
+was instantly aware of his position, and determined, as was his custom,
+to disconcert the enemy and to forestall any offensive movement by a
+sudden attack. He could not cross the desert which parts Egypt from
+Syria in summer, and he resolved to avail himself of the winter for
+destroying the assemblages of troops forming at Acre, at Damascus,
+and in the principal towns. Djezzar, the celebrated pasha of Acre, was
+appointed seraskier of the army collected in Syria. Abd Allah Pasha of
+Damascus commanded its advanced-guard, and had proceeded as far as the
+fort of El Arish, which is the key to Egypt on the side next to Syria.
+Bonaparte resolved to act immediately. He was in communication with the
+tribes of the Lebanon. The Druses, Christian tribes, the Mutualis, and
+schismatic Muhammedans offered him assistance, and ardently wished for
+his coming. By a sudden assault on Jaffa, Acre, and some other badly
+fortified places, he might in a short time gain possession of Syria,
+add this fine conquest to that of Egypt, make himself master of
+the Euphrates, as he was of the Nile, and thus command all the
+communications with India.
+
+[Illustration: 112.jpg A FOUNTAIN AT CAIRO]
+
+Bonaparte commenced his march very early in February at the head of
+Kléber’s, Régnier’s, Lannes’s, Bon’s, and Murat’s divisions, about
+thirteen thousand strong. He arrived before the fort El Arish on
+February 15th, and, after a slight resistance, the garrison surrendered
+themselves prisoners, to the number of thirteen hundred men. Ibrahim
+Bey, having attempted to relieve it, was put to flight, and, after a
+severe march across the desert, they reached Gaza. They took that place
+in the sight of Djezzar Pasha, and found there, as in the fort of El
+Arish, a great quantity of ammunition and provisions. From Gaza the army
+proceeded to Jaffa (the ancient Joppa), where it arrived on March 3rd.
+This place was surrounded by a massive wall, flanked by towers, and it
+contained a garrison of four thousand men. Bonaparte caused a breach
+to be battered in the wall, and then summoned the commandant, who only
+answered by cutting off the head of the messenger. The assault was made,
+and the place stormed with extraordinary intrepidity, and given up
+for thirty hours to pillage and massacre. Here, too, was found a
+considerable quantity of artillery and supplies of all kinds. There
+were some thousands of prisoners, whom the general could not despatch to
+Egypt, because he had not the ordinary means for escorting them, and he
+would not send them back to the enemy to swell their ranks. Bonaparte
+decided on a terrible measure, the most cruel act of his life.
+Transported into a barbarous country, he had adopted its manners, and he
+ordered all the prisoners to be put to death. The army consummated with
+obedience, but with a sort of horror, the execution that was commanded.
+
+Bonaparte then advanced upon St. Jean d’Acre, the ancient Ptolemais,
+situated at the foot of Mount Carmel. It was the only place that could
+now stop him. If he could make himself master of this fortress, Syria
+would be his. But the ferocious Djezzar had shut himself up there, with
+all his wealth and a strong garrison, and he also reckoned upon support
+from Sir Sidney Smith, then cruising off that coast, who supplied him
+with engineers, artillerymen, and ammunition. It was probable, moreover,
+that he would be soon relieved by the Turkish army collected in Syria,
+which was advancing from Damascus to cross the Jordan. Bonaparte
+hastened to attack the place, in hopes of taking it, as he had done
+Jaffa, before it was reinforced with fresh troops, and before the
+English had time to improve its defences. The trenches were immediately
+opened. The siege artillery sent by sea from Alexandria had been
+intercepted by Sir Sidney Smith, who captured seven vessels out of the
+nine. A breach was effected, and dispositions were made for the assault,
+but the men were stopped by a counterscarp and a ditch. They immediately
+set about mining. The operation was carried on under the fire of all
+the ramparts, and of the fine artillery which Sir Sidney Smith had taken
+from the French. The mine was exploded on April 17th, and blew up only
+a portion of the counterscarp. Unluckily for the French, the place had
+received a reinforcement of several thousand men, a great number of
+gunners trained after the European fashion, and immense supplies. It was
+a siege on a large scale to be carried on with thirteen thousand men,
+almost entirely destitute of artillery. It was necessary to open a new
+mine to blow up the entire counterscarp, and to commence another covered
+way.
+
+Bonaparte now ordered Kléber’s division to oppose the passage of the
+Jordan by the army coming from Damascus. The enemy was commanded by Abd
+Allah Pasha of Damascus, and numbered about twenty-five thousand men
+and twelve thousand horse. A desperate battle was fought in the plain of
+Fouli, and for six hours Kléber, with scarcely three thousand infantry
+in square, resisted the utmost fury of the Turkish cavalry. Bonaparte,
+who had been making a rapid march to join Kléber, suddenly made his
+appearance on the field of battle. A tremendous fire, discharged
+instantaneously from the three points of this triangle, assailed the
+Mamluks who were in the midst, drove them in confusion upon one another,
+and made them flee in disorder in all directions. Kléber’s division,
+fired with fresh ardour at this sight, rushed upon the village of Eouli,
+stormed it at the point of the bayonet, and made a great carnage among
+the enemy. In a moment the whole multitude was gone, and the plain was
+left covered with dead. During this interval the besiegers had never
+ceased mining and countermining about the walls of St. Jean d’Acre. The
+siege of Acre lasted for sixty-five days. Bonaparte made eight desperate
+but ineffectual assaults upon the city, which were repulsed by eleven
+furious sallies on the part of the besieged garrison. It was absolutely
+necessary to relinquish the enterprise. The strategic point in the East
+was lost.
+
+[Illustration: 116b.jpg Cairo--Eskibieh Quarter]
+
+For two months the army had been before Acre; it had sustained
+considerable losses, and it would have been imprudent to expose it to
+more. The plague was in Acre, and the army had caught the contagion at
+Jaffa. The season for landing troops approached, and the arrival of a
+Turkish army near the mouths of the Nile was expected. By persisting
+longer, Bonaparte was liable to weaken himself to such a degree as
+not to be able to repulse new enemies. The main point of his plan was
+effected, since he had rendered the enemy in that quarter incapable of
+acting. He now commenced his march to recross the desert.
+
+Bonaparte at length reached Egypt after an expedition of nearly
+three months. It was high time for him to return; for the spirit
+of insurrection had spread throughout the whole Delta. His presence
+produced everywhere submission and tranquillity. He gave orders for
+magnificent festivities at Cairo to celebrate his triumphs in Syria. He
+had to curb not only the inhabitants, but his own generals and the army
+itself. A deep discontent pervaded it. They had been for a whole year
+in Egypt. It was now the month of June, and they were still ignorant of
+what was passing in Europe, and of the disasters of France. They
+merely knew that the Continent was in confusion, and that a new war was
+inevitable. Bonaparte impatiently waited for further particulars, that
+he might decide what course to pursue, and return, in case of need, to
+the first theatre of his exploits. But he hoped first to destroy the
+second Turkish army assembled at Rhodes, the very speedy landing of
+which was announced.
+
+This army, put on board numerous transports and escorted by Sir Sidney
+Smith’s squadron, appeared on July 11th in sight of Alexandria, and
+came to anchor in the road of Abukir, where the French squadron had been
+destroyed. The point chosen by the English for landing was the peninsula
+which commands the entrance to the road, and bears the same name. The
+Turks landed with great boldness, attacked the intrenchments sword
+in hand, carried them, and made themselves masters of the village of
+Abukir, putting to death the garrison. The village being taken, it was
+impossible for the fort to hold out, and it was obliged to surrender.
+Marmont, who commanded at Alexandria, left the city at the head of
+twelve hundred men to hasten to the assistance of the troops at Abukir.
+But, learning that the Turks had landed in considerable numbers, he did
+not dare to attempt to throw them into the sea by a bold attack, and
+returned to Alexandria, leaving them to establish themselves quietly in
+the peninsula of Abukir.
+
+[Illustration: 119.jpg CAIRO FROM THE LEFT BANK OF THE NILE]
+
+The Turks amounted to nearly eighteen thousand infantry. They had no
+cavalry, for they had not brought more than three hundred horses, but
+they expected the arrival of Murad Bey, who was to leave Upper Egypt,
+skirt the desert, cross the oases, and throw himself into Abukir with
+two or three thousand Mamluks.
+
+When Bonaparte was informed of the particulars of the landing, he
+immediately left Cairo, and made from that city to Alexandria one of
+those extraordinary marches of which he had given so many examples in
+Italy. He took with him the divisions of Lannes, Bon, and Murat. He had
+ordered Desaix to evacuate Upper Egypt, and Kleber and Régnier, who were
+in the Delta, to approach Abukir. He had chosen the point of Birket,
+midway between Alexandria and Abukir, at which to concentrate his
+forces, and to manouvre according to circumstances. He was afraid that
+an English army had landed with the Turks. The next day, the 7th, he was
+at the entrance of the peninsula.
+
+Bonaparte made his dispositions with his usual promptitude and decision.
+He ordered General D ‘Estaing, with some battalions, to march to the
+hill on the left, where the one thousand Turks were posted; Lannes to
+march to that on the right, where the two thousand others were; and
+Murat, who was at the centre, to make the cavalry file on the rear of
+the two hills. D’Estaing marched to the hill on the left and boldly
+ascended it: Murat caused it to be turned by a squadron. The Turks, at
+sight of this, quitted their post, and fell in with the cavalry, which
+cut them to pieces, and drove them into the sea, into which they chose
+rather to throw themselves than to surrender. Precisely the same thing
+was done on the right. Lannes attacked the two thousand janizaries;
+Murat turned them, cut them in pieces, and drove them into the sea.
+D’Estaing and Lannes then moved towards the centre, formed by a village,
+and attacked it in front. The Turks there defended themselves bravely,
+reckoning upon assistance from the second line. A column did in fact
+advance from the camp of Abukir; but Murat, who had already filed upon
+the rear of the village, fell sword in hand upon this column, and drove
+it back into Abukir. D’Estaing’s infantry and that of Lannes entered the
+village at the charge step, driving the Turks out of it, who were pushed
+in all directions, and who, obstinately refusing to surrender, had no
+retreat but the sea, in which they were drowned.
+
+From four to five thousand had already perished in this manner.
+The first line was carried: Bonaparte’s object was accomplished. He
+immediately followed up his success with desperate fighting to complete
+his victory on the moment. The Turks, affrighted, fled on all sides, and
+a horrible carnage was made among them. They were pursued at the point
+of the bayonet and thrust into the sea. More than twelve thousand
+corpses were floating in the bay of Abukir, and two or three thousand
+more had perished by the fire or by the sword. The rest, shut up in the
+fort, had no rescue but the clemency of the conqueror. Such was that
+extraordinary battle in which a hostile army was entirely destroyed.
+Thus, either by the expedition to Syria, or by the battle of Abukir,
+Egypt was delivered, at least for a time, from the forces of the Porte.
+
+Having arrived in the summer before the inundation, Bonaparte had
+employed the first moments in gaining possession of Alexandria and the
+capital, which he had secured by the battle of the Pyramids. In the
+autumn, after the inundation, he had completed the conquest of the
+Delta, and consigned that of Upper Egypt to Desaix. In the winter he had
+undertaken the expedition to Syria, and destroyed Djezzar’s Turkish army
+at Mount Tabor. He had now, in the second summer, just destroyed the
+second army of the Porte at Abukir. The time had thus been well spent;
+and, while Victory was forsaking in Europe the banners of France, she
+adhered to them in Africa and Asia. The tricolour waved triumphant over
+the Nile and the Jordan, and over the places which were the cradle of
+the Christian religion.
+
+Bonaparte was as yet ignorant of what was passing in France. None of the
+despatches from the Directory or from his brothers had reached him,
+and he was a prey to the keenest anxiety. With a view to obtaining some
+intelligence, he ordered brigs to cruise about, to stop all merchantmen,
+and to gain from them information of the occurrences in Europe. He
+sent to the Turkish fleet a flag of truce, which, under the pretext of
+negotiating an exchange of prisoners, was for the purpose of obtaining
+news. Sir Sidney Smith stopped this messenger, treated him exceedingly
+well, and, perceiving that Bonaparte was ignorant of the disasters of
+France, took a spiteful pleasure in sending him a packet of newspapers.
+The messenger returned and delivered the packet to Bonaparte. The latter
+spent the whole night in devouring the contents of those papers,
+and informing himself of what was passing in his own country. His
+determination was immediately taken, and he resolved to embark secretly
+for Europe, and on August 22nd, taking with him Berthier, Lannes, Murât,
+Andréossy, Marmont, Berthollet, and Monge, and escorted by some of his
+guides, he proceeded to a retired spot on the beach, where boats were
+awaiting them. They got into them and went on board the frigates, _La
+Muiron_ and _La Carrère_. They set sail immediately, that by daylight
+they might be out of sight of the English cruisers. Unfortunately
+it fell calm; fearful of being surprised, some were for returning to
+Alexandria, but Bonaparte resolved to proceed. “Be quiet,” said he, “we
+shall pass in safety.” Like Cæsar, he reckoned upon his fortune. Menou,
+who alone had been initiated into the secret, made known in Alexandria
+the departure of General Bonaparte, and the appointment which he had
+made of General Kléber to succeed him. This intelligence caused a
+painful surprise throughout the army. The most opprobrious epithets
+were applied to this departure. They did not consider that irresistible
+impulse of patriotism and ambition, which, on the news of the disasters
+of the republic, had urged him to return to France. They perceived only
+the forlorn state in which he had left the unfortunate army, which had
+felt sufficient confidence in his genius to follow him.
+
+Kléber was not fond of General Bonaparte, and endured his ascendency
+with a sort of impatience, and now he was sorry that he had quitted the
+banks of the Rhine for the banks of the Nile. The chief command did
+not counterbalance the necessity of remaining in Egypt, for he took no
+pleasure in commanding.
+
+[Illustration: 124.jpg STATUE OF GENERAL KLEBER AT STRASBURG]
+
+Kléber, however, was the most popular of the generals among the
+soldiery. His name was hailed by them with entire confidence, and
+somewhat cheered them for the loss of the illustrious commander who had
+just left them. He returned to Cairo, assumed the command with a sort of
+ostentation, and took possession of the fine Arabian mansion which his
+predecessor had occupied in the Ezbekieh Place. But it was not long
+before the solicitudes of the chief command, which were insupportable
+to him, the new dangers with which the Turks and the English threatened
+Egypt, and the grief of exile, which was general, filled his soul with
+the most gloomy discouragement.
+
+Kléber, together with Poussielgue, the administrator of the army, at
+once prepared and addressed despatches to the Directory, placing the
+condition of the troops, the finances, and the number of the enemy in
+the most melancholy light. These despatches fell into the hands of the
+English, and the duplicate reports found their way into the hands of
+Bonaparte himself. Bonaparte had left instructions with Kléber to meet
+every possible contingency during his absence, even to the necessity of
+an evacuation of Egypt. “I am going to France,” said he, “either as a
+private man or as a public man; I will get reinforcement sent to you.
+But if by next spring (he was writing in August, 1799) you have received
+no supplies, no instructions; if the plague has carried off more than
+fifteen hundred men, independently of losses by war; if a considerable
+force, which you should be incapable of resisting, presses you hard,
+negotiate with the vizier: consent even, if it must be so, to an
+evacuation; subject to one condition, that of referring to the French
+government; and meanwhile continue to occupy. You will thus have gained
+time, and it is impossible that, during the interval, you should not
+have received succour.”
+
+The instructions were very sound; but the case foreseen was far from
+being realised at the time when Kléber determined to negotiate for the
+evacuation of Egypt. Murad Bey, disheartened, was a fugitive in Upper
+Egypt with a few Mamluks. Ibrahim Bey, who, under the government of
+the Mamluks, shared the sovereignty with him, was then in Lower Egypt
+towards the frontier of Syria.. He had four hundred horse. Djezzar
+Pasha was shut up in St. Jean d’Acre, and, so far from preparing a
+reinforcement of men for the army of the grand vizier, he viewed, on the
+contrary, with high displeasure, the approach of a fresh Turkish army,
+now that his pashalik was delivered from the French. As for the grand
+vizier, he was not yet across the Taurus. The English had their troops
+at Mahon, and were not at this moment aggressive. At Kléber’s side was
+General Menou, who viewed everything under the most favourable colours,
+and believed the French to be invincible in Egypt, and regarded the
+expedition as the commencement of a near and momentous revolution in the
+commerce of the world. Kléber and Menou were both honest, upright men;
+but one wanted to leave Egypt, the other to stay in it; the clearest and
+most authentic returns conveyed to them totally contrary significations;
+misery and ruin to one, abundance and success to the other.
+
+In September, 1799, Desaix, having completed the conquest and
+subjugation of Upper Egypt, had left two movable columns for the pursuit
+of Murad Bey, to whom he had offered peace on condition of his becoming
+a vassal of France. He then returned to Cairo by the order of Kléber,
+who wished to make use of his name in those negotiations into which
+he was about to enter. During these proceedings, the army of the grand
+vizier, so long announced, was slowly advancing. Sir Sidney Smith, who
+convoyed with his squadron the Turkish troops destined to be transported
+by sea, had just arrived off Dami-etta with eight thousand janizaries,
+and on the first of November, 1799, the landing of the first division
+of four thousand janizaries was effected. At the first tidings of this
+disembarkation, Kléber had despatched Desaix with a column of three
+thousand men; but the latter, uselessly sent to Damietta, had found the
+victory won,--the Turkish division having been completely destroyed by
+General Verdier,--and the French filled with unbounded confidence.
+This brilliant achievement ought to have served to encourage Kléber;
+unfortunately, he was swayed at once by his own lack of confidence and
+that of the army. In this disposition of mind, Kléber had sent one
+of his officers to the vizier (who had entered Syria), to make new
+overtures of peace. General Bonaparte, with a view to embroiling the
+vizier with the English, had previously entertained the idea of setting
+on foot negotiations, which, on his part, were nothing more than a
+feint. His overtures had been received with great distrust and pride.
+Kléber ‘s advances met with a favourable reception, through the
+influence of Sir Sidney Smith, who was preparing to play a prominent
+part in the affairs of Egypt. This officer had largely contributed to
+prevent the success of the siege of St. Jean d’Acre; he was proud of it,
+and had devised a _ruse de guerre_ by taking advantage of a momentary
+weakness to wrest from the French their valuable conquest. With this
+view, he had disposed the grand vizier to listen to the overtures
+of Kléber. Kléber, on his part, despatched Desaix and Poussielgue as
+negotiators to Sir Sidney Smith; for, since the English were masters of
+the sea, he wished to induce them to take part in the negotiation,
+so that the return to France might be rendered possible. Sir Sidney
+manifested a disposition to enter into arrangements, acting as “Minister
+Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty,” and attributing to himself
+a power which he had ceased to hold since the arrival of Lord Elgin
+as ambassador at Constantinople. Poussielgue was an advocate for
+evacuation; Desaix just the reverse. The conditions proposed by Kléber
+were unreasonable: not that they were an exorbitant equivalent for what
+was given up in giving up Egypt, but because they were not feasible.
+Sir Sidney made Kléber sensible of this. Officers treating for a mere
+suspension of arms could not include topics of vast extent in their
+negotiation, such as the demand for the possession of the Venetian
+Islands, and the annulment of the Triple Alliance. But it was urgently
+necessary to settle two points immediately: the departure of the wounded
+and of the scientific men attached to the expedition, for whom Desaix
+solicited safe-conduct; and secondly, a suspension of arms, for the army
+of the grand vizier, though marching slowly, would soon be in presence
+of the French. It had actually arrived before the fort of El Arish,
+the first French post on the frontiers of Syria, and had summoned it to
+surrender. The negotiations, in fact, had been going on for a fortnight
+on board _Le Tigre_, while floating at the pleasure of the winds off the
+coasts of Syria and Egypt: the parties had said all they had to say, and
+the negotiations could not be continued to any useful purpose without
+the concurrence of the grand vizier. Sir Sidney, availing himself of a
+favourable moment, pushed off in a boat which landed him on the coast,
+after incurring some danger, and ordered the captain of _Le Tigre_ to
+meet him in the port of Jaffa, where Poussielgue and Desaix were to be
+put ashore, if the conferences were to be transferred to the camp of the
+grand vizier.
+
+At the moment when the English commodore reached the camp, a horrible
+event had occurred at El Arish. The grand vizier had collected around
+him an army of seventy or eighty thousand fanatic Mussulmans. The
+Turks were joined by the Mamluks. Ibrahim Bey, who had some time before
+retired to Syria, and Murad Bey, who had descended by a long circuit
+from the cataracts to the environs of Suez, had become the auxiliaries
+of their former adversaries. The English had made for this army a sort
+of field-artillery, drawn by mules. The fort of El Arish, before which
+the Turks were at this moment, was, according to the declaration of
+General Bonaparte, one of the two keys of Egypt; Alexandria was the
+other.
+
+The Turkish advanced-guard having reached El Arish, Colonel Douglas,
+an English officer in the service of Turkey, summoned Cazals, the
+commandant, to surrender. The culpable sentiments which the officers had
+too much encouraged in the army then burst forth. The soldiers in the
+garrison at El Arish, vehemently longing, like their comrades, to leave
+Egypt, declared to the commandant that they would not fight, and that he
+must make up his mind to surrender the fort.
+
+[Illustration: 130.jpg A MODERN FANATIC]
+
+The gallant Cazals indignantly refused, and a struggle with the
+Turks ensued. During this contest, the recreants, who insisted on
+surrendering, threw ropes to the Turks; these ferocious enemies, once
+hoisted up into the fort, rushed, sword in hand, upon those who had
+given them admission into the fort, and slaughtered a great number
+of them. The others, brought back to reason, joined the rest of the
+garrison, and, defending themselves with desperate courage, were most of
+them killed. A small number obtained quarter, thanks to that humane and
+distinguished officer, Colonel Douglas.
+
+It was now the 30th of December: the letter written by Sir Sidney Smith
+to the grand vizier, to propose to him a suspension of arms, had not
+reached him in time to prevent the melancholy catastrophe at El Arish.
+Sir Sidney Smith was a man of generous feelings: this barbarous massacre
+of a French garrison horrified him, and, above all, it made him
+fearful of the rupture of the negotiations. He lost no time in sending
+explanations to Kléber, both in his own name and that of the grand
+vizier, and he added the formal assurance that all hostility should
+cease during the negotiations.
+
+Kléber, when informed of the massacre of El Arish, did not manifest as
+much indignation as he ought to have done; he was aware that, if he was
+too warm upon that subject, all the negotiations might be broken off.
+He was more urgent than ever for a suspension of arms; and, at the
+same time, by way of precaution, and to be nearer to the theatre of
+the conferences, he left Cairo, and transferred his headquarters to
+Salahieh, on the very border of the desert, two days’ march from El
+Arish.
+
+In the meantime, Desaix and Poussielgue, detained by contrary winds,
+had not been able to land at Gaza till the 11th, and to reach El Arish
+before the 13th.
+
+The evacuation and its conditions soon became the sole subject of
+negotiation. After long discussions it was agreed that all hostility
+should cease for three months; that those three months should be
+employed by the vizier in collecting, in the ports of Rosetta, Abukir,
+and Alexandria, the vessels requisite for the conveyance of the French
+army; by General Kléber, in evacuating the Upper Nile, Cairo, and the
+contiguous provinces, and in concentrating his troops about the point of
+embarkation; that the French should depart with the honours of war;
+that they should cease to impose contributions; but that, in return,
+the French army should receive three thousand purses, equivalent at that
+time to three million francs, and representing the sum necessary for its
+subsistence during the evacuation and the passage. The forts of Katieh,
+Salahieh, and the Belbeys, forming the frontier of Egypt towards the
+desert of Syria, were to be given up ten days after the ratification;
+Cairo forty days after.
+
+The terms of the convention being arranged, there was nothing more to
+be done but sign it. Kléber, who had a vague feeling of his fault,
+determined, in order to cover it, to assemble a council of war, to which
+all the generals of the army were summoned. The council met on the 21st
+of January, 1800. The minutes of it still exist. Desaix, although deeply
+grieved, was swept along by the torrent of popular opinion, gave way
+to it himself, and affixed his signature on the 28th of January to the
+convention of El Arish.
+
+Meanwhile preparations were being made for departure; Sir Sidney Smith
+had returned to his ship. The vizier advanced and took possession,
+consecutively, of the entrenched positions of Katieh, Salahieh, and
+Belbeys, which Kléber, in haste to execute the convention, faithfully
+delivered up to him. Kléber returned to Cairo to make his preparations
+for departure, to call in the troops that were guarding Upper Egypt, to
+concentrate his army, and then to direct it upon Alexandria and Rosetta
+at the time stipulated for embarkation.
+
+While these events were occurring in Egypt, the English cabinet had
+received advice of the overtures made by General Kléber to the grand
+vizier and to Sir Sidney Smith. Believing that the French army was
+reduced to the last extremity, it lost no time in sending off an express
+order not to grant any capitulation unless they surrendered themselves
+prisoners of war. These orders, despatched from London on the 17th of
+December, reached Admiral Keith in the island of Minorca in the first
+days of January, 1800; and, on the 8th of the same month, the admiral
+hastened to forward to Sir Sidney Smith the instructions which he had
+just received from the government. He lost no time in writing to Kléber,
+to express his mortification, to apprise him honestly of what was
+passing, to advise him to suspend immediately the delivery of the
+Egyptian fortresses to the grand vizier, and to conjure him to wait
+for fresh orders from England before he took any definite resolutions.
+Unfortunately, when these advices from Sir Sidney arrived at Cairo, the
+French army had already executed in part the treaty of El Arish.
+
+Kléber instantly countermanded all the orders previously given to the
+army. He brought back from Lower Egypt to Cairo part of the troops that
+had already descended the Nile; he ordered his stores to be sent up
+again; he urged the division of Upper Egypt to make haste to rejoin him,
+and gave notice to the grand vizier to suspend his march towards Cairo,
+otherwise he should immediately commence hostilities. The grand vizier
+replied that the convention of El Arish was signed; that it must be
+executed; that, in consequence, he should advance towards the capital.
+At the same instant, an officer sent from Minorca with a letter from
+Lord Keith to Kléber, arrived at the headquarters. Kléber, fired with
+indignation at the demand for surrender, caused Lord Keith’s letter
+to be inserted in the order of the day, adding to it these few words:
+“Soldiers, to such insults there is no other answer than victory.
+Prepare for action.”
+
+Agents from Sir Sidney had hastened up to interpose between the French
+and the Turks, and to make fresh proposals of accommodation. Letters,
+they said, had just been written to London, and, when the convention of
+El Arish was known there, it would be ratified to a certainty; in this
+situation, it would not be right to suspend hostilities, and wait. To
+this the grand vizier and Kléber consented, but on conditions that were
+irreconcilable. The grand vizier insisted that Cairo should be given up
+to him; Kléber, on the contrary, that the vizier should fall back to the
+frontier. Under these conditions, fighting was the only resource.
+
+On the 20th of March, 1800, in the plain of Heliopolis, ten thousand
+soldiers, by superiority in discipline and courage, dispersed seventy
+or eighty thousand foes. Kléber gave orders for the pursuit on the
+following day. When he had ascertained with his own eyes that the
+Turkish army had disappeared, he resolved to return and reduce the towns
+of Lower Egypt, and Cairo in particular, to their duty.
+
+He arrived at Cairo on the 27th of March. Important events had occurred
+there since his departure. The population of that great city, which
+numbered nearly three hundred thousand inhabitants, fickle, inflammable,
+inclined to change, had followed the suggestions of Turkish emissaries,
+and fallen upon the French the moment they heard the cannon at
+Heliopolis. Pouring forth outside the walls during the battle, and
+seeing Nassif-Pasha and Ibrahim Bey, with some thousand horse and
+janizaries, they supposed them to be the conquerors. Taking good care
+not to undeceive the inhabitants, the Turks affirmed that the grand
+vizier had gained a complete victory, and that the French were
+exterminated. At these tidings, fifty thousand men had risen in Cairo,
+at Bulak, and at Gizeh, and Cairo became a scene of plunder, rapine, and
+murder.
+
+[Illustration: 137.jpg CITADEL OF CAIRO]
+
+During these transactions, General Friant arrived, detached from
+Belbeys, and lastly Kléber himself. Though conqueror of the grand
+vizier’s army, Kléber had a serious difficulty to surmount to subdue an
+immense city, peopled by three hundred thousand inhabitants, partly in
+a state of revolt, occupied by twenty thousand Turks, and built in the
+Oriental style; that is to say, having narrow streets, divided into
+piles of masonry, which were real fortresses. These edifices, receiving
+light from within, and exhibiting without nothing but lofty walls, had
+terraces instead of roofs, from which the insurgents poured a downward
+and destructive fire. Add to this that the Turks were masters of the
+whole city, excepting the citadel and the square of Ezbekieh, which,
+in a manner, they had blockaded by closing the streets that ran into it
+with embattled walls.
+
+In this situation, Kléber showed as much prudence as he had just
+shown energy in the field. He resolved to gain time, and to let the
+insurrection wear itself out. The insurgents could not fail at length
+to be undeceived respecting the general state of things in Egypt, and to
+learn that the French were everywhere victorious, and the vizier’s army
+dispersed. Nassif-Pasha’s Turks, Ibrahim Bey’s Mamluks, and the Arab
+population of Cairo could not agree together long. For all these
+reasons, Kléber thought it advisable to temporise and to negotiate.
+
+While he was gaining time, he completed his treaty of alliance with
+Murad Bey. He granted to him the province of Sai’d, under the supremacy
+of France, on condition of paying a tribute equivalent to a considerable
+part of the imposts of that province. Murad Bey engaged, moreover, to
+fight for the French; and the French engaged, if they should ever quit
+the country, to facilitate for him the occupation of Egypt. Murad Bey
+faithfully adhered to the treaty which he had just signed, and began
+by driving from Upper Egypt a Turkish corps which had occupied it. The
+insurgents of Cairo obstinately refused to capitulate, and an attack by
+main force was, therefore, indispensable for completing the reduction of
+the city, during which several thousand Turks, Mamluks, and insurgents
+were killed, and four thousand houses were destroyed by fire. Thus
+terminated that sanguinary struggle, which had commenced with the battle
+of Heliopolis on the 20th of March, and which ended on the 25th of
+April with the departure of the last lieutenants of the vizier, after
+thirty-five days’ fighting between twenty thousand French on one side,
+and, on the other, the whole force of the Ottoman empire, seconded by
+the revolt of the Egyptian towns.
+
+In the Delta all the towns had returned to a state of complete
+submission. Murad Bey had driven from Upper Egypt the Turkish detachment
+of Dervish Pasha. The vanquished everywhere trembled before the
+conqueror, and expected a terrible chastisement. Kléber, who was humane
+and wise, took good care not to repay cruelties with cruelties. The
+Egyptians were persuaded that they should be treated harshly; they
+conceived that the loss of life and property would atone for the crime
+of those who had risen in revolt. Kléber called them together, assumed
+at first a stern look, but afterwards pardoned them, merely imposing a
+contribution on the insurgent villages. Cairo paid ten million francs,
+a burden far from onerous for so large a city, and the inhabitants
+considered themselves as most fortunate to get off so easily. Eight
+millions more were imposed upon the rebel towns of Lower Egypt. The
+army, proud of its victories, confident in its strength, knowing that
+General Bonaparte was at the head of the government, ceased to doubt
+that it would soon receive reinforcements. Kléber had in the plain of
+Heliopolis made the noblest amends for his momentary faults.
+
+He entered upon a second conquest, showing clemency and humanity on
+all sides, and everywhere he laboured hard to encourage the arts and
+industries and agriculture. He assembled the administrators of the army,
+the persons best acquainted with the country, and turned his attention
+to the organisation of the finances of the colony. He restored the
+collection of the direct contributions to the Kopts, to whom it had
+formerly been entrusted, and imposed some new customs’ duties and taxes
+on articles of consumption. He gave orders for the completion of the
+forts constructing around Cairo, and set men to work at those of Lesbeh,
+Damietta, Burlos, and Rosetta, situated on the sea-coast. He pressed
+forward the works of Alexandria, and imparted fresh activity to the
+scientific researches of the Institute of Egypt, and a valuable mass of
+information was embodied in the great French work, the “Description
+de l’Egypte.” From the cataracts to the mouths of the Nile, everything
+assumed the aspect of a solid and durable establishment. Two months
+afterwards, the caravans of Syria, Arabia, and Darfur began to appear
+again at Cairo.
+
+But a deplorable event snatched away General Kléber in the midst of his
+exploits and of his judicious government. He was assassinated in the
+garden of his palace by a young man, a native of Aleppo, named Suleiman,
+who was a prey to extravagant fanaticism.
+
+With Kléber’s death, Egypt was lost for France. Menou, who succeeded
+him, was very far beneath such a task. The English offered to make good
+the convention of El Arish, but Menou refused, and England prepared for
+an invasion, after attempting vainly to co-operate with the Turks.
+
+Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who had been appointed as British commissioner,
+landed with the English army alone at Abukir. After fierce skirmishing,
+the French and English met on the plains of Alexandria. In the frightful
+conflict which ensued, Sir Ralph Abercrombie was slain, but the battle
+ended with the retreat of the French. Damietta surrendered on April
+19th. The French were now divided, while Menou hesitated. General
+Hutchinson took the place of the deceased British commander. A great
+battle was fought at Cairo, which was won by the British, and the
+capital itself now fell into their hands. General Hutchinson then
+closed in upon Alexandria; and, after hard fighting, Menou at length
+surrendered. The French troops were allowed to return to France with all
+their belongings, except the artillery, August 27, 1801.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.--THE RULE OF MEHEMET ALI
+
+
+_Mehemet’s rise to power: Massacre of the Mamluks: Invasion of the
+Morea: Battle of Navarino: Struggle with the Porte: Abbas Pasha,
+Muhammed Said, and Ismail Pasha: Ismail’s lavish expenditure: Foreign
+bondholders and the Dual Control._
+
+
+From the beginning of the eighteenth century, the destiny of Egypt
+was the destiny of one man; he aided the political movements, and
+accelerated or retarded social activity; he swayed both commerce and
+agriculture, and organised the army to his liking; he was the heart and
+brain of this mysterious country. Under the watchful eyes of Europe,
+attentive for more than forty years, this Macedonian soldier became the
+personification of the nation under his authority, and, in the main, the
+history of the country may be summed up in the biography of Mehemet Ali.
+If we consider the events of his life, and the diverse roads by which
+he reached the apogee of his fortunes, reviewing the scenes, now sombre,
+now magnificent, of that remarkable fate, we obtain a complete picture
+of Egypt itself, seen from the most intimate, real, and striking point
+of view.
+
+According to the most authentic accounts, Mehemet Ali was born in 1768
+(a. h. 1182), at Cavala, a seaport in Turkey in Europe. He was yet
+very young when he lost his father, Ibrahim Agha, and soon after this
+misfortune, his uncle and sole remaining relative, Tussun-Agha, was
+beheaded by order of the Porte. Left an orphan, Mehemet Ali was adopted
+by the Tchorbadji of Praousta, an old friend of his father, who brought
+him up with his own son. The boy spent his early youth in the discharge
+of unimportant military duties, where, however, he frequently found
+opportunity to display his intelligence and courage. He was even able to
+render many services to his protector in the collecting of taxes, which
+was always a difficult matter in Turkey, and occasionally necessitated a
+regular military expedition.
+
+Anxious to reward Mehemet for all his services, and also doubtless
+desirous of a still closer connection, the aged Tchorbadji married him
+to his daughter. This was the beginning of the young man’s success; he
+was then eighteen years old. Dealings with a French merchant of Cavala
+had inspired him with a taste for commerce, and, devoting himself to it,
+he speculated with much success, chiefly in tobacco, the richest product
+of his country.
+
+This period of his life was not without its influence upon Egypt, for we
+know how strenuously the pasha endeavoured to develop the commercial and
+manufacturing industries.
+
+The French invasion surprised him in the midst of these peaceful
+occupations. The Porte, having raised an army in Macedonia, ordered the
+Tchorbadji to furnish a contingent of three hundred men, who entrusted
+the command of this small force to his son Ali Agha, appointing Mehemet
+Ali, whose merit and courage he fully appreciated, as his lieutenant.
+The Macedonain recruits rejoined the forces of the pasha-captain, and
+landed with the grand vizier at Abukir, where was fought that battle
+which resulted in victory for France and the complete defeat of the
+sultan’s army. Completely demoralised by this overthrow, Ali Agha left
+Mehemet Ali in command of his troops, and quitted the army.
+
+It is well to consider in a brief survey the state of the country at
+the moment when the incapacity of General Menou compelled the French to
+withdraw from Egypt. Arrayed against each other were the troops of the
+sultan, numbering four thousand Albanians and those forces sent from
+England under the command of Admiral Keith, on one side; and on the
+other were the Mamluks striving for supremacy; and it was a question
+whether this powerful force would once more rule Egypt as before the
+French invasion, or whether the country would again fall under the
+dominion of the Porte.
+
+There was occasion for anxiety among the Mamluks themselves; their
+two principal beys, Osman-Bardisi and Muhammed el-Elfi, instead of
+strengthening their forces by acting in concert, as Murad Bey and
+Ibrahim Bey had done before the French occupation, permitted their
+rivalry for power so completely to absorb them that it was finally the
+means of encompassing their ruin and that of their party.
+
+The first pasha invested with the viceroyalty of Egypt after the
+departure of the French troops was Muhammed Khusurf, who faithfully
+served the Porte. His government was able and zealous, but the
+measures he employed against his haughty antagonists lacked the lofty
+intelligence indispensable to so difficult a task. Muhammed Khusurf,
+whose rivalry with Mehemet Ali had for some years attracted European
+attention, found himself at last face to face with his future opponent.
+
+Mehemet Ali, by dint of hard work and the many important services
+rendered to his country, had passed through successive stages of
+promotion to the rank of serchime, which gave him the command of three
+or four thousand Albanians. Foreseeing his opportunity, he had employed
+himself in secretly strengthening his influence over his subordinates;
+he allied himself with the Mam-luks, opened the gates of Cairo to them,
+and, joining Osman-Bardisi, marched against Khusurf. He pursued the
+viceroy to Damietta, taking possession of the town, conducted his
+prisoner to Cairo, where he placed him in the custody of the aged
+Ibrahim Bey, the Nestor of the Mamluks (1803).
+
+At this moment, the second Mamluk bey, Muhammed el-Elfi, returned from
+England, whither he had accompanied the British to demand protection
+when they evacuated Alexandria in March of the same year, and landed
+at Abukir. This arrival filled Bardisi with the gravest anxiety, for
+Muhammed el-Elfi was his equal in station, and would share his power
+even if he did not deprive him of the position he had recently acquired
+through his own efforts. These fears were but too well founded. Whilst
+Bardisi was securing his position by warfare, el-Elfi had gained the
+protection of England, and, as its price, had pledged himself to much
+that would compromise the future of Egypt.
+
+Far from openly joining one or other of the rival parties, Mehemet Ali
+contented himself with fanning the flame of their rivalry. The rank
+of Albanian captain, which gave him the air of a subaltern, greatly
+facilitated the part he intended to play. He worked quietly and with
+unending perseverance. Flattering the ambitions of some, feeding
+the resentment of others, winning the weak-minded with soft words,
+overcoming the strong by his own strength; presiding over all the
+revolutions in Cairo, upholding the cause of the pashas when the Mamluks
+needed support, and, when the pasha had acquired a certain amount of
+power, uniting himself with the Mamluk against his allies of yesterday;
+above all, neglecting nothing which could secure him the support of the
+people, and making use for this end of the sheikhs and Oulemas, whom
+he conciliated, some by religious appearances, others by his apparent
+desire for the public good, he thus maintained his position during the
+numerous changes brought about by the respective parties.
+
+At length, in the beginning of March, 1805, as the people were beginning
+to weary of disturbances as violent as they were frequent, Mehemet Ali
+promised the sheikhs to restore peace and order if they would assure him
+their co-operation and influence. He then incited a revolt against the
+Oulemas, besieged Kourshyd Pasha in the citadel, made himself master of
+Cairo in the space of a few days, and finished his work by expelling
+the Mamluks. The Albanians and Oulemas, completely carried away by his
+valour and manouvres, proclaimed him pasha immediately. Always prudent,
+and anxious to establish his claims upon the favour of the Porte,
+Mehemet Ali feigned to refuse. After considerable hesitation, which
+gave way before some costly gifts, or possibly on consideration of the
+difficulties hitherto experienced in establishing the authority of the
+pashas, the Turkish government determined to confirm the choice of
+the Egyptian people. Mehemet Ali received, therefore, the firman of
+investiture on July 9,1805; but during the ensuing seven months he
+governed in Lower Egypt only, Alexandria still being under the authority
+of an officer delegated by the sultan. As for Upper Egypt, it had
+remained the appanage of the Mamluk beys, who had contrived to retain
+possession of the Saïd.
+
+Mehemet Ali had no sooner been proclaimed than Elfi, who had reorganised
+his party in Upper Egypt, did all in his power to overthrow the
+new pasha. He first offered to assist Kourshyd to regain his former
+position; he promised his allegiance to the Porte on condition of the
+dismissal of Mehemet Ali, and then turned his attention to England. He
+found difficulty in obtaining her concurrence by promising to give up
+the chief ports of Egypt. These negotiations, suspended the first time
+by M. Dro-vetti, the French consul at Alexandria, co-operating with the
+pasha, were again renewed some time after through the influence of
+the English ambassador, who, in the name of his country, demanded the
+re-establishment of the Mamluks, guaranteeing the fidelity of Elfi. The
+Porte at once sent a fleet to Egypt bearing a firman, appointing Mehemet
+Ali to the pashalic of Salonica. At this juncture, the viceroy, feeling
+sure of the support of the sheikhs, who had assisted him to his present
+position, only sought to temporise. He soon received the further
+support of the Mamluk beys of Bardisi’s party, who forgot their personal
+grievances in the desire to be revenged upon the common foe; at the same
+time, twenty-five French Mamluks, urged thereto by M. Drovetti, deserted
+the ranks of Elfi’s adherents and joined Mehemet Ali.
+
+The Pasha of Egypt possessed a zealous partisan in the French ambassador
+at Constantinople. The latter, perceiving that the secession of
+the Mamluks made the regaining of their former power an absolute
+impossibility, pleaded the cause of Mehemet Ali with the Porte, and
+obtained a firman re-establishing his viceroyalty, on condition of his
+payment of an annual tribute of about $1,000,000.
+
+The power of Mehemet Ali was beginning to be more firmly established,
+and the almost simultaneous deaths of Osman-Bardisi and Muhammed el-Elfi
+(November, 1806, and January, 1807) seemed to promise a peaceful future,
+when, on March 17th, the English, displeased at his reconciliation with
+the Porte, arrived in Egypt. Their forces numbered some seven or eight
+thousand men, and it was the intention to stir up the Mamluks and
+render them every assistance. A detachment of the English forces, led
+by General Fraser, took possession of Alexandria, which the English
+occupied for six months without being able to attempt any other
+enterprise. The remainder of the troops were cut to pieces at Rosetta by
+a small contingent of Albanians: thus ended the expedition. The viceroy,
+who at the beginning of the campaign had displayed really Oriental
+cruelty, and sent more than a thousand heads of English soldiers to
+Cairo to decorate Rumlieh, finished his operations by an act of European
+generosity, and delivered up his prisoners without demanding ransom. The
+plan of defence adopted by the pasha was the work of Drovetti, to whom,
+consequently, is due some of the glory of this rapid triumph.
+
+Mehemet Ali, having nothing further to fear from the English, who
+evacuated Egypt in September, 1807, began to give scope to his ambitious
+schemes, when the easily disturbed policy of the Porte saw fit to send
+the wily pasha against the Wahabis, who threatened to invade the Holy
+Places. Before obeying these injunctions, the viceroy deemed it wise,
+previous to engaging in a campaign so perilous, to ensure Egypt against
+the dangers with which, in the absence of the forces, she would be
+menaced.
+
+[Illustration: 151.jpg MOSQUE OF MEHEMIT ALI]
+
+But Egypt had no more powerful enemies than the Mamluks, who, since
+1808, had kept the country in a constant state of agitation. Mehemet Ali
+therefore determined to put an end to this civil war, root and branch,
+and to exterminate completely this formidable adversary. He did not
+hesitate in the choice of means. War would not have succeeded; murder,
+therefore, was the only alternative, and the viceroy adopted this
+horrible means of accomplishing his designs. He invited the entire
+Mam-luk corps to a banquet, which he proposed to give in the Citadel
+Palace in honour of the departure of Tussun Pasha for Mecca. This palace
+is built upon a rock, and is reached by perpendicular paths. On May 1st,
+the day fixed upon for the festivity, Mehemet Ali received his guests
+in great splendour and with a cordiality calculated to dispel any
+suspicions the Mamluks might have entertained. At the conclusion of
+the banquet, as they were returning home, they were fired upon in the
+narrow pass, where retreat and resistance were perfectly impossible.
+Thus, after having defeated the bravest troops in the world, they died
+obscurely, ingloriously, and unable to defend themselves. Hassan Bey,
+brother of the celebrated Elfi, spurred his horse to a gallop, rode over
+the parapets, and fell, bruised and bleeding, at the foot of the walls,
+where some Arabs saved him from certain death by aiding his flight. The
+few who escaped massacre took refuge in Syria or Dongola.
+
+Whilst this horrible drama was being enacted in Cairo, similar scenes
+were taking place in those provinces whose governors had received
+stringent commands to butcher every remaining Mamluk in Egypt. THUs
+nearly all perished, and that famous corps was destroyed for ever.
+
+Although Mehemet Ali had no doubt whatever as to the intentions which
+had prompted the Porte to organise the expedition against the Wahabis,
+he hastened to prepare for this lengthy war. Mehemet himself was in
+command of an army in the Hedjaz when Latif Pasha arrived, bearing a
+firman of investiture to the pashalic of Egypt. Luckily, Mehemet Ali on
+his departure had left behind him, as vekyl, a trustworthy man devoted
+to his interests, namely, Mehemet Bey. This faithful minister pretended
+to favour the claims of Latif Pasha, and then arrested him, and had him
+publicly executed.
+
+From this moment the real reign of Mehemet Ali begins. Possessed of a
+fertile country, he promptly began to consider the ways and means of
+improving the deplorable state of its finances, and to grasp all the
+resources which agriculture and commerce could yield for the realisation
+of his ambitious schemes. Nothing must be neglected in the government of
+a country for so many years the scene of incessant warfare; the labourer
+must be made to return to the field he had deserted during the time
+of trouble; political and civil order must be reestablished so as to
+reassure the inhabitants, and secure the resumption of long abandoned
+industries.
+
+The most important matter was to restrain the depredations of the
+Bedouins, and, to assure the obedience of these hitherto unsubdued
+tribes, he kept their sheikhs as hostages: at the same time he checked
+the delinquencies of the Kopts, in whose hands the government of the
+territories had been from time immemorial. A sure and certain peace thus
+having been ensured to the interior of the country, the pasha turned his
+attention to another enterprise, the accomplishment of which is always
+somewhat difficult after a lengthy crisis. He wished to encourage and
+regulate the payment of taxes without hindering the financial operations
+of private individuals. To this end, he re-established the custom of
+receiving tribute in kind, and to support the payment of this tribute he
+organised the export trade. A thousand vessels built at his own expense
+ploughed the waters of the Nile in all directions, and conveyed Egyptian
+produce to the shores of the Mediterranean, where huge warehouses stored
+the goods destined for foreign countries.
+
+Mehemet Ali preserved a continual intercourse with foreign merchants,
+and the country owed many fortunate innovations to these relations:
+agriculture was enriched by several productions hitherto unknown.
+A Frenchman, M. Jumel, introduced improvements in the production of
+cotton, whilst M. Drovetti, the pasha’s tried friend, helped to further
+the establishment of manufactories by his advice and great experience of
+men and things. Before long, cotton mills were built, cloth factories, a
+sugar refinery, rum distillery, and saltpetre works erected. The foreign
+trade despatched as much as seven million _ardebs_ of cereals every
+year, and more than six hundred thousand bales of cotton. In return,
+European gold flowed into the treasury of this industrious pasha, and
+the revenues of Egypt, which hitherto had never exceeded $150,000,000,
+were more than doubled in 1816.
+
+The very slight success which Mehemet Ali had obtained when commanding
+the irregular forces during the expedition against the Wahabis decided
+him to put a long-cherished idea into execution, namely, to organise an
+army on European lines. Henceforth this became the sole occupation of
+the enterprising pasha and the exclusive goal of his perseverance.
+The Nizam-Jedyd was proclaimed in the month of July, 1815, and all the
+troops were ordered to model themselves after the pattern of the French
+army.
+
+This large undertaking, which in 1807 had cost Selim III. his life,
+proved almost as fatal to Mehemet Ali. A terrible insurrection broke
+out amongst the alien soldiers, who principally composed the army; the
+infuriated troops rose against the tyrant and the unbeliever, the palace
+was pillaged, and the pasha had scarcely time to seek the shelter of his
+citadel. His only means of saving his life and recovering his authority
+was solemnly to promise to abandon his plan. Mehemet Ali therefore
+deferred his military schemes and awaited the opportunity to test its
+success upon the natives, who would be far more easily managed than the
+excitable strangers, brought up as they were on the old traditions of
+the Okaz and the Mamluks. The war which still raged in Arabia gave
+him the means of ridding himself of the most indomitable men, whom he
+despatched to Hedjaz under the command of Ibrahim Pasha, his eldest son.
+
+Now came success to console Mehemet Ali for the failure of his
+reformatory plans. After a long series of disasters, Ibrahim succeeded,
+in the year 1818, in taking Abd Allah Ibn-Sonud, the chief of the
+Wahabis, prisoner. He sent him to the Great Pasha, a name often applied
+to Mehemet Ali in Egypt, at Cairo, bearing a portion of the jewels
+taken from the temple at Mecca. The unfortunate man was then taken
+to Constantinople, where his punishment bore testimony to the victory
+rather than the clemency of his conquerors.
+
+In reward for his services, the sultan sent Ibrahim a mantle of honour
+and named him Pasha of Egypt, which title conferred on him the highest
+rank among the viziers and pashas, and even placed him above his own
+father in the hierarchy of the dignitaries of the Turkish Empire. At the
+same time Mehemet Ali was raised to the dignity of khan, an attribute
+of the Ottomans, and the greatest distinction obtainable for a pasha,
+inasmuch as it was formerly exclusively reserved for the sovereigns of
+the Crimea.
+
+[Illustration: 157.jpg THE COTTON PLANT]
+
+After destroying Daryeh, the capital of Nedj, Mehemet Ali conceived
+the idea of extending his possessions in the interior of Africa, and
+of subduing the country of the negroes, where he hoped to find much
+treasure. He accordingly sent his son, Ishmail Pasha, with five thousand
+men, upon this expedition, which ended most disastrously with the murder
+of Ishmail and his guard by Melek Nemr, and the destruction of the
+remainder of his forces.
+
+In the year 1824, Sultan Mahmud, realising the impossibility of putting
+down the Greek insurrection by his own unaided forces, bent his pride
+sufficiently to ask help of his vassal Mehemet Ali. Mehemet was now in
+possession of a well-drilled army and a well-equipped fleet, which were
+placed at the service of the sultan, who promised him in return the
+sovereignty of Crete, the pashalic of Syria, and possibly the reversion
+of Morea for his son Ibrahim. The Greeks, deceived by their easy
+successes over the undisciplined Turkish hosts, failed to realise
+the greatness of the danger which threatened them. The Egyptian fleet
+managed, without serious opposition, to enter the Archipelago, and, in
+December, 1824, Ibrahim, to whom Mehemet Ali had entrusted the supreme
+command of the expedition, established his base in Crete, within
+striking distance of the Greek mainland. The following February he
+landed with four thousand regular infantry and five hundred cavalry at
+Modon, in the south of Morea.
+
+The Greeks were utterly unable to hold their own against the
+well-disciplined fellaheen of Ibrahim Bey, and, before the end of
+the year, the whole of the Peloponnesus, with the exception of a few
+strongholds, was at the mercy of the invader, and the report was spread
+that Ibrahim intended to deport the Greek population and re-people the
+country with Moslem negroes and Arabs.
+
+The only barrier opposed to the entire extinction of the Greek
+population was their single stronghold of Missolonghi, which was now
+besieged by Rashid Pasha and the Turks. If Ibrahim had joined his forces
+with the besieging army of the Turks, Missolonghi could hardly have
+resisted their combined attack, and the Greek race would have been in
+danger of suffering annihilation.
+
+Meanwhile the Great Powers of Europe were seriously concerned with
+this threatened destruction of the Greeks. England proposed a joint
+intervention in defence of Greece on the part of the Powers, but Russia
+desired to act alone. A huge army was gradually concentrated upon the
+Turkish frontier. The Greek leaders now offered to place Greece
+under British protection, and the Duke of Wellington was sent to St.
+Petersburg to arrange the terms of the proposed joint intervention. A
+protocol was signed at St. Petersburg April 4, 1826, whereby England
+and Russia pledged themselves to cooperate in preventing any further
+Turco-Egyptian agression. A more definite agreement was reached in
+September, aiming at the cutting off of Ibrahim in Morea by a united
+European fleet, thus forcing the Turks and Egyptians to terms. On July
+6,1827, a treaty was signed at London, between England, France, and
+Russia, which empowered the French and English admirals at Smyrna to
+part the combatants--by peaceful means if possible, and if not, by
+force.
+
+Admiral Codrington at once sailed to Nauplia. The Greeks were willing to
+accept an armistice, but the Turks scorned the offer. At about this
+time an Egyptian fleet of ninety-two vessels sailed from Alexandria and
+joined the Ottoman fleet in the bay of Navarino (September 7th). Five
+days later Admiral Codrington arrived and informed the Turkish admiral
+that any attempt to leave the bay would be resisted by force. French
+vessels had also arrived, and Ibrahim agreed not to leave the bay
+without consulting the sultan. A Greek flotilla having destroyed a
+Turkish flotilla, Ibrahim took this as a breach of the convention and
+sailed out to sea, but Codrington succeeded in turning him back. Ibrahim
+now received instructions from the Porte to the effect that he should
+defy the Powers. A new ultimatum was at once presented and the
+allied fleet of the European Powers entered the bay of Navarino. The
+Turco-Egyptian fleet was disposed at the bottom of the bay in the form
+of a crescent. Without further parleying, as the fleet of the English
+and their allies approached, the Turks and Egyptians began to fire, and
+a battle ensued, apparently without plan on either side: the conflict
+soon became general, and Admiral Codrington in the _Asia_ opened a
+broadside upon the Egyptian admiral, and quickly reduced his vessel to
+a wreck. Other vessels in rapid succession shared the same fate, and the
+conflict raged with great fury for four hours. When the smoke cleared
+off, the Turks and Egyptians had disappeared, and the bay was strewn
+with fragments of their ships.
+
+[Illustration: 161.jpg A DISTINGUISHED EGYPTIAN JEW]
+
+Admiral Codrington now made a demonstration before Alexandria, and
+Mehemet Ali gladly withdrew his forces from co-operating with such a
+dangerous ally as the sultan had proved himself to be. Before the French
+expedition, bound for the Morea, had arrived, all the Egyptian forces
+had been withdrawn from the Peloponnesus, and the French only arrived
+after the Anglo-Egyptian treaty had been signed August 9, 1828.
+
+Mehemet Ali’s chief ambition had always been to enlarge the circle
+of regeneration in the East. In Morea he had failed through European
+intervention. He felt that his nearer neighbour, Syria, which he had
+long coveted, would be an easier conquest, and he made the punishment of
+Abdullah Pasha of Acre, against whom he had many grievances, his excuse
+to the Porte. In reality it was a case of attacking or being attacked.
+Through a firman of the Divan of Constantinople, which had been
+published officially to the European Powers, he knew that his secret
+relations with Mustapha Pasha of Scodra had become known. He knew also
+that letters had been intercepted in which he offered this pasha money,
+troops, and ammunition, while engaging himself to march on the capital
+of the empire, and that these letters were now in the hand of the Sultan
+Mahmud. He wras also informed that the Porte was preparing to send a
+formidable army to Egypt; and his sound instinct taught him what to do
+in this position.
+
+Ibrahim Pasha was appointed commander-in-chief of the invading army,
+which was composed of six regiments of infantry, four of cavalry,
+forty field-pieces, and many siege-pieces. Provisions, artillery, and
+ammunition were on board the men-of-war. Thousands of baggage camels and
+ambulances were being collected ready for departure when cholera broke
+out. Coming from India, after having touched along the coasts of the
+Persian Gulf, it had penetrated into the caravan to Mecca, where the
+heat and dearth of water had given it fresh intensity. It raged in the
+Holy Town, striking down twenty thousand victims, and touched at Jeddah
+and Zambo, where its effects were very dire. Passing through Suez, it
+decimated the population, and in August it reached Cairo and spread to
+Upper and Lower Egypt. The army did not escape the common scourge, and
+when about to invade Syria was overtaken by the epidemic. Five thousand
+out of ninety thousand perished. All preparations for the expedition
+were abandoned until a more temperate season improved the sanitary
+conditions.
+
+About the beginning of October, 1831, the viceroy gave orders to his son
+to prepare for departure, and on November 2d the troops started for
+El Arish, the general meeting-place of the army. Ibrahim Pasha went
+to Alexandria, whence he embarked with his staff and some troops
+for landing. Uniting at El Arish, the army marched on Gaza and took
+possession of that town, dispersing some soldiers of the Pasha of Acre.
+Thence it turned to Jaffa, where it met with no resistance, the Turkish
+garrison having already evacuated the town.
+
+At this time the army which had sailed from Alexandria was cruising
+about the port of Jaffa, and Ibrahim Pasha landed there and took over
+the command of the army, which advanced slowly on St. Jean d’Acre,
+seizing Caiffa to facilitate the anchoring of the fleet, which had
+landed provisions, artillery, and all kinds of ammunition. After six
+months’ siege and ten hours’ fighting, Ibrahim Pasha obtained possession
+of St. Jean d’Acre, under whose walls fell so many valiant crusaders,
+and which, since the repulse of Napoleon, had passed for all but
+impregnable. Abdullah Pasha evinced a desire to be taken to Egypt, and
+he landed at Alexandria, where he was warmly welcomed by the viceroy,
+who complimented him on his defence.
+
+Hostile in everything to Mehemet Ali, the Porte seized every opportunity
+of injuring him. When Sultan Mahmud learned of the victory of the
+viceroy’s troops in Syria, he sent one of his first officers to enquire
+the reason of this invasion. The viceroy alleged grievances against the
+Pasha of Acre, to which his Highness replied that he alone had the right
+to punish his subjects.
+
+The eyes of Europe were now fixed upon the Levant, where a novel
+struggle was going on between vassal and suzerain. Authority and liberty
+were again opposing each other. The Powers watched the struggle with
+intense interest. The viceroy protested against bearing the cost of
+the war, and demanded the investiture of Syria. Mehemet Ali was then
+declared a rebel, and a firman was issued against him, in support of
+which excommunication an army of sixty thousand men advanced across Asia
+Minor to the Syrian boundaries, while a squadron of twenty-five sail
+stood in the Dardanelles ready to weigh anchor.
+
+[Illustration: 165.jpg MOSQUE OF MUAD AT CAIRO]
+
+The Porte forbade the ambassadors of the Powers to import ammunition
+into Egypt, for it feared that the viceroy might find a support whose
+strength it knew only too well. But the viceroy had no need of this,
+for his former connections with Europe had put him in a position of
+independence, whereas the Porte itself was obliged to fall back on this
+support. Russia, the one of the three Great Powers whose disposition
+it was to support the authority of the sultan, lent him twenty thousand
+bayonets, whilst Ibrahim Pasha made his advance to the gates of
+Constantinople.
+
+Immediately after the taking of St. Jean d’Acre Ibrahim Pasha, following
+up his successes, had turned towards Damascus, which town he entered
+without a blow being struck, the governor and the leading inhabitants
+having taken flight. The commander-in-chief established his headquarters
+under the walls of the conquered country, and then marched in three
+columns on Horns. The battle of Horns (July 8, 1832) demonstrated the
+vast superiority of the Egyptian troops. On both sides there were about
+thirty thousand regular soldiers, but the Egyptians were the better
+organised, the better disciplined, and the more practised in the arts of
+war. When it is remembered that at Horns the Turks lost two thousand men
+killed, and 2,500 taken prisoners, while the Egyptian casualties were
+only 102 killed and 162 wounded, one is not astonished at the enthusiasm
+with which Ibrahim Pasha wrote after the battle: “I do not hesitate to
+say that two or three hundred thousand of such troops would cause me no
+anxiety.”
+
+It is not surprising that the beaten pashas were so struck with terror
+that in their flight they abandoned sixteen more pieces of artillery and
+all the ammunition they had managed to save from their defeat. They
+fled as if they could not put sufficient distance between themselves and
+their redoubtable enemy.
+
+This battle foretold the result of the Syrian campaign. The population
+of Syria seemed to call for the domination of the conqueror; the viceroy
+protested his submission to the Porte and his desire for peace, and
+meanwhile Ibrahim Pasha marched forward.
+
+The Porte counted on its fleet to guard the Dardanelles, but it needed
+an army and a commander to oppose Ibrahim Pasha, who again defeated the
+Turks at Oulon-Kislak. He then advanced towards the plains of Anatolia,
+where he met Rashid Pasha.
+
+It was now December, 1830, and the atmosphere was heavy with a thick
+fog. The armies opened fire on each other on December 21st, with the
+town of Koniah in the background. The grand vizier was at the head of
+close on sixty thousand men, while the Egyptian army only comprised
+thirty thousand, including the Bedouins. The fighting had continued for
+about six hours when Rashid Pasha was taken prisoner; the news of his
+capture spread along the Turkish lines and threw them into disorder,
+and the Egyptians remained masters of the field, with twenty pieces of
+mounted cannon and some baggage: the Turks had lost only five hundred
+men, while the Egyptian losses were but two hundred.
+
+The battle of Koniah was the last act in the Syrian drama. The sultan’s
+throne was shaken, and its fall might involve great changes in the
+politics of the world. Ibrahim Pasha was only three days’ journey from
+the Bosphorus, and the way was open to him, with no Turkish army to
+fight and the whole population in his favour. In Constantinople itself
+Mehemet Ali had a powerful party, and, if the West did not interfere,
+the Ottoman Empire was at an end. However, European diplomacy considered
+that, in spite of its weakness, it should still weigh in the balance of
+the nations.
+
+Trembling in the midst of his harem, Sultan Mahmud cried for help, and
+Russia, his nearest neighbour, heard the call. This was the Power that,
+either from sympathy or ambition, was the most inclined to come to his
+aid. The Emperor Nicholas had offered assistance in a letter brought
+to the sultan by the Russian General Mouravieff, and a Russian squadron
+appeared in the Bosphorus with eight thousand men for disembarkment. The
+Russians, however, agreed not to set foot on shore unless Mehemet
+Ali should refuse the conditions that were being proposed to him. The
+viceroy refused the conditions, which limited his possessions to
+the pashalics of Acre, Tripoli, and Seyd, and which seemed to him
+incompatible with the glory won by his arms.
+
+The sultan did not wish to give up Syria, but that province was no
+longer his. The sword of Ibrahim had severed the last bonds that
+fastened it to him, and he was obliged to yield it, as well as the
+district of Andama. On his side, the viceroy acknowledged himself a
+vassal of the Porte, and agreed to make an annual payment of the monies
+he received from the pashas of Syria. This peace was concluded on May
+14, 1833, and was called the peace of Kutayeh, after the place where
+Ibrahim signed it.
+
+It was impossible that the convention of Kutayeh should be more than an
+armistice. The pasha benefited by it too greatly not to desire further
+advantages, and the sultan had lost so much that he must needs make
+some attempt at recovery. Mahmud’s annoyance was caused by the fact
+and nature of the dispossession rather than by its material extent. The
+descendant of the Os-manlis, ever implacable in his hatreds, who had
+allowed Syria, the cradle of his race, to be wrested from him, now
+awaited the hour of vengeance. Mehemet Ali knew himself to be strong
+enough to carry a sceptre ably, and he realised that there would be no
+need for his numerous pashalics to pass out of his family. Henceforth
+his mind was filled with thoughts of independence and the rights of
+succession.
+
+[Illustration: 169.jpg A MUHAMMEDAN PRAYING PRIEST]
+
+The viceroy and the sultan continued to strengthen their forces, and a
+conflict occurred near Nezib on June 24, 1839. The Egyptians completely
+routed their adversaries, despite the strenuous resistance of the
+Imperial Guard, who, when called upon to surrender, cried in the same
+words used at Waterloo, “Khasse sultanem mamatenda darrhi tuffenguini
+iere Koimas.” (“The guards of the sultan surrender arms only to death”).
+
+Greatly elated, Ibrahim flung himself into the arms of his companion in
+glory, Suleiman Pasha. His prediction was verified: “This time we will
+go to Constantinople, or they shall come to Cairo.” They set out
+for Constantinople; but the viceroy was again generous. Through the
+mediation of Captain Caillé, aide-de-camp to Marshal Soult, who, in the
+name of France, demanded a cessation of hostilities, Mehemet Ali desired
+his son not to proceed into Asia Minor; so the general halted before
+Aintab, the scene of his victories, as he had done on a former occasion
+before Kutayeh.
+
+Consumptive and exhausted with his excesses, Mahmud, whose virtue lay
+in his ardent love of reforms, died before his time, but this untimely
+demise at least spared him the knowledge of the Nezib disaster and the
+treason of his fleet, which passed into the hands of the viceroy. Hafiz
+Pasha, routed by Ibrahim, was arraigned on his return to Constantinople
+for leading the attack before receiving the official mandate; but the
+Turkish general produced an autograph of his defunct master. The sultan
+had been false to the last, and deceived both European ambassadors and
+the ministers of the empire, by means of mysterious correspondence,
+combined with his protestations for the maintenance of peace.
+
+It was while Mehemet Ali was organising the national guard of Egypt,
+and arranging the military training of the workmen employed in his many
+factories, that the unlucky treaty of July 15, 1840, which gave the
+whole of Syria to the Sublime Porte, was concluded. Four Western Powers
+had secretly met in London and agreed to deprive the sovereign of the
+Nile of his conquests, and fling him again at the foot of the throne,
+which he had treated as a plaything. Mehemet Ali haughtily protested
+against the desecration of his rights, and France, his faithful ally,
+with hand on sword-hilt, threatened to draw it against whosoever should
+touch Egypt. England and Austria covered the Syrian sea-coast with their
+sails and guns. Beyrut, Latakia, Tortosa, Tripoli, Saida, Tyre, St. Jean
+d’Acre were bombarded and fell. This formidable coalition despatched
+Lord Napier to Alexandria as negotiator. Mehemet Ali accepted the
+overtures, and a convention guaranteed to him, as Pasha of Egypt,
+rights of succession unknown to all other pashalics of the empire. The
+hatti-sherif of January 12, 1841, consolidated this privilege, with,
+however, certain restrictions which were regarded as inadmissible by
+France, the viceroy, and the cabinets. A new act of investiture, passed
+on June 1, 1841, confirmed the viceroy in the possession of Egypt,
+transmissible to his male heirs, and also in the government of Nubia.
+Mehemet Ali asked no more, France declared herself satisfied, and, to
+prove it, became once more a member of the European league by the treaty
+of July 15, 1841, which, without being directly connected with the
+European question, dealing as it did with the claims of Turkey upon
+the Dardanelles, implied, none the less, accordance upon the Eastern
+situation. As a token of reconciliation, the Ottoman Porte soon raised
+its former rival, Mehemet Ali, to the rank of sadrazam.
+
+The political history of Mehemet Ali was now at an end. All the results,
+good or bad, of his career, had reached fulfilment. As a vanquished
+conqueror he had been able to remain firm in the midst of catastrophe;
+his fatherly ideas and feelings had been his salvation. Had he been
+absolutely heroic, he would have considered it a duty, for his courage
+and his name’s sake, to carry the struggle on to the bitter end, and to
+perish in the whirlpool he had raised. He showed that he desired to act
+thus, but in his children’s interests he refrained, and this was, we
+believe, the only influence of importance which made him give way. It
+is true that there was not much difference between a throne crumbling to
+ruins, or one built thereon; such as it was, however, it seemed
+firmly secured to his children, and it was for them to strengthen the
+foundations. The pasha considered this a fitting reward for his labours;
+as for himself, he was over seventy years of age, and ready to lay down
+his burdens.
+
+[Illustration: 153.jpg EGYPTIAN HARMEM]
+
+A man without learning and surrounded by barbarian soldiers, Mehemet Ali
+appears before the world as nature made him. Dissimulation, diplomacy,
+and deceit, coupled with capability, great courage, genius, and much
+perseverance, brought him to the head of the government of Egypt. To
+gain his ends he flattered the powerful Ulemas who were the nation’s
+representatives to the sultan, but, once having obtained his object, he
+dismissed them.
+
+Though a clever politician, he was a bad administrator. Being
+alternately blindly confident and extremely suspicious, he did not
+choose well the men he employed as his auxiliaries, and, being a Turk
+and a devout Mussulman, Mehemet Ali wished to give back to the Turks
+the power they had lost. He only took account of the results of any
+undertaking, without paying any attention to the difficulties surmounted
+in its execution, and this characteristic made him commit many
+injustices. It was his habit to treat men as levers, which he put aside
+when he had no further use for them. He was quick of apprehension, and
+of very superior intelligence, and his whole character was a mixture of
+generosity and meanness, of greatness and littleness.
+
+Mehemet Ali was an affable, an easy business man, and dominated by a
+desire to talk. He enjoyed relating the incidents of his past life, and,
+when not preoccupied by affairs of importance, his conversation was full
+of charm. The foreigners who visited him were always much impressed with
+his superiority, while his lively humour, his freedom, and that air of
+good nature he knew so well how to adopt, all captivated his visitors.
+The expression of his face was exceedingly mobile, and quickly
+communicated itself to the men who surrounded him, who were in constant
+observation of his moods, so that one could judge of the state of mind
+of the viceroy by the calm or disturbed appearance of his servants.
+
+When Mehemet Ali was anxious, his look became fierce, his forehead
+wrinkled, and his eyes shone with anger, while his speech was broken
+and his manner brusque and imperious. As regards those in his service,
+Mehemet Ali was by turns severe or gentle, tolerant or impatient,
+irascible, and surprisingly forbearing. He was jealous of the glory of
+others, and desired all honours for himself. He was an enemy of all that
+was slow. He liked to do everything, to decide everything, and worked
+night and day. All letters, notices, and memoranda that referred to
+his government, he read himself or had them read to him. Picked men
+translated French and English political newspapers into Turkish, and
+he encouraged discussion on all subjects of high interest, although
+generally imposing his own opinion. He did not always keep strictly to
+his word. He was a stoic, and great pain could not destroy his habitual
+gaiety, and when very ill he would still speak affably to those around
+him; but illnesses with him were rare, for his health was, as a rule,
+excellent. He was very careful about his appearance, and was fond
+of women without being their slave; in his youth his life had been
+dissolute. He was above the prejudices of his nation, and prayed very
+often, although a fatalist.
+
+At the age of forty-five he learned to read, and he held European
+learning in great esteem, confessing it superior to that of Turkey; but
+he continued to regard European scientists and artists only as salaried
+foreigners, whom he hastened to replace by natives as soon as he
+considered the latter sufficiently enlightened. Mehemet Ali made one
+great mistake, with which his nearest servants reproach him, and that
+is with not having introduced into his family learned men from Europe,
+picked men devoted to his cause, and well versed in the special things
+of which his country was in need.
+
+Had they been brought into a close contact with the viceroy, and
+admitted unreservedly to all the privileges the Turks enjoyed, these men
+would have adopted Egypt as their country. They would have spoken the
+language and have become the’ sentinels and safeguards necessary for the
+maintenance of useful institutions which the Turks either refused or did
+not understand.
+
+During the administration of Mehemet Ali, public hygiene was not
+neglected, and a sanitary council watched over the health of the
+country. Measures were taken to increase the cleanliness and sanitation
+of the towns; military hospitals were built, and a lazarette was
+established at Alexandria, whilst vaccine was widely used. In the
+country the planting of many trees helped the atmosphere, and Egypt,
+which Europeans had hitherto regarded as the seat of a permanent
+plague epidemic, became more and more a healthy and pleasurable
+resort. Mehemet, whose aims were always for the furthering of Egyptian
+prosperity, profited by the leisure of peace to look after the
+industrial works. Two great projects that occupied his attention were
+the Nile dams and the construction of a railway from Suez to Cairo.
+
+The actual condition of the canalisation of Egypt, while vastly improved
+by the viceroy, was still far from complete. Canals, partial dams, and
+embankments were attempted; fifty thousand draw-wells carried the
+water up to a considerable height, but the system of irrigation was
+insufficient.
+
+The railway from Cairo to Suez was an easier, though not less important,
+work. The road crossed neither mountain, river, nor forest, while a
+series of little plains afforded a firm foundation, requiring very
+few earthworks. Its two iron arms stretched out into the desert, and
+steam-engines could traverse the distance from the Nile to the Red Sea
+in three hours.
+
+Suez would thus become a suburb of Cairo, and thus, being brought closer
+to Egypt, would regain her trade. This enterprise, just as the former
+one, gave promise of bringing to Egypt the two sources of national
+wealth and prosperity: agriculture and trade.
+
+[Illustration: 179.jpg HARBOR OF THE BULAK]
+
+The agricultural unity which Mehemet Ali constituted enabled him to
+bring about improvements which with private proprietorship would have
+been impossible. The fellah, careless of to-morrow, did not sow for
+future reaping, and made no progress, but when Mehemet Ali undertook
+the control of agricultural labour in Egypt, the general aspect of
+the country changed, though, in truth, the individual condition of the
+fellah was not improved. Besides the work of irrigation by means of
+canals, dykes, and banks, and the introduction of the cultivation of
+indigo, cotton, opium, and silk, the viceroy had also planted thousands
+of trees of various kinds, including 100,000 walnut-trees; he ordered
+the maimours, or prefects, to open up the roads between the villages,
+and to plant trees. He wished the villages, towns, and hamlets to be
+ornamented, as in Europe, with large trees, under whose shelter the
+tired traveller could rest.
+
+In the various districts were vast tracts of land which for a long time
+the plough had not touched. Concessions of these lands were made to
+Franks, Turks, Greeks, and Armenians, which concessions were free, and
+for a term of seven or eight years, while the guarantees were exempt
+from taxes.
+
+During the closing years of his life, between 1841 and 1849, Mehemet
+occupied himself with improvements in Egypt. He continued to prosecute
+his commercial speculations, and manufacturing, educational, and other
+schemes. The barrage of the Nile, which has only been finished during
+the British occupation, was begun under his direction. In 1847 he
+visited Constantinople, and was received with the rank of a vizier. In
+the year 1848 symptoms of imbecility appeared, and his son Ibrahim
+was declared his successor. After a reign of only two months he died.
+Mehemet Ali’s death occurred on the 3rd of August, 1849. His direct
+successor was his grandson, Abbas Pasha, who held the sceptre of
+Egypt as the direct heir of Ibrahim Pasha. This prince took but little
+interest in the welfare of his country. He had in him no spark of the
+noble ambition of his predecessor, and no trace of his genius, and he
+showed no desire for progress or reforms. He was a real prince of the
+ancient East, suspicious, sombre, and careless of the destiny of the
+country entrusted to his care. He liked to withdraw to the privacy of
+his palace, and, isolated in the midst of his guards, to live that life
+of the distrustful and voluptuous despots of the East. The palace of
+Bar-el-Beda, which he had built on the road to Suez in the open desert,
+a palace without water, lifting its head in the solitude like a silent
+witness of a useless life and tragic death, impresses the traveller with
+astonishment and fear.
+
+Abbas Pasha was weak in his negotiations with the European Powers, and
+this was well for Egypt, as their representative was able to hold in
+check his silent hostility to Western civilisation. Such guardianship
+is useful when exercised over a prince like Abbas Pasha, but it tends
+to become troublesome and baneful when it attempts to interfere with the
+government of an active and enlightened sovereign animated by just and
+generous intentions.
+
+Muhammed Said, the successor of Abbas Pasha, was born in 1822, nine
+years later than his nephew Abbas. He was brought up in Europe by French
+professors, and M. Kornig, a distinguished Orientalist, remained with
+his pupil and became his secretary. He not only instructed him in all
+branches of knowledge becoming to his rank, but also developed in him
+a love of European civilisation and noble sentiments, of which he gave
+proof from the moment of his accession. He was imbued with liberal
+principles, which in an Eastern potentate give proof of great moral
+superiority, and in this respect Muhammed Said wras second to no prince
+in Europe. He worked for the emancipation of his subjects and the
+civilisation of Egypt, and was not content to produce that superficial
+civilisation which consists in transplanting institutions that the mass
+of the people could not understand. Said Pasha endeavoured to pursue his
+father’s policy and to carry out his high aims. He had not, however,
+the strength of character nor the health necessary to meet the serious
+difficulties involved in such a task, and he will be chiefly remembered
+by his abolition of the more grinding government monopolies, and for the
+concession of the Suez Canal.
+
+After his death Said Pasha was succeeded in the vice-royalty by his
+nephew, Ismail Pasha, who was proclaimed viceroy without opposition
+early in the year 1863. Ismail, the first who accepted the title of
+khédive from the sultan, was born on December 31, 1830, being the second
+of the three sons of Ibrahim, and grandson of Mehemet Ali. He had been
+educated at the Ecole d’Etat Major at Paris, and when Ahmed, the eldest
+son of Ibrahim, died in 1858, Ismail became the heir to his uncle Said.
+He had been employed, after his return to Egypt, on missions to the
+sovereign pontiff; the emperor, Napoleon III.; and the Sultan of Turkey.
+In the year 1861 he was despatched with an army of 18,000 men to
+quell an insurrection in the Sudan, which undertaking he brought to a
+successful conclusion. On ascending the throne he was much gratified
+to find that, on account of the scarcity of cotton, resulting from the
+Civil War in America, the revenues had very considerably increased from
+the export of the Egyptian cotton. At this date the cotton crop was
+worth $125,000,000, instead of $25,000,000, which was the normal value
+of the Egyptian output. It was a very serious misfortune to Egypt that
+during his sojourn abroad Ismail had learned many luxurious ways, and
+had also discovered that European nations were accustomed to make
+free use of their credit in raising sums of money for their immediate
+advantage. From this moment Ismail started upon a career which gave to
+Egypt, in the eyes of the world, a fictitious grandeur, and which made
+him one of the most talked-of rulers among the cabinets and peoples of
+the European countries. He began by transferring his own private debts
+to the state, and thereafter looked upon Egypt merely as his private
+estate, and himself as the sovereign landholder. Without any sense of
+his responsibility to the Egyptians themselves, he increased his
+own fame throughout Europe in the sumptuous fashion of a spendthrift
+millionaire. He deemed it necessary for his fame that Egypt should
+possess institutions modelled upon those of European countries, and he
+applied himself with energy to achieve this, and without any stint of
+expense. By burdening posterity for centuries to come, Ismail, during
+the two decades subsequent to his accession, always had a supply of
+ready money with which to dazzle European guests. During his entire
+reign Egypt swarmed with financiers and schemers of every description,
+to whom the complacent Ismail lent an only too willing ear.
+
+In the year 1866, in return for an increase of tribute, he obtained from
+the sultan a firman giving him the title of khédive (Turkish, _khidewi_,
+a king), and changing the law of succession to that of direct descent
+from father to-son; and in 1873 he obtained a new firman, purchased
+again at an immense cost to his subjects, which rendered him practically
+independent of the sultan. Ismail projected vast schemes of internal
+reform. He remodelled the system of customs and the post-office,
+stimulated commercial progress, and created the Egyptian sugar industry.
+He introduced European improvements into Cairo and Alexandria; he
+built vast palaces, entertained visitors with lavish generosity, and
+maintained an opera and a theatre. By his order the distinguished
+composer, Verdi, produced the famous opera “Aïda” for the entertainment
+of his illustrious guests on the occasion of their visit to Egypt during
+the festivities connected with the opening of the Suez Canal. On this
+occasion Mariette Bey ransacked the tombs of the ancient Egyptian kings
+in order to reproduce in a lifelike manner the costumes and scenery
+appropriate for the occasion.
+
+[Illustration: 185.jpg A FELLAH PLOWING]
+
+The opening of this canal gave Ismail much prominence in the courts of
+Europe. He was made a Grand Commander of the Bath, and the same year
+visited Paris and London, where he was received by Queen Victoria and
+welcomed by the lord mayor. In 1869 he again visited London. By his
+great power of fascination and lavish expenditure he was ever able to
+make a striking impression upon the foreign courts. During the opening
+of the canal, when Ismail gave and received royal honours, treating
+monarchs as equals, and being treated by them in like manner, the
+jealousy of the sultan was aroused. Ismail, however, contrived
+judiciously to appease the suspicions of his overlord, Abdul Aziz.
+
+In the year 1876 the old system of consular jurisdiction for foreigners
+was abolished, and the system of mixed courts was introduced, by which
+European and native judges sat together to try all civil cases, without
+respect to nationality.
+
+In the year 1874 Darfur, a province in the Sudan west of Kordofan,
+was annexed by Ismail. He also engaged in a disastrous war against the
+Abyssinians, who had ever shown themselves capable of resisting the
+inroads of Egyptians, Muhammedans, Arabs, and even of European invaders,
+as was proven by the annihilation of a large Italian army of invasion,
+and the abandonment of the campaign against Abyssinia by the Italians in
+the closing years of the nineteenth century.
+
+[Illustration: 187.jpg ARABS AT A DESERT SPRING]
+
+It was true that Ismail had attempted to carry out the great schemes of
+his grandfather for the regeneration of the Orient, and it is possible
+that, if the jealousy of European Powers had not prevented the army of
+Ibrahim Bej from controlling immense territories in Syria and Anatolia,
+which they had won by conquest, that the regeneration of the Orient
+might have been accomplished at least a century earlier. No people would
+have benefited more by the success of Mehemet Ali’s policy than the
+Christian people who to-day are under the rule of the barbarous Turks.
+With the regeneration of the Orient, the trade of European nations in
+the East would have been very largely increased.
+
+The policy of regeneration, wisely begun by Mehemet Ali, was resumed
+within Egypt itself in a spendthrift manner by his grandson Ismail.
+Every act of his reign, with its ephemeral and hollow magnificence,
+moved towards the one inevitable result of foreign intervention. The
+price of all the transient splendour was the surrender by slow degrees
+of the sovereignty and independence of Egypt itself. The European Powers
+of late have withdrawn their interest in the betterment of the native
+populations in the Asiatic dominions of the sultan, and have concerned
+themselves exclusively with the immediate interests of commerce and the
+enforcement of debts contracted to European bondholders. All progress in
+the later history of Egypt has originated in the desire of the European
+Powers to see Egypt in a position capable of meeting her indebtedness to
+foreign bondholders.
+
+In so far as the cry raised of “Egypt for the Egyptians” was a protest
+against forcing the Egyptians to pay for an assumed indebtedness
+which was at least four times greater than anything they had actually
+received, no movement was ever more just and righteous than the protest
+of the fellaheen against foreign control, a movement which has been
+chiefly associated with the name of Arabi Pasha. The issue of Ismail’s
+financial troubles was most ignominious and disastrous to Egypt,
+after nearly a hundred years of heroic struggles to keep pace with the
+progress of modern Europe. Had Ismail modelled his career upon that of
+his illustrious grandfather, rather than that of Napoleon III.,
+with which it shows many striking parallels, it is probable that the
+advantage secured to Egypt through the British occupation might have
+resulted in political and financial independence. When the crash came,
+and the order for his deposition was sent by the sultan, Ismail resigned
+the khedivate in complete submission; and, taking away with him a large
+private fortune and a portion of the royal harem, he spent the remainder
+of his life in retirement at Naples and Constantinople, and was buried
+with solemn pomp in the royal cemetery at Cairo.
+
+[Illustration: 190.jpg PART OF CAIRO, SHOWING THE MULQUFS ON THE HOUSES
+OF MODERN EGYPT]
+
+[Illustration: 191.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--THE BRITISH INFLUENCE IN EGYPT
+
+
+_Ismail deposed: Tewfik Pasha: Revolt of Arabi Pasha: Lord Wolseley and
+the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir: The Mahdist Rising: General Gordon in the
+Sudan: Death of Gordon: The Sudan abandoned and re-conquered: Battle of
+Onidurman: Khartum College: Financial Stability: Abbas II.: Education,
+Law, and the improved condition of the Fellaheen: The Caisse de la
+Dette_
+
+
+
+The official deposition of Ismail Pasha by the sultan of Turkey, Abdul
+Hamid, occurred on June 26, in the year 1879, and his son Tewfik assumed
+the khedivate, becoming practically the protégé of England and Egypt. To
+understand how this came to pass, it is necessary to review the account
+of the financial embarrassments of Ismail. In twelve years he had
+extracted more than $400,000,000 from the fellaheen in taxes. He had
+borrowed another $400,000,000 from Europe at the same time, of which
+nominal sum he probably received $250,000,000 in cash. The loans were
+ostensibly contracted for public works. Possibly ten per cent, of the
+borrowed money was profitably laid out. The railways were extended;
+Upper Egypt was studded with sugar factories,--most of them doomed to
+failure,--and certain roads and gardens were made about the city of
+Cairo.
+
+The remainder of this enormous sum of money was spent in purchasing
+a change in the law of succession, and the new title of khédive; in
+disastrous Abyssinian campaigns; in multiplying shoddy palaces, and in
+personal extravagance, which combined Oriental profusion with the
+worst taste of the Second Empire. Useless works engaged the corvee;
+the fellaheen were evicted from vast tracts, which became ill-managed
+estates; and their crops, cattle, and even seed were taken from them
+by the tax-gatherers, so that they died by hundreds when a low Nile
+afflicted the land. The only persons who flourished in Ismail’s time
+were foreign speculators and adventurers of the lowest type. As these
+conditions became more serious, the khédive attempted to find some means
+of protection against the concession-monger. He adopted a suggestion of
+the wise Nubar Pasha, and instituted the mixed tribunals for adjudging
+civil cases between natives and foreigners.
+
+The Powers agreed to the establishment of these tribunals, and intended
+to enforce the decisions of the courts, even in case that Ismail
+himself were the delinquent. When later the khédive repudiated the mixed
+tribunals, this action precipitated his fall. It became increasingly
+difficult for the khédive to meet his accumulated obligations. The price
+of cotton had fallen after the close of the American war, and there was
+less response from the impoverished people to the Cour-bash, which in
+1868 was still more strictly enforced; and soon this enforcement by the
+mixed tribunal of debts due to foreigners by an agricultural population,
+who lived by borrowing, and were accustomed to settle their debts
+by haggling, aggravated the misery of the fellaheen, and led to that
+universal despair which was to give strength and significance to
+the Arabist revolt. It was no uncommon procedure for the Levantine
+money-lender to accompany the tax-gatherer into the provinces with
+a chest of money. He paid the taxes of the assembled and destitute
+fellaheen, who in return were obliged to give mortgages on their crops
+or holdings.
+
+The desperate state of Egyptian finance, which led to the sale of the
+precious Suez Canal shares, at last opened the eyes of the bondholders.
+Mr. G. T. Goschen (Viscount Goschen) and M. Joubert were deputed to
+Egypt on behalf of the foreign creditors. The accounts were found to be
+in a state of wild confusion, with little or no chance of learning
+the actual facts controlling the financial situation. The minister of
+finance, or “Mufet-tish,” Ismail Pasha Sadeck, was now arrested and
+banished to Dongola.
+
+There was an immediate prospect of a dual control by England and France.
+Commissioners were appointed to constitute a caisse, or court, for
+receiving the interest due to the bondholders. The great mass of the
+debt was then unified, but the Goschen and Joubert arrangement was found
+to be too severe for the impoverished country. A low Nile and a famine
+resulted in a demand for an investigation into the administration,
+and the following year Ismail was obliged to authorise a commission
+of inquiry. The waste, extravagance, and wholesale extortion from the
+peasantry revealed by this report made a deep impression upon Europe,
+and Ismail was forced to disgorge the estates which he had received from
+the fellaheen.
+
+In the meantime, the khédive was not inactive in taking measures
+to prevent the advent of a confirmed foreign control. He created a
+constitutional ministry, upon whom the responsibility rested for the
+different branches of the administration. He likewise fomented an
+outburst of feeling among the Moslems against the foreign element in
+the constitutional ministry. This was intended to strengthen the
+pro-Egyptian element in the government, and Ismail thus hoped to
+demonstrate to the European Powers the uselessness of attempting to
+subordinate the Egyptians to foreign methods of finance and control.
+Ismail subsequently dismissed the ministry, and soon afterwards the
+controllers themselves. Knowing well the jealousy which existed between
+England and France, he believed that there was a chance that he might
+successfully play off one Power against the other. If the Moslems had
+not been so severely oppressed by taxation, and Ismail had acted with
+courage and firmness, it is probable that he might have held his own,
+and Egypt might have refused to again accept the dual control.
+
+Bismarck now intervened, and hinted to the sultan that he would receive
+the support of the Powers, and Abdul Hamid immediately sent a telegram
+to the Egyptian government that Ismail Pasha was deposed from the
+khedivate. At this moment his courage gave way, and Ismail surrendered
+his throne to his son Tewfik.
+
+[Illustration: 195.jpg THE KHEDIVE TEWFIK]
+
+Tewfik had the misfortune to enter upon a doleful heritage of an empty
+treasury, a starving people, and an army ready to mutiny. There were now
+two parties in Egypt. The military movement was of the least importance.
+The superior posts in the army had been occupied by Circassians since
+the days of Mehemet Ali.
+
+196 THE BRITISH INFLUENCE IN EGYPT
+
+Slave boys were bought and trained as officers. The number and quality
+of the Circassians had deteriorated, but they still held the most
+important posts. The fellaheen officers, under Arabi, who had been
+brought to protest against reductions in the military establishment, now
+claimed that the Circassians should make way for the Egyptians. Together
+with this military dissatisfaction was also a strong civil movement
+towards national reform, which included a number of serious and sensible
+administrative reforms, which have since been carried out. Arabi Pasha
+was the leader of the National Party, and had hopes of convincing
+fair-minded people of the justice of their cause; but many influences,
+some good and some bad, were at work simultaneously to divert him from
+constitutional methods towards making his appeal to the violent and
+fanatical element.
+
+Just at this time a divergence between English and French views in
+dealing with the situation had manifested itself, having its root in
+earlier history. France, now as in 1840, was aiming at the policy of
+detaching Egypt from the control of the unprogressive Turks; England
+aimed at the maintenance of the much talked of integrity of the Ottoman
+Empire. The French premier, Gambetta, was determined that there should
+be no intervention on the part of the Turks. He drafted the “Identic
+Note” in January, 1881, and induced Lord Granville, the English Foreign
+Secretary, to give his assent. This note contained the first distinct
+threat of foreign intervention. The result was a genuine and spontaneous
+outburst of Moslem feeling. All parties united to protest against
+foreign intervention, joined by the fellaheen, who now saw an
+opportunity of freeing themselves from foreign usurers, to whom they
+had become so unjustly indebted. Riots broke out in Alexandria in 1881.
+Gambetta was replaced by the hesitating Freycinet, who looked upon the
+intervention with alarm, and upon Germany with suspicion. England was
+thus at the last moment left to act alone. Past experience had taught
+her that the destiny of Egypt lay in the hands of the dominant sea-power
+of the Mediterranean, and that Egypt must not be neglected by the
+masters of India. After a vain attempt to bring about mediation through
+Dervish Pasha, the special commissioner of the Porte, it was discovered
+that the Nationalist Party was too little under control to be utilised
+in any further negotiations. Ahmed Arabi Pasha had greatly increased his
+influence, and had finally been appointed Minister of War. On the 11th
+of June there was serious rioting, in which many Greeks and Maltese,
+four Englishmen, and six Frenchmen were slain. Arabi now stepped forward
+to preserve order, being at this moment practically the dictator of
+Egypt. While endeavouring to maintain order, he also threw up earthworks
+to protect the harbour of Alexandria, and trained the guns upon the
+British fleet. The admiral in charge, Sir Beauchamp Seymour, who was
+waiting for the arrival of the Channel Squadron, sent word to the
+Egyptians to cease the construction of fortifications. The request was
+not fully assented to, although it was reinforced by an order from
+the Porte. An ultimatum was presented on July 10, commanding Arabia to
+surrender the forts. The terms were refused, and eight ships and five
+gunboats prepared for action on the following day. At the same time the
+French fleet retired upon Port Said.
+
+The first shot was fired on July 11th, at seven o’clock in the morning,
+by the Alexandrians, and in reply an iron hail rained upon the forts of
+the Egyptians from the guns of the British fleet. Arabi’s troops
+fought well and aimed correctly, but their missiles were incapable of
+penetrating the armour of the ironclads. One fort after another was
+silenced. Lord Charles Beresford, in command of the gunboat _Condor_,
+led a brilliant attack upon Fort Marabout. The firing re-opened on
+the next day, and a flag of truce was soon displayed. After some
+unsatisfactory parleying the bombardment was resumed, and when a second
+flag of truce was unfurled it was discovered that Arabi Pasha had
+retreated to Kefr-el-Dowar, fourteen miles away from Alexandria. On
+his departure the city was given over to plunder and destruction. The
+convicts escaped from the prison, and, joining forces with the Arabs,
+looted and burned the European quarters. Two thousand persons, mostly
+Greeks and Levantines, were slain, and an enormous quantity of property
+destroyed. Admiral Seymour then sent a body of sailors on land, who
+patrolled the streets and shot down the looters, and order was thus
+finally restored in Alexandria. The khédive, who was forced to fly for
+his life to an English steamer, was reinstated in the Ras-el-Tin Palace,
+under an escort of seven hundred marines. The British admiral was
+afterwards severely criticised for not having put a stop to the rioting
+before it assumed such serious proportions.
+
+Arabi’s army of 6,000 was now increased by recruits flocking in from
+every port in Egypt. After considerable pressure had been brought to
+bear upon the khédive, Tewfik issued a proclamation dismissing Arabi
+from his service. To enforce the submission of the Arabists, an English
+army of 33,000 men was gradually landed in Egypt, under the command of
+Sir Garnet Wolseley, with an efficient staff, including Sir John Adye,
+Sir Archibald Alison, Sir Evelyn Wood, and General Hamley. An Indian
+contingent also arrived under General Macpherson.
+
+Sir Garnet, after making a feint to land near Alexandria, steamed to
+Port Said and disembarked, moving up the Suez Canal in order to join
+forces with the Indian contingent, who were advancing from Suez.
+Fighting took place over the control of the canal at the Mahsameh and
+Kassassin Locks, and at the latter place the British cavalry won an
+important victory over the Egyptian advance-guard. Arabi’s stronghold
+was at Tel-el-Kebir, and the English were very anxious to win a
+decisive victory before the troops which the sultan was sending from
+Constantinople under Dervish and Baker Pasha should arrive. On September
+12, 1882, preparations had been completed for an advance, and the army
+of 11,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, with sixty pieces of artillery,
+moved forward during the night to within a mile of Arabi’s lines. The
+Egyptians had 20,000 regulars, of which number 2,500 were cavalry, with
+seventy guns, and they were also aided by 6,000 Bedouins. Though well
+situated, the army of Arabi was taken by surprise, and the following
+day, in response to the various flanking movements of the British,
+directed by Wolseley, and the direct charge of the Highlanders, they
+made but a very indifferent defence. In a brief space of time the
+Egyptians were in full retreat, Arabi fleeing to Cairo. The Indian
+contingent occupied Zagazig, and General Drury-Lowe rode with his
+cavalry for thirty-nine miles, and entered Cairo on the evening of the
+14th. Arabi made a dignified surrender, and with him 10,000 men also
+gave themselves up.
+
+The Nationalist movement was now at an end, the various garrisons
+surrendering one after another, and the greater part of the British army
+left Egypt, 12,000 men remaining behind to maintain order. The Egyptian
+government wished to try Arabi as a rebel in a secret tribunal. It was
+generally believed that this would have meant a death sentence. Mr.
+Wilfrid Blunt, a distinguished British Liberal and a friend of Arabi,
+who had often expressed his sympathy with the cause of the Nationalists
+in their endeavour to free Egypt from the slavery of the foreign
+bondholder, now raised a vigorous protest in favour of an open trial. He
+personally contributed to the defence of Arabi, and his efforts led to
+the commutation of the sentence of death to that of perpetual exile
+in Ceylon--a sentence which was subsequently very much modified. Arabi
+Pasha returned to Egypt in the year 1902, after an exile which had
+lasted about nine years.
+
+[Illustration: 201.jpg PALACE OP THE KHEDIVE AT ALEXANDRIA]
+
+The difficult task of readjusting the government of Egypt was then
+undertaken. Proposals were made to France for a modification of the
+dual control, in which France was offered the presidency of the Debt
+Commission. France, however, refused to accept the compromise, and the
+British government finally determined upon independent action. In place
+of the officials through whom the two governments had hitherto exercised
+the control, a single financial adviser was appointed, who was not
+allowed to take part in the direct administration of the country. The
+outline of this adjustment was given in a circular note addressed by
+Lord Granville to the Powers. He declared that an army would remain in
+Egypt as long as it was required; representative institutions were to
+be created; the Egyptian army and gendarmery were to be placed in the
+hands of Englishmen; the Diara estates were to be economically managed;
+foreigners were to be placed upon the same footing as natives in regard
+to taxation. The other Powers, including Turkey but excluding France,
+accepted the agreement. The office of financial adviser was given to Sir
+Edgar Vincent.
+
+The important work of the reconstruction of Egypt now began in earnest.
+Sir Benson Maxwell set about establishing an effective means for the
+impartial administration of justice, and Colonel Moncrieff undertook the
+responsibility for the work of irrigation. Mr. Clifford Lloyd created a
+police system, reorganised the prisons and hospitals, and set free the
+untried prisoners. Baker Pasha formed a provincial gendarmery, and Sir
+Evelyn Wood organised an army of six thousand men.
+
+In the year 1883, while this work of reconstruction was proceeding, a
+religious insurrection, which had originated two years previously, was
+forced upon the notice of the government. It has already been related
+that the Ismailian sect of the Muhammedans had introduced the doctrine
+of a coming Messiah, or Mahdi, who was to be the last of the imans, and
+the incarnation of the universal soul.
+
+Not a few impostors had exploited this doctrine to their own advantage,
+and some of the Arabian tribes were firmly convinced that the Mahdi had
+come, and that the Mahdis who had appeared to their kinsmen elsewhere
+were merely clever charlatans. In the year 1881 Muhammed Ahmet, a
+religious leader among the Moslem Arabs in the Central African provinces
+of Kordofan and Darfur, proclaimed himself as the Mahdi, and called upon
+the Muhammedans to initiate a holy war.
+
+The Mahdi’s continued advances were rendered possible by the precarious
+state of affairs in Egypt. After a settlement was effected in 1883,
+Hicks Pasha, an officer of courage and ability, who had retired from
+the Indian army, gathered 11,000 men at Omdurman to quell the Mahdist
+insurrection. With this force he started up the Nile and struck across
+the desert to El-Obeid, where his troops were decoyed into a ravine, and
+after three days’ fighting his whole army was annihilated by the Mahdist
+army numbering about 300,000 men. The entire Sudan then revolted against
+Egypt. The redoubtable Osman Digna appeared with the Hadendowa Arabs
+off the coast of the Red Sea, and harassed the Egyptian garrison. Osman
+defeated Captain Moncrieff and an army of 3,000 Bashi-Bazouks led by
+Baker Pasha. Egypt, under the advisement of the British government, then
+attempted to withdraw from the Sudan. It was decided that the western
+provinces of Kordofan and Dafur should be abandoned, but that important
+centres like Khartum on the Nile should be preserved, at least for
+a time. Here all the Egyptian colonists were to congregate. If the
+revolting Arab tribes, called by the general name of Dervishes, would
+not come to friendly terms with the settlers, then, in time, it was
+decided that Khartum itself, and every other locality in the Sudan,
+should be entirely relinquished, except the ports of the Red Sea.
+
+General Gordon was sent to Khartum to make terms with the Mahdi and
+prepare for eventualities. The evacuation of this place was almost
+immediately decided upon by the British Cabinet, and Gordon arrived on
+February 18, 1884, but, being unsupported by European troops, he found
+the position an exceedingly difficult one to maintain. The Mahdi scorned
+his overtures, and Osman Digna was daily closing in upon the Egyptian
+port of Suakin.
+
+[Illustration: 204.jpg OSMAN DIGNA]
+
+The British then determined to act with vigour. Sinkitat had fallen on
+February 8th, and to protect Tokar and Suakin they landed four thousand
+men and fought a fierce battle with nine thousand Hadendowas at El - Teb
+February 28, 1884. The Egyptian garrison of Tokar, when the British army
+arrived, was found to have compromised with the Mahdists. Later on was
+fought the battle of Tamai against Osman Digna, during which a body
+of Arabs rushed the British guns and broke up the formation of their
+square. The British were on the point of defeat, but they managed to
+recover the lost guns, and scatter the Hadendowas.
+
+General Gordon’s situation was now extremely critical. It was hoped that
+an army might advance from Suakin across the desert to Berber, and then
+ascend the Nile to Khartum. In the meantime, Gordon urgently called for
+help, and, after interminable delays, in the autumn of 1884, an English
+army under Lord Wolseley started up the Nile to relieve him. The troops
+of Wolseley were aided by a camel corps of one thousand men, who were
+organised to make a rush across the desert. On the 16th of January,
+1885, the camel troops came up with the enemy and fought the decisive
+battle of Matammeh. The Mahdist troops were mown down by rifles and
+Gatling-guns as soon as they were within short range. Immediately after
+the battle, Sir Charles Wilson determined to use the Egyptian flotilla
+to make an immediate advance. The steamers were protected, and a small
+relief force started on January 24th. They came in sight of Khartum on
+the 28th, but were fired upon from every side. At this moment, a native
+called from the bank that the city had fallen, and that the heroic
+Gordon had been killed.
+
+A history of Egypt would be incomplete without some account of that
+leader whose bravery, humanitarian views, and understanding of the
+Oriental character have made him famous among the pioneers of Christian
+civilisation in Asia and Africa. Fresh from his laurels won in the
+service of the Chinese government in suppressing the Tai-peng rebellion,
+Gordon returned to England in 1871. In 1874 he accepted a position from
+Egypt, with the consent of the British government. He journeyed to Cairo
+and up the Nile to take up the command as governor of the Equatorial
+Provinces in succession to Sir Samuel Baker. There he laboured with
+incessant energy to put down the slave-trade and to secure the welfare
+of the natives. He established a series of Egyptian outposts along the
+Abyssinian frontier and made a survey of Lake Albert Nyanza. Returning
+to Cairo in 1874, after some delay, he was appointed by Ismail Pasha as
+governor-general of the whole of the Egyptian Sudan. A war followed
+with Abyssinia, and, after the army, led by Egyptian officers, had been
+beaten twice, Gordon went to Massowah to negotiate with the Abyssinian
+monarch, Atti Johannes. He next proceeded to Khartum, and vigorously
+undertook the suppression of the slave-trade.
+
+[Illustration: 207.jpg MOSQUE OF THE IBRIHAM AT DESUK]
+
+Gordon’s death at Khartum, in 1884, is one of the greatest tragedies of
+modern history. Supported neither by Egypt nor by the English army, of
+a different religion from all his followers, pressed on all sides by the
+Mah-dist forces, Gordon gallantly kept his few faithful followers at his
+side, and, with incessant activity and heroism, protected the remaining
+Egyptian colonists of the cities along the Nile, over which he still
+held control. He had called upon the British government to send aid
+across the desert from Suakin via Berber, but this request had been
+denied him. Berber then fell, and he was cut off to the north by many
+hundred miles of territory occupied by Mahdists. On January the
+1st, nearly a month before the long-delayed succour approached the
+beleaguered city, the provisions had given out. He had written on
+December 14th that, with two hundred men, he could have successfully
+kept up the defence. As his army had been starving since the 5th of
+January, it is difficult to understand how he managed to hold out till
+January the 26th. On this date, two days before the relief expedition
+approached, the Mahdi’s troops attacked Khartum, and, finding Gordon’s
+men too weak to fight, the defences were cut down, and the heroic Gordon
+was killed by a shot at the head of the steps of the palace.
+
+Upon learning of the death of Gordon, the relief expedition retreated,
+finding that the object of their advance had proved to be a hopeless
+one. A general evacuation was begun, and Dongola and the whole country
+south of Wady Haifa surrendered. The Mahdi, soon after winning Khartum,
+died, and was succeeded by the Califa Abdulla at Taashi. This change
+facilitated the Anglo-Egyptian retreat. About the same time Slatin
+Bey surrendered in Darfur and embraced Muhammedan-ism, and Lupton Bey,
+following his example, also adopted the religion of Islam, and yielded
+in Bahr-el-Ghazel. Emin Pasha alone retained his authority, derived
+originally from Egypt, in the province of Equatoria. Sir H. M. Stanley
+afterwards made his famous journey “Through Darkest Africa” and rescued
+this famous pasha. This noted explorer died May 9, 1904.
+
+In the autumn of 1885, the dervish Emir of Dongola, Muhammed el-Kheir,
+advanced upon the Egyptian frontier. On December 30th he was met by the
+Egyptian troops under Sir Frederick Stephenson. The Egyptian troops,
+unaided by Europeans, attacked the dervishes at Ginnis and totally
+defeated them, winning two guns and twenty banners. It was a source of
+much gratification that the Egyptian fellaheen had proved themselves so
+courageous and well disciplined in the encounter with the fierce hosts
+of the desert.
+
+[Illustration: 210.jpg LORD KITCHENER OF KHARTUM]
+
+In October, 1886, Wad en Nejumi, the victor of El-Obeid, was sent by the
+califa to invade Egypt. The advance of this army was delayed by trouble
+within the Sudan; but the califa, having at length beaten his enemies,
+in the year 1889 sent large reinforcements northwards to carry on
+the campaign against Egypt with vigour. The Egyptian troops, with one
+squadron of hussars, fought a decisive engagement with Wad en Nejumi on
+August 3rd of the same year. The dervish leader, many of his emirs, and
+twelve hundred Arab warriors were slain; four thousand more were taken
+prisoners, and 147 dervish standards were captured.
+
+The ever-increasing progress of Egypt during the next ten years,
+together with the accounts received from escaped prisoners of the
+reign of terror and inhumanity which obtained in the Sudan, brought
+the question of the reconquest of the lost provinces once more into
+prominence. The Italians had met with a fearful disaster in fighting
+against the Abyssinians at the battle of Adowa on March 1,1896. They
+were holding Kassala within the ex-Egyptian territory by invitation
+from England, and a reason was presented for attacking the dervishes
+elsewhere in order to draw off their army from Kassala. With the
+appointment of Sir Henry Kitchener, on March 11,1896, as sirdar of the
+Egyptian army, the final period of hostilities was entered upon between
+Egypt and the independent Arabs of the Central African Provinces.
+
+General Kitchener was ordered to build a railroad up the Nile, and to
+push forward with a well-organised Egyptian army, whose chief officers
+were Englishmen. The whole scheme of the invasion was planned with
+consummate forethought and deliberation, the officials and advisers
+in charge of the enterprise being chosen from the most tried and able
+experts in their several provinces. Lieut.-Col. E. P. C. Girouard, a
+brilliant young Canadian, undertook the work of railroad reconstruction.
+Col. L. Bundle was chief of the staff, and Major R. Wingate head of the
+Intelligence Department, ably assisted by the ex-prisoner of the califa,
+Slatin Bey. The army consisted in the beginning almost entirely of
+Egyptian and Sudanese troops, together with one battalion of the North
+Staffordshire Regiment. There were eight battalions of artillery, eight
+camel corps, and sixty-three gunboats which steamed up the Nile.
+
+After some sharp skirmishing, the advance was made to Dongola, when the
+English battalion was sent home disabled, and in time was replaced by a
+strong English brigade under General Gatacre. Early in 1897, a railroad
+had been thrown across the desert from Wady Haifa towards Abu Hamed,
+obviating the need of making an immense detour around the bend of the
+Nile near Dongola. The califa had, by this time, organised his defence.
+The Jaalin tribe had revolted against him at Metammeh, and had sought
+for help from the Egyptians, but before the supply of rifles arrived,
+the dervishes under the Emir Mahmud stormed Metammeh and annihilated the
+whole tribe of the Jaalin Arabs.
+
+The van of the army of invasion, both the flying corps and the flotilla
+of gunboats, advanced upon Abu Hamed towards the end of August.
+Major-General Hunter carried the place by storm. Berber was found to be
+deserted, and was occupied on September 5th. Hunter burned Adarama and
+reconnoitred on the Atbara. The gunboats bombarded Metammeh and reduced
+the place to ruins. The sirdar, General Kitchener, then went on a
+mission to Kassala, where he found the Italians anxious to evacuate.
+He thereupon made an agreement whereby the Egyptians should occupy
+the place, which was accordingly accomplished under Colonel Parsons on
+Christmas Day, 1897. Disagreements among the dervishes prevented them
+from making any concerted defence, and early in 1896 Kitchener renewed
+the advance and captured the dervish stores at Shendy on March 27th. The
+zeriba or camp of Mahmud was attacked and stormed with great loss to the
+dervishes on the 5th of April.
+
+On the date scheduled beforehand by Lord Kitchener, just after the
+annual rains had refreshed the country, the Anglo-Egyptian army made its
+final advance upon Khartum. There were ten thousand British troops and
+fifteen thousand Egyptians. The forces were concentrated at Wady Hamed,
+sixty miles above Omdurman, from which point they bombarded the city
+with shells filled with deadly lyddite, and the mosque and tomb of the
+late Mahdi were destroyed. At length the entire army advanced to within
+four miles of Khartum. On September 2nd the cavalry and a horse battery
+reached Kasar Shanbal. From this point they saw the whole army of the
+califa, consisting of from forty to fifty thousand men, advancing to
+confront them from behind the hills. The Anglo-Egyptians advanced to
+meet the dervishes disposed in the form of a horseshoe, with either end
+resting upon the banks of the river. At intervals along the whole line
+of the army were field-pieces and Maxims, and the gunboats were within
+reach to aid in shelling the enemy. The British soldiers then built
+a square sand rampart called a zarilea, and their Egyptian allies dug
+defensive trenches.
+
+On the front and left the dervishes came on in great strength, but, when
+the Maxims, the field-guns, and the repeating rifles opened fire upon
+them, at a comparatively close range, a frightful havoc was the result.
+All who remained to fight were immediately shot down, and the whole
+field was cleared in fifteen minutes. The dervishes retreated behind the
+hills, and were joined by fresh forces. General MacDonald, in making
+a detour with a body of Lancers, was suddenly beset by two thousand
+dervish riflemen, who fiercely charged him on three sides. Quickly
+forming a square, he succeeded by desperate efforts in repelling the
+enemy, until he was reinforced by Kitchener, who perceived his desperate
+situation.
+
+The calif then attacked the extreme left wing of the army, but was again
+driven off. The Anglo-Egyptians were now in a position to deliver the
+main attack upon the dervish defences. The troops of the califa
+fought with heroic bravery, fearlessly advancing within range of the
+Anglo-Egyptian fire, but each time they were mown down by the cross fire
+of the Maxims and rifles. Vast numbers were slain, and some divisions
+of the dervishes suffered complete annihilation. They left ten thousand
+dead upon the field, and ten thousand wounded. The rest fled in all
+directions, a scattered and straggling force, with the califa himself.
+The Anglo-Egyptians lost but two thousand men. Few prisoners were taken,
+for, in almost every instance, the dervishes refused to surrender, and
+even when wounded used their swords and spears against the rescuers of
+the ambulance corps. All the fighting was over by midday, and in the
+afternoon General Kitchener entered Omdurman, and the army encamped in
+the vicinity. Slatin Bey was duly installed as governor in the name
+of the Egyptian khédive. The European prisoners of the califa were now
+released, and on Sunday, the 4th of September, the sirdar and all his
+army held a solemn service in memory of General Gordon near the spot
+where he was killed.
+
+Bodies of men were now sent out on all sides to pacify the country, and
+the sirdar, who had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Kitchener of
+Khartum, started on an expedition up the Nile in a gunboat, in order to
+settle the difficult question arising from the occupation of Pashoda by
+a French corps under Major Marchand. The ability and strategy of this
+French commander were of a very high order. The general plan of the
+expedition had been in accord with French military traditions, based
+upon former attempts in India and America to separate the British
+colonial dominions, or to block the way to their extension by
+establishing a series of military outposts or forts at certain strategic
+points chosen for this purpose. Had the French designs under Desaix in
+India, or of the army of occupation in the Mississippi Valley in the
+eighteenth century, been supported by a powerful fleet, there is no
+doubt that British colonisation would have suffered a severe setback. If
+Major Marchand remained in Fashoda, the route to all the upper regions
+of the Nile would be cut off from any English or Egyptian enterprise.
+Accordingly, Lord Kitchener ran the risk of grave international
+complications by advancing upon Fashoda to meet Major Marchand.
+Fortunately, a temporary agreement was entered upon that the home
+governments should decide the question at issue, and Lord Kitchener then
+hoisted the Anglo-Egyptian flag south of the French settlement, and the
+officers fraternised over glasses of champagne.
+
+It is now believed that Russia would have aided France if it had come
+to a war, but the French government thought the affair not of sufficient
+importance to warrant an international struggle over the retention of
+Fashoda, and the respective spheres of influence of France and Great
+Britain were finally agreed upon early in the following year by the
+Niger Convention, which left the whole of the ex-Egyptian provinces
+under British protection, as far south as the Equatorial Lakes, and as
+far west as the border line between Darfur and Wadai.
+
+The calif was subsequently pursued from place to place in the desert,
+and was at length overtaken by Colonel Wingate at Om Dubreikat. The
+dervish leader fought a desperate fight; and, refusing to fly, was slain
+with all his personal followers on November 26, 1899.
+
+The total cost of these campaigns had been incredibly small, not
+amounting in all to the total of $12,000,000, and the railroad, the cost
+of which is here included in the expenditure, is of permanent value to
+Egypt.
+
+After the re-occupation of Khartum, it was again, as in Gordon’s time,
+made the seat of government, the dervish capital having been located
+across the Nile at Omdurman. For a memorial to Gordon, $500,000 was
+enthusiastically raised in England. The memorial took the practical
+form of an educational establishment for the natives of the Sudan, the
+foundation-stone of which was laid by Lord Cromer in January, 1900.
+The school is intended to be exclusively for Muhammedans, and only the
+Moslem religion is to be taught within its walls.
+
+Though the Mahdism, of which the late califa had been the leading
+spirit, had degenerated into a struggle of slave-traders versus
+civilisation, the calif at least showed conspicuous courage in the
+manner in which he faced his death. For the last twenty years, during
+which the revolts of the dervishes had troubled the outlying provinces
+of the Egyptian dominions, trade had been almost at a standstill; large
+numbers of blacks had been enslaved; an equal number probably had been
+slaughtered, and whole regions depopulated. The total population was cut
+down during these years to one-half of what it previously had been, and
+it was of vital importance to Egypt to reconquer all the lost provinces
+which lay upon the banks of the river Nile. If the prosperity of
+Egypt is to rest upon a sound basis, and not be subjected to periodic
+overthrow at the hands of the hostile inhabitants of the south, it is
+essential that the Upper Nile should be under the control of those who
+are responsible for the welfare of the country. Egypt is the gift of the
+Nile, and the entire population of Egypt is dependent upon this river.
+To secure prosperity for the country and to develop Egyptian resources
+to the fullest extent, the rulers of Egypt must also be the rulers of
+the Nile. When the Anglo-Egyptian expedition under Kitchener set out to
+reconquer the Sudan, the development of Egypt had been progressing in
+all directions at a rapid rate. Having greater interests to defend, less
+indebtedness to meet, and greater facilities for meeting the taxes due
+the home government, no less than the foreign bondholders, the time was
+ripe in which to take that great step towards securing the prosperity of
+Egypt in the future by finally destroying the community of slaveholders,
+which, under the sanction of Mahdism, brutally tyrannised over the
+non-Muhammedan population.
+
+[Illustration: 218.jpg SLAVE BOATS ON THE NILE]
+
+From the beginning of the British occupation, the English have been
+engaged in persevering efforts at reform in every branch of the
+administration. The reforms which they instituted in the different
+departments of the army, finance, public works, and the police system
+were not at first popular. The native officials found out that they
+could not use methods of extortion; the upper classes, the pashas, and
+the wealthy landowners also discovered that they were not at liberty
+to do as they pleased, and that the English inspectors of irrigation
+strictly regulated the water-supply. It has since been fully
+demonstrated that the curtailing of their privilege to make use of
+the water when and how they chose is more than compensated by improved
+conditions.
+
+During the fifteen years previous to 1898, the population of Egypt had
+increased by about three million, or forty-three per cent. It was then
+ten million; it is now nearly eleven million. Within the boundaries of
+the irrigated land Egypt has always been a very populous country. By
+the effort to expand this area of irrigation, the way was prepared for
+a considerable increase in the total population. There are sections of
+this land where the density of the population averages from seven to
+eight hundred or even a thousand persons to the square mile. In early
+times, the population was still greater, as the irrigation area was
+increased by the great reservoir of Lake Mceris. When Omar made a census
+(A.D. 640), there were to be found six million Kopts, exclusive of the
+aged, the young, and the women, and three hundred thousand Greeks: this
+would imply, even at that decadent period, a total population of fifteen
+million.
+
+The increased prosperity shown by the railroads is most satisfactory.
+Two hundred and twelve miles of new railroad have been constructed,
+and an enormous development of the railroad and telegraph business has
+resulted. Since the year 1897 railroad development has been very rapid,
+and, with the line to the Sudan, amounted in 1904 to some two thousand
+miles. From the Sudan railway it is intended ultimately to extend a
+railroad system through the heart of Africa, from Cairo to Capetown.
+
+Great progress has been made in all departments of public works.
+Hundreds of agricultural roads have been built, and the mileage of
+canals and drains has been largely increased to the very great benefit
+of the Egyptian peasant.
+
+The quantity of salt sold was doubled between 1881 and 1897, while the
+price has been reduced nearly forty per cent. The tonnage of the port of
+Alexandria increased from 1,250,000 pounds to 2,549,739 between 1881 and
+1901. This increase was paralleled by a like increase in Alexandria’s
+great rival, Port Said.
+
+Sir Evelyn Baring (Viscount Cromer) was appointed consul-general and
+financial adviser to Egypt in January, 1884, succeeding in this position
+Sir Edward Malet. Sir Evelyn was nominally the financial adviser, but
+practically the master of Egypt. The khédive never ventured to oppose
+the carrying out of his wishes, since the British army of occupation was
+ever at his beck and call to lend its weight to the commands which he
+issued to the government under the appearance of friendly advice.
+
+The most serious obstacle to the progress of Egypt has been the
+authority of the mixed administrations, the chief of which is the Caisse
+de la Dette. The main object of these administrations is to secure for
+European bondholders payment of the debts incurred by Egypt chiefly
+under the incredibly profligate government of Ismail Pasha. The Caisse
+de la Dette has commissions from six of the Powers. It receives from the
+tax-gatherer all the taxes apportioned to the payment of the interest
+for foreign indebtedness. Its influence, however, extends much farther,
+and the Caisse exercises the right of prohibiting expenditure on the
+part of the Egyptian government until its own demands for current
+interest have been complied with. It further has the right to veto any
+loan which the Egyptian government might be willing to raise, however
+urgent the necessity might be, unless it can be demonstrated that there
+is not the least likelihood that payment of the shareholders whom the
+Caisse represents will be in the least degree affected. If all that the
+Caisse claimed as belonging to its jurisdiction were really allowed to
+it by the Anglo-Egyptian government, the Caisse or International Court
+might exercise an arbitrary control over Egyptian affairs. It has many
+times seriously attempted to block the progress of Egypt with the sole
+aim of considering the pockets of the foreign shareholders, and in
+entire disregard to the welfare of the people.
+
+Added to this tribunal is the Railway Board and the Commissions of
+the Daira and Domains. The Railway Board administers the railroads,
+telegraphs, and the port of Alexandria. The Daira and Domains
+Commissions administer the large estates, mortgaged to the holders of
+the loans raised by Ismail Pasha under these two respective names. The
+Daira Estate yielded a surplus over and above the amount of interest
+on the debt paid, for the first time, in 1890. The Domain Estate had
+to face a deficit until the year 1900. Until these respective dates the
+Egyptian government itself was obliged to pay the deficit due to the
+bondholders.
+
+[Illustration: 223.jpg VISCOUNT CROMER (SIR EVELYN BARING)]
+
+In the year 1884, the Convention of London was signed by the European
+Powers, which was, however, for the most part, oppressive and unjust to
+the Egyptians. The amount of money raised by taxation, which was allowed
+to be spent in one year, was limited to the definite sum of $25,927,890.
+Fortunately for Egypt, the London Convention had one clause by which
+$44,760,000 could be utilised for the development of the country. With
+this sum the indemnities of Alexandria were paid, defects in the payment
+of interest were made good, and a small sum was left wherewith to
+increase irrigation and other useful works. The criminal folly of
+the former lavish expenditure was now demonstrated by a brilliant
+object-lesson. This small sum, when kept out of the hands of the
+rapacious bondholders, and applied to the development of the rich soil
+of Egypt, was found to work wonders. From the moment when the finances
+of Egypt were for the first time used to develop what is naturally the
+richest soil in the world, progress towards betterment grew rapidly into
+the remarkable prosperity of to-day. For a time, however, the government
+was obliged to use extreme parsimony in order to keep the country from
+further falling under the control of the irresponsible bondholders.
+Finally, in the year 1888, Sir Evelyn Baring wrote to the home
+government that the situation was so far improved that in his judgment
+“it would take a series of untoward events seriously to endanger
+the stability of Egyptian finance and the solvency of the Egyptian
+government.” The corner had been turned, and progressive financial
+relief was at length afforded the long-suffering Egyptian people in the
+year 1890. After several years of financial betterment, it was decided
+to devote future surpluses to remunerative objects, such as works of
+irrigation, railway extension, the construction of hospitals, prisons,
+and other public buildings, and in the improvement of the system of
+education. Great difficulty was experienced in making use of this
+surplus, on account of technical hindrances which were persistently
+placed in the way of the Egyptian government by the Caisse de la Dette.
+These difficulties are now almost entirely removed.
+
+In 1896 it was decided, as has been narrated, to be for the interest of
+Egypt to start a campaign against the dervishes. Appeal was made to the
+Caisse de la Dette to raise additional funds for the necessary
+expenses of the projected campaign. The Caisse, following its universal
+precedent, immediately vetoed the project. England then made special
+grants-in-aid to Egypt, which both aided the Egyptian government and
+greatly strengthened her hold upon Egypt. By means of this timely
+assistance, Egypt was enabled successfully to pass through the period of
+increased expenditure incurred by the reconquest of the Sudan.
+
+During the lifetime of Khedive Tewfik, who owed his throne to the
+British occupation, there had been little or no disagreement between the
+British and Egyptian authorities. In the year 1887 Sir Henry Drummond
+Wolff prepared a convention, in accordance with which England promised
+to leave Egypt within three years from that date. At the last moment
+the sultan, urged by France and Russia, refused to sign it, and the
+occupation which these two Powers would not agree to legalise even for
+a period of three years was now less likely than ever to terminate. The
+following year Tewfik dismissed Nubar Pasha, who had, by the advice of
+the foreign Powers, stood in the way of reforms planned by the English
+officials.
+
+Tewfik died in 1892, and was succeeded by Abbas Hilmi Pasha, called
+officially Abbas II. He was born in 1874, and was barely of age
+according to Turkish law, which fixes magistracy at eighteen years of
+age in the case of the succession to the throne. He came directly from
+the college at Vienna to Cairo, where his accession was celebrated
+with great pomp; and the firman, confirming him in all the powers,
+privileges, and territorial rights which his father had enjoyed, was
+read from the steps of the palace in Abdin Square. For some time the
+new khédive did not cooperate with cordiality with Great Britain. He was
+young and eager to exercise his power. His throne had not been saved for
+him by the British, as his father’s had been, and he was surrounded
+by intriguers, who were scheming always for their own advantage. He at
+first appeared almost as unprogressive as his great-uncle, Abbas I.,
+but he later learned to understand the importance of British counsels.
+During his visit to England in 1899 he frankly acknowledged the great
+good which England had done in Egypt, and declared himself ready
+to cooperate with the officials administering British affairs. This
+friendliness was a great change from the disposition which he had shown
+in previous years, during the long-drawn-out dispute between himself and
+Sir Evelyn Baring regarding the appointment of Egyptian officials. The
+controversy at one time indicated a grave crisis, and it is reported
+that on one occasion the British agent ordered the army to make a
+demonstration before the palace, and pointed out to the young ruler the
+folly of forcing events which would inevitably lead to his dethronement.
+The tension was gradually relaxed, and compromises brought about which
+resulted in harmony between the khédive and the British policy of
+administration, and no one rejoiced more than Abbas Hilmi over the
+victory of Omdurman.
+
+[Illustration: 227.jpg BAZAR IN ASWAN]
+
+Agricultural interests are dearer to the heart of the khédive than
+statecraft. He rides well, drives well, rises early, and is of
+abstemious habits. Turkish is his mother tongue, but he talks Arabic
+with fluency and speaks English, French, and German very well.
+
+An agreement between England and Egypt had been entered upon January 19,
+1899, in regard to the administration of the Sudan. According to this
+agreement, the British and Egyptian flags were to be used together,
+and the supreme military and civil command was vested in the
+governor-general, who is appointed by the khédive on the recommendation
+of the British government, and who cannot be removed without
+the latter’s consent. This has proved so successful that the
+governor-general, Sir Reginald Wingate, reported in 1901:
+
+“I record my appreciation of the manner in which the officers,
+non-commissioned officers, soldiers, and officials,--British, Egyptian,
+and Sudanese,--without distinction, have laboured during the past year
+to push on the work of regenerating the country. Nor can I pass over
+without mention the loyal and valuable assistance I have received from
+many of the loyal ulemas, sheiks, and notables, who have displayed a
+most genuine desire to see their country once more advancing in the path
+of progress, material success, and novel development.”
+
+In 1898 there were in all about 10,000 schools, with 17,000 teachers
+and 228,000 pupils. Seven-eighths of these schools were elementary,
+the education being confined to reading, writing, and the rudiments
+of arithmetic. The government has under its immediate direction
+eighty-seven schools of the lowest grade, called kuttabs, and
+thirty-five of the higher grades, three secondary, two girls’ schools,
+and ten schools for higher or professional education,--the school of
+law, the school of medicine, with its pharmaceutical school and its
+school for nursing and obstetrics, polytechnic schools for civil
+engineers, two training-schools for schoolmasters, a school of
+agriculture, two technical schools, one training-school for female
+teachers, and the military school. In addition to the schools belonging
+to the Ministry of Public Instruction, there were under the inspection
+of that department in 1901 twenty-three primary schools of the higher
+grade, with an attendance of 3,585, and 845 schools of the lowest grade,
+with 1,364 teachers and an attendance of 26,831 pupils. There are
+187 schools attached to various Protestant and Catholic missions, and
+forty-three European private schools.
+
+The Koptic community supports one thousand schools for elementary
+education, twenty-seven primary boys’ and girls’ schools, and one
+college. The teaching of the Koptic language in the schools is now
+compulsory; the subjects taught, and the methods of teaching them, are
+the same as in vogue in other countries. Fifty per cent, of the Koptic
+male population can read and write well. The indigenous tribunals of the
+country are called Mehkemmehs, and are presided over by cadis. At
+the present time they retain jurisdiction in matters of personal law
+relating to marriage succession, guardianship, etc. Beyond this sphere
+they also fulfil certain functions connected with the registration
+of title of land. In matters of personal law, however, the native
+Christians are subject to their own patriarchs or other religious
+leaders.
+
+In other matters, natives are justiciable before the so-called native
+tribunals, established during the period of the British occupation.
+These consist of forty-six summary tribunals, each presided over by a
+single judge, who is empowered to exercise jurisdiction in matters up to
+$500 in value, and criminal jurisdiction in offences punishable by fine
+or by imprisonment of three years or less. Associated with these are
+seven central tribunals, each chamber consisting of three judges.
+There is also a court of appeal in Cairo, one-half of its members
+being Europeans. In criminal matters there is always a right to appeal,
+sometimes to the court of appeal, sometimes to a central tribunal.
+In civil matters an appeal lies from a summary tribunal to a central
+tribunal in matters exceeding $500 in value, and from the judgment of
+a central tribunal in the first instance to the court of appeal in all
+cases. The prosecution in criminal matters is entrusted to the parquet,
+which is directed by a procurer-general; the investigation of crime
+is ordinarily conducted by the parquet, or by the police under its
+direction. Offences against irrigation laws, which were once of such
+frequent occurrence and the occasion of injustice and lawlessness, are
+now tried by special and summary administration tribunals.
+
+The capitulations or agreements concerning justice entered into by all
+the Great Powers of Europe and the Ottoman Empire, relative to the trial
+and judgment of Europeans, include Egypt as an integral part of the
+Turkish Empire. Foreigners for this reason have the privilege of being
+tried by European courts. But if one party in a case is European and
+another Egyptian, there are special mixed tribunals, established in
+1876, consisting partly of native and partly of foreign judges. These
+tribunals settle civil and also some criminal cases between Egyptians
+and Europeans, and in 1900 penal jurisdiction was conferred upon them in
+connection with offences against the bankruptcy laws.
+
+There are three mixed tribunals of the first class, with a court of
+appeal, sitting at Alexandria. Civil cases between foreigners of the
+same nationality are tried before their own consular courts, which also
+try criminal cases not within the jurisdiction of the mixed
+tribunals, in which the accused are foreigners. By this well organised
+administration of justice, crime has steadily decreased throughout
+Egypt, and the people have learned to enjoy the benefit of receiving
+impartial justice, from which they had been shut off for many centuries.
+
+About sixty per cent, of the inhabitants of modern Egypt belong to
+the agricultural class--the fellaheen. The peasantry are primitive
+and thrifty in their habits, and hold tenaciously to their ancient
+traditions. They are a healthy race, good-tempered and tractable, and
+fairly intelligent, but, like all Southern nations breathing a balmy
+atmosphere, they are unprogressive. Centuries of oppression have not,
+however, crushed their cheerfulness. There is none of that abject misery
+of poverty among the Egyptians which is to be seen in cold countries.
+There is no starvation amongst them. Food is cheap, and a peasant can
+live well on a piastre (five cents) a day. A single cotton garment is
+enough for clothing, and the merest hut affords sufficient protection.
+The wants of the Egyptians are few. Their condition, now freed from
+forced labour, called the “Courbash,” as also from injustice, crushing
+taxation, and usury, which characterised former administrations,
+compares favourably with the peasantry of many countries in Europe, and
+is equal, if not superior, to that of the peasantry of England itself.
+
+Under the British protection there has been a renewal of the Koptic
+Christian race. They are easily to be distinguished from their
+Muhammedan countrymen, being lighter in colour, and resembling the
+portraits on the ancient monuments. They are a strong community in Upper
+Egypt, whither they fled from the Arab invaders, and they there hold
+a large portion of the land. They live mostly in the towns, are better
+educated than other Egyptians, and are employed frequently in the
+government service as clerks and accountants.
+
+Koptic is still studied for church purposes by the Kopts, who both by
+their physiognomy and by their retention of the old Egyptian institution
+of monasticism are the only true descendants having the social
+and physical heredity of the ancient Egyptians. Four of the oldest
+monasteries in the world still survive in the Natron Valley.
+
+[Illustration: 232.jpg MOSQUE OF EL GHURI AT CAIRO]
+
+In spite of their distinguished social ancestry, the Kopts are by no
+means a superior class morally to the fellaheen, who are in part the
+descendants of those ancient Egyptians who renounced the Christian
+religion, the language and institutions of the Egyptian Christians, and
+accepted Muhammedanism and the Arabic language and institutions.
+
+The creed of the Kopts is Jacobite. They have three metropolitans and
+twelve bishops in Egypt, one metropolitan and two bishops in Abyssinia,
+and one bishop in Khartum. There are also arch-priests, priests,
+deacons, and monks. Priests must be married before ordination, but
+celibacy is imposed upon monks and high dignitaries. The Abyssinian
+Church is ruled by a metropolitan, and bishops are chosen from amongst
+the Egyptian-Koptic ecclesiastics, nor can the coronation of the King of
+Abyssinia take place until he has been anointed by the metropolitan, and
+this only after the authorisation by the Patriarch of Alexandria.
+
+[Illustration: 235.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.--THE WATER WAYS OF EGYPT
+
+
+_The White and Blue Niles: The Barrage: Clearing the Sudd: The Suez
+Canal: Ancient and modern irrigation: The Dam at Aswan: The modern
+exploration of the Nile._
+
+
+Between the Sudan and the Mediterranean the only perennial stream is
+the Nile, a word probably derived from the Semitic root nahal, meaning
+a valley or a river-valley, and subsequently a “river,” in a pre-eminent
+and exclusive sense. The ancient Egyptians called it the Ar or Aur
+(Koptic, Iaro), or “black”; hence the Greek word [...] allusion to the
+colour, not of the water, but of the sediment which it precipitated
+during the floods. In contrast to the yellow sands of the surrounding
+desert, the Nile mud is black enough to have given the land itself its
+oldest name, Kem, or Kemi, which has the same meaning of “black.” At
+Khartum, where the White Nile joins the Blue Nile, the main branch has
+a fall from its upper level in the region of the tropical lakes, four
+thousand feet above the sea, to twelve hundred feet, while traversing
+a distance of twenty-three hundred miles. From Khartum to the sea the
+distance through which the waters of the Nile wend their way is about
+eighteen hundred and forty miles. During the greater part of this course
+the flow is level, the average descent being about eight inches per
+mile. If it were not, therefore, for the obstruction met with in the
+Nubian section, the course of the Nile would be everywhere navigable.
+Although no perennial affluents enter the main stream lower down
+than Khartum, the volume of the Nile remains with little diminution
+throughout the entire distance to the Mediterranean. During the period
+of low water the amount of water in different localities is still
+uniform, notwithstanding all the irrigation, infiltration, and
+evaporation constantly taking place. The only explanation which has been
+given to this phenomenon is that there are hidden wells in the bed of
+the Nile, and from their flow the waste is ever renewed.
+
+As the earth revolves from west to east, the waters of the Nile tend
+to be driven upon the right bank on the west, where the current is
+constantly eating away the sandstone and limestone cliffs. For
+this reason the left side of the river is far more fertile and well
+cultivated than the right bank. Below Ombos the valley is narrowly
+constructed, being but thirteen hundred yards in width, the cliffs
+overhanging the river on either side, but at Thebes it broadens out to
+nine or ten miles, and farther up, in the Keneh district, the valley is
+twelve or fifteen miles in width. The river here approaches within sixty
+miles of the Red Sea, and it is believed that a branch of the Nile once
+flowed out into the sea in this direction.
+
+[Illustration: 237.jpg THE PLAIN OF THEBES]
+
+Seventy miles below Keneh the Nile throws from its left bank the Bahr
+Yusef branch, a small current of 350 feet in breadth, which flows for
+hundreds of miles through the broader strip of alluvial land between the
+main stream and the Libyan escarpments. In the Beni-Suef district this
+stream again bifurcates, the chief branch continuing to wind along the
+Nile Valley to a point above the Delta, where it joins the main
+stream. The left branch penetrates westward through a gap in the
+Libyan escarpments into the Fayum depression, ramifying into a thousand
+irrigating rills, and pouring its overflow into the Birket-el-Qarum, or
+“Lake of Horns,” which still floods the lowest cavity and is a remnant
+of the famous ancient Lake Moris. The Fayum, which is the territory
+reclaimed from the former lake, is now an exceedingly productive
+district, a sort of inland delta, fed like the marine delta by the
+fertilising flood-waters of the Nile.
+
+The traveller Junker wrote of this district in 1875: “I found myself
+surrounded by a garden tract of unsurpassed fertility, where there was
+scarcely room for a path amid the exuberant growths; where pedestrians,
+riders, and animals had to move about along the embankments of countless
+canals. Now a land of roses, of the vine, olive, sugar-cane, and cotton,
+where the orange and lemon plants attain the size of our apple-trees, it
+was in primeval times an arid depression of the stony and sandy Libyan
+waste.”
+
+North of the Fayum the Nile flows on to Cairo, where the narrow water
+way allowed to its course by the two lines of cliffs widens, and the
+cliffs recede to the right and left. There is thus space for the waters
+to spread and ramify over the alluvial plain. Nearly all this portion
+of Egypt has been covered by the sediment of the Nile, and from the
+earliest times there have been numerous distinct branches or channels of
+the river running out by separate openings into the sea. As several of
+these branches have been tapped to a great extent for irrigation, all
+except two have ceased to be true outlets of the Nile. In the Greek
+period there were seven mouths and several [...Greek...], or “false
+mouths.” The two remaining mouths are those of Rosetta and Damietta, and
+these were always the most important of the number. They branched off
+formerly close to the present spot where Cairo stands, a little below
+Memphis; but during two thousand years the fork has gradually shifted to
+about thirteen miles lower down.
+
+The triangular space enclosed by these two branches and the sea-coast
+was called by the Greeks the delta, on account of the likeness in
+shape to the Greek letter of that name A. At the head, or apex, of the
+triangle stands the famous barrage, or dam, begun in 1847 by Mehemet
+Ali, for the twofold purpose of reclaiming many thousand acres of waste
+land, and of regulating the discharge and the navigation through the
+Delta. The idea was originated by a Frenchman in his service named
+Linant Bey. This engineer desired to alter the course of the river and
+build a weir at a point farther to the north, where the contour of land
+seemed to favour the design more than that of the present locality.
+Mehemet Ali thought his plans too costly, and accepted in preference
+those of Mougel Bey. Unexpected difficulties were encountered from the
+very beginning. Mehemet was exceedingly anxious to hurry the work, and
+Mougel Bey had only made a beginning, when an exceptionally high Nile
+carried away all the lime in the concrete base. Mehemet Ali did not
+live to see the completion of this work. The object, could it have been
+realised, was to hold up the waters of the Nile during the eight months
+of the ebb, and thus keep them on a level with the soil, and at the same
+time to supply Lower Egypt with an amount of water equal to that which
+came down during flood-time. It was hoped to cover the very large
+expenditure by the additional land which it was expected would come
+under irrigation, and by doing away with the primitive _shadoofs_
+and setting free for productive enterprise the numerous army of the
+agricultural labourers who spent the greater part of their time in
+slowly raising up buckets of water from the Nile and pouring them into
+the irrigating channels.
+
+[Illustration: 240b.jpg Harbour at Suez]
+
+The barrage is a double bridge, or weir, the eastern part spanning the
+Damietta branch of the Nile, the western part the Rosetta branch. The
+appearance of the structure is so light and graceful that the spectator
+finds it hard to conceive of the difficulty and the greatness of the
+work itself. Architecturally, the barrage is very beautiful, with
+a noble front and a grand effect, produced by a line of castellated
+turrets, which mark the site of the sluice gates. There are two lofty
+crenellated towers, corresponding with the towers over the gateway of
+a mediaeval baronial castle. The sluices are formed of double cones of
+hollow iron, in a semicircular form, worked on a radii of rods fixed to
+a central axis at each side of the sluice-gate. They are slowly raised
+or let down by the labour of two men, the gates being inflected as they
+descend in the direction of the bed of that part of the river whose
+waters are retained. The working of the barrage was never what it was
+intended to be. After the year 1867 it ceased to be of any practical
+utility, and was merely an impediment to navigation. Between the
+years 1885--90, however, during the British occupation, Sir Colon
+Scott-Moncrieff successfully completed the barrage at a cost of
+$2,500,000, and now the desired depth of eight feet of water on the
+lower part of the Nile can always be maintained.
+
+[Illustration: 241.jpg THE NILE BARRAGE]
+
+It proved to be of the greatest advantage in saving labour worth
+hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and in the irrigation and
+navigation facilities that had been contemplated as among the benefits
+which would naturally accrue from its successful completion.
+
+Compared with the advance of the land seaward at the estuary of the
+Mississippi and the Ganges, the advance of the Nile seaward is very
+slow. This is accounted for by the geological theory that the Delta
+of the Nile is gradually sinking. If this is so, the tendency of the
+periodical deposit to raise the level of the Delta will be counteracted
+by the annual subsidence. These phenomena account for the gradual burial
+of Egyptian monuments under the sand, although the actual level of the
+sea above what it formerly was is quite unappreciable.
+
+The periodical rise in the Nile, recurring as regularly as the
+revolutions of the heavenly bodies, necessarily remained an unsolved
+mystery to the ancients, for until the discovery of the tropical
+regions, with their mountainous lakes and deluging rains, it was
+impossible to learn the occasion of this increase. It is now known that
+the Blue Nile, flowing out of the mountainous parts of Abyssinia, is the
+sole cause of the periodic overflow of the Nile. Without the tropical
+rains of the Ethiopian tablelands, there would be no great rise nor any
+fertilising deposits. Without the White Nile, which runs steadily from
+the perennial reservoirs of the great Central African lakes, the Lower
+Nile would assume the character of an intermittent wady, such as the
+neighbouring Khor Baraka, periodically flushed by the discharge of
+the torrential downpours from Abyssinia. Though there is a periodical
+increase in the flow of the upper waters of the White Nile, yet the
+effect of this, lower down, is minimised by the dense quantities of
+vegetable drift, which, combining with the forest of aquatic growth,
+forms those vast barriers, known by the name of _sudd_, which not only
+arrest navigation but are able to dam up large bodies of water.
+
+The sudd, it is supposed, stopped the advance of the Roman centurions
+who were sent up the Nile in the days of Nero. Sir Samuel Baker was
+the one who first pointed out the great disadvantage of allowing the
+vegetable matter to accumulate, both to merchants and to those who were
+employed to suppress the slave-trade. In the year 1863 the two branches
+of the White Nile were blocked above their junction at Lake No. Once
+blocked, the accumulation rapidly increased from the stoppage of outlet,
+forming the innumerable floating islands which at this part of the Nile
+customarily float down-stream. A marsh of vast extent had been
+formed, and to all appearance, as Baker narrates, the White Nile had
+disappeared. Baker cut through fifty miles of the sudd, and urged the
+khédive to reopen the Nile. The work was successfully undertaken by
+Ishmail Ayub Pasha, and the White Nile became clear for large vessels
+when Gordon reached Khartum in 1874. It is practically impossible to
+keep the central provinces of the Nile open to civilisation unless
+the course of the Nile is free. Yet in 1878 the obstruction had been
+renewed, and during the occupation of these provinces by the rebel
+dervishes under the Mahdi and the califa the Nile was completely
+blocked, as formerly, at Lake No. The alarming failure of the Nile flood
+in 1899--1900 was generally attributed to this blockade, and in
+1899 fifty thousand dollars was placed at the disposal of the
+governor-general for reopening the White Nile by removing the vast
+accumulation of sudd which blocked the Bahr-el-Jebel from Lake No almost
+as far as Shambeh. The work was started under the direction of Sir
+William Garstin in 1899. In 1900 the greater part of the sudd had been
+removed by the strenuous labours of Major Peake, and the Nile again
+became navigable from Khartum to Rejaf. The sudd was found to be piled
+up and of almost as close a structure as peat. It was sawn out in blocks
+ten feet square and carried away by gunboats. In the years 1901--02
+further progress was made, and twenty thousand dollars appropriated
+for the work; and by means of constant patrolling the sudd is now
+practically absent from the whole course of the White Nile.
+
+The discharge of the flood waters from the Upper Nile begins to make
+itself felt in Lower Nubia and Egypt in the month of June, at first
+slightly, and after the middle of July much more rapidly, the river
+continuing to rise steadily till the first week in October, when it
+reaches high-water mark, nearly fifty-four or fifty-five feet at the
+Egyptian frontier, and twenty-five or twenty-six feet at Cairo. A
+subsidence then sets in, and continues till low-water level is again
+reached, usually about the end of May. The floods are then much higher
+and confined to a narrower space in the Nubian section of the Nile,
+while they gradually die out in the region of the Delta, where the
+excess seawards is discharged by the Rosetta and Damietta branches. In
+place of the old Nilometers, the amount of the rise of the Nile is now
+reported by telegraph from meteorological stations.
+
+It is popularly supposed that at every rise the plains of the Delta are
+inundated, but this is not the case. The actual overflow of the banks
+of the river and canals is the exception, and when it happens is most
+disastrous. The irrigation of fields and plantations is effected by
+slow infiltration through the retaining dykes, which are prevented
+from bursting by the process of slow absorption. The first lands to be
+affected are not those which are nearest to the dyke, but those which
+are of the lowest level, because the waters, in percolating through
+under the ground, reach the surface of these parts first. In Manitoba
+during a dry season sometimes the roots of the wheat strike down deep
+enough to reach the reservoir of moisture under ground. In Egypt this
+underground moisture is what is counted upon, but it is fed by a special
+and prepared system, and is thus brought to the roots of the plants
+artificially.
+
+[Illustration: 245.jpg SCALE OF THE NILOMETER]
+
+An analysis of the Nile alluvium, which has accumulated in the course of
+ages to a thickness of from three to four feet above the old river-bed,
+shows that it contains a considerable percentage of such fertilising
+substances as carbonate of lime and magnesia, silicates of aluminum,
+carbon, and several oxides. Where the water has to be raised to higher
+levels, two processes are used. The primitive shadoof of native origin
+figured on a monument as far back as 3,300 years ago, and the more
+modern sakieh was apparently introduced in later times from Syria and
+Persia. The shadoof is used on small farms, and the sakieh is more often
+used for larger farms and plantations. These contrivances line the whole
+course of the Nile from Lower Egypt to above Khartum. The shadoof will
+raise six hundred gallons ten feet in an hour, and consists of a pole
+weighted at one end, with a bucket at the other; when the water is
+raised the weight counterbalances the weight of the full bucket. The
+sakieh, which will raise twelve hundred gallons twenty or twenty-four
+feet in an hour, is a modified form of a Persian wheel, made to revolve
+by a beast of burden; it draws an endless series of buckets up from the
+water, and automatically empties them into a trough or other receptacle.
+In former times these appliances were heavily taxed and made the
+instruments of oppression, but these abuses have been reformed since
+Egypt came under a more humane form of government.
+
+Another interesting feature of the water ways of Egypt is the
+intermittent watercourses. The largest of these is the Khor Baraka
+(Barka), which flows out towards Tapan, south of Suakin. It presents
+some analogy to the Nile, and in part was undoubtedly a perennial stream
+250 miles long, and draining seven or eight thousand square miles. At
+present its flat sandy bed, winding between well-wooded banks, is dry
+for a great part of the year. This route is extensively used for the
+caravan trade between Suakin and Kassala. During September the water
+begins to flow, but is spasmodic. After the first flood the natives
+plant their crops, but sometimes the second flow, being too great,
+cannot be confined to the limits prepared for it, and the crops are
+carried away and the sowing must of necessity be started again.
+
+[Illustration: 247.jpg A MODERN SAKIEH]
+
+The canals of Egypt are of great aid in extending the beneficial
+influence of the inundations of the Nile. In Lower Egypt is the
+Mahmudiyeh Canal, connecting Alexandria with the Rosetta branch, and
+following the same direction as an ancient canal which preceded it.
+
+Mehemet Ali constructed this canal, which is about fifty miles long and
+one hundred feet broad. It is believed that twelve thousand labourers
+perished during its construction. Between the Rosetta and the Damietta
+branches of the Nile there are other canals, such as the Manuf, which
+connects the two branches of the river at a point not far from the
+Delta. East of the Damietta branch are other canals, occupying the
+ancient river-beds of the Tanitic and Pelusiac branches of the Nile.
+One of these is called the canal of the El-Muiz, from the first Fatimite
+caliph who ruled in Egypt, and who ordered it to be constructed.
+Another is named the canal of Abul-Munegga, from the name of the Jew who
+executed this work under the caliph El-’Amir, in order to bring water
+into the province of Sharkiyah. This last canal is connected with the
+remains of the one which in ancient times joined the Nile with the Red
+Sea. After falling into neglect it has again in part been restored and
+much increased in length as the Sweet Water Canal.
+
+Further mention may also be made of the great canal called the
+Bahr-Yusef, or River Joseph, which is important enough to be classed as
+a ramification of the Nile itself. As has been mentioned, this water way
+runs parallel with the Nile on the west side below Cairo for about 350
+miles to Farshut, and is the most important irrigation canal in Egypt.
+It is a series of canals rather than one canal. Tradition states that
+this canal was repaired by the celebrated Saladin. Another tradition,
+relating that the canal existed in the time of the Pharaohs, has
+recently been proved to be correct.
+
+Egypt possesses not only the greatest natural water way in the world,
+but also the greatest artificial water way--the Suez Canal. Before the
+opening of this canal there were in the past other canals which afforded
+communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. These ancient
+canals differed in one respect from the Suez Canal, since they were all
+fed by the fresh waters of the Nile. One of these still remains in use,
+and is called the Fresh Water Canal. According to Aristotle, Strabo, and
+Pliny, Sesostris was the first to conceive and carry out the idea of a
+water connection between the two seas, by means of the Pelusiac branch
+of the Nile from Avaris to Bubastis, and by rendering navigable the
+irrigation canal which already existed between Bubastis and Heroopolis.
+It is believed by some that the fragment bearing the oval of Ramses II.
+found near the course of the present canal affords confirmation of this
+assertion.
+
+The first authentic account of the carrying out of the conception of
+an inter-sea water way is to be found in the time of Pharaoh Necho II.,
+about the year 610 B.C. Herodotus records of Necho that he was “the
+first to attempt the construction of the canal to the Red Sea.” This
+canal tapped the Nile at Bubastis, near Zagazig, and followed closely
+the line of modern Wady Canal to Heroopolis, the site of which lies in
+the neighbourhood of Toussun and Serapeum, between the Bitter Lakes and
+Lake Tinseh. At that date the Red Sea reached much farther inland than
+it does now, and was called in the upper portion the Heroopolite Gulf.
+The expanse of brackish water, now known as the Bitter Lakes, was then,
+in all probability, directly connected with the Red Sea. The length
+of this canal, according to Pliny, was sixty-two miles, or about
+fifty-seven English miles. This length, allowing for the sinuosity of
+the valley traversed, agrees with the distance between the site of old
+Bubastis and the present head of the Bitter Lakes. The length given
+by Herodotus of more than one thousand stadia (114 miles) must be
+understood to include the whole distance between the two seas, both by
+the Nile and by the canal. Herodotus relates that it cost the lives of
+120,000 men to cut the canal. He says that the undertaking was abandoned
+because of a warning from an oracle that the barbarians alone, meaning
+the Persians, would benefit by the success of the enterprise.
+
+[Illustration: 251.jpg HIEROGLYPHIC RECORD OF AN ANCIENT CANAL]
+
+The true reason for relinquishing the plan probably was that the
+Egyptians believed the Red Sea to have been higher in altitude than the
+Nile. They feared that if the canal were opened between the Nile and
+the Red Sea the salt water would flow in and make the waters of the Nile
+brackish. This explanation would indicate a lack of knowledge of locks
+and sluices on the part of the Egyptians.
+
+The work of Necho was continued by Darius, the son of Hystaspes (520
+B.C.). The natural channel of communication between the Heroopolite
+Gulf and the Red Sea had begun to fill up with silt even in the time of
+Necho, and a hundred years later, in the time of Darius, was completely
+blocked, so that it had to be entirely cleaned out to render it
+navigable. The traces of this canal can still be plainly seen in the
+neighbourhood of Shaluf, near the south end of the Bitter Lakes. The
+present fresh-water canal was also made to follow its course for some
+distance between that point and Suez. Persian monuments have been found
+by Lepsius in the neighbourhood, commemorating the work of Darius. On
+one of these the name of Darius is written in the Persian cuneiform
+characters, and on a cartouche in the Egyptian form. Until this date it
+therefore appears that ships sailed up the Pelusiac branch of the Nile
+to Bubastis, and thence along the canal to Heroopolis, where the cargoes
+were transhipped to the Red Sea. This inconvenient transfer of cargoes
+was remedied by the next Egyptian sovereign, who bestowed much care on
+the water connection between the two seas.
+
+Ptolemy Philadelphus (285 B.C.), in addition to cleaning out and
+thoroughly restoring the two canals, joined the fresh-water canal with
+the Heroopolite Gulf by means of a lock and sluices, which permitted the
+passage of vessels, and were effective in preventing the salt water from
+mingling with the fresh water. At the point where the canal joined the
+Heroopolite Gulf to the Red Sea, Ptolemy founded the town of Arsinoë, a
+little to the north of the modern Suez.
+
+The line of communication between the two seas was impassable during
+the reign of Cleopatra (31 b.c.). It is believed by some that it was
+restored during the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan (98-117). During
+this period the Pelusiac branch of the Nile was very low, the water
+having almost completely deserted this formerly well-filled course.
+If Trajan, therefore, undertook to reopen the water way, he must have
+tapped the Nile much higher up, in order to reach a plentiful supply of
+water. The old canal near Cairo, which elsewhere joined the line of
+the former canal on the way to the Bitter Lakes, was once called “Amnis
+Trajanus,” and from this it has been inferred that Trajan was really the
+builder, and that during his reign this canal was cleaned and rendered
+navigable. As there is no further evidence than the name to prove that
+Trajan undertook so important an enterprise, the “Amnis Trajanus” was
+probably constructed during the Arabic period.
+
+When Amr had conquered Egypt, according to another account, the caliph
+Omar ordered him to ship rich supplies of grain to Mecca and Medina,
+because during the pilgrimages these cities and often the whole of
+Hedjaz suffered severely from famine. As it was extremely difficult to
+send large quantities of provisions across the desert on the backs
+of camels, it is supposed that to facilitate this transportation Omar
+ordered the construction of the canal from a point near Cairo to the
+head of the Red Sea. On account of his forethought in thus providing for
+the pilgrims to the Hedjaz, Omar received the title of “Prince of the
+Faithful” (Emir el-Momenéen), which thenceforth was adopted by his
+successors in the caliphate. One hundred and thirty-four years after
+this time, El-Mansur, the second caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, is said
+to have closed the canal to prevent supplies from being shipped to one
+of the descendants of Ali who had revolted at Medina. Since that time it
+is probable that it has never been reopened, although there is a report
+that the Sultan Hakim rendered it available for the passage of boats in
+the year A.D. 1000, after which it was neglected and became choked with
+sand. While not thereafter used for navigation, there were parts which
+during the time of the annual inundation of the Nile were filled with
+water, until Mehemet Ali prevented this. The parts filled during the
+inundation extended as far as Sheykh Hanaydik, near Toussun and the
+Bitter Lakes.
+
+The old canal which left the Nile at Cairo had long ceased to flow
+beyond the outskirts of the city, and the still more ancient canal from
+the neighbourhood of Bubastis, now known as the Wady Canal, extended
+only a few miles in the direction of the isthmus as far as Kassassin.
+During the construction of the Suez Canal the need of supplying the
+labourers with fresh water was imperative. The company, therefore,
+determined in 1861 to prolong the canal from Kassassin to the centre of
+the isthmus, and in the year 1863 they brought the fresh-water canal as
+far as Suez. In one or two places the bed of the old canal was cleared
+out and made to serve the new canal. The level of the fresh-water canal
+is about twenty feet above that of the Suez Canal, which it joins at
+Ismailia by means of two locks. The difference of level between it and
+the Red Sea is remedied by four locks constructed between Nefeesh and
+its terminus at Suez. Its average depth of water at high Nile is six
+feet, and at low Nile three feet.
+
+A canal from Bulak, near Cairo, passing by Heliopolis and Belbeys, and
+joining the Wady Canal a few miles east of Zagazig, restores the line
+of water communication between the Nile and the Red Sea as it existed
+perhaps in the time of Trajan, and certainly as it was in the time of
+the Caliph Omar. The improvement of this canal as a means of transit is
+local and external only.
+
+Napoleon Bonaparte was the first in modern times to take up the subject
+of a water connection between the two seas. In 1798 he examined the
+traces of the old canal of Necho and his successors, and ordered
+Monsieur Lepère to survey the isthmus and prepare a project for uniting
+the two seas by a direct canal. The result of this French engineer’s
+labours was to discover a supposed difference of thirty feet between
+the Red Sea at high tide and the Mediterranean at low tide. As this
+inequality of level seemed to preclude the idea of a direct maritime
+canal, a compromise was recommended.
+
+Owing to the exertions of Lieutenant Waghorn, the route through
+Egypt for the transmission of the mails between England and India was
+determined upon in 1839. The Peninsular and Oriental Company established
+a service of steamers between England and Alexandria, and between Suez
+and India. In spite of this endeavour nothing was actually accomplished
+with regard to a canal until 1846, when a mixed commission was appointed
+to enquire into the subject. This commission entirely exploded the error
+into which Lepère had fallen in reporting a difference of level between
+the two seas.
+
+A plan was projected in 1855 by M. Linant Bey and M. Mougel Bey, under
+the superintendence of M. de Les-seps, who had already received a firman
+of concession from Said Pasha. This plan recommended a direct canal
+between Suez and Pelusium, which should pass through the Bitter Lakes,
+Lake Tinseh, Ballah, and Menzaleh, and connecting with the sea at each
+end by means of a lock. A fresh-water canal from Bulak to the centre of
+the isthmus and thence through Suez, with a conduit for conveying water
+to Pelusium, was also proposed. This project was in 1856 submitted to
+an international commission company composed of representatives from
+England, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Prussia, and Spain,
+and the following modification was suggested: that the line of the canal
+to the north should be slightly altered and brought to a point seventeen
+and a half miles west of Pelusium, this change being determined upon
+from the fact that the water at this point was from twenty-five to
+thirty feet deep at a distance of two miles from the coast, whereas at
+Pelusium this depth of water was only to be found at a distance of
+five miles from the coast. It was suggested that the plan for locks
+be abolished, and the length of the jetties at Suez and Port Said be
+diminished. Various other details of a minor character were determined,
+and this project was finally accepted and carried through by the Suez
+Canal Company.
+
+[Illustration: 259.jpg FERDINAND DE LESSEPS]
+
+In 1854 M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose father was the first
+representative of France in Egypt after the occupation, and who was
+chosen consul at Cairo (1831--1838), obtained a preliminary concession
+from Said Pasha, authorising him to form a company for the purpose of
+excavating a canal between the two seas, and laying down the connections
+on which the concession was granted. This was followed by the drawing up
+and revision of the project mentioned above, and by the renewal in
+1856 of the first concession with certain modifications and additions.
+Meanwhile the British government, under the influence of Lord
+Palmerston, then foreign secretary, endeavoured for various political
+reasons to place obstacles in the way of the enterprise, and so far
+succeeded in this unworthy attempt as to prevent the sultan from giving
+his assent to the concessions made by the viceroy of Egypt. Nothing,
+however, could daunt the intrepid promoter, M. de Lesseps. He declared
+his motto to be “Pour principe de commencer par avoir de la con-fiance.”
+ Undeterred by intrigues, and finding that his project met with a
+favourable reception throughout the Continent of Europe, he determined,
+in 1858, to open a subscription which would secure funds for the
+undertaking. The capital, according to the statistics of the company,
+approved in the firman of the concession, was to consist of forty
+million dollars in shares of one hundred dollars each. More than half
+of this amount was subscribed for, and eventually, in 1860, Said Pasha
+consented to take up the remaining unallotted shares, amounting to more
+than twelve million dollars. Disregarding the opposition of the English
+government, and ignoring the Sublime Porte, which was influenced by
+England, M. de Lesseps began his work in 1859, and on the 25th of April
+of that year the work was formally commenced, in the presence of M. de
+Lesseps and four directors of the company, by the digging of a small
+trench along the projected line of the canal, on the narrow strip of
+land between Lake Menzaleh and the Mediterranean. This was followed
+by the establishment of working encampments in different parts of the
+isthmus.
+
+Although the first steps were thus taken, incredible difficulties
+prevented de Lesseps from pushing forward with his work. Towards the
+close of 1862 the actual results were only a narrow “rigole” cut from
+the Mediterranean to Lake Tinseh, and the extension of the freshwater
+canal from Rasel-Wady to the same point. The principal work done in 1863
+was the continuation of the fresh-water canal to Suez. At this point a
+fresh obstacle arose which threatened to stop the work altogether.
+Among the articles of the concession of 1856 was one providing that
+four-fifths of the workmen on the canal should be Egyptians. Said Pasha
+consented to furnish these workmen by conscription from different parts
+of Egypt, and the company agreed to pay them at a rate equal to about
+two-thirds less than was given for similar work in Europe, and one-third
+more than they received in their own country, and to provide them with
+food, dwellings, etc. In principle this was the _corvée_, or forced
+labour. The fellaheen were taken away from their homes and set to work
+at the canal, though there is no doubt that they were as well treated
+and better paid than at home. The injustice and impolicy of this clause
+had always been insisted upon to the sultan by the English government,
+and when Ismail Pasha became viceroy, in the year 1863, he saw that
+the constant drain upon the working population required to keep twenty
+thousand fresh labourers monthly for the canal was a loss to the country
+for which nothing could compensate. In the early part of 1864 he refused
+to continue to send the monthly contingent, and the work was almost
+stopped.
+
+By the consent of all the parties, the subjects in dispute were
+submitted to the arbitrage of the French Emperor Napoleon III., who
+decided that the two concessions of 1854 and 1856, being in the nature
+of a contract and binding on both parties, the Egyptian government
+should pay an indemnity equal to the fellah labour and $6,000,000 for
+the resumption of the lands originally granted, two hundred metres only
+being retained on each side of the canal for the erection of workshops,
+the deposit of soil, etc., and $3,200,000 for the fresh-water canal, and
+the right of levying tolls on it. The Egyptian government undertook to
+keep it in repair and navigable, and to allow the company free use of
+it for any purpose. The sum total of these payments amounted to
+$16,800,000, and was to be paid in sixteen instalments from 1864 to
+1879.
+
+The company now proceeded to replace by machinery the manual labour,
+and, thanks to the energy and ingenuity of the principal contractors,
+Messrs. Borel and Lavalley, that which seemed first of all to threaten
+destruction to the enterprise now led to its ultimate success. Without
+the machinery thus called into action, it is probable that the canal
+would never have been completed when it was. The ingenuity displayed
+in the invention of this machinery, and its application to this vast
+undertaking, constituted one of the chief glories in the enterprise of
+M. de Lesseps.
+
+The work now proceeded without interruption of any kind; but at the end
+of the year 1867 it became evident that more money would be needed, and
+a subscription was opened for the purpose of obtaining $20,000,000 by
+means of one hundred dollar shares, issued at $600 a share, and bearing
+interest at the rate of five dollars a share. When more money was needed
+in 1869, the government agreed to renounce the interest on the shares
+held by it for twenty-five years, and more bonds were issued.
+
+By help of these subventions and loans the work was pushed onward with
+great vigour. The sceptical were gradually losing their scepticism,
+and all the world was awakening to see what an immense advantage to
+civilisation the triumph of de Lesseps’ engineering enterprise would be.
+
+[Illustration: 263.jpg THE OPENING OF THE SUEZ CANAL]
+
+The great Frenchman had shown consummate skill as an organiser, but
+still more perhaps as an astute diplomatist, who knew how to upset
+the machinations of his numerous and powerful opponents by judicious
+counter-strokes of policy. By the beginning of 1869, the great labours
+of the company had very nearly reached their completion. The waters,
+flowing from the Mediterranean, first entered into the Bitter Lakes on
+March 18, 1869. Ismail Pasha was present to watch the initial success of
+the grand undertaking, and predicted that in a very short space of time
+the canal would be open to the ships of all the world. The first steamer
+which made the passage was one which carried M. de Lesseps on board,
+and which steamed the whole length of the canal September, 1869, in an
+interval of fifteen hours. This was a great triumph for the intrepid and
+persevering engineer, whose enterprise had been scoffed at by many men
+of the greatest European fame, and the completion of which had been
+delayed by incredible obstacles arising from jealousy or want of funds.
+By this time the unworthy tactics of the former Palmerston ministry of
+Great Britain in opposition to a scheme of such universal helpfulness
+to commerce had been succeeded by an official interest in the success
+of the enterprise which grew from sentiment, in the first instance, to
+a willingness later to buy up all the shares held by the Egyptian
+government. M. de Lesseps gave formal notice early in September that the
+canal would be opened for navigation on November 17, 1869. The khédive
+made costly preparations in order that the event might become an
+international celebration. Invitations were sent to all the sovereigns
+of Europe. The sultan refused to be present, but the Empress Eugenie
+accepted the invitation in the name of the French people. The Austrian
+emperor, the Prussian crown prince, and Prince Amadeus of Italy also
+took part in the festivity. The initial ceremony was on November 15th,
+at Port Said. Emperor Francis Joseph landed at midday, and was received
+with pomp and magnificence by the Khedive Ismail. There were splendid
+decorations in the streets and triumphal arches were raised. Meanwhile
+salutes were exchanged between the batteries and the ships of war in the
+harbour. At night there were gorgeous illuminations and fireworks. The
+khédive gave a grand ball on his own yacht, at which the Emperor of
+Austria and all the distinguished guests were in attendance. The French
+empress then arrived in Alexandria, and was received by Ismail and
+Francis Joseph with salutes of guns and the acclamations of the people.
+The next day the French imperial yacht Aigle, with the empress on board,
+proceeded to steam up the canal, being followed by forty vessels. They
+reached Ismailia after eight hours and a half, and were there met by
+vessels coming from the south end at Suez. On November 19th the fleet
+of steamers, led by the French imperial yacht, set out for Suez. They
+anchored overnight at the Bitter Lakes, and on November 21st the whole
+fleet of forty-five steamers arrived at Suez and entered the Red Sea.
+The empress, accompanied by the visiting fleet, returned on November
+22nd, and reached the Mediterranean on the 23rd.
+
+England, the country which more than any other had opposed the progress
+of the canal, derived more benefit than any other country from its
+completion. In 1875 the British government bought 176,600 shares from
+the khédive for a sum of nearly $20,000,000; and at the present time the
+value of these shares has risen more than fourfold. By this acquisition
+the British government became the largest shareholder. Of the shipping
+which avails itself of this route to the East, which is shorter by six
+thousand miles than any other, about eighty per cent, is British. In
+1891, of 4,207 ships, with a grain tonnage of 12,218,000, as many as
+3,217 of 9,484,000 tons were British.
+
+Extensive works were undertaken in 1894 for the widening of the canal.
+Illuminated buoys and electric lights have been introduced to facilitate
+the night traffic, so that, proceeding continuously, instead of stopping
+overnight, ships can now pass through in less than twenty hours in place
+of the thirty-five or forty hours which were formerly taken to effect
+the passage. These greater facilities postponed the need of discussing
+the project for running a parallel canal to the East which some time ago
+was thought to be an impending necessity on account of the blockage of
+the canal by the number of vessels passing through its course.
+
+By the Anglo-French Convention of 1888, the canal had acquired an
+international character. Both the water way itself and the isthmus for
+three miles on either side were declared neutral territory, exempt from
+blockade, fortification, or military occupation of any kind. The passage
+is to remain open for all time to ships of all nations, whether they are
+war-ships or merchantmen or liners, or whether the country to which they
+belong is engaged in war or enjoying peace. Within this convention was
+included the fresh-water canal which supplies drinking water to Ismailia
+and Port Said, and all the floating population about the banks of
+the Suez Canal. On April 8, 1904, by the terms of a new Anglo-French
+Colonial Treaty, it has been jointly agreed that the provisions of the
+Convention of 1888 shall remain in force for the next thirty years.
+
+Egypt was the scene of the earliest of all advances in engineering
+science. The system of irrigation, which originated in the days of the
+oldest Egyptian dynasties, has remained practically the same through all
+the intervening centuries until very recent times. During every period
+of vigorous government the rulers of Egypt paid special attention to
+irrigation canals and sluices, through which the flood waters could
+be brought to some hitherto uncultivated area. The famous barrage,
+projected early in the nineteenth century and only rendered efficient
+for what it was intended since the British occupation, made very little
+alteration in the actual supply of water during the seasons of low water
+in the Nile. The most serious problem is how to ward off the periodical
+famine years, of which there has been record from the earliest ages,
+and of which the Book of Genesis has left an account in the history of
+Joseph and the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Without
+creating such a vast reservoir in the upper waters of the Nile, that the
+storage there retained can be available in years of low water to fill
+the river to its accustomed level, it is impossible to prevent
+the calamity occasioned by leaving many districts of Egypt without
+cultivation for one or more seasons. With the desire of accomplishing
+this, Sir Benjamin Baker, the leading authority on engineering works in
+Egypt, prepared a scheme for reserving a vast storage of water in Upper
+Egypt at Aswan. It was also decided to follow up the enterprise with
+another to be undertaken at Assiut.
+
+On February 20,1898, the khédive approved of a contract with Messrs.
+John Aird and Company, which settled the much-debated question of the
+Nile reservoir and the scheme for the great dam at Aswan. The government
+was able to start the undertaking without any preliminary outlay. It was
+agreed that the company should receive the sum of $800,000 a year for
+a period of thirty years. Aswan, six hundred miles south of Cairo, was
+selected as an advantageous site because the Nile at that place flows
+over a granite bed, and is shut in on either side by granite rocks,
+which, when the course of the river is barred, would form the shores of
+the artificial irrigation lake.
+
+Before this work started, there had been a long controversy as to the
+effect produced by the rising waters upon the renowned temple on the
+Isle of Philæ. Lord Leighton, the president of the Royal Academy, had
+vigorously protested against allowing the destruction of this famous
+ancient ruin. In the modification of the plans caused by this protest,
+it was hoped that no serious harm would result to this well-preserved
+relic of ancient Egyptian religion and art.
+
+[Illustration: 269.jpg APPROACH TO PHILAE]
+
+The enterprise was put through with great rapidity, the project
+fully realising the designs of its inaugurators. By aid of this great
+structure, 2,500 square miles have been added to the area of the 10,500
+miles hitherto subject to cultivation. Its value to the country is at
+the least worth $100,000,000. The dam extends for one and a quarter
+miles, and possesses 180 openings, each of which is twenty-three feet
+high, and will altogether allow the outpour of fifteen thousand tons of
+water per second. Navigation up and down the Nile has not been impeded,
+since, by a chain of four locks, vessels are able to pass up and down
+the river. Each lock is 260 feet long and thirty-two feet wide. During
+flood-time the gates of the dam are open; while the flood is subsiding
+the gates are gradually closed, and thus, in a long season of low water,
+the reservoir is gradually filled up for use through a system of canals,
+whereby the waters can be drawn off for irrigation and the main flow of
+the Nile can be increased. The lake thus formed is nearly three times
+the superficial area of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, and the waters are
+held back for a distance of 140 miles up the course of the river. The
+reservoir is filled during the months of January and February, and from
+April to the end of August the water is let out for irrigation purposes
+from the bottom of the reservoir, thus enabling the sediment, which
+is of such value, to be carried out through the sluices. Four or five
+waterings are allowed to percolate from it to the various regions which
+are thus brought under cultivation, and besides this the main supply of
+the river itself is artificially increased at the same time.
+
+The dam has been constructed of granite ashlar taken from quarries near
+Aswan. These quarries are the very same from which the ancient obelisks
+were hewn. The amount of rock used was about one million tons in
+weight. In building the dam it was found to be very difficult to lay the
+foundation, since the bottom of the river proved to be unsound, although
+in the preliminary reports it had been declared to be of solid granite.
+In some instances it was found necessary to dig down for forty feet, in
+order to lay a perfectly secure foundation on which the heavy wall could
+be superimposed. This required much additional labour, and great risk
+and damage was encountered during the progress of the work at the date
+of the impending rise of the waters of the Nile. Rubble dams were
+raised to ward off the waters from the point where it was necessary to
+excavate. The holes were gradually filled with solid blocks of granite;
+then the base of the structure, one hundred feet in width, was laid,
+and the massive piers, capable of resisting the immense pressure of
+the water during the height of the floods, were raised, and the whole
+edifice was at length completed with great rapidity by the aid of
+many thousand workmen, just before the rise in the Nile occurred. The
+official opening of the dam took place on the 10th of December, 1902.
+
+The dam at Aswan is the greatest irrigation project ever yet undertaken,
+but is by no means the last one likely to be executed in relation to
+the waters of the Nile. A smaller dam is to be constructed at Assiut,
+in order to supply a system of irrigation in the neighbourhood of that
+city, and also to carry water across to thousands of acres between this
+region and Cairo. This project is planned somewhat after the design of
+the barrage which is below Cairo.
+
+It is impossible to forecast what engineering skill may have in
+store for the future of Egypt. One may hope, at least, that the most
+prosperous days of the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Romans will be
+reproduced once more for the modern Egyptians, as an outcome of the
+wise administration which has originated through the occupation of the
+country by the English, as an international trust held for civilisation.
+By aid of British initiative, Egypt now controls a vast empire in
+equatorial Africa and the Sudan, and the great water ways of this
+immense territory are being gradually brought under such control that
+the maximum advantage to all the population will be the necessary
+result. The whole Nile is now opened to commerce. The British have
+guaranteed equal rights, and what has been called the policy of the
+“open door,” for the commerce of all nations.
+
+The history of the modern exploration of the Nile is closely associated
+with the history of Egypt in modern times. The men who first
+visited Egypt and ascended the Nile valley were in almost every case
+Indo-Euro-peans. The early Egyptians were familiar perhaps with the
+Nile as far as Khartum, and with the Blue Nile up to its source in Lake
+Tsana, but they showed little or no interest in exploring the White
+Nile. In 457 B.C., Herodotus entered Egypt, and ascended the Nile as
+far as the First Cataract. He then learned many things about its upper
+waters, and made enquiries about the territories which lay beyond.
+He heard that the source was unknown; that there was a centre of
+civilisation in a city of the Ethiopians, in the bend of the Nile at
+Meroë (Merawi of to-day), but about the regions beyond he was unable to
+learn anything. Eratosthenes, the earliest geographer of whom we
+have record, was born in 276 b. c. at Cyrene, North Africa. From the
+information he gathered and edited, he sketched a nearly correct route
+of the Nile to Khartum. He also inserted the two Abyssinian affluents,
+and suggested that lakes were the source of the river.
+
+When Rome extended her domains over Egypt, in 30 B.C., the interest of
+the Romans was aroused in the solution of the problem of the discovery
+of the source of the Nile. Strabo set out with Ælius Gallus, the Roman
+Governor of Egypt, on a journey of exploration up the Nile as far as
+Philæ, at the First Cataract. About 30 B.C. Greek explorers by the names
+of Bion, Dalion, and Si-mondes were engaged in active exploration of the
+Nile above the First Cataract and perhaps south of Khartum, according to
+the account of Pliny the Elder, writing in 50 A.D. The Emperor Nero, in
+A.D. 66, sent an expedition up the Nile, and its members journeyed as
+far as the modern Fashoda and perhaps even beyond the White Nile.
+Their advance was impeded by the sudd, and, after writing discouraging
+reports, their attempt was abandoned. Among the Greek merchants who
+traded on the East African coast was one named Diogenes, who had been
+informed by an Arab that by a twenty-five days’ journey one could gain
+access to a chain of great lakes, two of which were the headwaters of
+the White Nile. They also said that there was a mountain range, named
+from its brilliant appearance the Mountains of the Moon. He was informed
+that the Nile formed from the two head streams, flowed through marshes
+until it united with the Blue Nile, and then it flowed on until it
+entered into well-known regions. Diogenes reported this to a Syrian
+geographer named Marinus of Tyre, who wrote of it in his _Geography_
+during the first century of the Christian era. The writings of Marinus
+disappeared, it is supposed, when the Alexandrian Library was scattered,
+but luckily Gladius Ptolemy quoted them, and thus they have been
+preserved for us. Ptolemy wrote, in 150 A.D., the first clearly
+intelligible account of the origin of the White Nile, the two lakes,
+Victoria and Albert Nyanza, and the Mountains of the Moon. But no less
+than 1,740 years elapsed before justice could be done to this ancient
+geographer, and his account verified. It was Sir Henry M. Stanley who
+discovered the Ruwanzori mountain range, corresponding to the classical
+Mountains of the Moon, and who thus justified Ptolemy’s view of
+the topography of Africa. For many years after Ptolemy, the work of
+exploring the sources of the Nile was entirely discontinued, and the
+solution of the problem was still wrapped in impenetrable mystery.
+
+The first modern explorer of any consequence who came from Great Britain
+was a Scotchman named Bruce. In 1763 he travelled through many ports
+of Northern Africa and visited the Levant, and subsequently Syria and
+Palestine. Wherever he went he drew sketches of antiquities, which are
+now preserved in the British Museum. Landing in Africa in 1786, he went
+up the Nile as far as Aswan. From there he travelled to the Red Sea and
+reached Jiddah, the port of Hajas. He then returned to Africa, stopping
+at Massawra, and from there penetrated into the heart of Abyssinia.
+The emperor received him with favour and suffered him to reach the Blue
+Nile, which to the mind of Bruce had always been considered as the main
+stream of the Nile. Having determined the latitude and longitude, he
+went down the Blue Nile as far as the site of Khartum, where the waters
+of the White Nile join with those of the Blue Nile. He next proceeded
+to Berber, and crossed the desert to Korosko, returning, after a three
+years’ journey, in the year 1773. In journeying through France many
+learned men took a great interest in the story of his explorations, but
+he was bitterly disappointed to hear that he had not been the first to
+reach the sources of the Blue Nile. Partly for this reason he delayed
+publishing his travels for seventeen years after his return. Bruce was a
+truthful and accurate writer, but nevertheless his book was received on
+all sides with incredulity. Although received at the British court, he
+was not given any special honours or decorations. He first pointed out
+the great importance to England of controlling the Egyptian route to
+India, and he also secured for English merchants a concession on the Red
+Sea.
+
+In 1812, John Ludwig Burckhardt, of Swiss nationality, the first among
+Europeans, made a pilgrimage to Mecca and then travelled up the Nile
+to Korosko, after which he crossed the desert to Berber and Shendy.
+His death occurred after his return to Cairo, and he left a valuable
+collection of Oriental manuscripts to the University of Cambridge,
+England, which were published after his death.
+
+In 1827, a Belgian, named Adolphe Lisiant, ascended the White Nile to
+within 150 miles of Khartum. The expedition which he led was aided by
+an English society, called the “African Association,” which became
+afterwards a part of the Royal Geographical Society. Many explorers
+visited the White Nile between 1827 and 1845. In 1845, John Pethrick, a
+Welshman, explored the Nile for coal and precious metals in the interest
+of Mehemet Ali. After the death of this pasha, Pethrick visited El-Obeid
+in Kordofan as a trader, and remained there for five years. In 1853
+he ventured upon an enterprise relating to the ivory trade. For this
+purpose he travelled backwards and forwards upon the White Nile and the
+Bahr-el-Ghazal for a period of six years, reaching some of the important
+affluents of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, the Jur and the Jalo, or the Rol.
+Returning to England, he was commissioned to undertake a relief
+expedition to help Captains Speke and Grant, who had set out upon their
+journey of exploration, and in the year 1861 he returned to Central
+Africa. Interest in the slave-trade deterred him from following the
+directions under which he had been sent out, namely, to bring relief
+to Speke and Grant. Sir Samuel Baker anticipated him in relieving the
+expedition, and this so angered Speke that he attempted to have Pethrick
+deprived of his consular position. Pethrick died in 1882.
+
+When Lieutenant Richard Francis Burton had completed his famous journey
+through Hedjaz to the sacred city of Mecca, he called at the port of
+Aden at the southwest extremity of Arabia. While there, he made friends
+with the authorities, and persuaded them to allow him to penetrate
+Africa through Somaliland, which is situated to the southwest of
+Abyssinia. He hoped by an overland journey westbound to strike the Nile
+at its headwaters. John H. Speke accompanied Burton on his journey, and
+thus gained his first experience of African exploration. Unfortunately
+this expedition was not a success, for the Somali were so suspicious
+of the object of the travellers that they forced them to return to the
+coast.
+
+[Illustraton: 277.jpg THE MAIN STREAM OF THE NILE]
+
+Once more, in 1856, the same party started farther south from Zanzibar.
+Hearing of a great inland lake, they pressed forwards to make an
+exploration, but were prevented by the Masai tribes. Burton was now laid
+up with fever, and Speke formed a large party and crossed the Unyamivezi
+and Usukuma. On July 30, 1858, they were fortunate enough to cross one
+of the bays of the southern half of Lake Victoria Nyanza. They struck
+northwards, and, on August 3rd, gained sight of the open waters of the
+great lake. Speke did not realise the vast area of the lake at this
+time, and put down its width at about one hundred miles. As he had
+promised Burton to return at a certain pre-arranged date, he went back
+to the coast. Burton, however, was unreasonable enough to be displeased
+with Speke’s discovery, and the two fell into strained relations. On
+arriving at the coast, Speke at once went back to England, and there
+raised funds to make a longer and more complete exploration. He was
+naturally anxious to learn more about the great lake in the middle of
+the continent, and, besides this, he thought that he could demonstrate
+to the satisfaction of the scientific world that this vast basin of
+water was the source of the White Nile. Captain James A. Grant asked
+leave to accompany Speke, and became his efficient lieutenant. Grant was
+a good shot, a matter of importance, for it was almost certain that
+the party would have to confront the danger of being surrounded by wild
+beasts and hostile natives. He was also a good geologist and painted
+well in water-colours, and proved himself to be a capable lieutenant
+to the leader of the party. The Indian government sent the expedition a
+quantity of ammunition and surveying instruments.
+
+The party started from Zanzibar for the interior in October, 1860. At
+Usugara they were detained by the illness of Captain Grant and some of
+the Hottentot retainers. A number of the instruments were now sent back
+in order to lighten the burdens, and among other things was returned the
+cumbrous photographic apparatus, which was the only kind in use in the
+sixties. At Ugogo serious trouble arose with the native chiefs, who
+demanded tolls from the party. Many of the remaining porters here
+deserted, and others were frightened by the hostility of the local
+tribes. When at length they reached the Unyamivezi most of the beasts of
+burden had died, and half of the stores they had intended to bring with
+them were found to have been stolen by the natives. The Arabs here told
+Speke that there was another lake besides the Victoria, whose waters,
+according to some, were reported to be salty.
+
+Fierce internecine wars were now being waged between the tribes of the
+locality, which made any thought of progress, so long as they lasted,
+an impossibility. Speke, having successfully endeavoured to negotiate a
+peace between the chief Mouwa and the Arabs of the region, resolved upon
+the bold enterprise of pushing on without Grant and the supplies
+towards Buzina, the nearest country ruled by Bahima chiefs. The venture,
+however, was a fruitless one, and he bravely struggled to reach Usui.
+In this he succeeded, remaining there till October, 1861, when he went
+through the region of the Suwaroras, who demanded excessive tolls
+for permission to pass through their territory. Proceeding into the
+wilderness, they were met by envoys from Rumanika, a king whose court
+they intended to visit, and who had heard in advance of their impending
+journey. The messengers of the king received them well and brought them
+to the court. Rumanika now desired them to remain at his capital until
+he had sent word before them that the party intended to go to Uganda.
+Grant, about this time, was laid up with an ulcerated leg; and, when the
+time came for moving forward, Speke was obliged to set out for Uganda
+alone, which place he entered on January 16, 1862. He became a close
+friend of the royal family and the chief men, and his beard was a
+constant source of admiration and conversation.
+
+The illness of Grant prevented him from joining the party at Uganda till
+the end of May, and on July 7th of the same year, after many delays,
+they obtained leave from the king to leave Uganda. By July the 28th,
+Speke had reached the Ripon Falls, where the Victoria Nyanza branch of
+the Nile flows out of the great lake at the head of Napoleon Gulf. These
+falls were called after the Marquis of Ripon, who was then the
+president of the Royal Geographical Society. At this time, Grant, still
+convalescent, was moving by a more direct route towards Ungaro. Speke
+met him again on the way thither, and they finished their journey
+together. After suffering vexatious impositions from the monarch,
+Speke asked leave to go and visit a new lake which the natives called
+Lutanzige, but was refused permission. He then sent Bombay, his servant
+and interlocutor, along the course of the Nile towards the outposts
+of Pethrick. The messenger returned with hopeful news that there was
+a clear course open to them in that direction. The whole party then
+journeyed down the Kafu River to the point where it enters the Nile.
+On the way thither, they came to the Karuma Falls, and were obliged
+to march across swampy ground. Finally they met a Sudanese black named
+Mu-hammed Wad-el-Mek, who was dressed like an Egyptian and who spoke
+Arabic. Muhammed first of all told them that he had come from Pethrick,
+but it was later discovered that he was in the employment of Doctor
+Bono, a trader from Malta. The Sudanese was not anxious that the
+party should proceed, and told them stories about the impossibility of
+ascending the river at that time, during the month of December. It was
+difficult to dissuade Speke, however, and on January 12, 1863, he set
+out for a place which is now called Affudu. There the party paused for
+awhile in order to kill enough game to feed the native servants. On the
+1st of February, having forced some of the natives into their service as
+porters, they descended the Nile to its confluence with the Asua River.
+They next crossed this river, and proceeded onwards to the Nile Rapids,
+and from thence skirted the borders of the Bari country. On February 15,
+1863, they made an entrance into Gondokoro, where the whole party was
+filled with joy to meet Sir Samuel Baker, who had arrived there on the
+way out to relieve them. They all advanced together to Khartum, after
+which Speke and Grant returned to England, in the spring of 1863. Thus
+was the task of the discovery of the sources of the Nile, which had
+baffled the seekers for many centuries, at length completed. Speke was
+received by the Prince of Wales (King Edward VII.), but the satisfaction
+of being allowed to place an additional motto on his coat-of-arms was
+the only recognition which he received for his services.
+
+As a result of Speke’s discoveries, the Victoria Nyanza took its place
+on the maps of Africa, and a fair conception had been obtained of the
+size and shape of Lake Albert Nyanza.
+
+[Illustration: 283.jpg THE FERRY AT OLD CAIRO]
+
+The whole course of the White Nile was also revealed with more or less
+accuracy, and all the mysterious surmises as to the great flow of the
+Nile from some unknown headwaters of enormous extent were now solved.
+It was only necessary to fill in the details of the map in regard to
+the great lakes and the rivers which flowed into them, and further to
+investigate the extensive territory between the lakes and the Egyptian
+settlements to the north. Sir Samuel Baker was the man who more than
+any other helped to supply the details of the work already accomplished.
+From Cairo he started on a journey up the course of the Nile. When he
+had reached Berber, he chose the course of the At-bara, or Blue Nile,
+the branch which receives the floods of water from the Abyssinian
+table-lands. He travelled up the western frontier of Abyssinia,
+proceeding as far as the river Rahad, a river flowing into the Blue Nile
+from the Egyptian side. From this point Baker turned backwards towards
+Khartum, which he reached in June, 1862, where he made a stay of some
+duration. He now made up his mind to search for Speke, and went up the
+White Nile as far as Gondokoro, where the meeting with Speke took place.
+Baker left this place March 26, 1863, but met with almost insuperable
+obstacles in trying to make further advance. The porters deserted, the
+camels died, and the ammunition and the presents intended to ease the
+way through the territory of native princes had to be all abandoned.
+Thus disencumbered, his party ascended the White Nile until they reached
+the Victoria affluent. The Bauyno tribes now prevented his intended
+advance to the Albert Nyanza. Baker, however, had the good fortune to be
+well received by the chieftain Kamurasi, and, as he was at this moment
+suffering from a severe attack of fever, the friendliness of this
+Central African chieftain was probably the means of saving his life. The
+king graciously received Baker’s present of a double-barrelled gun, and
+then sent him onward with two guides and three hundred men. The party
+now managed to push their way to the shores of the Albert Nyanza. They
+first arrived at a place called Mbakovia, situated near the south-east
+coast, and on March 16, 1864, they saw for the first time the great lake
+itself, which they now named the Albert Nyanza. After a short stay at
+Mbakovia, they proceeded along the coast of the lake until they reached
+Magungo, where the Victoria branch of the Nile flows into the Albert
+Nyanza. Continuing the journey up the source of the Victoria Nile, they
+discovered the Murchison Falls. When they set out for the Karuma Falls
+the porters deserted, and after many desperate adventures they at length
+returned to Khartum in May, 1865. Baker then went on to Berber, and
+crossed the desert to Suakin on the Red Sea. He returned to England
+late in the year 1865, and was received with honour and decorated by the
+queen with a well-earned knighthood.
+
+In the year 1869 Baker entered the service of the Egyptian government,
+and was commissioned by the viceroy to subdue the regions of Equatorial
+Africa, and annex them to the Egyptian Empire. To succeed in this
+enterprise he waged many a war with African tribes like the Boni. On
+several occasions these conflicts had been forced upon him; on
+other occasions Baker Pasha was the aggressor, owing to his fixed
+determination to extend on all sides the limits of the Egyptian Sudan.
+With all the rulers, however, who treated him well, he remained on terms
+of loyalty and friendship; and, in time, he inspired them with respect
+for his fairness and liberality. Baker Pasha scattered the slave-traders
+on all sides, and, for the time being, effectually broke up their power.
+The slave-traders of the Sudan were of Arab nationality, and were in
+the habit of advancing farther, year by year, upon the villages of the
+defenceless Africans, and spreading their ravages into the heart of
+Africa. They always attacked the less warlike tribes, and, upon breaking
+into a negro settlement, would carry off the whole population, except
+the aged or sick. The slaves were herded together in vast numbers by
+help of logs of wood sawn in two, with holes cut large enough to enclose
+the neck of a slave, and the two sides of the log afterwards securely
+fastened again, thereby yoking together a row of these unfortunate
+beings. Every year, out of five hundred thousand or more slaves, at
+least half the number perished.. The markets for the slaves were the
+cities of the Muhammedans all through North Africa, Syria, Turkey, and
+Persia. The death-dealing hardships to the slaves were for the most part
+endured on the long journey to Cairo, or, when the trade was suppressed
+there, to points north of the Sudan, such as Tripoli, or certain ports
+on the Red Sea. Those who were hardy enough to reach the slave-markets
+were usually well treated by their Muhammedan masters. During the time
+of Baker Pasha’s administration, while he was pursuing the slave-traders
+and establishing Egyptian outposts, the whole course of the Nile from
+the Great Lakes became well known to the civilised world, though after
+this period Baker Pasha did not make any further voyages of discovery
+into unknown parts.
+
+During the years of 1859 and 1860, an adventurous Dutch lady of fortune,
+Miss Alexandrine Tinné, journeyed up the Nile as far as Gondokoro, and
+in 1861 she commenced to organise a daring expedition to find the source
+of the Bahr-el-Ghazel, and explore the territory between the Nile basin
+and Lake Chad. She started from Khartum, and ascended the Bahr-el-Ghazel
+as far as the affluent Bahr-el-Hamad. She then crossed overland as far
+as the Jur and Kosango Rivers, and reached the mountains on the outlying
+districts of the Nyam-Nyam country. Here the members of the expedition
+suffered from black-water fever, and only with the greatest difficulty
+were they able to return to Khartum, where they arrived in July, 1864.
+In 1868 Miss Tinné, nothing-daunted, started for Lake Chad from Tripoli,
+with the intention of closing in upon the Nile from the eastern sources
+of the affluents of the Bahr-el-Ghazel. On reaching Wadi-Aberjong,
+however, this brave-hearted woman was waylaid by the fierce Tuaregs, and
+was beheaded August 1, 1868.
+
+In the sixties, Georg Schweinfurth, a native of Riga, in the Baltic
+provinces of Russia, set out to explore Nubia, Upper Egypt, and
+Abyssinia for botanical purposes. Subsequently the Royal Academy of
+Science in Berlin equipped him for an expedition to explore the region
+of the Bahr-el-Ghazel. He entered the Sudan by Suakin on the Red Sea,
+and crossed the desert to Berber, reaching Khartum on November 1, 1868.
+The following January he set out along the course of the White Nile,
+passed Getina, and examined the vegetation (sudd) which had drifted
+down from all the affluents of the White Nile. He prolonged his stay
+for three years on the Bahr-el-Ghazel, solely absorbed in scientific
+studies, and, unlike his predecessors, he was unconcerned with reforms
+and attempts to suppress the slave-trade.
+
+Schweinfurth penetrated so far into the heart of Africa that he reached
+the Congo basin and explored the upper waters of the Welle River, and on
+his return to Europe he published a work, in 1873, called “The Heart
+of Africa.” In this book he tried to demonstrate that the area of the
+Victoria Nyanza was taken up by a chain of five lakes.
+
+About this time, in the same year, the famous Henry Morton Stanley
+returned to London from his adventurous discovery and relief of Dr.
+David Livingstone. The distinguished missionary and explorer died not
+long afterwards, and the fame of his brilliant discoveries and heroic
+life aroused great sympathy and interest in African exploration. The
+great river which Livingstone had explored was believed by him to have
+been the Nile, but was more correctly thought by others to have been the
+Congo River. On account of the interest aroused in Livingstone, the _New
+York Herald_ and the _Daily Telegraph_ of London decided to send Stanley
+on a fully equipped expedition to solve the many problems relating to
+the heart of Africa about which the civilised world was still in the
+dark.
+
+Stanley chose the route of Zanzibar, and, landing there, he went up the
+course of the river and crossed the country to the Victoria Nyanza by
+the way of Unyamwezi. He reached the lake by the end of February,
+1875. On March the 8th he set out to explore the shores of the lake, and
+mapped the whole region, including its bays, islands, and archipelagoes,
+with a considerable amount of accuracy. He also examined Napoleon Gulf,
+and reached as far as Ripon Falls, at which point the waters of the lake
+flow towards the Albert Nyanza. He then verified the accuracy of Speke’s
+supposition that the Victoria Nyanza really was the main source of the
+White Nile. Stanley set out from Uganda at the end of the year 1875,
+and travelled across the country to the Congo. About the same time
+three English surveyors, Colonels Purdy, Colston, and Sidney Enser,
+made several topographical reports on much of the territory between
+the Bahr-el-Ghazel, the Shari, and the Nile. Later on, in 1876, General
+Gordon sent Romolo Gesei, an Italian in the service of the khédive,
+to navigate and to explore Lake Albert Nyanza. In the following year
+Colonel Mason, an American, surveyed the lake, of which he made an
+accurate topographical chart.
+
+In the year 1880, Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, an eminent geographer, made some
+valuable surveys of eastern equatorial Africa, which had the effect
+of inciting the Royal Geographical Society to send out, in 1882, an
+expedition under Joseph Thomson, a brilliant young African explorer, in
+order to find out a direct route to the Victoria Nyanza. Thomson set out
+from Momhasa early in the year 1883, but he never succeeded in realising
+the purpose of his mission.
+
+Emin Pasha, as we have seen, was the governor appointed by the khédive
+to rule the Egyptian equatorial provinces. He made a few discoveries,
+such as the Semliki River, which was called by him Divern. Whilst he
+was engaged in travelling through the Bahr-el-Ghazel district, the
+revolt of the Mahdi occurred, and Emin Pasha was isolated from the outer
+world. In the year 1886 Doctor Junker returned to Europe from Emin, and
+roused great interest by his account of the adventures of the pasha,
+whom most people had believed to have died, but whom they now learned
+had set up an independent sovereignty in the heart of Africa, awaiting
+anxiously the advent of a relief expedition. Then Henry M. Stanley
+volunteered to go out on a relief expedition to bring Emin Pasha home.
+
+Stanley avoided the route through the German colony on the East, and
+started upon his ever memorable relief expedition by the Congo
+route. The veteran adventurer succeeded in relieving Emin Pasha, and,
+furthermore, he discovered the Mountains of the Moon, called by the
+natives Ruwenjori, on May 24, 1888. He also traced to its sources
+the Semliki River, and explored Lake Albert Edward and a gulf of the
+Victoria to the south-west. The remainder of this famous journey,
+for the success of which he was knighted as Sir Henry M. Stanley, was
+outside the basin of the Nile, and is recorded in his book, “Through
+Darkest Africa.”
+
+In 1900, Dr. Donaldson Smith, an American, made an important journey
+through the countries between the north end of Lake Rudolf and the
+Mountain Nile.
+
+[Illustration: 290b.jpg EXAMPLES OF PHOENECIAN PORCELAIN]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--THE DECIPHERMENT OF THE HIEROGLYPHS*
+
+     *The early portion of this chapter is selected, by kind
+     permission of Dr. Henry Smith Williams, from his “History
+     of the Art of Writing,” Copyright, 1902 and 1903.
+
+_The Rosetta Stone: The Discoveries of Dr. Thomas Young: The
+Classification of the Egyptian Alphabet by Champollion: Egyptian
+Love-songs and the Book of the Dead_
+
+
+Conspicuously placed in the great hall of Egyptian antiquities, in the
+British Museum, is a wonderful piece of sculpture known as the Rosetta
+Stone. A glance at its graven surface suffices to show that three sets
+of inscriptions are recorded there. The upper one, occupying about
+one-fourth of the surface, is a pictured scroll, made up of chains of
+those strange outlines of serpents, hawks, lions, and so on, which are
+recognised, even by the least initiated, as hieroglyphics. The middle
+inscription, made up of lines, angles, and half-pictures, one might
+suppose to be a sort of abbreviated or shorthand hieroglyphic. The
+third, or lower, inscription, is manifestly Greek, obviously a thing of
+words. If the screeds above be also made of words, only the elect have
+any way of proving the fact.
+
+Fortunately, however, even the least scholarly observer is left in
+no doubt as to the real import of the thing he sees, for an obliging
+English label tells us that these three inscriptions are renderings of
+the same message, and that this message is a “decree of the Priests
+of Memphis conferring divine honours on Ptolemy V., Epiphanes, King
+of Egypt, B.C. 195.” The label goes on to state that the upper
+transcription (of which, unfortunately, only parts of the last dozen
+lines or so remain, the slab being broken) is in “the Egyptian language,
+in hieroglyphics, or writing of the priests”; the second inscription in
+the same language, “in demotic, or the writing of the people”; and the
+third “in the Greek language and character.”
+
+Then comes a brief biography of the Rosetta Stone itself, as follows:
+“This stone was found by the French in 1798 among the ruins of Fort St.
+Julian, near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. It passed into the hands
+of the British by the treaty of Alexandria, and was deposited in the
+British Museum in the year 1801.” There is a whole volume of history
+in that brief inscription, and a bitter sting thrown in, if the reader
+chance to be a Frenchman. Yet the facts involved could scarcely be
+suggested more modestly. They are recorded much more bluntly in a graven
+inscription on the side of the stone, which runs: “Captured in Egypt by
+the British Army, 1801.” No Frenchman could read those words without a
+sinking of the heart.
+
+The value of the Rosetta Stone depended on the fact that it gave
+promise, even when originally inspected, of furnishing a key to the
+centuries-old mystery of the hieroglyphics. For two thousand years the
+secret of these strange markings had been forgotten. Nowhere in the
+world--quite as little in Egypt as elsewhere--had any man the slightest
+clue to their meaning; there were even those who doubted whether these
+droll picturings really had any specific meaning, questioning whether
+they were not merely vague symbols of esoteric religious import and
+nothing more. And it was the Rosetta Stone that gave the answer to these
+doubters, and restored to the world a lost language and a forgotten
+literature.
+
+The trustees of the British Museum recognised that the problem of the
+Rosetta Stone was one on which the scientists of the world might
+well exhaust their ingenuity, and they promptly published a carefully
+lithographed copy of the entire inscription, so that foreign scholarship
+had equal opportunity with British to try to solve the riddle. How
+difficult a riddle it was, even with this key in hand, is illustrated by
+the fact that, though scholars of all nations brought their ingenuity
+to bear upon it, nothing more was accomplished for a dozen years than
+to give authority to three or four guesses regarding the nature of the
+upper inscriptions, which, as it afterwards proved, were quite incorrect
+and altogether misleading. This in itself is sufficient to show that
+ordinary scholarship might have studied the Rosetta Stone till the end
+of time without getting far on the track of its secrets. The key was
+there, but to apply it required the inspired insight--that is to say,
+the shrewd guessing power--of genius.
+
+The man who undertook the task had perhaps the keenest scientific
+imagination and the most versatile profundity of knowledge of his
+generation--one is tempted to say, of any generation. For he was none
+other than the extraordinary Dr. Thomas Young, the demonstrator of the
+vibratory nature of light.
+
+Young had his attention called to the Rosetta Stone by accident, and
+his usual rapacity for knowledge at once led him to speculate as to the
+possible aid this tri-lingual inscription might give in the solution of
+Egyptian problems. Resolving at once to attempt the solution himself, he
+set to work to learn Koptic, which was rightly believed to represent the
+nearest existing approach to the ancient Egyptian language. His amazing
+facility in the acquisition of languages stood him in such good stead
+that within a year of his first efforts he had mastered Koptic and
+assured himself that the ancient Egyptian language was really similar
+to it, and had even made a tentative attempt at the translation of the
+Egyptian scroll. His results were only tentative, to be sure, yet they
+constituted the very beginnings of our knowledge regarding the meaning
+of hieroglyphics. Just how far they carried has been a subject of ardent
+controversy ever since. Not that there is any doubt about the specific
+facts; what is questioned is the exact importance of these facts. For
+it is undeniable that Young did not complete and perfect the discovery,
+and, as always in such matters, there is opportunity for difference of
+opinion as to the share of credit due to each of the workers who entered
+into the discovery.
+
+Young’s specific discoveries were these: (1) that many of the pictures
+of the hieroglyphics stand for the names of the objects actually
+delineated; (2) that other pictures are sometimes only symbolic; (3)
+that plural numbers are represented by repetition; (4) that numerals are
+represented by dashes; (5) that hieroglyphics may read either from
+the right or from the left, but always from the direction in which the
+animals and human figures face; (6) that proper names are surrounded
+by a graven oval ring, making what he called a cartouche; (7) that the
+cartouches of the preserved portion of the Rosetta Stone stand for the
+name of Ptolemy alone; (8) that the presence of a female figure after
+such cartouches, in other inscriptions, always denotes the female
+sex; (9) that within the cartouches the hieroglyphic symbols have a
+positively phonetic value, either alphabetic or syllabic; and (10) that
+several different characters may have the same phonetic value.
+
+Just what these phonetic values are, Doctor Young pointed out in the
+case of fourteen characters, representing nine sounds, six of which
+are accepted to-day as correctly representing the letters to which he
+ascribed them, and the three others as being correct regarding their
+essential or consonantal element. It is clear, therefore, that he was on
+the right track thus far, and on the very verge of complete discovery.
+But, unfortunately, he failed to take the next step, which would have
+been to realise that the same phonetic values given the alphabetic
+characters within the cartouches were often ascribed to them also when
+used in the general text of an inscription; in other words, that the
+use of an alphabet was not confined to proper names. This was the great
+secret which Young missed, but which his French successor, Jean François
+Champollion, working on the foundation that Young had laid, was enabled
+to ferret out.
+
+[Illustration: 296.jpg JEAN FRANCOIS CHAMPOLLION]
+
+Young’s initial studies of the Rosetta Stone were made in 1814; his
+later publications bore date of 1819. Champollion’s first announcement
+of results came in 1822; his second and more important one in 1824. By
+this time, through study of the cartouches of other inscriptions, he had
+made out almost the complete alphabet, and the “Riddle of the Sphinx”
+ was practically solved. He proved that the Egyptians had developed a
+relatively complete alphabet (mostly neglecting the vowels, as early
+Semitic alphabets did also) centuries before the Phoenicians were heard
+of in history.
+
+Even this statement, however, must in a measure be modified. These
+pictures are letters and something more. Some of them are purely
+alphabetical in character, and some are symbolic in another way.
+Some characters represent syllables. Others stand sometimes as mere
+representatives of sounds, and again, in a more extended sense, as
+representatives of things, such as all hieroglyphics doubtless were
+in the beginning. In a word, this is an alphabet, but not a perfected
+alphabet such as modern nations generally use.
+
+The word “hieroglyphic” is applied, as we have seen, to various forms of
+picture writing; but the original interpretation which the Greeks, who
+invented it, put upon the word was the “holy writing” of the Egyptians.
+The earliest Greek travellers who went to Egypt, when that country was
+finally opened up to the outside world, must have noticed the strange
+picture scrolls everywhere to be seen there on the temple walls, on
+obelisks, on statues, and mummy-cases, as well as on papyrus rolls,
+which were obviously intended to serve the purpose of handing down
+records of events to future generations.
+
+It is now known that this writing of the Egyptians was of a most
+extraordinary compound character. Part of its pictures are used as
+direct representations of the objects presented. Here are some examples:
+
+[Illustration: 298.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+Again the picture of an object becomes an ideograph, as in the following
+instances:
+
+Here the sacred ibis or the sacred bull symbolises the soul. The bee
+stands for honey, the eyes for the verb “to see.” Yet again these
+pictures may stand neither as pictures of things nor as ideographs, but
+as having the phonetic value of a syllable. Such syllabic signs may be
+used either singly, as above, or in combination, as illustrated below.
+
+But one other stage of evolution is possible, namely, the use of signs
+with a purely alphabetical significance. The Egyptians made this
+step also, and their strangely conglomerate writing makes use of the
+following alphabet:
+
+[Illustration: 299.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+In a word, then, the Egyptian writing has passed through all the stages
+of development, from the purely pictorial to the alphabetical, but with
+this strange qualification,--that while advancing to the later stages it
+retains the use of crude earlier forms. As Canon Taylor has graphically
+phrased it, the Egyptian writing is a completed structure, but one from
+which the scaffolding has not been removed.
+
+The next step would have been to remove the now useless scaffolding,
+leaving a purely alphabetical writing as the completed structure.
+Looking at the matter from the modern standpoint, it seems almost
+incredible that so intelligent a people as the Egyptians should have
+failed to make this advance. Yet the facts stand, that as early as
+the time of the Pyramid Builders, say four thousand years B.C.,* the
+Egyptians had made the wonderful analysis of sounds, without which the
+invention of an alphabet would be impossible.
+
+     * The latest word on the subject of the origin of the
+     alphabet takes back some of the primitive phonetic signs to
+     prehistoric times. Among these prehistoric signs are the
+     letters A, E, I, O, U, (V), F and M.
+
+They had set aside certain of their hieroglyphic symbols and given them
+alphabetical significance. They had learned to write their words with
+the use of this alphabet; and it would seem as if, in the course of a
+few generations, they must come to see how unnecessary was the cruder
+form of picture-writing which this alphabet would naturally supplant;
+but, in point of fact, they never did come to a realisation of this
+seemingly simple proposition. Generation after generation and century
+after century, they continued to use their same cumbersome, complex
+writing, and it remained for an outside nation to prove that an alphabet
+pure and simple was capable of fulfilling all the conditions of a
+written language.
+
+Thus in practice there are found in the hieroglyphics the strangest
+combinations of ideographs, syllabic signs, and alphabetical signs or
+true letters used together indiscriminately.
+
+It was, for example, not at all unusual, after spelling a word
+syllabically or alphabetically, to introduce a figure giving the idea
+of the thing intended, and then even to supplement this with a so-called
+determinative sign or figure:
+
+[Illustration: 301.jpg DETERMINATIVE SIGNS]
+
+Here Queften, monkey, is spelled out in full, but the picture of a
+monkey is added as a determinative; second, Qenu, cavalry, after being
+spelled, is made unequivocal by the introduction of a picture of a
+horse; third, Temati, wings, though spelled elaborately, has pictures
+of wings added; and fourth, Tatu, quadrupeds, after being spelled, has
+a picture of a quadruped, and then the picture of a hide, which is the
+usual determinative of a quadruped, followed by three dashes to indicate
+the plural number.*
+
+     * Another illustration of the plural number is seen in the
+     sign Pau, on page 298, where the plural is indicated in the
+     same manner.
+
+These determinatives are in themselves so interesting, as illustrations
+of the association of ideas, that it is worth while to add a few more
+examples. The word Pet, which signifies heaven, and which has also the
+meaning up or even, is represented primarily by what may be supposed
+to be a conventionalised picture of the covering to the earth. But
+this picture, used as a determinative, is curiously modified in the
+expression of other ideas, as it symbolises evening when a closed flower
+is added, and night when a star hangs in the sky, and rain or tempest
+when a series of zigzag lines, which by themselves represent water, are
+appended.
+
+[Illustration: 302a.jpg HIEROGLYPHICS]
+
+As aids to memory such pictures are obviously of advantage, but this
+advantage in the modern view is outweighed by the cumbrousness of the
+system of writing as a whole.
+
+Why was such a complex system retained? Chiefly, no doubt, because the
+Egyptians, like all other highly developed peoples, were conservatives.
+They held to their old method after a better one had been invented. But
+this inherent conservatism was enormously aided, no doubt, by the fact
+that the Egyptian language, like the Chinese, has many words that have
+a varied significance, making it seem necessary, or at least highly
+desirable, either to spell such words with different signs, or, having
+spelled them in the same way, to introduce the varied determinatives.
+
+Here are some examples of discrimination between words of the same sound
+by the use of different signs:
+
+[Illustration: 302b.jpg HIEROGLYPHICS]
+
+Here, it will be observed, exactly the same expedient is adopted which
+we still retain when we discriminate between words of the same sound by
+different spelling, as to, two, too; whole, hole; through, threw, etc.
+
+But the more usual Egyptian method was to resort to the determinatives;
+the result seems to us most extraordinary. After what has been said, the
+following examples will explain themselves:
+
+[Illustration: 303.jpg HIEROGLYPHICS]
+
+It goes without saying that the great mass of people in Egypt were never
+able to write at all. Had they been accustomed to do so, the Egyptians
+would have been a nation of artists. Even as the case stands, a
+remarkable number of men must have had their artistic sense well
+developed, for the birds, animals, and human figures constantly
+presented on their hieroglyphic scrolls are drawn with a fidelity which
+the average European of to-day would certainly find far beyond his
+skill.
+
+Until Professor Petrie* published his “Medum,” and Professor Erman
+his “Grammar,” no important work on Egyptian hieroglyphic writing had
+appeared in recent years.
+
+     * The information as to the modern investigation in
+     hieroglyphics has been obtained from F. L. Griffith’s paper
+     in the 6th Memoir of the Archaeological Survey on
+     Hieroglyphics from the collections of the Egypt Exploration
+     Fund, London, 1894-95.
+
+Professor Petrie’s “Medum” is the mainstay of the student in regard to
+examples of form for the old kingdom; but for all periods detailed and
+trustworthy drawings and photographs are found among the enormous mass
+of published texts.*
+
+     *To these may now be added the 105 coloured signs in Beni
+     Hasan, Part III., and still more numerous examples in the
+     Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund (Archaeological
+     Survey), for the season 1895-96.
+
+There is an important collection of facsimiles at University College,
+London, made for Professor Petrie by Miss Paget. A large proportion of
+these are copied from the collections from Beni Hasan and El Bersheh;
+others are from coffins of later periods, and have only paleographical
+interest; and others are from earlier coffins in the British Museum.
+But the flower of the collection consists in exquisite drawings of
+sculptured hieroglyphics, sometimes with traces of colour, from the tomb
+of Phtahhotep at Saqqâra, supplemented by a few from other tombs in
+the same neighbourhood, and from the pyramid of Papi I. These were all
+copied on the spot in 1895--96.
+
+The only critical list of hieroglyphics with their powers published
+recently is that of Erman, printed in his “Grammar.” The system by
+which he classifies the values--obscured in the English edition by
+the substitution of the term of “ideograph” for _Wortzeichen_
+(word-sign)--displays the author’s keen insight into the nature of
+hieroglyphic writing, and the list itself is highly suggestive.
+
+In the case of an altogether different system of ancient writing
+that has come down to us,--the old cuneiform syllabary of the
+Assyrians,--dictionaries, glossaries, and other works of a grammatical
+character have been preserved to the present day. Documents such as
+these are, of course, of material aid in regard to obscure texts, but in
+the case of the Egyptian writing the only surviving native word-list
+is the Sign Papyrus of Tanis,* which is, unfortunately, of the Roman
+Period, when the original meanings of the signs had been well-nigh
+forgotten.
+
+     * Egypt Exploration Fund, Ninth Memoir, 1889-1890. This is
+     an extra volume, now out of print.
+
+It has its own peculiar interest, but seldom furnishes the smallest hint
+to the seeker after origins. The famous “Hieroglyphics of Horapollo”
+ occasionally contains a reminiscence of true hieroglyphics, but may
+well be a composition of the Middle Ages, embodying a tiny modicum of
+half-genuine tradition that had survived until then.
+
+Scattered throughout Egyptological literature there are, as may
+be imagined, many attempts at explaining individual signs. But any
+endeavour to treat Egyptian hieroglyphics critically, to ascertain
+their origins, the history of their use, the original distinction or the
+relationship of signs that resemble each other, reveals how little is
+really known about them. For study, good examples showing detail and
+colouring at different periods are needed, and the evidence furnished
+by form and colour must be checked by examination of their powers in
+writing.
+
+In investigating the powers of the uses of the signs, dictionaries give
+most important aid to the student. The key-words of the meanings, viz.,
+the names of the objects or actions depicted, are often exceedingly rare
+in the texts. Doctor Brugsch’s great Dictionary (1867-82) frequently
+settles with close accuracy the meanings of the words considered in it,
+supplying by quotations the proof of his conclusions.*
+
+     * There has been in preparation since 1897 an exhaustive
+     dictionary, to be published under the auspices of the German
+     government. The academies of Berlin, Gottingen, Leipsig and
+     Munich have charge of the work, and they have nominated as
+     their respective commissioners Professors Erman, Pietsch-
+     mann, Steindorff, and Ebers (since deceased). This colossal
+     undertaking is the fitting culmination of the labours of a
+     century in the Egyptian language and writing. The collection
+     and arrangement of material are estimated to occupy eleven
+     years; printing may thus be begun about 1908.
+
+     Despite its uncritical method of compilation, Levy’s bulky
+     Vocabulary (1887-1804), with its two supplements and long
+     tables of signs, is indispensable in this branch of
+     research, since it gives a multitude of references to rare
+     words and forms of words that occur in notable publications
+     of recent date, such as Maspero’s excellent edition of the
+     Pyramid Texts. There are also some important special
+     indices, such as Stern’s excellent “Glossary of the Papyrus
+     Ebers,” Piehl’s “Vocabulary of the Harris Papyrus,” Erman’s
+     “Glossary of the Westcar Papyrus,” and Doctor Pudge’s
+     “Vocabulary” of the XVIIIth Dynasty “Book of the Dead.”
+      Schack’s Index to the Pyramid Texts will prove to be an
+     important work, and the synoptic index of parallel chapters
+     prefixed to the work is of the greatest value in the search
+     for variant spellings.
+
+In 1872, Brugsch, in his “Grammaire Hiéroglyphique,” published a useful
+list of signs with their phonetic and ideographic values, accompanying
+them with references to his Dictionary, and distinguishing some of the
+specially early and late forms. We may also note the careful list in
+Lepsius’ “Ægyptische Lesestucke,” 1883.
+
+Champollion in his “Grammaire Egyptienne,” issued after the author’s
+death in 1836, gave descriptive names to large numbers of the signs.
+In 1848, to the first volume of Bunsen’s “Egypt’s Place in Universal
+History,” Birch contributed a long list of hieroglyphics, with
+descriptions and statements of their separate phonetic and ideographic
+values. De Rougé, in his “Catalogue des signes hiéroglyphiques de
+l’imprimerie nationale,” 1851, attached to each of many hundreds of
+signs and varieties of signs a short description, often very correct.
+He again dealt with the subject in 1867, and published a “Catalogue
+Raisonné” of the more usual signs in the first _livraison_ of his
+“Chrestomathie Egyptienne.” Useful to the student as these first lists
+were, in the early stages of decipherment, they are now of little
+value. For, at the time they were made, the fine early forms were mostly
+unstudied, and the signs were taken without discrimination from texts
+of all periods; moreover, the outlines of the signs were inaccurately
+rendered, their colours unnoted, and their phonetic and ideographic
+powers very imperfectly determined. Thus, whenever doubt was possible
+as to the object represented by a sign, little external help was
+forthcoming for correct identification. To a present-day student of the
+subject, the scholarly understanding of De Rougé and the ingenuity of
+Birch are apparent, but the aid which they afford him is small.
+
+As a result of recent discoveries, some very interesting researches have
+been made in Egyptian paleography in what is known as the _signary_.*
+We reach signs which seem to be disconnected from the known hieroglyphs,
+and we are probably touching on the system of geometrical signs used
+from prehistoric to Roman times in Egypt, and also in other countries
+around the Mediterranean.
+
+     * The information regarding the alphabet here given is
+     derived from the Eighteenth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration
+     Fund, 1899-1890.
+
+How far these signs are originally due to geometrical invention, or how
+far due to corruption of some picture, we cannot say. But in any case
+they stood so detached from the hieroglyphic writing and its hieratic
+and demotic derivations, that they must be treated as a separate system.
+For the present the best course is to show here the similarity of forms
+between these marks and those known in Egypt in earlier and later times,
+adding the similar forms in the Karian and Spanish alphabets. The usage
+of such forms in the same country from about 6000 B.C. down to 1200
+B.C., or later, shows that we have to deal with a definite system. And
+it seems impossible to separate that used in 1200 B.C. in Egypt from the
+similar forms found in other lands connected with Egypt from 800 B.C.
+down to later times: we may find many of these also in the Kretan
+inscriptions long before 800 B.C. The only conclusion then seems to
+be that a great body of signs--or a _signary_--was in use around the
+Mediterranean for several thousand years. Whether these signs were
+ideographic or syllabic or alphabetic in the early stages we do not
+know; certainly they were alphabetic in the later stage. And the
+identity of most of the signs in Asia Minor and Spain shows them to
+belong to a system with commonly received values in the later times.
+
+What then becomes of the Phoenician legend of the alphabet? Certainly
+the so-called Phoenician letters were familiar long before the rise of
+Phoenician influence. What is really due to the Phoenicians seems to
+have been the selection of a short series (only half the amount of the
+surviving alphabets) for numerical purposes, as A = 1, E = 5, I = 10, N
+= 50, P = 100.
+
+[Illustration: 309.jpg TABLE OF COMPARATIVE SYMBOLS]
+
+This usage would soon render these signs as invariable in order as our
+own numbers, and force the use of them on all countries with which the
+Phoenicians traded. Hence, before long these signs drove out of use
+all others, except in the less changed civilisations of Asia Minor and
+Spain. According to our modern authorities this exactly explains the
+phenomena of the early Greek alphabets; many in variety, and so diverse
+that each has to be learned separately, and yet entirely uniform in
+order. Each tribe had its own signs for certain sounds, varying a good
+deal; yet all had to follow a fixed numerical system. Certainly all did
+not learn their forms from an independent Phoenician alphabet, unknown
+to them before it was selected.
+
+The work of Young and Champollion, says Doctor Williams,* gives a new
+interest to the mass of records, in the form of graven inscriptions, and
+papyrus rolls, and cases and wrappings, which abound in Egypt, but which
+hitherto had served no better purpose for centuries than to excite,
+without satisfying, the curiosity of the traveller.
+
+     * History of the Art of Writing, Portfolio I., plate 8.
+
+Now these strange records, so long enigmatic, could be read, and within
+the past fifty years a vast literature of translations of these Egyptian
+records has been given to the world. It was early discovered that the
+hieroglyphic character was not reserved solely for sacred inscriptions,
+as the Greeks had supposed in naming it; indeed, the inscription of the
+Rosetta Stone sufficiently dispelled that illusion. But no one, perhaps,
+was prepared for the revelations that were soon made as to the extent of
+range of these various inscriptions, and the strictly literary character
+of some of them.
+
+A large proportion of these inscriptions are, to be sure, religious in
+character, but there are other extensive inscriptions, such as those on
+the walls of the temple of Karnak, that are strictly historical; telling
+of the warlike deeds of such mighty kings as Thûtmosis III. and
+Ramses II. Again, there are documents which belong to the domain of
+belles-lettres pure and simple. Of these the best known example is the
+now famous “Tale of Two Brothers”--the prototype of the “modern” short
+story.
+
+Up to the middle of the nineteenth century, no Egyptologist had
+discovered that the grave-faced personages who lie in their mummy-cases
+in our great museums ever read or composed romance. Their literature,
+as far as recovered, was of an eminently serious nature,--hymns to the
+divinities, epic poems, writings on magic and science, business letters,
+etc., but no stories. In 1852, however, an Englishwoman, Mrs. Elizabeth
+d’Orbiney, sent M. de Rougé, at Paris, a papyrus she had purchased in
+Italy, and whose contents she was anxious to know. Thus was the tale of
+the “Two Brothers” brought to light, and for twelve years it remained
+our sole specimen of a species of literature which is now constantly
+being added to.
+
+This remarkable papyrus dates from the thirteenth century B.C., and was
+the work of Anna, one of the most distinguished temple-scribes of his
+age. Indeed, it is to him that we are indebted for a large portion of
+the Egyptian literature that has been preserved to us. This particular
+work was executed for Seti II., son of Meneptah, and grandson of Ramses
+II. of the nineteenth dynasty, while he was yet crown prince.
+
+The tale itself is clearly formed of two parts. The first, up to the
+Bata’s self-exile to the Valley of the Cedar, gives a really excellent
+picture of the life and habits of the peasant dwelling on the banks
+of the Nile. The civilisation and moral conditions it describes are
+distinctly Egyptian. Were it not for such details as the words spoken by
+the cows, and the miraculous appearance of the body of water between the
+two brothers, we might say the ancient Egyptians were strict realists
+in their theory of fiction. But the second part leads us through marvels
+enough to satisfy the most vivid of imaginations. It is possible,
+therefore, that the tale as we have it was originally two separate
+stories.
+
+The main theme of the story has occupied a great deal of attention. Its
+analogy to the Biblical narrative of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife comes at
+once into the reader’s mind. But there is just as close a similarity
+in the Greek tales, where the hero is killed or his life endangered
+for having scorned the guilty love of a woman, as in the stories of
+Hippolytus, Peleus, Bellerophon, and the son of Glaucus, not to
+mention the extraordinary adventure of Amgiad and Assad, sons of Prince
+Kamaralzaman, in the _Thousand and One Nights_.
+
+The religions of Greece and Western Asia likewise contain myths that can
+be compared almost point for point with the tale of the two brothers.
+In Phrygia, for example, Atyo scorns the love of the goddess Cybele,
+as does Bata the love of Anpu’s wife. Like Bata, again, he mutilates
+himself, and is transformed into a pine instead of a persea tree.
+Are we, therefore, to seek for the common origin of all the myths and
+romance in the tragedy of Anpu and Bata that was current, we know not
+how long, before the days of King Seti?
+
+Of one thing we may be sure: of this particular type the Egyptian tale
+is by far the oldest that we possess, and, if we may not look to the
+valley of the Nile as the original home of the popular tale, we may
+justly regard it as the locality where it was earliest naturalised and
+assumed a true literary form.
+
+Analogies to the second part of the tale are even more numerous and
+curious. They are to be found everywhere, in France, Italy, Germany,
+Hungary, in Russia and all Slavonic countries, Roumania, Peloponnesia,
+in Asia Minor, Abyssinia, and even India.
+
+Of late years an ever-increasing accumulation of the literature of every
+age of Egyptian history has either been brought to light or for
+the first time studied from a wider point of view than was formerly
+possible. In making a few typical selections from the mass of this
+new material, none perhaps are more worthy of note than some of the
+love-songs which have been translated into German from Egyptian in
+“Die Liebespoesie der Alten Ægypten,” by W. Max Muller. This is a very
+careful edition of the love-songs on the recto (or upper surface) of the
+Harris Papyrus 500, and of similar lyrics from Turin, Gizeh, and Paris.
+The introduction contains an account of Egyptian notions of love and
+marriage, gathered from hieroglyphic and demotic sources, and a chapter
+is devoted to the forms of Egyptian verse, its rhythm and accent. The
+interesting “Song of the Harper,” which is found on the same Harris
+Papyrus, is also fully edited and collated with the parallel texts from
+the Theban tombs, and compared with other writings dealing with death
+from the agnostic point of view. The following extracts are translated
+from the German:
+
+     LOVE-SICKNESS
+
+     I will lie down within doors
+     For I am sick with wrongs. T
+     hen my neighbours come in to visit me.
+     With them cometh my sister,
+     She will make fun of the physicians;
+     She knoweth mine illness.
+
+
+     THE LUCKY DOORKEEPER
+
+     The villa of my sister!--
+     Her gates (are) in the midst of the domain--
+     (So oft as) its portals open,
+     (So oft as) the bolt is withdrawn,
+     Then is my sister angry:
+     O were I but set as the gatekeeper!
+     I should cause her to chide me;
+     (Then) I should hear her voice in anger,
+     A child in fear before her!
+
+
+     THE UNSUCCESSFUL BIRD-CATCHER
+
+     The voice of the wild goose crieth,
+     (For) she hath taken her bait;
+     (But) thy love restraineth me,
+     I cannot free her (from the snare);
+     (So) must I take (home) my net.
+     What (shall I say) to my mother,
+     To whom (I am wont) to come daily
+     Laden with wild fowl?
+     I lay not my snare to-day
+     (For) thy love hath taken hold upon me.
+
+
+The most ardent interest that has been manifested in the Egyptian
+records had its origin in the desire to find evidence corroborative of
+the Hebrew accounts of the Egyptian captivity of the Jewish people.* The
+Egyptian word-treasury being at last unlocked, it was hoped that
+much new light would be thrown on Hebrew history. But the hope proved
+illusive. After ardent researches of hosts of fervid seekers for half
+a century, scarcely a word of reference to the Hebrews has been found
+among the Egyptian records.
+
+     * The only inscription relating directly to the Israelites
+     will be found described in Chapter VII.
+
+If depicted at all, the Hebrew captives are simply grouped with other
+subordinate peoples, not even considered worthy of the dignity of names.
+Nor is this strange when one reflects on the subordinate position which
+the Hebrews held in the ancient world. In historical as in other matter,
+much depends upon the point of view, and a series of events that seemed
+all-important from the Hebrew standpoint might very well be thought too
+insignificant for record from the point of view of a great nation like
+the Egyptians. But the all-powerful pen wrought a conquest for the
+Hebrews in succeeding generations that their swords never achieved, and,
+thanks to their literature, succeeding generations have cast historical
+perspective to the winds in viewing them. Indeed, such are the strange
+mutations of time that, had any scribe of ancient Egypt seen fit to
+scrawl a dozen words about the despised Israelite captives, and had
+this monument been preserved, it would have outweighed in value, in
+the opinion of nineteenth-century Europe, all the historical records
+of Thûtmosis, Ramses, and their kin that have come down to us. But
+seemingly no scribe ever thought it worth his while to make such an
+effort.
+
+It has just been noted that the hieroglyphic inscriptions are by no
+means restricted to sacred subjects. Nevertheless, the most widely known
+book of the Egyptians was, as might be expected, one associated with
+the funeral rites that played so large a part in the thoughts of the
+dwellers by the Nile. This is the document known as “The Chapters of the
+Coming-Forth by Day,” or, as it is more commonly interpreted, “The Book
+of the Dead.” It is a veritable book in scope, inasmuch as the closely
+written papyrus roll on which it is enscrolled measures sometimes
+seventy feet in length. It is virtually the Bible of the Egyptians, and,
+as in the case of the sacred books of other nations, its exact origin is
+obscure. The earliest known copy is to be found, not on a papyrus roll,
+but upon the walls of the chamber of the pyramid at Saqqâra near Cairo.
+The discovery of this particular recension of “The Book of the Dead” was
+made by Lepsius. Its date is 3333 B.C. No one supposes, however, that
+this date marks the time of the origin of “The Book of the Dead.” On the
+contrary, it is held by competent authority that the earliest chapters,
+essentially unmodified, had been in existence at least a thousand years
+before this, and quite possibly for a much longer time. Numerous copies
+of this work in whole or in part have been preserved either on the walls
+of temples, on papyrus rolls, or upon the cases of mummies. These
+copies are of various epochs, from the fourth millennium B.C., as just
+mentioned, to the late Roman period, about the fourth century A.D.
+
+Throughout this period of about four thousand years the essential
+character of the book remained unchanged. It is true that no two copies
+that have been preserved are exactly identical in all their parts. There
+are various omissions and repetitions that seem to indicate that the
+book was not written by any one person or in any one epoch, but that it
+was originally a set of traditions quite possibly handed down for a long
+period by word of mouth before being put into writing. In this regard,
+as in many others, this sacred book of the Egyptians is closely
+comparable to the sacred books of other nations. It differs, however,
+in one important regard from these others in that it was never
+authoritatively pronounced upon and crystallised into a fixed,
+unalterable shape. From first to last, apparently, the individual scribe
+was at liberty to omit such portions as he chose, and even to modify
+somewhat the exact form of expression in making a copy of the sacred
+book. Even in this regard, however, the anomaly is not so great as might
+at first sight appear, for it must be recalled that even the sacred
+books of the Hebrews were not given final and authoritative shape until
+a period almost exactly coeval with that in which the Egyptian “Book of
+the Dead” ceased to be used at all.
+
+A peculiar feature of “The Book of the Dead,” and one that gives it
+still greater interest, is the fact that from an early day it was the
+custom to illustrate it with graphic pictures in colour. In fact, taken
+as a whole, “The Book of the Dead” gives a very fair delineation of the
+progress of Egyptian art from the fourth millennium B.C. to its climax
+in the eighteenth dynasty, and throughout the period of its decline; and
+this applies not merely to the pictures proper, but to the forms of the
+hieroglyphic letters themselves, for it requires but the most cursory
+inspection to show that these give opportunity for no small artistic
+skill.
+
+As to the ideas preserved in “The Book of the Dead,” it is sufficient
+here to note that they deal largely with the condition of the human
+being after death, implying in the most explicit way a firm and
+unwavering belief in the immortality of the soul. The Egyptian believed
+most fully that by his works a man would be known and judged after
+death. His religion was essentially a religion of deeds, and the code of
+morals, according to which these deeds were adjudged, has been said by
+Doctor Budge, the famous translator of “The Book of the Dead,” to be
+“the grandest and most comprehensive of those now known to have existed
+among the nations of antiquity.”
+
+[Illustration: 318.jpg TAILPIECE]
+
+
+[Illustration: 318b.jpg PHOENICIAN JEWLERY]
+
+
+[Illustration: 321.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--THE DEVELOPMENT OF EGYPTOLOGY
+
+
+_Mariette, Wilkinson, Bunsen, Brugsch, and Ebers: Erman’s speech on
+Egyptology: The Egypt Exploration Fund: Maspero’s investigations: The
+Temple of Bubàstis: Ancient record of “Israel”: American interest in
+Egyptology._
+
+
+Accompanying Napoleon’s army of invasion in Egypt was a band of savants
+representative of every art and science, through whom the conqueror
+hoped to make known the topography and antiquities of Egypt to the
+European world. The result of their researches was the famous work
+called “Description de l’Egypte,” published under the direction of the
+French Academy in twenty-four volumes of text, and twelve volumes of
+plates. Through this magnificent production the Western world received
+its first initiation into the mysteries of the wonderful civilisation
+which had flourished so many centuries ago, on the banks of the Nile.
+Egypt has continued to yield an ever-increasing harvest of antiquities,
+which, owing to the dry climate and the sand in which they have been
+buried, are many of them in a marvellous state of preservation. From
+the correlation of these discoveries the new science of Egyptology
+has sprung, which has many different branches, relating either to
+hieroglyphics, chronology, or archaeology proper.
+
+The earliest and most helpful of all the discoveries was that of the
+famous Rosetta Stone, found by a French artillery officer in 1799,
+while Napoleon’s soldiers were excavating preparatory to erecting
+fortifications at Fort St. Julien. The deciphering of its trilingual
+inscriptions was the greatest literary feat of modern times, in which
+Dr. Thomas Young and J. F. Champollion share almost equal honours.
+
+Jean François Champollion (1790-1832) is perhaps the most famous of
+the early students of Egyptian hieroglyphs. After writing his “_De
+l’écriture hiératique des anciens égyptiens_” at Paris, he produced in
+1824 in two volumes, his “_Précis du système hiéroglyphique des anciens
+égyptiens,_” on which his fame largely depends, as he was the first to
+furnish any practical system of deciphering the symbolic writing, which
+was to disclose to the waiting world Egyptian history, literature, and
+civilisation. Champollion wrote many other works relating to Egypt, and
+may truly be considered the pioneer of modern Egyptology. While much of
+his work has been superseded by more recent investigations, he was so
+imbued with the scientific spirit that he was enabled securely to lay
+the foundation of all the work which followed.
+
+[Illustration: 321.jpg THE GREAT HALL OF ABYDOS]
+
+The distinguished French savant, Augustus Mariette, (1821-1881) began
+his remarkable excavations in Egypt in the year 1850. The series of
+discoveries inaugurated by him lasted until the year 1880. Mariette made
+an ever-memorable discovery when he unearthed the famous Serapeum which
+had once been the burial-place of the sacred bulls of Memphis, which the
+geographer Strabo records had been covered over by the drifting sands of
+the desert even in the days of Augustus.
+
+[Illustration: 322.jpg PROPYLON AT DENDERAH]
+
+The Serapeum was in the neighbourhood of the Sphinx, and, on account of
+its great height, remained in part above the ground, and was visible to
+all passers-by; while everything else in the neighbourhood except the
+great Pyramid of Khûfûi was totally buried under the sand. Mariette
+worked his way along the passage between the Great Sphinx and the other
+lesser sphinxes which lay concealed in the vicinity, and thus gradually
+came to the opening of the Serapeum. In November, 1850, his labours were
+crowned with brilliant success. He discovered sixty-four tombs of
+Apis, dating from the eighteenth dynasty until as late as the reign of
+Cleopatra. He likewise found here many figures, images, ancient Egyptian
+ornaments and amulets, and memorial stones erected by the devout
+worshippers of antiquity. Fortunately for Egyptian archæology and
+history, nearly all the monuments here discovered were dated, and were
+thus of the highest value in settling the dates of dynasties and of the
+reigns of individual monarchs. Mariette afterwards discovered a splendid
+temple in the same place, which he proved to have been the famous shrine
+of the god Sokar-Osiris. He was soon appointed by the Egyptian Viceroy,
+Said Pasha, as director of the new museum of antiquities which was then
+placed at Bulak, in the vicinity of Cairo, awaiting the completion of
+a more substantial building at Gizeh. He obtained permission to make
+researches in every part of Egypt; and with varying success he excavated
+in as many as thirty-seven localities. In some of the researches
+undertaken by his direction, it is to be feared that many invaluable
+relics of antiquity may have been destroyed through the carelessness of
+the workmen. This is to be accounted for from the fact that Mariette was
+not always able to be present, and the workmen naturally had no personal
+interest in preserving every relic and fragment from the past. It is
+also to be regretted that he left no full account of the work which he
+undertook, and for this reason much of it had to be gone over again by
+more modern explorers.
+
+In the Delta excavations were made at Sais, Bubastis, and elsewhere.
+Mariette also discovered the temple of Tanis, and many curious
+human-headed sphinxes, which probably belong to the twelfth dynasty,
+and represent its kings. He further continued the labours of Lepsius
+about the necropolis of Memphis and Saqqâra. Here several hundred tombs
+were discovered with the many inscriptions and figures which these
+contained. One of the most important of these findings--a superb example
+of Egyptian art--is the statue called by the Arabs “The Village
+Chief,” which is now in the museum at Bulak. Mariette followed out his
+researches on the site of the sacred city of Abydos. Here he discovered
+the temple of Seti I. of the nineteenth dynasty.
+
+[Illustration: 324.jpg TYPES OF EGYPTIAN COLUMNS: 1, 2, 3, GEOMETRIC ‘,
+6-11, BOTANICAL; 4, 5, 12, HATHORIC.]
+
+On the walls are beautiful sculptures which are exquisite examples of
+Egyptian art, and a chronological table of the Kings of Abydos. Here
+Seti I. and Ramses IL, his son, are represented as offering homage to
+their many ancestors seated upon thrones inscribed with their names and
+dates.
+
+Mariette discovered eight hundred tombs belonging for the most part
+to the Middle Kingdom. At Denderah he discovered the famous Ptolemaic
+temple of Hâthor, the goddess of love, and his accounts of these
+discoveries make up a large volume. Continuing his labours, he excavated
+much of the site of ancient Thebes and the temple of Karnak, and, south
+of Thebes, the temple of Medinet-Habu. At Edfu Mariette found the temple
+of Horus, built during the time of the Ptolemies, whose roof formed the
+foundation of an Arab village. After persevering excavations the whole
+magnificent plan of the temple stood uncovered, with all its columns,
+inscriptions, and carvings nearly intact.*
+
+     * In connection with the architecture of the ancient
+     Egyptian tombs, it is interesting to note that there was a
+     development of architectural style in the formation of
+     Egyptian columns not dissimilar in its evolution to that
+     which is visible in the case of the Greek and Roman columns.
+
+     The earliest Egyptian column appears to have been of a
+     strictly geometrical character. This developed into a column
+     resembling the Doric order. A second class of Egyptian
+     column was based upon plant forms, probably derived from the
+     practice of using reeds in the construction of mud huts. The
+     chief botanical form which has come down to us is that of
+     the lotus. A more advanced type of decoration utilised the
+     goddess Hâthor for the support of the superincumbent weight
+     and has its analogy in the decadent caraytides of late Roman
+     times.
+
+Owing to Mariette’s friendship with the viceroy he was able to guard
+his right to excavate with strict exclusiveness. He was accustomed to
+allow other scholars the right to examine localities where he had been
+the first one to make the researches, but he would not even allow the
+famous Egyptologist, also his great friend, Heinrich Brugsch, to make
+excavations in new places. After his death, conditions were somewhat
+altered, although the general directorship of the excavations was still
+given exclusively to Frenchmen. The successors of Mariette Bey were
+Gaston Maspero, E. Grébault, J. de Morgan, and Victor Laret. But as time
+went on, savants of other nationalities were allowed to explore, with
+certain reservations. Maspero founded an archaeological mission in Cairo
+in 1880, and placed at its head, in successive order, MM. Lebebure,
+Grébault, and Bouriant. The first of all to translate complete Egyptian
+books and entire inscriptions was Emanuel de Rougé, who exerted a great
+influence upon an illustrious galaxy of French savants, who followed
+more or less closely the example set by him. Among these translators we
+may enumerate Mariette, Charles Deveria, Pierret, Maspero himself, and
+Revillout, who has proved himself to be the greatest demotic scholar of
+France.
+
+England is also represented by scholars of note, among whom may be
+mentioned Dr. Samuel Birch (1813--85). He was a scholar of recognised
+profundity and also of remarkable versatility. One of the most important
+editorial tasks of Doctor Birch was a series known as “The Records
+of the Past,” which consisted of translations from Egyptian and
+Assyrio-Babylonian records. Doctor Birch himself contributed several
+volumes to this series. He had also the added distinction of being the
+first translator of the Egyptian _Book of the Dead_.
+
+Another English authority was Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, who wrote
+several important works on the manners and customs of the ancient
+Egyptians. Wilkinson was born in 1797 and died in 1875. Whoever would
+know the Egyptian as he was, in manner and custom, should peruse
+the pages of his Egyptian works. His “Popular Account of the Ancient
+Egyptians” has been the chief source of information on the subject.
+
+German scholars have done especially valuable work in the translation
+of texts from the Egyptian temples, and in pointing out the relation
+between these texts and historical events. Foremost among practical
+German archaeologists is Karl Richard Lepsius, who was born in 1810 at
+Naumburg, Prussia, and died in 1884 at Berlin. In his maturer years
+he had a professorship in Berlin. He made excursions to Egypt in an
+official capacity, and familiarised himself at first hand with the
+monuments and records that were his life-study. The letters of Lepsius
+from Egypt and Nubia were more popular than his other writings, and were
+translated into English and widely read.
+
+Another famous German who was interested in the study of Egyptology
+was Baron Christian Bunsen (1791-1867). From early youth he showed the
+instincts of a scholar, but was prevented for many years from leading a
+scholar’s life, owing to his active duties in the diplomatic service for
+Prussia at Rome and London. During the years 1848--67, Bunsen brought
+out the famous work called “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,”
+ which Brugsch deemed to have contributed more than any other work in
+popularising the subject of Egyptology.
+
+Heinrich Carl Brugsch was born at Berlin in 1827 and died there in 1894.
+Like Bunsen, he was a diplomatist and a scholar. He entered the
+service of the Egyptian government, and merited the titles of bey
+and subsequently of pasha. He became known as one of the foremost of
+Egyptologists, and was the greatest authority of his day on Egyptian
+writing. He wrote a work of standard authority, translated into English
+under the title of “The History of Egypt under the Pharaohs.” The
+chronology of Egypt now in use is still based upon the system created by
+Brugsch, which, though confessedly artificial, nevertheless is able to
+meet the difficulties of the subject better than any other yet devised.
+
+Among distinguished German Egyptologists must be mentioned Georg
+Moritz Ebers (1839-96). He is best known by his far-famed novels, whose
+subjects are taken from the history of ancient Egypt, perhaps the most
+popular being “An Egyptian Princess.” Besides these popular novels and a
+valuable description of Egypt, Ebers also made personal explorations in
+the country, and discovered at Thebes the great medical papyrus, which
+is called the Papyrus Ebers. This remarkable document, to which he
+devoted so much labour, is our chief source of information regarding
+the practice of medicine as it existed, and would alone keep the name of
+Ebers alive among Egyptologists.
+
+The leading German Egyptologist of to-day is Dr. Adolf Erman, who was
+born at Berlin in 1854. He is the worthy successor to Brugsch in the
+chair of Egyptology at the University of Berlin, and is director of
+the Berlin Egyptian Museum. His writings have had to do mainly with
+grammatical and literary investigations. His editions of the “Romances
+of Old Egypt” are models of scholarly interpretation. They give the
+original hieratic text, with translation into Egyptian hieroglyphics,
+into Latin and into German. Doctor Erman has not, however, confined his
+labours to this strictly scholarly type of work, but has also written a
+distinctly popular book on the life of the ancient Egyptians, which
+is the most complete work that has appeared since the writings of
+Wilkinson.
+
+The memorable speech of Erman, delivered on the occasion of his election
+as a member of the Berlin Academy, sets forth clearly the progress
+made in the science of Egyptology and present-day tendencies. On that
+occasion he said:
+
+“Some of our older fellow-specialists complain that we of the younger
+generation are depriving Egyptology of all its charm, and that, out of
+a delightful science, abounding in startling discoveries, we have made
+a philological study, with strange phonetic laws and a wretched syntax.
+There is doubtless truth in this complaint, but it should be urged
+against the natural growth of the science, and not against the personal
+influence of individuals or its development. The state through which
+Egyptology is now passing is one from which no science escapes. It is a
+reaction against the enthusiasm and the rapid advance of its early days.
+
+“I can well understand to outsiders it may seem as though we had only
+retrograded during later years. Where are the good old times when every
+text could be translated and understood? Alas! a better comprehension of
+the grammar has revealed on every side difficulties and impediments
+of which hitherto nothing had been suspected. Moreover, the number of
+ascertained words in the vocabulary is continually diminishing, while
+the host of the unknown increases; for we no longer arrive at the
+meaning by the way of audacious etymologies and still more audacious
+guesses.
+
+“We have yet to travel for many years on the arduous path of empirical
+research before we can attain to an adequate dictionary. There is indeed
+an exceptional reward which beckons us on to the same goal, namely,
+that we shall then be able to assign to Egyptian its place among the
+languages of Western Asia and of Africa. At present we do well to
+let this great question alone. As in the linguistic department of
+Egyptology, so it is in every other section of the subject. The Egyptian
+religion seemed intelligently and systematically rounded off when each
+god was held to be the incarnation of some power of nature. Now we
+comprehend that we had better reserve our verdict on this matter until
+we know the facts and the history of the religion; and how far we are
+from knowing them is proved to us by every text. The texts are full of
+allusions to the deeds and fortunes of the gods, but only a very small
+number of these allusions are intelligible to us.
+
+“The time has gone by in which it was thought possible to furnish the
+chronology of Egyptian history, and in which that history was supposed
+to be known, because the succession of the most powerful kings had been
+ascertained. To us the history of Egypt has become something altogether
+different. It comprises the history of her civilisation, her art, and
+her administration; and we rejoice in the prospect that one day it may
+be possible in that land to trace the development of a nation throughout
+five thousand years by means of its own monuments and records. But we
+also know that the realisation of this dream must be the work of many
+generations.
+
+“The so-called ‘demotic’ texts, which lead us out of ancient Egypt into
+the Græco-Roman period, were deciphered with the acumen of genius more
+than half a century ago by Heinrich Brugsch, but to-day these also
+appear to us in a new light as being full of unexpected difficulties and
+in apparent disagreement with both the older and the later forms of
+the language. In this important department we must not shrink from a
+revision of past work.
+
+“I will not further illustrate this theme; but the case is the same in
+every branch of Egyptology. In each, the day of rapid results is at an
+end, and the monotonous time of special studies has begun. Hence I would
+beg the Academy not to expect sensational discoveries from their new
+associate. I can only offer what _labor improbus_ brings to light, and
+that is _small_ discoveries; yet in the process of time they will
+lead us to those very ends which seemed so nearly attainable to our
+predecessors.”
+
+The German school may perhaps be said to have devoted its time
+especially to labours upon Egyptian grammar and philology, while the
+French school is better known for its excellent work on the history
+and archaeology of ancient Egypt. On these topics the leading authority
+among all the scholars of to-day is the eminent Frenchman, Professor
+Gaston C. C. Maspero, author of the first nine volumes of the present
+work. He was born at Paris, June 24,1846. He is a member of the French
+Institute, and was formerly Professor of Egyptian Archeology and
+Ethnology in the Collège de France, and, more recently, Director of
+the Egyptian Museum at Bulak. His writings cover the entire field
+of Oriental antiquity. In this field Maspero has no peer among
+Egyptologists of the present or the past. He possesses an eminent gift
+of style, and his works afford a rare combination of the qualities of
+authority, scientific accuracy, and of popular readableness.
+
+Some extraordinary treasures from tombs were discovered in the year
+1881. At that date Arabs often hawked about in the streets what
+purported to be genuine works of antiquity. Many of these were in
+reality imitations; but Professor Maspero in this year secured from an
+Arab a funeral papyrus of Phtahhotpû I., and after considerable trouble
+he was able to locate the tomb in Thebes from which the treasure had
+been taken. Brugsch now excavated the cave, which was found to be the
+place where a quantity of valuable treasures had been secreted, probably
+at the time of the sacking of Thebes by the Assyrians. Six thousand
+objects were secured, and they included twenty-nine mummies of kings,
+queens, princes, and high priests, and five papyri, among which was
+the funeral papyrus of Queen Makeru of the twentieth dynasty. The
+mummy-cases had been opened by the Arabs, who had taken out the mummies
+and in some instances replaced the wrong ones. Many mummies of the
+eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties had been removed to this cave
+probably for safety, on account of its secrecy. Out of the twenty-nine
+mummies found here, seven were of kings, nine of queens and princesses,
+and several more of persons of distinction. The place of concealment
+was situated at a turn of a cliff southwest of the village of
+Deîr-el-Baharî.
+
+The explorers managed successfully to identify King Raskamen of the
+seventeenth dynasty, King Ahmosis I., founder of the eighteenth dynasty,
+and his queen Ahmo-sis-Nofrîtari, also Queen Arhotep and Princess Set
+Amnion, and the king’s daughters, and his son Prince Sa Amnion. They
+also found the mummies of Thûtmosis I., Thûtmosis II. and of Thûtmosis
+III. (Thûtmosis the Great), together with Ramses I., Seti I., Ramses
+XII., King Phtahhotpû II., and noted queens and princesses.
+
+In the year 1883 the Egypt Exploration Fund was founded for the purpose
+of accurate historical investigation in Egypt. The first work undertaken
+was on a mound called the Tel-el-Mashuta, in the Wadi-et-Tumi-lat.
+This place was discovered to be the site of the ancient Pithom, a
+treasure-city supposed to have been built by the Israelites for Pharaoh.
+In the Greek and Roman period the same place had been called Hereopolis.
+M. Naville also discovered Succoth, the first camping-ground of the
+Israelites while fleeing from their oppressor, and an inscription with
+the word “Pikeheret,” which he judged to be the Pihahiroth of the Book
+of Exodus. The next season the site of Zoan of the Bible was explored, a
+village now termed San.
+
+Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie started work where a rim of red granite
+stood up upon one of the many mounds in the neighbourhood. The site of
+the ancient city had been here, and the granite rim was on the site of a
+temple. The latter had two enclosure walls, one of which had been built
+of sun-dried bricks, and was of extreme antiquity; the other was built
+of bricks of eight times the size and weight of modern bricks, and the
+wall was of very great strength. Dwelling-houses had been built in the
+locality, and coins and potsherds discovered. These remains Professor
+Petrie found to belong to periods between the sixth and twenty-sixth
+dynasties. Stones were found in the vicinity with the cartouche of King
+Papi from one of the earliest dynasties. There were also red granite
+statues of Ahmenemhâît I., and a black granite statue of Kind Usirtasen
+I. and of King Ahmenemhâît II., and a torso of King Usirtasen II. was
+found cut from yellow-stained stone, together with a vast number of
+relics of other monarchs. Parts of a giant statue of King Ramses II.
+were discovered which must have been ninety-eight feet in height before
+it was broken, the great toe alone measuring eighteen inches across, and
+the weight of the statue estimated to be about 1,200 tons. In addition
+to these relics of ancient monarchs, a large number of antiquities were
+discovered, with remains of objects for domestic use in ancient Egyptian
+society.
+
+The explorations conducted at Tanis during 1883-84 brought to light
+objects mainly of the Ptolemaic period, because a lower level had not at
+that period been reached, but here many invaluable relics of Ptolemaic
+arts were unearthed. The results of researches were published at this
+date bearing upon the Great Pyramid. Accurate measurements had been
+undertaken by Professor Petrie, who was able to prove that during one
+epoch systematic but unavailing efforts had been made to destroy these
+great structures.
+
+Professor Maspero discovered among the hills of Thebes an important
+tomb of the eleventh dynasty, which threw light upon obscure portions
+of Egyptian history, and contained texts of the “Book of the Dead.”
+ The following year he discovered the necropolis of Khemnis in the
+neighbourhood of Kekhrneen, a provincial town in Upper Egypt built on
+the site of the ancient Panopolis. The remains were all in a state of
+perfect preservation.
+
+In July, 1884, Professor Maspero secured permission from the Egyptian
+government to buy from the natives the property which they held on the
+site of the Great Temple at Luxor, and to prevent any further work of
+destruction. These orders, however, were not carried out till early in
+1885, when Maspero began excavating with one hundred and fifty workmen.
+He first unearthed the sanctuary of Amenhôthes III., with its massive
+roof. He brought to light the great central colonnade, and discovered a
+portico of Ramses II., and many colossi, which were either still erect
+or else had fallen on the ground. The columns of Amenhôthes III. were
+next explored, which were found to be among the most beautiful of all
+specimens of Egyptian architecture. It is believed that Luxor will prove
+to have been a locality of almost as great a beauty as Karnak.
+
+During the season of 1884-85 Professor Petrie started excavations at the
+modern Nehireh, which he learned was the site of the ancient Naucratis.*
+Here many Greek inscriptions were found.
+
+     * The investigations on this site were continued in the
+     season of 1888-89.
+
+[Illustration: 336.jpg ruins at luxor]
+
+This city was one of great importance and a commercial mart during the
+reign of Ahmosis, although in the time of the Emperor Commodus it had
+wholly disappeared. Two temples of Apollo were discovered, one of which
+was built from limestone in the seventh century B.C.; and the other
+was of white marble, beautifully decorated, and dating from the fifth
+century.
+
+Magnificent libation bowls were also discovered here, some of which had
+been dedicated to Hera, others to Zeus, and others to Aphrodite. The
+lines of the ancient streets were traced, and a storehouse or granary
+of the ancient Egyptians was unearthed, also many Greek coins. Besides
+these were discovered votive deposits, cups of porcelain, alabaster
+jugs, limestone mortars; and trowels, chisels, knives, and hoes.
+
+Much light was thrown by these discoveries on the progress of the
+ceramic arts, and many links uniting the Greek pottery with the Egyptian
+pottery were here for the first time traced. It was learned that the
+Greeks were the pupils of the Egyptians, but that they idealised the
+work of their masters and brought into it freer conceptions of beauty
+and of proportion.
+
+M. Naville was engaged about this time in controversies as to the true
+site of this ancient Pithom. He also made, in 1886, a search for the
+site of Goshen. He believed he had identified this when he discovered
+at Saft an inscription dedicated to the gods of Kes, which Naville
+identified with Kesem, the name used in the Septuagint for Goshen.
+Others, however, disagree, and locate the site of Goshen at a place
+called Fakoos, twelve miles north of Tel-el-Kebir.
+
+The explorations of 1885-86 started under the direction of Professor
+W. M. Flinders Petrie, Mr. F. Llewellen Griffith, and Mr. Ernest A.
+Gardiner. Gardiner set out in the direction of Naucratis, and Petrie and
+Griffith proceeded to explore the site of Tanis. The mound at which they
+worked, like many other localities of modern and ancient Egypt, has been
+known by a variety of names. It is called Tel Farum, or the Mound of the
+Pharaoh; Tel Bedawi, the Mound of the Bedouins; and Tel Nebesheh, after
+the name of the village upon this site. There are remains here of an
+ancient cemetery and of two ancient towns and a temple. The cemetery
+was found to be unlike those of Memphis, Thebes, or Abydos. It contained
+many small chambers and groups of chambers irregularly placed about a
+sandy plain. These were built mostly of brick, but there were other and
+larger ones built of limestone. A black granite altar of the reign of
+Ahmenemhait II. was discovered, and thrones of royal statues of the
+twelfth dynasty. Here were also found a statue of Harpocrates, a portion
+of a statue of Phtah, with an inscription of Ramses II., a sphinx and
+tombs of the twentieth century B.C. containing many small relics of
+antiquity.
+
+Professor Petrie went on from here to the site of Tell Defenneh, the
+Tahpanhes of the Bible, called Taphne in the version of the Septuagint.
+This proved to be the remains of the earliest Greek settlement in
+Egypt, and contains no remains from a later period than the twenty-sixth
+dynasty. It was here that Psammeticus I. established a colony of the
+Carian and Ionian mercenaries, by whose aid this monarch had won
+the throne; and this Greek city had been built as one out of three
+fortresses to prevent the incursions of the Arabians and Syrians. The
+city of Tahpanhes or Taphne is referred to in the book of Jeremiah.
+
+There were found on this site the remains of a vast pile of brick
+buildings, which could be seen in outline from a great distance across
+the plains. The Arabs called this “El Kasr el Bin el Yahudi,” that is,
+“The Castle of the Jew’s Daughter.” This was found to have been a fort,
+and it contained a stele with a record of the garrison which had been
+stationed there; pieces of ancient armour and arms were also found in
+the neighbourhood. There was likewise a royal hunting-box on this site,
+and all the principal parts of the settlement were found to have been
+surrounded by a wall fifty feet thick, which enclosed an area of three
+thousand feet in length and one thousand in breadth. The gate on the
+north opened towards the Pelusiac canal, and the south looked out upon
+the ancient military road which led up from Egypt to Syria. Pottery,
+bronze-work, some exquisitely wrought scale armour, very light but
+overlapping six times, were unearthed within this enclosure. There were
+also Greek vases and other Greek remains, dating in the earlier part
+of the reign of Ahmosis, who had subsequently sent the Greeks away, and
+prevented them from trading in Egypt. Since this Greek colony came to an
+end in the year 570 B.C., and as the locality was no longer frequented
+by Greek soldiers or merchants, it is possible to set an exact term to
+the period of Greek art which these antiquities represent. The Greek
+pottery here is so unlike that of Naucratis and of other places that it
+seems to be well ascertained that it must have been all manufactured at
+Defenneh itself. Outside the buildings of the Kasr, Petrie discovered a
+large sun-baked pavement resting upon the sands, and this discovery was
+of value in explaining a certain passage of the forty-third chapter of
+Jeremiah, translated from the Revised Version as follows: “Then came the
+word of the Lord to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, Take great stones in
+thine hand, and hide them in the mortar of the brick-work which is at
+the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes in the sight of the men of
+Judah [i.e. Johannan and the captains who had gone to Egypt]; and say
+unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I
+will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the King of Babylon, my servant, and
+will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall
+spread his royal pavilion over them. And he shall come and smite the
+land of Egypt.” An alternate reading for “brickwork” is the pavement
+or square. The pavement which Jeremiah described was evidently the one
+which Petrie discovered, though he was not able at the time to discover
+the stones which, according to Jeremiah, had been inserted in the
+mortar. Outside the camp wall was further discovered the remains of a
+large settlement, strewn on all sides with bits of pottery and jewelry
+and a great number of weights.
+
+During this season Maspero carried on researches at Luxor, and proceeded
+to excavate in the neighbourhood of the Great Sphinx. There are many
+Egyptian pictures which represent the Sphinx in its entirety down to
+the paws, but the lower parts had for centuries been buried in the
+accumulations of sand which had covered up all of the ancient site.
+It had previously been supposed that the Sphinx had been hewn out of a
+solid mass of rock resembling an immense boulder. Professor Maspero’s
+excavations enabled him not only to verify the accuracy of the
+old Egyptian paintings of the Sphinx, but also to show that a vast
+amphitheatre had been hewn out of the rock round the Sphinx, which was
+not therefore sculptured from a projecting rock. Since the upper rim of
+this basin was about on the same level with the head of the figure, it
+became evident that the ancient sculptors had cut the rock away on all
+sides, and had subsequently left the Sphinx isolated, as it is at the
+present day. Maspero dug down during this season to a depth of thirty
+yards in the vicinity.
+
+Professor Maspero’s last official act as Director-General of the
+Excavations and Antiquities of Egypt was his examination of the mummy of
+Ramses II. found in 1884, in the presence of the khédive and other
+high dignitaries. The mummy of this great conqueror was well preserved,
+revealing a giant frame and a face expressive of sovereign majesty,
+indomitable will, and the pride of the Egyptian king of kings. He
+then unbandaged the mummy of Nofritari, wife of King Ahmosis I. of the
+eighteenth dynasty, beside which, in the same sarcophagus, had been
+discovered the mummy of Ramses ITT. The physiognomy of this monarch is
+more refined and intellectual than that of his warlike predecessor; nor
+was his frame built upon the same colossal plan. The height of the body
+was less, and the shoulders not so wide. In the same season Maspero also
+discovered an ancient Egyptian romance inscribed on limestone near the
+tomb of Sinûhît at Thebes. A fragment on papyrus had been preserved at
+the Berlin Museum, but the whole romance was now decipherable.
+
+Professor Maspero resigned his office of directorship on June 5, 1886,
+and was succeeded in the superintendency of excavations and Egyptian
+archeology by M. Eugene Grébault. In the same month Grébault started
+upon the work of unbandaging the mummy of the Theban King Sekenenra
+Ta-aken, of the eighteenth dynasty. It was under this monarch that a
+revolt against the Hyksôs, or Shepherd Kings, had originated, in the
+course of which the Asiatics were expelled from Egypt. The history of
+this king has always been considered legendary, but from the signs of
+wounds present in the mummy, it is certain that he had died in battle.
+In the same season the mummy of Seti I. was unbandaged, and also that of
+an anonymous prince.
+
+The next season the work of clearing away the sand from around the Great
+Sphinx was vigorously prosecuted by Grébault. In the beginning of the
+year 1887, the chest, the paws, the altar, and plateau were all
+made visible. Flights of steps were unearthed, and finally accurate
+measurements were taken of the great figures. The height from the lowest
+of the steps was found to be one hundred feet, and the space between the
+paws was found to be thirty-five feet long and ten feet wide. Here there
+was formerly an altar; and a stele of Thûtmosis IV. was discovered,
+recording a dream in which he was ordered to clear away the sand that
+even then was gathering round the site of the Sphinx.
+
+M. Naville and Mr. F. Llewellen Griffiths explored during the season of
+1886-87 the mound of Tel-el-Yehu-dieh (the mound of the Jew). The
+site is probably that on which was once built the city that Ptolemy
+Philadelphus allowed the Jews to construct. The remains of a statue of
+the cat-headed goddess Bast, to which there is a reference in Josephus,
+was also found here. The discovery of tablets of definitely Jewish
+origin make it clear that the modern name had been given to the place
+for some reason connected with the colony thus proved to have once been
+settled there.
+
+Naville also made researches at Tel Basta, the site of the Bubastis
+of the Greeks, the Pi Beseth of the Bible, and the Pi Bast of the
+Egyptians, which was formerly the centre of worship of the goddess Pasht
+and her sacred animal, the cat. The whole plan of the ancient temple was
+soon disclosed, the general outline of which bears much resemblance to
+that of the great Temple of San. In the division which Naville called
+the Festival Hall were numerous black and red statues inscribed with the
+name of Ramses II., but many of which were probably not really erected
+by this monarch. Here there was also found a standing statue of the
+Governor of Ethiopia, a priest and priestess of the twenty-sixth
+dynasty, and many other monuments of the greatest historical interest.
+The hall itself was built of red granite.
+
+Another hall, which Naville called the “Hypostyle Hall,” possessed a
+colonnade of such beauty that it would seem to justify the statement of
+Herodotus, that the temple of Bubastis was one of the finest in Egypt.
+The columns were either splendid red granite monoliths, with lotus-bud
+or palm-leaf capitals; or, a head of Hâthor from which fell two long
+locks. These columns probably belonged to the twelfth dynasty. In what
+Naville called the “Ptolemaic Hall” occurs the name Nephthorheb or
+Nectanebo I. of the thirtieth dynasty. The relics of this remarkable
+temple thus cover a period from the sixth to the thirtieth dynasties,
+some 3,200 years. During this season Professor Petrie made important
+discoveries in relation to the obscure Hyksôs dominion in Egypt. Many
+representations of these Shepherd Kings were found, and, from their
+physiognomy, it was judged that they were not Semites, but rather
+Mongols or Tatars, who probably came from the same part of Asia as the
+Mongul hordes of Genghis Khan.
+
+Early in 1888 excavations were resumed on the site of the great temple
+of Bubastis by M. Edouard Naville, Mr. F. LI. Griffiths, and the Count
+d’Hulst. The investigation again yielded the usual crop of antiquities
+that was now always expected from the exploration of the famous sites. A
+third hall was discovered, which had been built in the time of Osorkon
+I., of red granite inlaid with sculptured slabs. There were also many
+other monuments and remains of the monarchs, together with much valuable
+evidence relating to the rule of the Hyksôs.
+
+Petrie brought to London many beautiful Ptolemaic and Roman portraits,
+which he had discovered in a vast cemetery near the pyramid which bears
+the name of King Ahmenemhâît III. The portraits are in an excellent
+state of preservation, and are invaluable as illustrative of the
+features, manners, and customs of the Greek and Roman periods in
+Egyptian history.
+
+His researches in the neighbourhood of the Fayum at this time commenced
+to bear fruit; and many questions were answered regarding the ancient
+Lake Mceris. It was in this season also that the ever memorable
+excavations conducted at Tel-el-Amarna were first begun. This place is
+situated in Upper Egypt on the site of the capital, which had been built
+by Ahmenhotpû IV. Here were discovered many clay tablets in cuneiform
+characters containing documents in the Babylonian language. These were
+found in the tomb of a royal scribe. The list contained a quantity
+of correspondence from the kings or rulers of Palestine, Syria,
+Mesopotamia, and Babylonia to Ahmenhotpû III. and IV. There were
+Egyptian garrisons in those days in Palestine, and they were accustomed
+to keep their royal masters well informed as to what was going on in the
+country. Among other cities mentioned are Byblos, Smyrna, Appo or Acre,
+Megiddo, and Ashpelon. During this season many relics of early Christian
+art were discovered. In many cases a pagan picture had been in part
+painted over, and thus given a Christian significance. Two figures of
+Isis suckling Horus are, with slight alterations, made to represent the
+Virgin and the Child. A bas-relief of St. George slaying the dragon was
+discovered, which closely resembled that of Horus slaying Set.
+
+During the following season of 1888-89, Petrie resumed his excavations
+round the pyramid of Hawara, which was supposed to be the site of the
+famous Labyrinth. Work had been begun here in the season previous,
+and it was now to be crowned with great success. All the underground
+passages and secret chambers under the pyramid were examined, and the
+inscriptions discovered of King Ahmenemhâît III. prove that this was
+without doubt the pyramid of the monarch of that name. It was discovered
+that the Romans had broken into the recesses of these secret chambers,
+and many broken Roman _amphoræ_ were unearthed. Later Professor Petrie
+examined the pyramid of Illahûn, which stands at the gate of the Fayum.
+It is probable that this was on the site of the ancient locks which
+regulated the flow of the Nile into Lake Moris. Many of the antiquities
+here discovered bore inscriptions of King Usirtasen II., and, in the same
+locality, was discovered the site of an early Christian cemetery dating
+from the fifth or sixth centuries. A few miles from Illahûn, the same
+indefatigable explorer discovered the remains of another town belonging
+to the eighteenth or nineteenth dynasties. A wall once surrounded the
+town, and beyond the wall was a necropolis. The place is now called
+Tell Gurah, and the relics give inscriptions of Thûtmosis III. or
+Tûtankhamon and of Horemheb.
+
+In the same season of 1888--89, Miss Amelia B. Edwards, who had been
+sent out by the Egypt Exploration Fund, brought to a conclusion the
+excavations which had been carried on for several seasons at Bubastis.
+It was discovered that the temple itself dated back to the reign of
+the famous Khûfûi (Kheops), the builder of the great Pyramid, since
+an inscription with his name on it was discovered, together with one
+inscribed to King Khafrî (Chephren). The monuments discovered on this
+site were, for the most part, shipped to Europe and America.
+
+The city of Boston, Mass., received a colossal Hâthor-head capital of
+red granite, part of a colossal figure of a king, an immense lotus-bud
+capital from the Hypo-style Hall of the temple, a bas-relief in red
+granite from the Hall of Osorken II., and two bas-reliefs of limestone
+from the temple of Hâthor, taken from the ancient Termuther.
+
+[Illustration: 347.jpg THE LOTUS FLOWER NYMPHAEA LOTUS]
+
+Specimens recovered from here date from the fourth to the twenty-second
+dynasties, and the relics from Termuther are from the last period of the
+Ptolemies.
+
+Early in 1891, Professor Petrie made his exhaustive examination of the
+pyramid of Me-dum, which he declared to be the earliest of all dated
+Egyptian pyramids, and probably the oldest dated building in the world.
+Its builder was Snofrui of the third dynasty; and, joined with it, and
+in a perfect state of preservation, was the pyramid temple built at the
+same period. From forty to sixty feet of rubbish had accumulated around
+the buildings, and had to be removed. The front of the temple was thirty
+feet wide and nine feet high, and a door was discovered at the south
+end. A wide doorway leads to the open court built on the side of the
+pyramid. In the centre of the court stands the altar of offerings, where
+there is also an inscribed obelisk thirteen feet high. The walls of the
+temple are all marked with _graffiti_ of visitors who belonged to the
+twelfth and eighteenth dynasties. A statuette was found dedicated to the
+gods of the town by a woman.
+
+The tombs at this place had been rifled in ancient times, but many
+skeletons of people, who had been buried in a crouching attitude, were
+discovered, and Petrie considered that these belonged to a different
+race from that which was accustomed to bury the dead recumbent. A
+quantity of pottery was also unearthed, dating from the fourth century.
+The method by which the plan of a pyramid was laid out by the ancient
+Egyptians was discovered in this excavation, and the designs show
+considerable mechanical ingenuity in their execution, and afford a
+perfect system for maintaining the symmetry of the building itself, no
+matter how uneven the ground on which it was to be built.
+
+In the spring of 1891, M. Naville started an excavation on the site of
+the ancient Heracleopolis Magna at a place now named Hanassieh. He found
+here many Roman and Koptic remains, and further discovered the vestibule
+of an ancient Egyptian temple. There were six columns, on which Ramses
+II. was represented as offering gifts. The name of Menephtah was also
+noticed, and the architraves above the columns were seen to be cut with
+cartouches of Usirtasen II. of the twelfth dynasty. This temple was
+probably one of those to the service of which Ramses II. donated some
+slaves, as is described in one of the papyri of the Harris collection.
+
+A stone was discovered by Mr. Wilborn at Luxor, recording a period of
+seven years’ successive failure of the Nile to overflow, and the efforts
+made by a certain sorcerer named Chit Net to remove the calamity.
+
+During the season of 1895, Professor Petrie and Mr. Quibell discovered
+homes belonging to paleolithic man on a plateau four thousand feet
+above the Nile. Thirty miles south of Thebes, there are many large and
+beautifully worked flints. Their great antiquity is proved by the fact
+that they are deeply stained, whereas, in the same locality, there are
+other flints of an age of five thousand years, which show no traces of
+stains.
+
+Close by this site was discovered the abundant remains of a hitherto
+unknown race. This race has nothing in common with the true Egyptians,
+although their relics are invariably found with those of the Egyptians
+of the fourth, twelfth, eighteenth, and nineteenth dynasties. Petrie
+declares these men to have been tall and powerful, with strong features,
+a hooked nose, a long, pointed beard, and brown, wavy hair. They were
+not related to the negroes, but rather to the Amorites or Libyans. The
+bodies in these tombs are not mummified, but are contracted, though laid
+in an opposite direction from those discovered at Medum. The graves are
+open, square pits, roofed over with beams of wood. This ancient race
+used forked hunting-lances for chasing the gazelle, and their beautiful
+flints were found to be like those belonging to an excellent collection
+already existing in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford. They also made
+an abundant use of copper for adzes, harpoons for spearing fish, and
+needles for sewing garments. They used pottery abundantly, and its
+variety is remarkable no less than the quality, which, unlike the
+Egyptian, was all hand-made and never fashioned by aid of the wheel.
+They entered Egypt about 3,000 B.C., and were probably of the white
+Libyan race, and possibly may have been the foreigners who overthrew the
+old Egyptian empire.
+
+The discovery of the name of “Israel” in an Egyptian inscription was
+in a sense, perhaps, the most remarkable event of the year 1895 in
+archæology. It was first laid before the public by Professor Petrie,*
+and was treated by Spiegelberg** in a communication to the Berlin
+Academy, and by Steindorff.***
+
+     * Contemporary Review, May 1896.
+
+     ** Sitzberichte, xxv., p. 593. 3.
+
+     *** Zeitschrift fur deutsch. Alt. test. Wiss., 1896, p. 330.
+
+The name occurs in an inscription dated in the fifth year of Merenptah,
+the successor of Ramses II., and often supposed to be the Pharaoh of the
+Exodus. It is there written with the determinative of a people, not of
+a city or country, and reads in our conventional transliteration
+_Ysiràar_, but in reality agrees very closely to the Hebrew [...] the
+last portion _aar_ being recognised as the equivalent of _el_ in several
+words. Merenptah states that “Israel is fekt (?) without seed (grain or
+offspring), Syria (Kharu) has become widows (Kharut) of or to Egypt.” We
+can form no conclusion from these statements as to the relation in
+which the Israelites stood to Pharaoh and to Egypt, except that they are
+represented as having been powerless. It is pretty clear, however, from
+the context that they were then in Palestine, or at least in Syria.
+Steindorff suggests that they may have entered Syria from Chaldæa
+during the disturbed times in Egypt at the end of the eighteenth
+dynasty, and connects them with the movements of the Khabiri (Hebrews?)
+mentioned in the Tel-el-Amarna tablets. On the other hand, it is of
+course possible, as Professor Petrie points out, that this reference
+to the Israelites may have some connection with the Exodus itself.
+M. Clermont Ganneau thinks that the localities mentioned are all in
+Southern Palestine.*
+
+     * Revue Archéologique, xxix., p. 127.
+
+M. Edouard Naville found at Thebes many remains of the Punt sculptures.
+The Puntites appear with their aquiline features, their pointed beards,
+and their long hair; negroes also of black and brown varieties are
+represented adjoining the Puntites proper. There are wickerwork
+huts, and a figure of a large white dog with its ears hanging down.
+Long-billed birds also appear flying about in the trees. Their nests
+have been forsaken and robbed, and the men are represented as gathering
+incense from the trees. Altogether, much invaluable information has been
+gathered concerning the famous people who lived in the Land of Punt, and
+with whom for a long period the Egyptians held intercommunication. Other
+discoveries were made near the great temple of Karnak, and the buildings
+of Medinet-Habu were cleared of rubbish in order to show their true
+proportions.
+
+From its foundation, the Egypt Exploration Fund has received large
+pecuniary support from the United States, chiefly through the enthusiasm
+and energy of Dr. W. C. Winslow, of Boston. In 1880 Doctor Winslow, who
+had been five months in Egypt, returned to America deeply impressed with
+the importance of scientific research in Egypt, and, upon hearing of the
+Exploration Fund in London, he wrote a letter expressive of his interest
+and sympathy to the president, Sir Erasmus Wilson, which brought a
+reply not only from him, but also from the secretary, Miss Edwards,
+expatiating upon the purpose and needs of the society, and outlining
+optimistically its ultimate accomplishments.
+
+Doctor Winslow was elected honorary treasurer of the Fund for the United
+States for the year 1883-84.* Many prominent residents became interested
+and added their names to its membership, and have given it their effort
+and their hearty financial support. Among the distinguished American
+members have been J. R. Lowell, G. W. Curtis, Charles Dudley Warner, and
+among the chief Canadian members are Doctor Bourinot and Dr. J. William
+Dawson.
+
+     *The American subscriptions from the year 1883 rapidly
+     increased, and by the year 1895 had figured up to $75,800,
+     and the total number of letters and articles written during
+     that time had grown to 2,467. The organisation in America
+     consists of a central office at Boston, together with
+     independent local societies, such as have already been
+     formed in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The Boston
+     office, and any independent local society, which subscribes
+     not less than $750 a year, is entitled to nominate a member
+     of the Committee. At the end of July, 1884, Doctor Winslow
+     had forwarded to London $1,332.20.
+
+The Fund has always preserved amicable relations with the Government
+Department of Antiquities in Egypt. Excavations are conducted by
+skilled explorers, and the results published promptly with due regard to
+scientific accuracy and pictorial embellishment. The antiquities found
+are either deposited in the National Museum at Cairo, or distributed
+among public museums in the United Kingdom and the United States of
+America and Canada, in strict proportion to the contribution of each
+locality. Exhibitions are usually held in London in July of each year.
+
+The Fund now consists of three departments, for each of which separate
+accounts are kept. These departments are: 1. The Exploration Fund, for
+conducting archeological research generally, by means of systematic
+excavations. 2. The Archæological Survey, for preserving an accurate
+pictorial record of monuments already excavated but liable to
+destruction. 3. The Græco-Roman Branch, for the discovery of the
+remains of classical antiquity and early Christianity.
+
+The first work of the Græco-Roman Branch was to publish the recently
+discovered Oxyrrhynchos papyri, of which two volumes, containing many
+important classical and theological texts, were issued in 1898 and 1899
+and 1900. Among its contents are parts of two odes of Pindar, of which
+one begins with a description of the poet’s relation to Xenocritus, the
+inventor of the Locrian mode of music; a considerable piece of the
+“Kolax” of Menander, one of the two plays upon which the “Eunuchus” of
+Terence was based; part of a rhetorical treatise in Doric dialect, which
+is undoubtedly a work of the Pythagorean school; the conclusion of the
+eighteenth Keo-Tcfe of Julius Africanus, dealing with a question of
+Homeric criticism; and part of a biography of Alcibiades. A new light
+is thrown upon some of the less-known departments of Greek literature by
+a well-preserved papyrus, which contains on one side a prose mime in two
+scenes, a work of the school of Sophron, having points of resemblance to
+the fifth mime of Herondas; while on the other side is an amusing farce,
+partly in prose, partly in verse. The scene is laid on the shores of the
+Indian Ocean, and the plot turns upon the rescue of a Greek maiden from
+the hands of barbarians, who speak a non-Greek language with elements
+apparently derived from Prakrit.*
+
+     * This is a peculiarly interesting suggestion in view of the
+     fact that there is in the British Museum an unpublished
+     fragment which for some time was considered by Doctor Budge
+     to be a species of Egyptian stenography, but which has also
+     been suggested to be in Pehlevi characters.
+
+The new Homeric fragments include one of Iliad VI., with critical
+signs and interesting textual notes. Sappho, Euripides (Andromache,
+“Archelaus,” and “Medea”), Antiphanes, Thucydides, Plato (“Gorgias” and
+“Republic”), Æschines, Demosthenes, and Xenophon are also represented.
+Among the theological texts are fragments of the lost Greek original of
+the “Apocalypse of Baruch” and of the missing Greek conclusion of the
+“Shepherd” of Hennas.
+
+In the winter of 1898-99, Doctors Grenfell and Hunt conducted
+excavations for the Græco-Roman Branch in the Fayûm. In 1899-1900, they
+excavated at Tebtunis, in the Fayûm, on behalf of the University of
+California; and by an arrangement between that university and the Egypt
+Exploration Fund an important section of the Tebtunis papyri, consisting
+of second-century B.C. papyri from crocodile mummies, was issued jointly
+by the two bodies, forming the annual volumes of the Græco-Roman Branch
+for 1900-01 and 1901-02. Since 1900 Doctors Grenfell and Hunt have
+excavated each winter on behalf of the Græco-Roman Branch,--in 1900-01
+in the Fayûm, and in 1901-02 both there and at Hibeh, with the result
+that a very large collection of Ptolemaic papyri was obtained. In the
+winter of 1902-03, after finishing their work at Hibeh, they returned to
+Oxyrrhynchos. Here was found a third-century fragment of a collection of
+sayings of Jesus, similar in style to the so-called “Logia” discovered
+at Oxyrrhynchos in 1897. As in that papyrus, the separate sayings
+are introduced by the words “Jesus saith,” and are for the most part
+unrecorded elsewhere, though some which are found in the Gospels (e.g.
+“The Kingdom of God is within you” and “Many that are first shall
+be last, and the last shall be first”) occur here in different
+surroundings. Six sayings are preserved, unfortunately in an imperfect
+condition. But the new “Logia” papyrus supplies more evidence concerning
+its origin than was the case with its predecessor, for it contains an
+introductory paragraph stating that what follows consisted of “the
+words which Jesus, the Living Lord, spake” to two of His disciples; and,
+moreover, one of the uncanonical sayings is already extant in part, the
+conclusion of it, “He that wonders shall reign and he that reigns shall
+rest,” being quoted by Clement of Alexandria from the Gospel according
+to the Hebrews. It is, indeed, possible that this Gospel was the source
+from which all this second series of “Logia” was derived, or they, or
+some of them, may perhaps have been taken from the Gospel according to
+the Egyptians, to which Professor Harnack and others have referred the
+“Logia” found in 1897. But the discoverers are disposed to regard both
+series as collections of sayings currently ascribed to our Lord rather
+than as extracts from any one uncanonical gospel.
+
+
+[Illustration: 357.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--IMPORTANT RESEARCHES IN EGYPT
+
+
+_The Royal Tombs at Abydos: Reconstruction of the First and Second
+Dynasties: The Ten Temples at Abydos: The statuette of Khûfûi: Pottery
+and Pottery Marks: The Expedition of the University of California._
+
+
+Some interesting explorations have been conducted in Egypt by the
+Exploration Fund during the four years 1900-04, under the guidance of
+Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, whose enthusiasm and patience for the work
+in this field seem to increase with the years of labour. In the winter
+of 1899-1900, Professor Petrie and his zealous helpers began their
+investigation of the royal tombs of the first dynasty at Abydos.
+Commenting on this undertaking, Professor Petrie writes:
+
+“It might have seemed a fruitless and thankless task to work at Abydos
+after it had been ransacked by Mariette, and had been for the last four
+years in the hands of the Mission Amélineau. My only reason was that
+the extreme importance of results from there led to a wish to ascertain
+everything possible about the early royal tombs after they were done
+with by others, and to search even for fragments of the pottery. To work
+at Abydos had been my aim for years past; but it was only after it
+was abandoned by the Mission Amélineau that at last, on my fourth
+application for it, I was permitted to rescue for historical study the
+results that are here shown.
+
+“Nothing is more disheartening than being obliged to gather results out
+of the fraction left behind by past plunderers. In these royal tombs
+there had been not only the plundering of the precious metals and the
+larger valuables by the wreckers of early ages; there was after that the
+systematic destruction of monuments by the vile fanaticism of the Kopts,
+which crushed everything beautiful and everything noble that mere greed
+had spared; and worst of all, for history, came the active search in the
+last four years for everything that could have a value in the eyes of
+purchasers, or be sold for profit regardless of its source; a search in
+which whatever was not removed was deliberately and avowedly destroyed
+in order to enhance the intended profits of European speculators. The
+results are therefore only the remains which have escaped the lust
+of gold, the fury of fanaticism, and the greed of speculators in this
+ransacked spot.
+
+“A rich harvest of history has come from the site which was said to be
+exhausted; and in place of the disordered confusion of names without any
+historical connection, which was all that was known from the _Mission
+Amélineau_, we now have the complete sequence of kings from the middle
+of the dynasty before Mena to probably the close of the second dynasty,
+and we can trace in detail the fluctuations of art throughout these
+reigns.” *
+
+At the time when Professor Maspero brought his history of Egypt to a
+close, the earliest known historical ruler of Egypt was King Mena or
+Menés.**
+
+     * “The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty,” Parts I.-II.
+     (Eighteenth and Twenty-first Memoirs of the Egypt
+     Exploration Fund), London, 1900-1902.
+
+     ** See Volume I., page 322, et seq.
+
+Mena is the first king on the fragmentary list of Manetho, and the
+general accuracy of Manetho was supported by the accounts of Herodotus
+and other ancient writers. For several centuries these accounts were
+accepted as the basis of authentic history. With the rise of the science
+of Egyptology, however, search began to be made for some corroboration
+of the actual existence of Mena, and this was found in the inscriptions
+of a temple wall at Abydos, which places Mena at the head of the first
+dynasty; and, allowing for differences of language, the records of
+Manetho relating to the earlier dynasty were established. Mena was
+therefore accepted as the first king of the first dynasty up to the very
+end of the nineteenth century.
+
+As a result of Professor Petrie ‘s recent investigations, however, he
+has been enabled to carry back the line of the early kings for three or
+four generations.
+
+The royal tombs at Abydos lie closely together in a compact group on a
+site raised slightly above the level of the surrounding plain, so that
+the tombs could never be flooded. Each of the royal tombs is a large
+square pit, lined with brickwork. Close around it, on its own level,
+or higher up, there are generally small chambers in rows, in which were
+buried the domestics of the king. Each reign adopted some variety in the
+mode of burial, but they all follow the type of the prehistoric burials,
+more or less developed. The plain square pit, like those in which the
+predynastic people were buried, is here the essential of the tomb. It
+is surrounded in the earlier examples of Zer or Zet by small chambers
+opening from it. By Merneit these chambers were built separately around
+it. By Den an entrance passage was added, and by Qa the entrance was
+turned to the north. At this stage we are left within reach of the early
+passage-mastabas and pyramids. Substituting a stone lining and roof for
+bricks and wood, and placing the small tombs of domestics farther away,
+we reach the type of the mas-taba-pyramid of Snofrui, and so lead on to
+the pyramid series of the Old Kingdom.
+
+[Illustration: 361.jpg PLAN OF THE ROYAL TOMBS AS ABYDOS]
+
+The careful manner with which all details of a burial were supervised
+under the first dynasty enables the modern Egyptologist, by a skilful
+piecing together of evidence, to reconstruct an almost perfect picture
+of the life of Egypt at the dawn of civilisation. One of our most
+valuable sources of information is due to the fact that, in building the
+walls of the royal tombs, there were deposited in certain parts within
+the walls objects now technically known as _deposits_. We do not know
+whether, in selecting these objects, the ancient Egyptian had regard
+to what he considered their intrinsic value, or whether, as was most
+probable, it was some religious motive that prompted his action. Often
+the objects thus deposited come under the designation of pottery,
+although the vases were sometimes shaped of stone and not of clay.
+Within such vases all kinds of objects were preserved. The jar or vase
+was closed with a lump of clay, either flat or conical, and the clay was
+impressed, while wet, with a seal.
+
+A detailed and elaborate examination of the relative positions of the
+tombs, their dimensions, and the objects found in them, compared with
+the various fragments of historical records of the early dynasties,
+enables us to reconstruct the exact order of these ancient rulers. This
+sequence is:
+
+[Illustration: 362.jpg TABLE OF ANCIENT RULERS]*
+
+     * Ka and Zeser were possibly brothers of Mena.
+
+Following the dating tentatively computed by Professor Petrie, the dates
+of some of these kings are:
+
+[Illustration: 363a.jpg TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY OF EARLY KINGS]
+
+Thus we have reconstructed the list of Thinite kings before Mena so
+far as the facts allow, and perhaps so far as we are ever likely to
+ascertain them.
+
+The facts about the second dynasty, the kings after Qa, must now be
+studied. In the tomb of Perabsen it was found that there were
+buried with him vases of three other kings, which are therefore his
+predecessors. Their names are Hotepahaui, Raneb, and Neteren; and it
+is certain that Raneb preceded Neteren, as the latter had defaced and
+re-used a vase of the former. As on statue No. 1, Cairo Museum, these
+three names are in the above order, and, as the succession of two of
+them is now proved, it is only reasonable to accept them in this order.
+From all the available facts it seems that we ought to restore the
+dynasty thus:
+
+[Illustration: 363b.jpg TABLE OF KINGS]
+
+The oldest tomb that we can definitely assign is that marked B 7, the
+tomb of King Ka. This is a pit with sloping sides; the thickness of the
+brick walls is that of the length of one brick, and the soft footing of
+the wall and pressure of sand behind it has overthrown the longer sides.
+
+[Illustration: 364.jpg ENLARGED PLAN OF FIRST DYNASTY TOMBS]
+
+The broken pottery mixed with the sand, which filled it, largely
+consisted of cylinder jars, like the later prehistoric form; and these
+had many inscriptions on them, written in ink with a brush, most of
+which showed the name of Ka in the usual panelled frame. There can
+therefore be no doubt of the attribution of this tomb.
+
+The tomb B 9 is perhaps that of King Zeser, who seems to have been a
+successor of Ka. It is of the same construction as that of Ka. The tomb
+B 10 appears to be the oldest of the great tombs, by its easternmost
+position; and the objects of Narmer point to this as his tomb. In both
+the thickness and the batter of the walls there is a care shown in
+proportioning the strength of the ends and the sides. The tomb B 15
+is probably that of King Sma. Its walls are not quite so thick, being
+fifty inches at the end. The post-holes in the floor suggest that there
+were five on the long side, and one in the middle of each end, as in the
+tomb of Narmer. But along the sides are holes for roofing beams near the
+top of the wall. These roof beams do not at all accord with the posts;
+and this proves that, here at least, the posts were for backing a wooden
+chamber inside the brick chamber. If this be the case here, it was
+probably also true in Narmer’s tomb; and hence these brick tombs were
+only the protective shell around a wooden chamber which contained the
+burial. This same system is known in the first dynasty tombs, and we see
+here the source of the chambered tombs of Zer and Zet. Before the age
+of Mena, the space around the wood chamber was used for dropping in
+offerings between the framing posts; and then, after Mena, separate
+brick chambers were made around the wooden chamber in order to hold more
+offerings.*
+
+     *This chamber was burnt; and is apparently that mentioned by
+     M. Amélineau, Fouilles, in extenso, 1899, page 107.
+
+The tomb B 19, which contained the best tablet of Aha-Mena, is probably
+his tomb; for the tomb with his vases at Naqada is more probably that of
+his queen Neithotep. As both the tombs B 17 and 18 to the north of this
+contained objects of Mena, it is probable that they were the tombs of
+some members of his family.
+
+The great cemetery of the domestics of this age is the triple row of
+tombs to the east of the royal tombs; in all the thirty-four tombs here,
+no name was found beside that of Aha on the jar sealings, and the two
+tombs, B 6 and B 14, seen to be probably of the same age. In B 14 were
+found only objects of Aha, and three of them were inscribed with the
+name of Bener-eb, probably the name of a wife or a daughter of Mena,
+which is not found in any other tomb.*
+
+     * Professor Petrie’s arguments, although home out by the
+     evidence that he produces, have from time to time been
+     criticised. M. Naville, for example, endeavours to prove
+     that the buildings in the desert are not literally tombs,
+     but rather temples for the cult of their Ka; and that there
+     ought not to be kings anterior to Mena, particularly at
+     Abydos: “Narmer” is really Boethos, the first king of the
+     second dynasty. According to M. Naville, Boethos, Usaphis,
+     and Miebidos are the only kings as yet identified of the
+     early time. M. Naville also suggests that Ka-Sekhem and Ka-
+     Sekhemui are two names for one king.
+
+[Illustration: 366.jpg EBONY TABLET OF KING AHA-MENA]
+
+From the time of Mena has come down to us an ebony tablet, as shown in
+the illustration. This is the most complete of the inscriptions of this
+king, and was found in two portions in the tombs marked B 18 and B 19.
+The signs upon the tablet are most interesting. On the top line, after
+the cartouche of Aha-Mena, there are two sacred boats, probably of
+Sokaris, and a shrine and temenos of Nit. In the line below is seen a
+man making an offering, and behind him is a bull running over undulating
+ground into a net stretched between two poles, while at the end,
+standing upon a shrine, is a bird, which appears to be the ibis of Thot.
+A third line shows three boats upon a canal or river, passing between
+certain places, and it has been reasonably conjectured that the other
+signs in this line indicate these places as being Biu, a district of
+Memphis; Pa She (or “the dwelling of the lake”), the capital of the
+Fayum; and the Canal of Mer, or Bahr Yusef. So far this tablet
+contains picture signs, but the fourth line gives a continued series of
+hieroglyphics, and is the oldest line of such characters yet discovered.
+Mr. F. LI. Griffiths translates these characters as “who takes the
+throne of Horus.”
+
+In the north-west corner of the tomb, a stairway of bricks was roughly
+inserted in later times in order to give access to the shrine of Osiris.
+That this is not an original feature is manifest: the walls are burnt
+red by the burning of the tomb, while the stairs are built of black
+mud brick with fresh mud mortar smeared over the reddened wall. It is
+notable that the burning of these tombs took place before their re-use
+in the eighteenth dynasty; as is also seen by the re-built doorway of
+the tomb of Den, which is of large black bricks over smaller red burnt
+bricks. It is therefore quite beside the mark to attribute this burning
+to the Kopts.
+
+The tomb of King Zer has an important secondary history as the site of
+the shrine of Osiris, established in the eighteenth dynasty (for none of
+the pottery offered there is earlier than that of Amenhôthes III.), and
+visited with offerings from that time until the twenty-sixth dynasty,
+when additional sculptures were placed here.
+
+[Illustration: 368.jpg TOMB OF ZER, 4700 B.C.]
+
+Afterwards it was despoiled by the Kopts in erasing the worship of
+Osiris. It is the early state of the place as the tomb of King Zer that
+we have to study here, and not its later history.
+
+The tomb chamber has been built of wood; and the brick cells around
+it were built subsequently against the wooden chamber, as their rough,
+unplastered ends show; moreover, the cast of the grain of the wood can
+be seen on the mud mortar adhering to the bricks. There are also long,
+shallow grooves in the floor, a wide one near the west wall, three
+narrow ones parallel to that, and a short cross groove, all probably the
+places of beams which supported the wooden chamber. Besides these there
+was till recently a great mass of carbonised wood along the north side
+of the floor. This was probably part of the flooring of the tomb, which,
+beneath the woodwork, was covered with a layer of bricks, which lay
+on clean sand. But all the middle of the tomb had been cleared to the
+native marl for building the Osiris shrine, of which some fragments of
+sculpture in hard limestone are now all that remain.
+
+A strange feature here is that of the red recesses, such as were also
+found in the tomb of Zet. The large ones are on the west wall, and in
+the second cell on the north wall. No meaning can yet be assigned to
+these, except as spirit-entrances to the cells of offerings, like the
+false doors in tombs of the Old Kingdom.
+
+In spite of the plundering of the tombs in various ages, the work of the
+Egypt Exploration Fund was so thorough that not a few gold objects
+have been found in the course of recent excavations. By far the most
+important discovery of recent years was that of some jewelry in the tomb
+of King Zer. The story of this find is so entertaining, and illustrates
+so admirably the method of the modern scientific explorer, that we give
+the account of it in Professor Petrie’s own words:
+
+“While my workmen were clearing the tomb, they noticed among the rubbish
+which they were moving a piece of the arm of a mummy in its wrappings.
+It lay in a broken hole in the north wall of the tomb. The party of four
+who found it looked into the end of the wrappings and saw a large gold
+bead, the rosette in the second bracelet. They did not yield to the
+natural wish to search further or to remove it; but laid the arm down
+where _they_ found it until Mr. Mace should come and verify it. Nothing
+but obtaining the complete confidence of the workmen, and paying them
+for all they find, could ever make them deal with valuables in this
+careful manner. On seeing it, Mr. Mace told them to bring it to our huts
+intact, and I received it quite undisturbed. In the evening the most
+intelligent of the party was summoned as a witness of the opening of
+the wrappings, so that there should be no suspicion that I had not dealt
+fairly with the men. I then cut open the linen bandages, and found,
+to our great surprise, the four bracelets of gold and jewelry. The
+verification of the exact order of threading occupied an hour or two,
+working with a magnifier, my wife and Mr. Mace assisting. When recorded,
+the gold was put in the scales and weighed against sovereigns before
+the workman, who saw everything. Rather more than the value of gold was
+given to the men, and thus we ensured their good-will and honesty for
+the future.”
+
+The hawk bracelet consists of thirteen gold and fourteen turquoise
+plaques in the form of the façade with the hawk, which usually encloses
+the _ka_ name of the king. The gold hawks have been cast in a mould
+with two faces, and the junction line has been carefully removed and
+burnished. The gold was worked by chisel and burnishing; no grinding or
+file marks are visible. In the second bracelet, with the rosette, two
+groups of beads are united at the sides by bands of gold wire and thick
+hair. The fastening of the bracelet was by a loop and button. This
+button is a hollow ball of gold with a shank of gold wire fastened in
+it. The third bracelet is formed of three similar groups, one larger,
+and the other smaller on either side. The middle of each group consists
+of three beads of dark purple lazuli. The fastening of this bracelet
+was by a loop and button. The fourth bracelet is fashioned of hour-glass
+beads.
+
+In this extraordinary group of the oldest jewelry known, we see
+unlimited variety and fertility of design. Excepting the plain gold
+balls, there is not a single bead in any one bracelet which would be
+interchangeable with those in another bracelet. Each is of independent
+design, fresh and free from all convention or copying.
+
+The tomb of Zet consists of a large chamber twenty feet wide and thirty
+feet long, with smaller chambers around it at its level, the whole
+bounded by a thick brick wall, which rises seven and a half feet to the
+roof, and then three and a half feet more to the top of the retaining
+wall. Outside of this on the north is a line of small tombs about five
+feet deep, and on the south a triple line of tombs of the same depth.
+And apparently of the same system and same age is the mass of tombs
+marked W, which are parallel to the tomb of Zet. Later there appears to
+have been built the long line of tombs, placed askew, in order not to
+interfere with those which have been mentioned, and then this skew line
+gave the di-rection to the next tomb, that of Merneit, and later on to
+that of Azab. The private graves around the royal tomb are all built of
+mud brick, with a coat of mud plaster over it, and the floor is of sand,
+usually also coated over with mud.
+
+[Illustration: 372.jpg TOMB OF ZET, CIRCA 4700 B.C.]
+
+The first question about these great tombs is how they were covered
+over. Some have said that such spaces could not be roofed, and at first
+sight it would seem almost impossible. But the actual beams found yet
+remaining in the tombs are as long as the widths of the tombs, and
+therefore timber of such sizes could be procured. In the tomb of Qa the
+holes for the beams yet remain in the walls, and even the cast of the
+end of a beam, and in the tombs of Merneit, Azab, and Mer-sekha are
+posts and pilasters to help in supporting a roof. The clear span of
+the chamber of Zet is 240 inches, or 220 if the beams were carried on
+a wooden lining, as seems likely. It is quite practicable to roof
+over these great chambers up to spans of twenty feet. The wood of such
+lengths was actually used, and, if spaced out over only a quarter of the
+area, the beams would carry their load with full safety. Any boarding,
+mats, or straw laid over the beams would not increase the load. That
+there was a mass of sand laid over the tomb is strongly shown by the
+retaining wall around the top. This wall is roughly built, and not
+intended to be a visible feature. The outside is daubed with mud
+plaster, and has a considerable slope; the inside is left quite rough,
+with bricks in and out.
+
+Turning now to the floor, the basis of it is mud plastering, which was
+whitewashed. On that were laid beams around the sides, and one down the
+middle: these beams were placed before the mud floor was hard, and have
+sunk about one-quarter inch into it. On the beams a ledge was recessed,
+and on this ledge the edges of the flooring planks rested. Such planks
+would not bend in the middle by a man standing on them, and therefore
+made a sound floor. Over the planks was laid a coat of mud plaster. This
+construction doubtless shows what was the mode of flooring the palaces
+and large houses of the early Egyptians, in order to keep off the damp
+of the ground in the Nile valley. For common houses a basis of pottery
+jars turned mouth down was used for the same purpose. A very striking
+example of this method was unearthed at Koptos.
+
+The sides of the great central chamber of Zet are not clear in
+arrangement. The brick cross walls, which subdivide them into separate
+cells, have no finished faces on their ends. All the wall faces are
+plastered and whitewashed; but the ends of the cross walls are rough
+bricks, all irregularly in and out. Moreover, the bricks project forward
+irregularly over the beam line. It seems, then, that there was an
+upright timber lining to the chamber, against which the cross walls were
+built the walls thus having rough ends projecting over the beams. The
+footing of this upright plank lining is indicated by a groove left along
+the western floor beam between the ledge on the beam and the side of
+the flooring planks. Thus we reach a wooden chamber, lined with upright
+planks, which stood out from the wall, or from the backs of the beams.
+How the side chambers were entered is not shown; whether there was a
+door to each or not. But as they were intended to be for ever closed,
+and as the chambers in two corners were shut off by brickwork all round,
+it seems likely that all the side chambers were equally closed. And
+thus, after the slain domestics and offerings were deposited in them,
+and the king in the centre hall, the roof would be permanently placed
+over the whole.
+
+The height of the chamber is proved by the cast of straw which formed
+part of the roofing, and which comes at the top of the course of headers
+on edge which copes the wall all around the chamber. Over this straw
+there was laid one course of bricks a little recessed, and beyond that
+is the wide ledge all round before reaching the retaining wall. The
+height of the main chamber was 90.6 inches from the floor level.
+
+Having examined the central chamber, the chambers at the sides should be
+next considered. The cross walls were built after the main brick outside
+was finished and plastered. The deep recesses coloured red, on the north
+side, were built in the construction; where the top is preserved entire,
+as in a side chamber on the north, it is seen that the roofing of
+the recess was upheld by building in a board about an inch thick.
+The shallow recesses along the south side were merely made in the
+plastering, and even in the secondary plastering after the cross walls
+were built. All of these recesses, except that at the south-west, were
+coloured pink-red, due to mixing burnt ochre with the white.
+
+The tomb of Merneit was not at first suspected to exist, as it had no
+accumulation of pottery over it; and the whole ground had been pitted
+all over by the Mission Amélineau making “_quelques sondages_,” without
+revealing the chambers or the plan. As soon, however, as Petrie began
+systematically to clear the ground, the scheme of a large central
+chamber, with eight long chambers for offerings around it, and a line of
+private tombs enclosing it, stood apparent. The central chamber is very
+accurately built, with vertical sides parallel to less than an inch. It
+is about twenty-one feet wide and thirty feet long, or practically the
+same as the chamber of Zet. Around the chamber are walls forty-eight
+to fifty-two inches thick, and beyond them a girdle of long, narrow
+chambers forty-eight inches wide and 160 to 215 inches long. Of these
+chambers for offerings, Nos. 1, 2, 5, and 7 still contain pottery in
+place, and No. 3 contains many jar sealings.
+
+At a few yards distant from the chambers full of offerings is a line
+of private graves almost surrounding the royal tomb. This line has
+an interruption at the south end of the west side similar to the
+interruption of the retaining wall of the tomb of Zet at that quarter.
+It seems, therefore, that the funeral approached it from that direction.
+
+The chamber of the tomb of Merneit shows signs of burning on both the
+walls and the floor. A small piece of wood yet remaining indicates that
+it also had a wooden floor like the other tombs. Against the walls stand
+pilasters of brick; and, although these are not at present more than a
+quarter of the whole height of the wall, they originally reached to the
+top. These pilasters are entirely additions to the first building; they
+stand against the plastering and upon a loose layer of sand and pebbles
+about four inches thick. Thus it is clear that they belonged to the
+subsequent stage of the fitting of a roof to the chamber. The holes that
+are shown in the floor are apparently connected with the construction,
+as they are not in the mid-line where pillars are likely. At the edge of
+chamber No. 2 is a cast of plaited palm-leaf matting on the mud mortar
+above this level, and the bricks are set back irregularly. This shows
+the mode of finishing off the roof of this tomb.
+
+[Illustration: 377.jpg PLANS OF THE TOMBS OF DEN-SETUI AND OTHERS]
+
+From the position of the tomb of Den-Setui, it is seen naturally to
+follow the building of the tombs of Zet and Merneit. It is surrounded by
+rows of small chambers for offerings, and for the burial of domestics.
+The king’s tomb appears to have contained a large number of tablets of
+ivory and ebony, for fragments of eighteen were found, and two others
+are known, making in all twenty tablets from this one tomb. The
+inscriptions on stone vases are, however, not more frequent than in
+previous reigns. This tomb appears to have been one of the most costly
+and sumptuous. The astonishing feature of this chamber is the granite
+pavement, such considerable use of granite being quite unknown until the
+step pyramid of Saqqâra early in the third dynasty. At the south-west
+corner is a strange annex. A stairway leads down from the west and then
+turns to the north. At the foot of the first flight of steps is a
+space for inserting planks and brickwork to close the chamber, like
+the blocking of the door of the tomb of Azab.1 This small chamber was
+therefore intended to be closed. Whether this chamber was for the burial
+of one of the royal family, or for the deposit of offerings, it is
+difficult to determine. Of the various rows of graves around the great
+tomb there is nothing to record in detail. An ebony tablet, presumably
+of the time of Den, found among the first dynasty tombs, represents a
+scene in which a king is dancing before Osiris, the god being seated
+in his shrine. This tablet is the earliest example of those pictorial
+records of a religious ceremony which, as we now know, was continued
+almost without change from the first dynasty to the thirty-third. It is
+interesting to note on this engraving that the king is represented with
+the _hap_ and a short stick instead of the oar.
+
+[Illustration: 379.jpg TABLET OF DEN-SETUI, 4600 B.C.]
+
+It should be noted also that the royal name, Setui, occurs in the lower
+part of the tablet, so that there is a strong presumption that the
+tablet is of the time of Den-Setui, and the presumption is almost a
+certainty when the tablet is compared with some sealings found in its
+vicinity. Mr. F. LI. Griffiths has written at length on this important
+inscription.*
+
+     * Royal Tombs of the first dynasty, Part I: Eighteenth
+     Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, London, 1900, page 42.
+
+He thinks that this tablet and two others somewhat similar were the
+brief annals of the time, and record the historic events and the names
+of government officials. He translates a portion of the inscription as
+“Opening the gates of foreign lands,” and in another part he reads,
+“The master comes, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt.” Moreover, he
+translates certain signs as “Sheikh of the Libyans,” and he identifies
+a place named _Tny_ as This, or the capital of the nome in which Abydos
+lay.
+
+Of this reign also is an ivory tablet finely polished, but blackened
+with burning, which has engraved upon it the oldest architectural
+drawing in the world.
+
+[Illustration: 380.jpg architectural drawing, B.C. 4600.]
+
+The inscription on this precious fragment apparently refers to the great
+chiefs coming to the tomb of Setui, and a picture of a building in the
+middle of the inscription may be taken as representing on the left the
+tomb chamber of Den-Setui, with a slight mound over it. The upright
+strokes represent the steles outside the tombs, adjacent to which is the
+inclined stairway, while on the right is a diagram of the cemetery, with
+graves ar-ranged in rows around the tomb, with small steles standing up
+over the graves.
+
+A small piece of still another ivory tablet gives an interesting
+portrait of Den-Setui. This king flourished about 4600 b. c, so that
+this is perhaps the oldest portrait that can be named and dated. It
+shows the double crown fully developed, and has an additional interest,
+inasmuch as the crown of Lower Egypt was apparently coloured red, while
+the crown of Upper Egypt was white in accordance with the practice that
+we know existed during the later historic period.
+
+[Illustration: 381.jpg IVORY PANEL OF DEN-SETUI, 4600 B.C.]
+
+Among the many ivory objects found at Abydos is a small ivory panel from
+a box which seems to have contained the golden seal of judgment of King
+Den.
+
+The engraving of this ivory panel is of the finest description, and
+bears evidence of the magnificent workmanship of the Egyptians 6,500
+years ago. It will be seen that enough of the fragment has been
+preserved to include the cartouche of the monarch, and the snake at the
+side is the pictograph of judgment. Beneath is the hieroglyph for gold,
+and at the bottom is a sign which represents a seal cylinder* rolling
+over a piece of clay.
+
+     * It was for a long time thought that this hieroglyphic
+     character represented a finger ring, but as it is now
+     positively known that finger rings were not in use until
+     long after the time of Den, this explanation had to be
+     abandoned in favour of the more correct interpretation of a
+     seal cylinder.
+
+The tomb of Azab-Merpaba is a plain chamber, with rather sloping sides,
+about twenty-two feet long and fourteen feet wide. The surrounding wall
+is nearly five feet thick. The lesser and more irregular chamber on
+the north is of the same depth and construction, fourteen feet by nine.
+This lesser chamber had no remains of flooring; it contained many large
+sealings of jars, and seems to have been for all the funeral provision,
+like the eight chambers around the tomb of Merneit. Around this tomb is
+a circuit of small private tombs, leaving a gap on the southwest like
+that of Merneit, and an additional branch line has been added on at the
+north.
+
+[Illustration: 382.jpg STAIRWAY IN THE TOMB AZAB]
+
+All of these tombs are very irregularly built; the sides are wavy in
+direction, and the divisions of the long trench are slightly piled up,
+of bricks laid lengthwise, and easily overthrown. This agrees with
+the rough and irregular construction of the central tomb and offering
+chamber. The funeral of Azab seems to have been more carelessly
+conducted than that of any of the other kings here; only one piece of
+inscribed vase was in his tomb, as against eight of his found in his
+successor’s tomb, and many other of his vases erased by his successor.
+Thus his palace property seems to have been kept back for his
+successor’s use, and not buried with Azab himself. In some of the
+chambers much ivory inlaying was found.
+
+The entrance to the tomb of Azab was by a stairway descending from the
+east, thus according with the system begun by Den. On the steps, just
+outside of the door, were found dozens of small pots loosely piled
+together. These must have contained offerings made after the completion
+of the burial. The blocking is made by planks and bricks, the whole
+outside of the planking being covered by bricks loosely stacked, as can
+be seen in the photograph, the planking having decayed away from before
+them. The chamber was floored with planks of wood laid flat on the sand,
+without any supporting beams as in other tombs.
+
+The tomb of Mersekha-Semempses is forty-four feet long and twenty-five
+feet wide, surrounded by a wall over five feet thick. The surrounding
+small chambers are only three to four feet deep where perfect, while the
+central pit is still eleven and one-half feet deep, though broken away
+at the top. When examined by Professor Petrie few of the small chambers
+contained anything. Seven steles were found, the inscriptions of which
+are marked in the chambers of the plan; and other steles were also found
+here, scattered so that they could not be identified with the tombs.
+The most interesting are two steles of dwarfs, which show the dwarf type
+clearly; with one were found bones of a dwarf. In a chamber on the
+east was a jar and a copper bowl, which shows the hammer marks, and
+is roughly finished, with the edge turned over to leave it smooth. The
+small compartments in the south-eastern chambers were probably intended
+to hold the offerings placed in the graves; the dividing walls are only
+about half the depth of the grave.
+
+[Illustration: 384.jpg TOMB OF MERSEKHA, SHOWING WOODEN FLOOR]
+
+The structure of the interior of the tomb of Mersekha is at present
+uncertain. Only in the corner by the entrance was the wooden flooring
+preserved; several beams (one now in Cairo Museum) and much broken wood
+was found loose in the rubbish. The entrance is nine feet wide, and
+was blocked by loose bricks, flush with wall face, as seen in the
+photograph. Another looser walling farther out, also seen in the
+photograph, is probably that of plunderers to hold back the sand.
+
+The tomb of King Qa, which is the last of the first dynasty, shows a
+more developed stage than the others. Chambers for offerings are built
+on each side of the entrance passage, and this passage is turned to the
+north, as in the mastabas of the third dynasty and in the pyramids. The
+whole of the building is hasty and defective.
+
+[Illustration: 385.jpg PLAN OF TOMB OF QA, CIRCA 4500 B.C.]
+
+The bricks were mostly used too new, probably less than a week after
+being made. Hence the walls have seriously collapsed in most of the
+lesser chambers; only the one great chamber was built of firm and
+well-dried bricks. In the small chambers along the east side the long
+wall between chambers 10 and 5 has crushed out at the base, and spread
+against the pottery in the grave 5, and against the wooden box in grave
+2. Hence the objects must have been placed in those graves within a few
+days of the building of the wall, before the mud bricks were hard enough
+to carry even four feet height of wall. The burials of the domestics
+must therefore have taken place all at once, immediately after the
+king’s tomb was built, and hence they must have been sacrificed at the
+funeral. The pottery placed in the chambers is all figured in position
+on the plan.
+
+[Illustration: 386.jpg STYLE OF KING QA]
+
+Only three steles were found in the grave of Qa, but these were larger
+than those of the earlier graves. One of them, No. 48, is the longest
+and most important inscription that has come down to us from the first
+dynasty. This lay in a chamber on the west side of the tomb. In the
+preparation of the stele, the block of stone had been ground all over
+and edges rounded. On its surface the hieroglyphs were then sketched in
+red ink, and were finally drawn in black, the ground being then roughly
+hammered out. There the work stopped, and the final scraping and
+dressing of the figures was never accomplished. The reading of the signs
+is therefore difficult, but enough is seen to show that the keeper
+of the tomb bore the name of Sabef. He had two titles which are now
+illegible, and was also “Overseer of the Sed Festival.” This scanty
+information goes to show how little the official titles were changed
+between the days of the first dynasty and the time of the building of
+the pyramids. The stele of the king Qa was found lying over chamber;
+it is like that found by M. Amélineau, carved in black quartzose stone.
+Near it, on the south, were dozens of large pieces of fine alabaster
+bowls.
+
+Among various objects found in these chambers should be noted the fine
+ivory carving from chamber 23, showing a bound captive; the large stock
+of painted model vases in limestone in a box in chamber 20; the set of
+perfect vases found in chamber 21; a fine piece of ribbed ivory; a piece
+of thick gold-foil covering of a hotep table, patterned as a mat, found
+in the long chamber west of the tomb; the deep mass of brown vegetable
+matter in the north-east chamber; the large stock of grain between
+chambers 8 and 11; and the bed of currants ten inches thick, though
+dried, which underlay the pottery in chamber 11. In chamber 16 were
+large dome-shaped jar sealings, with the name of Azab, and on one of
+them the ink-written signs of the “King’s ka.”
+
+The entrance passage has been closed with rough brick walling at the
+top. It is curiously turned askew, as if to avoid some obstacle, but the
+chambers of the tomb of Den do not come near its direction. After nine
+steps, the straight passage is reached, and then a limestone portcullis
+slab bars the way, let into grooves on either side; it was, moreover,
+backed up by a buttress of brickwork in five steps behind it. All this
+shows that the rest of the passage must have been roofed in so deeply
+that entry from above was not the obvious course. The inner passage
+descends by steps, each about five inches high, partly in the slope,
+partly in the rise of the step. The side chambers open off this stairway
+by side passages a little above the level of the stairs.
+
+The interior structure of the tomb of Qa is rather different from any
+other. Instead of the timber being an entirely separate structure apart
+from the brick, the brick sides seem here to have been very loosely
+built against the timber sides. Some detail yet remains of the wooden
+floor. The roofing is distinct in this tomb, and it is evident that
+there was an axial beam, and that the side beam only went half across
+the chamber. This is the only tomb with the awkward feature of an axial
+doorway, and it is interesting to note how the beam was placed out of
+the axis to accommodate it.
+
+The tomb of Perabsen shows a great change in form since the earlier
+series. A new dynasty with new ideas had succeeded the great founders
+of the monarchy; the three reigns had passed by before we can again see
+here the system of the tombs. Even the national worship was changed,
+and Set had become prominent. The type of tomb which had been developed
+under Azab, Mer-sekha, and Qa seems to have given way to the earlier
+pattern of Zer and Zet. In this tomb of Perabsen we see the same row of
+small cells separated by cross walls, like those of the early kings;
+but in place of a wooden central chamber there is a brick chamber, and
+a free passage is left around it communicating with the cells. What was
+the form of the south side of that chamber cannot now be traced, as, if
+any wall existed, it is now entirely destroyed. The entirely new feature
+is the continuous passage around the whole tomb. Perhaps the object of
+this was to guard against plunderers entering by digging sideways into
+the tomb.
+
+[Illustration: 389.jpg STONE CHAMBER OF KHASEKHEMUI]
+
+The tomb of Khasekhemui is very different from any of the other royal
+tombs yet known. The total length of the chamber from end to end is two
+hundred and twenty-three feet, and the breadth in the middle is forty
+feet, growing wider towards the northern end. The whole structure is
+very irregular; and, to add to the confusion, the greater part of it was
+built of freshly made mud bricks, which have yielded with the pressure
+and flowed out sideways, until the walls are often double their original
+breadth. It was only owing to this flow of the walls over the objects
+in the chambers, that so many valuable things were found perfect, and
+in position. Where the whole of the original outline of a wall had
+disappeared, the form is given in the plan with wavy outline.
+
+The central stone chamber of the tomb of Khasekhemui is the most
+important part of the whole, as it is the oldest stone construction yet
+known. The chamber is roughly seventeen by ten feet; the depth is nearly
+six feet. There is no sign of any roof.
+
+Nearly all the contents of this tomb were removed by the French
+investigators in 1897. Among the more interesting objects found were
+sealings of yellow clay, which were curiously enough of different types
+at opposite ends of the tomb. Copper needles, chisels, axes, and model
+tools were also found, and a beautiful sceptre of gold and sard was
+brought to light by Professor Petrie, only an inch or two below a spot
+that had been cleared by previous explorers.
+
+In chamber 2 of the tomb of Khasekhemui were also found six vases
+of dolomite and one of carnelian. Two of these are shown in the
+illustration, and each has a cover of thick gold-foil fitted over the
+top, and secured with a double turn of twisted gold wire, the wire being
+sealed with a small lump of clay, the whole operation resembling the
+method of the modern druggist, in fastening a box of ointment. Near
+these vases were found two beautiful gold bracelets; one, Number 3,
+is still in a perfect condition; the other, Number 4, has been,
+unfortunately, crushed by the yielding of the wall of the tomb in which
+it was deposited.
+
+[Illustration: 391.jpg GOLD-CAPPED VASES AND GOLD BRACELETS]
+
+Each royal grave seems to have had connected with it two great steles.
+Two, for instance, were found in the tomb of Merneit, one of which,
+however, was demolished. There were also two steles at the grave of Qa.
+So far only one stele had been found of Zet, and one of Mersekha, and
+none appear to have survived of Zer, Den, or Azab. These steles seem to
+have been placed at the east side of the tombs, and on the ground level,
+and such of them as happened to fall down upon their inscribed faces
+have generally been found in an excellent state of preservation.
+
+Hence we must figure to ourselves two great steles standing up, side by
+side, on the east of the tomb; and this is exactly in accord with the
+next period that we know, in which, at Medum, Snofrui had two great
+steles and an altar between them on the east of his tomb; and Rahotep
+had two great steles, one on either side of the offering-niche, east
+of his tomb. Probably the pair of obelisks of the tomb of Antef V., at
+Thebes, were a later form of this system. Around the royal tomb stood
+the little private steles of the domestics, placed in rows, thus forming
+an enclosure about the king.
+
+Some of Professor Petrie’s most interesting work at Abydos was commenced
+in November, 1902. In the previous season a part of the early town of
+Abydos had been excavated, and it was found that its period began at the
+close of the prehistoric age, and extended over the first few dynasties;
+the connection between the prehistoric scale and historic reigns was
+thus settled. The position of this town was close behind the site of the
+old temples of Abydos, and within the great girdle-wall enclosure of the
+twelfth dynasty, which stands about half a mile north of the well-known
+later temples of Seti I. and Ramses II. This early town, being behind
+the temples, or more into the sandy edge of the desert, was higher up;
+the ground gently sloping from the cultivated land upward as a sandy
+plain, until it reaches the foot of the hills, a couple of miles back.
+
+The broad result of these new excavations is that ten different temples
+can be traced on the same ground, though of about twenty feet difference
+of level; each temple built on the ruins of that which preceded it,
+quite regardless of the work of the earlier kings.
+
+In such a clearance it was impossible to preserve all the structures.
+Had Petrie and his companions avoided moving the foundations of the
+twenty-sixth dynasty, they could never have seen much of the earlier
+work; had they left the paving of the twelfth dynasty in place, they
+must have sacrificed the objects of the Old Kingdom.
+
+[Illustration: 393.jpg GENERAL PLAN OF BUILDINGS AT ABYDOS]
+
+Also, had they only worked the higher levels, and left the rest, the
+inflow of high Nile would have formed a pond, which would have so
+rotted the ground that deeper work could not have been carried on in the
+future. The only course, therefore, was to plan everything fully, and
+remove whatever stood in the way of more complete exploration. All
+striking pieces of construction, such as the stone gateways of Papi,
+were left untouched, and work carried on to deep levels around them; in
+this way, at the end of the season, the site was bristling with pieces
+of wall and blocks of stonework, rising ten or fifteen feet above
+the low level clearances. As the excavations progressed, there was
+an incessant need of planning and recording all the constructions.
+Professor Petrie always went about with a large dinner-knife and
+a trowel in his pocket, and spent much time in cutting innumerable
+sections and tracing out the lines of the bricks. The top and base level
+of each piece of wall had to be marked on it; and the levels could then
+be measured off to fixed points.
+
+An outline of some of the principal buildings is given, to show the
+general nature of the site of the temple of Abydos. This plan is not
+intended to show all periods, nor the whole work of any one age; but
+only a selection which will avoid confusion. The great outer wall on the
+plan was probably first built by Usirtasen I.; the bricks of the oldest
+parts of it are the same size as bricks of his foundation deposits, and
+it rests upon town ruins of the Old Kingdom. But this wall has been so
+often broken and repaired that a complete study of it would be a heavy
+task; some parts rest on nineteenth dynasty building, and even Roman
+patchwork is seen. Its general character is shown with alternating
+portions, the first set consisting of towers of brickwork built in
+concave foundations, and then connecting walls between; formed in
+straight courses. The purpose of this construction has long been a
+puzzle. The alternate concave and straight courses are the natural
+result of building isolated masses, on a concave bed like all Egyptian
+houses, and then connecting them by intermediate walls. The hard face
+across the wall, and the joint to prevent the spread of scaling, are the
+essential advantages of this construction.
+
+The corner marked Kom-de-Sultan is the enclosure which was emptied out
+by Mariette ‘s diggers, because of the abundance of burials with steles
+of the twelfth to eighteenth dynasties.
+
+[Illustration: 395.jpg WALL OF USIRTASEN I.]
+
+They have removed all the earth to far below the base of the walls, thus
+digging in most parts right through the town of the Old Kingdom, which
+stood here before the great walls were built. The inner two sides of
+this enclosed corner are later than the outer wall; the bricks are
+larger than those of Usirtasen, and the base of the wall is higher than
+his. The causeway line indicated through the site by a dotted line from
+the east to the west gate is a main feature; but it is later than the
+sixth dynasty, as the wall of that age cuts it, and it was cut in two
+by later buildings of the twentieth dynasty. It seems then to begin with
+Usirtasen, whose gateways it runs through; and to have been kept up by
+Thûtmosis III., who built a wall with granite pylon for it, and also
+by Ramses II., who built a great portal colonnade of limestone for the
+causeway to pass through on entering the cemetery outside the west wall
+of this plan.
+
+To the north of the causeway are seen the tombs of the first dynasty.
+One more, No. 27, was found beneath the wall of Thûtmosis; it was of the
+same character as the larger of the previous tombs. All of these are far
+below any of the buildings shown on this outline plan.
+
+Of the two long walls, marked vi., the inner is older, but was re-used
+by Papi. It is probably the temenos of the third dynasty. The outer
+wall is the temenos of the sixth dynasty, the west side of which is
+yet unknown, and has probably been all destroyed. The temple of Papi
+is shown in the middle with the north-west and south sides of the thin
+boundary wall which enclosed it. The thick wall which lies outside of
+that is the great wall of the eighteenth dynasty, with the granite
+pylon of Thûtmosis III. It seems to have followed the line of the sixth
+dynasty wall on the north. The outline marked xix. shows a high level
+platform of stone, which was probably for the basement of buildings of
+Ramses II.
+
+Within the area of these temples was discovered quite a number of
+historical relics. None is more interesting, perhaps, than the ivory
+statuette of the first dynasty king. This anonymous ruler is figured as
+wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, and a thick embroidered robe.
+
+From the nature of the pattern and the stiff edge represented, it looks
+as if this robe were quilted with embroidery; no such dress is known
+on any Egyptian figure yet found. The work belongs to an unconventional
+school, before the rise of the fixed traditions; it might have been
+carved in any age and country where good natural work was done. In its
+unshrinking figuring of age and weakness with a subtle character, it
+shows a power of dealing with individuality which stands apart from all
+the later work.
+
+[Illustration: 395.jpg IVORY STATUETTE OF FIRST DYNASTY KING]
+
+Of greater interest, however, is the ivory statuette of Khûfûi, which
+is the first figure of that monarch that has come to light. The king is
+seated upon his throne, and the inscription upon the front of it leaves
+no doubt as to the identity of the figure. The work is of extraordinary
+delicacy and finish; for even when magnified it does not suggest any
+imperfection or clumsiness, but might have belonged to a life-sized
+statue. The proportion of the head is slightly exaggerated; as, indeed,
+is always the case in minute work; but the character and expression are
+as well handled as they might be on any other scale, and are full of
+power and vigour. The idea which it conveys to us of the personality
+of Khûfûi agrees with his historical position. We see the energy, the
+commanding air, the indomitable will, and the firm ability of the man
+who stamped for ever the character of the Egyptian monarchy and outdid
+all time in the scale of his works. No other Egyptian king that we know
+resembled this head; and it stands apart in portraiture, though perhaps
+it may be compared with the energetic face of Justinian, the great
+builder and organiser.
+
+[Illustration: 398.jpg ivory statuette of khufvi.]
+
+Two ivory lions were also found in one of the private tombs around that
+of Zer. It is evident that these lions were used as playing pieces,
+probably for the well-known pre-historic game of Four Lions and a Hare,
+for the bases of the lions are much worn, as if by sliding about upon a
+smooth surface, and the pelt of the lion, as originally carved, is also
+worn off as if by continued handling. The lion shown in the illustration
+is of a later style than those of Zer or of Mena. Near the place where
+this was found were a few others. One of them, apparently a lioness, is
+depicted with a collar, indicating that the animal had been tamed,
+and yet another had inserted within the head an eye accurately cut in
+chalcedony. Another valuable object unearthed at Abydos was the sceptre
+of King Khase-khemui. This consisted of a series of cylinders of sard
+embellished at every fourth cylinder with double bands of thick gold,
+and completed at the thinner end with a plain cap of gold, copper rod,
+now corroded, binding the whole together.
+
+During the reign of King Zer the ivory arrow tip began to be commonly
+used; hundreds were gathered from his tomb, and the variety of forms is
+greater than in any other reign. Besides the plain circular points,
+many of them have reddened tips; there are also examples of quadrangular
+barbed tips, and others are pentagonal, square, or oval. Only the plain
+circular tips appear in succeeding reigns down to the reign of Mersekha,
+except a single example of the oval forms under Den.
+
+[Illustration: 399.jpg CARVED IVORY LION]
+
+Some flint arrow-heads were also found around the tomb of Zer, mostly of
+the same type as those found in the tomb of Mena. Two, however, of these
+arrow-heads, Numbers 13 and 14, are of a form entirely unknown as yet
+in any other age or country. The extreme top of the head is of a chisel
+form, and this passes below into the more familiar pointed form. The
+inference here is almost inevitable, and it seems as if the arrow-heads
+had been made in this peculiar way with a view to using the arrow a
+second time after the tip was broken in attacking an animal.
+
+[Illustration: 400.jpg ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ARROWS]
+
+Another curious object dating from this reign and classed among the
+arrows is a small portion of flint set perpendicularly into the end of
+a piece of wood. This, in the opinion of Professor Giglioli, is not
+an arrow at all, but a tattooing instrument. If this explanation be
+correct, then this instrument is an extremely interesting find, for the
+fact has been recently brought to light that tattooing was in vogue
+in prehistoric times, and there is, moreover, at Cairo, the mummy of
+a priestess of the twelfth dynasty having the skin decorated in this
+manner.
+
+Among the domestic articles is an admirable design of pair of tweezers,
+made with a wide hinge and stiff points. Of analogous interest are two
+copper fish-hooks, which, however, have no barbs. Needles also, which we
+know were used in prehistoric days, appear in the relics of the tomb of
+Zer and of subsequent rulers. Of the reign of Zer are also found copper
+harpoons cut with a second fang, similar forms being found among
+the remains of Mersekha and of Khasekhemui. In the centre of the
+illustration is seen the outline of a chisel of the time of Zer, very
+similar to those used in the early prehistoric ages. The same continuity
+from prehistoric to first dynasty times is shown in the shape of the
+copper pins dating from Zer, Den, Mersekha, and Qa.
+
+[Illustration: 401.jpg MISCELLANEOUS COPPER OBJECTS]
+
+At various times quite a considerable number of articles relating to
+intimate daily life has been discovered. An exceedingly fortunate find
+was that of an ivory comb of crude but careful workmanship, and which,
+even after the lapse of sixty-seven centuries, has only lost three of
+its teeth. This comb, according to the inscription on it, belonged to
+Bener-ab, a distinguished lady, whose tomb has been already mentioned,
+and who was either the wife or the daughter of King Mena of the first
+dynasty.
+
+Of the class of domestic objects is the primitive but doubtless quite
+effective corn-grinder shown in the illustration. This was found in
+an undisturbed tomb in the Osiris temenos, where also was a strangely
+shaped three-sided pottery bowl, similar in shape to a stone bowl of the
+same period, but otherwise unknown in antiquity. This three-sided bowl
+may be regarded as a freak of the workman rather than as having any
+particular value along the line of evolution of pottery forms; and it
+is interesting to note that bowls of this form have been quite recently
+made by the modern English potters in South Devonshire, as the result of
+the inventive fancy of a village workman.
+
+During the course of the excavations at Abydos many thousands of
+fragments of pottery were collected.
+
+[Illustration: 402a.jpg IVORY COMB, B. C. 4800]
+
+Those that appeared to be of historic value were sorted and classified,
+and, as a result of minute and extended labours, it is now possible for
+the reader to see at a glance the principal types of Egyptian pottery
+from prehistoric times, and to view their relationship as a whole. The
+diagram exhibits an unbroken series of pottery forms from s.d. 76 to
+B.C. 4400.
+
+[Illustration: 402b.jpg CORN-GRINDER AND THREE-SIDED BOWL]
+
+The forms in the first column are those classified according to the
+chronological notation devised by Professor Petrie, enabling a “sequence
+date” (s. d.) to be assigned to an object which cannot otherwise be
+dated. In the second column are forms found in the town of Abydos, and
+in the last column are those unearthed in the tombs. Most of the large
+jars bear marks, which were scratched in the moist clay before being
+baked; some few were marked after the baking.
+
+[Illustration: 403.jpg TYPES OF PREHISTORIC AND FIRST DYNASTY POTTERY]
+
+Some of the marks are unquestionably hieroglyphs; others are probably
+connected with the signs used by the earlier prehistoric people; and
+many can scarcely be determined.
+
+[Illustration: 404a.jpg POTTERY MARKS]
+
+A typical instance of these pottery marks is shown in the illustration.
+These signs appear to be distinctly of the time of Mer-sekha, and the
+fortified enclosure around the name may refer to the tomb as the eternal
+fortress of the king. These marks can be roughly classified into types
+according to the skill with which they were drawn. The first example
+illustrates the more careful workmanship, and the others show more
+degraded forms, in which the outline of the hawk and the signs in the
+cartouche become gradually more debased. It is tolerably certain that
+what are known as the Mediterranean alphabets were derived from a
+selection of the signs used in these pottery marks.
+
+[Illustration: 404b.jpg POTTERY FORMS FROM ABYDOS]
+
+An undisturbed tomb was found by accident in the Osiris temenos. The
+soil was so wet that the bones were mostly dissolved; and only fragments
+of the skull, crushed under an inverted slate bowl, were preserved. The
+head had been laid upon a sandstone corn-grinder. Around the sides of
+the tomb were over two dozen jars of pottery, most of them large. And
+near the body were sixteen stone vases and bowls. Some of the forms,
+such as are shown in the illustration, Nos. 3, 7, 8, are new to us. A
+strange three-sided pottery bowl was also found here, but since there
+is no museum in England where such a complete tomb can be placed, it was
+sent to Philadelphia, in order that the whole series should be arranged
+as originally found.
+
+The sealings, the general description of which has been already given,
+have come to light in such considerable quantities during the past few
+years that their study became a special branch of Egyptology. As to
+the earliest sealings, it was not until the time of Den that a broad
+uniformity of style was established. The seals of the second dynasty are
+generally of a smaller style and more elaborately worked than those of
+the first dynasty. It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the
+later seals were made in stone or metal rather than in wood.
+
+[Illustration: 405.jpg THREE TYPES OF SEALINGS]
+
+The illustration given of sealing No. 128, of the Egypt Exploration Fund
+collection, shows a very fair type of the figuring of men and animals at
+the time of the first dynasty as a survival of the prehistoric manner of
+engraving. Here, then, at the very dawn of history, we find a spirited
+depiction of the human form, for, rude though it is, there can be no
+doubt but that it is a representation of the human figure, and stiff and
+ungainly though the action of the drawing be, there can be no doubt as
+to the progressive movement intended by the artist. On a sealing, No.
+116, is seen the leopard with the bent bars on his back. The shrine upon
+the same seal is of the general form, and is like the early huts with
+reed sides, and an interwoven palm-rib roof. This is a specimen of an
+intermediate manner of workmanship. The most advanced stage of art in
+the sealings of the first dynasty, is No. 108. This is the royal seal of
+King Zer, B.C. 4700, showing him seated and wearing the crowns of Upper
+and Lower Egypt. By his side are the royal staff and his cartouches. It
+was workmanship of this character which survived in Egypt almost as late
+as Roman times; that is to say, the same style engraving was current in
+the Valley of the Nile for forty-six centuries.
+
+A particularly interesting sealing is a representation of two jars with
+the flat seals across their tops.
+
+[Illustration: 406.jpg A SEALING SHOWING JARS]
+
+These jars, moreover, are depicted as bound around with a network of
+rope in a manner which corresponds with some fragments of rope found
+around some jars of this character.
+
+[Illustration: 407.jpg accounts on pottery, B.C. 4600]
+
+A small fragment of pottery originally forming the base of a brown
+earthenware dish had inscribed upon it some accounts, and is the oldest
+of such business records yet found in Egypt. The exact import of the
+figures is not yet entirely intelligible, but they seem to refer
+to quantities of things rather than to individuals, as the numbers,
+although mostly twenty, are sometimes one hundred and two hundred. This
+interesting fragment was found at the tomb of Zet, and thus establishes
+the use of arithmetic before 4600 B.C.
+
+The expedition supported by Mrs. Hearst, in the name of the University
+of California, has done some useful work at El-Ahaiwah, opposite
+Menshiyeh. The main cemetery at this place is an archaic one, containing
+about a thousand graves or more, of which about seven hundred had
+already been plundered. Between these plundered graves, about 250 were
+found untouched in modern times. The graves yielded a good collection of
+archaic pottery, pearl and ivory bracelets, hairpins, carnelian, garnet,
+gold, blue glaze and other beads, etc.
+
+About this cemetery was a cemetery of the late New Empire, containing a
+number of vaulted tombs built of unburned brick. These yielded a large
+number of necklaces, and several fine pieces of faïence and ivory, and
+other objects. A second cemetery, farther north, contained a few late
+archaic graves and about fifteen large tombs, usually with one main
+chamber and two small chambers at each end. These tombs were of two
+types (1) roofed over with wood, without a stairway, (2) roofed over
+with a corbelled vault and entered from the west by a stairway. The
+burials in these tombs are in the archaic position, head to south.
+Dissected, or secondary, burials occur in these cemeteries, but
+only rarely. Only one indisputable case was found, as shown in the
+illustration.
+
+[Illustration: 408.jpg UNIQUE INSTANCE OF A DISSECTED BURIAL]
+
+It would require several volumes adequately to deal with the results
+of the excavations of the present century. Further discoveries, all
+throwing new light upon the life of ancient Egypt, are being made each
+season, and the number of enthusiastic workers gathered from every
+nation constantly increases. Notwithstanding the heroic and splendid
+work of past investigators, for many years to come the valley of the
+Nile promises to yield important results, not only in actual field work,
+but also in the close study and better classification of the thousands
+of objects that are continually being brought to light.
+
+Six thousand years of history have been unrolled; tomb and tablet, shard
+and papyrus have told their story, and the vista stretches back to
+the dawn of human history in that inexhaustible valley watered by the
+perennial overflow of the grandest river in the world. But there is
+much still to be accomplished by the enthusiastic spirit, the keen and
+selective mind, in the study of this ancient land, the cradle and the
+grave of nations.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The
+Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12), by S. Rappoport
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 17332-8.txt or 17332-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/3/17332/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
+Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation”
+ or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project
+Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.”
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+“Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right
+of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’ WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm’s
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws.
+
+The Foundation’s principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation’s web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/17332-8.zip b/17332-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6cbad10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-8.zip
diff --git a/17332-h.zip b/17332-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c9914c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h.zip
diff --git a/17332-h/17332-h.htm b/17332-h/17332-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c897004
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/17332-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,10727 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      History of Egypt, by S. Rappoport, Volume 12
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 2em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    pre     { font-family: Times; font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The
+Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12), by S. Rappoport
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12)
+
+Author: S. Rappoport
+
+Release Date: December 17, 2005 [EBook #17332]
+Last Updated: September 8, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+Character set: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/spines.jpg" width="100%" alt="Spines " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="100%" alt="Cover " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="100%" alt="Frontispiece" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> Collection of Vases, Modelled and Painted<br /> In the Grand Temple
+      Philae Island
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/titlepage.jpg" width="100%" alt="Titlepage " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      HISTORY OF EGYPT
+    </h1>
+    <h3>
+      From 330 B.C. to the Present Time
+    </h3>
+    <h2>
+      By S. RAPPOPORT, Doctor of Philosophy, Basel
+    </h2>
+    <h4>
+      Member of the Ecole Langues Orientales, Paris; Russian, German, <br />
+      French Orientalist and Philologist
+    </h4>
+    <h2>
+      VOL. XII., Part A.
+    </h2>
+    <h4>
+      Containing over Twelve Hundred Colored Plates and Illustrations
+    </h4>
+    <h3>
+      THE GROLIER SOCIETY <br /> PUBLISHERS, LONDON
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/001.jpg" width="100%" alt="001.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/002.jpg" width="100%" alt="002.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      <i>MODERN EGYPT</i>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>EGYPT DURING THE CRUSADES&mdash;RISE OF THE OTTOMAN POWER&mdash;NAPOLEON
+      IN EGYPT&mdash;THE RULE OP THE KHEDIVES&mdash;DISCOVERING THE SOURCE OF
+      THE NILE&mdash;ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Spread of Muhammedanism&mdash;Spirit of the Crusades&mdash;The
+      Fati-mite Caliphs&mdash;Saladin&rsquo;s brilliant reign&mdash;Capture of
+      Damietta&mdash;Conquests of Beybars&mdash;Mamluks in power&mdash;Wars with
+      Cyprus&mdash;Turkish misrule&mdash;Napoleon invades Egypt&mdash;Battle of
+      the Pyramids&mdash;Policy of conciliation&mdash;Nelson destroys the French
+      fleet&mdash;Napoleon in Syria&mdash;Battle at Mount Carmel&mdash;Napoleon
+      returns to France&mdash;Negotiations for surrender&mdash;Kléber
+      assassinated&mdash;French army surrenders&mdash;Rise of Mehemet
+      Ali-Massacre of the Mamluks&mdash;Egyptian army reorganized&mdash;Ibrahim
+      Pasha in Greece&mdash;Battle of Navarino-Revolt against Turkey-Character
+      of Mehemet Ali&mdash;Reforms under his Rule&mdash;Ismail Pasha made
+      Khedive&mdash;Financial difficulties of Egypt&mdash;England and France
+      assume control&mdash;Tewfik Pasha becomes Khedive&mdash;Revolt of Arabi
+      Pasha&mdash;The Mahdist insurrection&mdash;Death of General Gordon&mdash;Kitchener&rsquo;s
+      campaign against the Dervishes&mdash;Prosperity of Egypt under English
+      control&mdash;Abbas Pasha becomes Khedive&mdash;Education, courts, and
+      government of modern Egypt&mdash;The Nile; its valley, branches, and delta&mdash;Ancient
+      irrigation systems&mdash;The Suez Canal, its inception and completion&mdash;The
+      great dam at Aswan&mdash;Ancient search for the sources of the Nile&mdash;Modern
+      discoveries in Central Africa&mdash;The Hieroglyphs&mdash;Origin of the
+      alphabet&mdash;Egyptian literature&mdash;Mariettas discoveries&mdash;The
+      German Egyptologists&mdash;Jeremiah verified&mdash;Maspero, Naville, and
+      Petrie&mdash;Palæolithic man&mdash;Egyptian record of Israel&mdash;Egypt
+      Exploration Fund&mdash;The royal tombs at Abydos&mdash;Chronology of the
+      early kings&mdash;Steles, pottery, and jewelry-The temples of Abydos&mdash;Seals,
+      statuettes, and ceramics.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I&mdash;THE CRUSADERS IN EGYPT </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II.&mdash;THE FRENCH IN EGYPT </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkB2HCH0001"> CHAPTER III.&mdash;THE RULE OF MEHEMET ALI
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkB2HCH0002"> CHAPTER IV&mdash;THE BRITISH INFLUENCE IN
+        EGYPT </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkB2HCH0003"> CHAPTER V.&mdash;THE WATER WAYS OF EGYPT </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkC2HCH0001"> CHAPTER VI&mdash;THE DECIPHERMENT OF THE
+        HIEROGLYPHS </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkC2HCH0002"> CHAPTER VII&mdash;THE DEVELOPMENT OF
+        EGYPTOLOGY </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkC2HCH0003"> CHAPTER VIII.&mdash;IMPORTANT RESEARCHES IN
+        EGYPT </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <br />
+      </p>
+      <hr />
+      <p>
+        <br /> <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>List of Illustrations</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0001"> Spines </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0002"> Cover </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0003"> Frontispiece Collection of Vases </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0004"> 001.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0005"> 002.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0006"> 003.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0007"> 007.jpg Arabic Decorative Painting </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0008"> 013.jpg Enamelled Glass Cup from Arabia </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0009"> 015.jpg Gate of El Futuh at Cairo </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0010"> 019.jpg Arab Drinking-vessels </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0011"> 025.jpg Vase in the Abbott Collection, New
+        York </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0012"> 027.jpg Public Fountain, Cairo. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0013"> 032b.jpg </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0014"> 038.jpg Court in the Moristan of The Kilawun
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0015"> 043.jpg Window in the Mausoleum of Kilawun
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0016"> 049.jpg Interior of the Mosque, Kilawun </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0017"> 055.jpg Frieze in Mosque of Sultan Hasan </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0018"> 059.jpg Inside the Mosque of Hassan </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0019"> 063.jpg Mosque of Berkuk </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0020"> 065.jpg the Tomb of Berkuk </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0021"> 067.jpg a Title-page of the Koran Of The Time
+        Of Shaban </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0022"> 069.jpg Prayer-niche in the Mosque of The
+        Sultan Mahmudi </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0023"> 071.jpg Ornamental Page from a Koran of the
+        Fourteenth Century </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0024"> 073.jpg Mosque of Kait Bey, Cairo </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0025"> 076.jpg Wadi Feiran, in the Sinai Peninsula
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0026"> 077.jpg Mausoleum of El-ghuri </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0027"> 080b.jpg Bonaparte in Egypt </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0028"> 080.jpg </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0029"> 081.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0030"> 083 Bedouins in the Desert </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0031"> 091.jpg the Prophet Muhammed </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0032"> 097.jpg Street Dogs </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0033"> Gathering Dates </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0034"> 112.jpg A Fountain at Cairo </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0035"> 116b.jpg Cairo&mdash;Eskibieh Quarter </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0036"> 119.jpg Cairo from the Left Bank of The Nile
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0037"> 124.jpg Statue of General Kleber at Strasburg
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0038"> 130.jpg A Modern Fanatic </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0039"> 137.jpg Citadel of Cairo </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0004"> 141.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0005"> 151.jpg Mosque of Mehemit Ali </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0006"> 157.jpg the Cotton Plant </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0007"> 161.jpg a Distinguished Egyptian Jew </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0008"> 165.jpg Mosque of Muad at Cairo </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0009"> 169.jpg a Muhammedan Praying Priest </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0010"> 153.jpg Egyptian Harmem </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0011"> 179.jpg Harbor of the Bulak </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0012"> 185.jpg a Fellah Plowing </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0013"> 187.jpg Arabs at a Desert Spring </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0014"> 190.jpg Part of Cairo, Showing the <br />
+        Mulqufs on The Houses Of Modern Egypt </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0015"> 191.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0016"> 195.jpg the Khedive Tewfik </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0017"> 201.jpg Palace Op the Khedive at Alexandria
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0018"> 204.jpg Osman Digna </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0019"> 207.jpg Mosque of the Ibriham at Desuk </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0020"> 210.jpg Lord Kitchener of Khartum </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0021"> 218.jpg Slave Boats on the Nile </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0022"> 223.jpg Viscount Cromer (sir Evelyn Baring)
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0023"> 227.jpg Bazar in Aswan </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0024"> 232.jpg Mosque of El Ghuri at Cairo </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0025"> 235.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0026"> 237.jpg the Plain of Thebes </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0027"> 240b.jpg Harbour at Suez </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0028"> 241.jpg the Nile Barrage </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0029"> 245.jpg Scale of the Nilometer </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0030"> 247.jpg a Modern Sakieh </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0031"> 251.jpg Hieroglyphic Record of an Ancient
+        Canal </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0032"> 259.jpg Ferdinand de Lesseps </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0033"> 263.jpg the Opening of The Suez Canal </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0034"> 269.jpg Approach to Philae </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0035"> 277.jpg the Main Stream of The Nile </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0036"> 283.jpg the Ferry at Old Cairo </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkBimage-0037"> 291.jpg Examples of Phoenecian Porcelain
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0004"> 293.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0005"> 296.jpg Jean Francois Champollion </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0006"> 298.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0007"> 299.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0008"> 301.jpg Determinative Signs </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0009"> 302a.jpg Hieroglyphics </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0010"> 302b.jpg Hieroglyphics </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0011"> 303.jpg Hieroglyphics </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0012"> 309.jpg Table of Comparative Symbols </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0013"> 318.jpg Tailpiece </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0014"> 318b.jpg Phoenician Jewlery </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0015"> 321.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0016"> 321.jpg the Great Hall of Abydos </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0017"> 322.jpg Propylon at Denderah </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0018"> 324.jpg Types of Egyptian Columns: 1, 2, 3,
+        Geometric;<br /> 6-11, Botanical; 4, 5, 12, Hathoric. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0019"> 336.jpg Ruins at Luxor </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0020"> 347.jpg the Lotus Flower Nymphaea Lotus </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0021"> 357.jpg Page Image </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0022"> 361.jpg Plan of the Royal Tombs As Abydos
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0023"> 362.jpg Table of Ancient Rulers * </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0024"> 363a.jpg Table of Chronology Of Early Kings
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0025"> 363b.jpg Table of Kings </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0026"> 364.jpg Enlarged Plan of First Dynasty Tombs
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0027"> 366.jpg Ebony Tablet of King Aha-mena </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0028"> 368.jpg Tomb of Zer, 4700 B.c. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0029"> 372.jpg Tomb of Zet, Circa 4700 B.c. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0030"> 377.jpg Plans of the Tombs Of Den-setui and
+        Others </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0031"> 379.jpg Tablet of Den-setui, 4600 B.c. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0032"> 380.jpg Architectural Drawing, B.c. 4600.
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0033"> 381.jpg Ivory Panel of Den-setui, 4600 B.c.
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0034"> 382.jpg Stairway in the Tomb Azab </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0035"> 384.jpg Tomb of Mersekha, Showing Wooden
+        Floor </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0036"> 385.jpg Plan of Tomb Of Qa, Circa 4500 B.c.
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0037"> 386.jpg Style of King Qa </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0038"> 389.jpg Stone Chamber of Khasekhemui </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0039"> 391.jpg Gold-capped Vases and Gold Bracelets
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0040"> 393.jpg General Plan of Buildings at Abydos
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0041"> 395.jpg Wall of Usirtasen I. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0042"> 395.jpg Ivory Statuette of First Dynasty
+        King </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0043"> 398.jpg Ivory Statuette of Khufvi. </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0044"> 399.jpg Carved Ivory Lion </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0045"> 400.jpg Ancient Egyptian Arrows </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0046"> 401.jpg Miscellaneous Copper Objects </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0047"> 402a.jpg Ivory Comb, B. C. 4800 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0048"> 402b.jpg Corn-grinder and Three-sided Bowl
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0049"> 403.jpg Types of Prehistoric and First
+        Dynasty Pottery </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0050"> 404a.jpg Pottery Marks </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0051"> 404b.jpg Pottery Forms from Abydos </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0052"> 405.jpg Three Types of Sealings </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0053"> 406.jpg a Sealing Showing Jars </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0054"> 407.jpg Accounts on Pottery, B.C. 4600 </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkCimage-0055"> 408.jpg Unique Instance of a Dissected
+        Burial </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        =======================
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/003.jpg" width="100%" alt="003.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I&mdash;THE CRUSADERS IN EGYPT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>The Ideal of the Crusader: Saladin&rsquo;s Campaign: Richard I. in Palestine:
+      Siege of Damietta: St. Louis in Egypt: The Mamluks: Beybars&rsquo; Policy.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The traditional history of the Christian Church has generally maintained
+      that the Crusades were due solely to religious influence and sprang from
+      ideal and moral motives: those hundreds of thousands of warriors who went
+      out to the East were religious enthusiasts, prompted by the pious longings
+      of their hearts, and Peter the Hermit, it was claimed, had received a
+      divine message to call Christendom to arms, to preach a Crusade against
+      the unbelievers and take possession of the Holy Sepulchre. That such ideal
+      reasons should be attributed to a war like the Crusades, of a wide and
+      far-reaching influence on the political and intellectual development of
+      mediæval Europe, is not at all surprising. In the history of humanity
+      there have been few wars in which the combatants on both sides were not
+      convinced that they had drawn their swords for some noble purpose, for the
+      cause of right and justice. That the motives prompting the vast display of
+      arms witnessed during the Crusades, that the wanderings of those crowds to
+      the East during two centuries, and the cruelties committed by the saintly
+      warriors on their way to the Holy Sepulchre, should be attributed
+      exclusively to ideal and religious sources is therefore quite natural. It
+      is not to be denied that there was a religious factor in the Crusades; but
+      that the religious motive was not the sole incentive has now been agreed
+      upon by impartial historians; and in so far as the motives animating the
+      Crusaders were religious motives, we are to look to powerful influences
+      which gradually made themselves felt from without the ecclesiastical
+      organisations. It was by no means a movement which the Church alone had
+      called into being. On the contrary, only when the movement had grown ripe
+      did Gregory VII. hasten to take steps to enable the Church to control it.
+      The idea of a Crusade for the glory of religion had not sprung from the
+      tenets of Christianity; it was given to mediaeval Europe by the
+      Muhammedans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      History can hardly boast of another example of so gigantic a conquest
+      during so short a period as that gained by the first adherents of Islam.
+      Like the fiery wind of the desert, they had broken from their retreats,
+      animated by the promises of the Prophet, and spread the new doctrine far
+      and wide. In 653 the scimitar of the Saracens enclosed an area as large as
+      the Roman Empire under the Cæsars. Barely forty years elapsed after the
+      death of the Prophet when the armies of Islam reached the Atlantic. Okba,
+      the wild and gallant leader, rode into the sea on the western shore of
+      Africa, and, whilst the seething waves reached to the saddle of his camel,
+      he exclaimed: &ldquo;Allah, I call thee as witness that I should have carried
+      the knowledge of Thy name still farther, if these waves threatening to
+      swallow me would not have prevented me from doing so.&rdquo; Not long after
+      this, the flag of the crescent was waving from the Pyrenees to the Chinese
+      mountains. In 711 the Saracens under General Tarik crossed the straits
+      between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and landed on the rock which
+      has since been called after him, &ldquo;the hill of Tarik,&rdquo; Jebel el-Tarik or
+      Gibraltar. Spain was invaded and captured by the Moslems. For awhile it
+      seemed as if on the other side of the Garonne the crescent would also
+      supplant the cross, and only the victory of Charles Martel in 732 put a
+      stop to the wave of Muhammedan conquest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus in a brief period Muhammedanism spread from the Nile Valley to the
+      Mediterranean. Muhammed&rsquo;s trenchant argument was the sword. He gave a
+      distinct command to his followers to convince the infidels of the Power of
+      truth on the battle-field. &ldquo;The sword is a surer argument than books,&rdquo; he
+      said. Accordingly the Koran ordered war against unbelievers: &ldquo;The sword is
+      the key to heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah, a
+      night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting and
+      prayer; whoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven, and at the day of
+      judgment his limbs shall be supplied with the wings of angels and
+      cherubim.&rdquo; Before the battle commenced, the commanders reminded the
+      warriors of the beautiful celestial houris who awaited the heroes slain in
+      battle at the gates of Paradise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first efforts having been crowned with success, the Moslems soon
+      became convinced of the fulfilment of the prophecy that Allah had given
+      them the world and wished them to subdue all unbelievers. Under the Caliph
+      Omar, the Arabs had become a religious-political community of warriors,
+      whose mission it was to conquer and plunder all civilised and cultured
+      lands and to unfurl the banner of the crescent. They believed that
+      &ldquo;Paradise is under the shadow of the sword.&rdquo; In this belief the followers
+      of Muhammed engaged in battle without fear or anxiety, spurred to great
+      deeds, reckless in the face of danger, happy to die and pass to the
+      delights of Paradise. The &ldquo;holy war&rdquo; became an armed propaganda pleasing
+      to Allah. It was, however, a form of propaganda quite unknown and amazing
+      to Christendom. In the course of two centuries the crescent had supplanted
+      the cross. Of what avail was the peaceful missionary&rsquo;s preaching if
+      province after province and country after country were taken possession of
+      by the new religion that forced its way by means of fire and sword?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was it not natural that Christian Europe should conceive the idea of doing
+      for their religion what the Moslems did for Islam! and that, following the
+      example of Moslems in their &ldquo;holy war,&rdquo; Christians should emulate them in
+      the Crusades?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must not be forgotten also that the Arabs, almost from the first
+      appearance of Muhammedanism, were under the refining and elevating
+      influences of art and science. While the rest of Europe was in the
+      midnight of the Dark Ages, the Moorish universities of Spain were the
+      beacon of the revival of learning. The Christian teacher was still
+      manipulating the bones of the saints when the Arab physician was
+      practising surgery. The monachal schools and monasteries in Italy, France,
+      and Germany were still grappling with poor scholastic knowledge when Arab
+      scholars were well advanced in the study of Aristotle and Plato.
+      Stimulated by their acquaintance with the works of Ptolemy and Euclid,
+      Galenus and Hippocrates, they extended their researches into the dominions
+      of astronomy, mathematics, and medicine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:37%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/007.jpg"
+       alt="007.jpg Arabic Decorative Painting " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The religious orders of the knights, a product of the Crusades, found
+      their antitype in similar organisations of the Moslems, orders that had
+      exactly the same tendencies and regulations. Such an order established for
+      the spread of Islam and the protection of its followers was that of the
+      Raabites or boundary-guards in the Pyrenean peninsula. These knights made
+      a vow to carry, throughout their lives, arms in defence of the faith; they
+      led an austere existence, were not allowed to fly in battle, but were
+      compelled either to conquer or fall. Like the Templars or the Hospital
+      Knights their whole endeavour was to gain universal dominion for their
+      religion. The relation existing between the Moslems and the Christians
+      before the Crusades was much closer than is generally imagined. Moslem
+      soldiers often fought in the ranks of the Christian armies; and it was by
+      no means rare to see a Christian ruler call upon Moslem warriors to assist
+      him against his adversary. Pope Gregory rescued Rome from the hands of his
+      imperial opponent, Henry of Germany, only with the aid of the Saracen
+      soldiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When, therefore, the influence of Muhammedanism began to assert itself
+      throughout the south of Europe, it was natural that in a crude and
+      stirring age, when strife was the dominant passion of the people, the idea
+      of a holy war in the cause of faith was one in which Christian Europe was
+      ready to take an example from the followers of Islam. The political,
+      economical, and social state of affairs, the misery and suffering of the
+      people, and even the hierarchy and the ascetic spirit of the time
+      certainly made the minds of the people accessible to the idea of war; the
+      spirit of unrest was pervasive and the time was ripe, but the influence of
+      Islam was a prominent factor in giving to it an entirely religious aspect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But even in the means employed to incite the Christian warriors and the
+      manner in which the Crusades were carried on, there is a great similarity
+      between the Christian and the Muhammedan procedure. The Church, when
+      espousing the cause of the Crusader, did exactly what Muhammed had done
+      when he preached a holy war. The Church addressed itself to the weaknesses
+      and passions of human nature. Fallen in battle, the Moslem, so he was
+      told, would be admitted&mdash;be he victor or vanquished&mdash;to the joys
+      of Paradise. The same prospect animated the Crusader and made him brave
+      danger and die joyfully in defence of Christianity. &ldquo;Let them kill the
+      enemy or die. To submit to die for Christ, or to cause one of His enemies
+      to die, is naught but glory,&rdquo; said Saint Bernard. Eloquently, vividly, and
+      in glowing colours were the riches that awaited the warriors in the far
+      East described: immense spoil would be taken from the unbelievers.
+      Preachers did not even shrink from extolling the beauty of the women in
+      the lands to be conquered. This fact recalls Muhammed&rsquo;s promise to his
+      believers that they would meet the ever-beautiful dark-eyed houris in the
+      life after death. To the material, sensual allurements, the Church added
+      spiritual blessings and eternal rewards, guaranteed to those who took the
+      red cross. During the Crusades the Christians did their utmost to copy the
+      cruelties of the Moslems. That contempt for human life, that entire
+      absence of mercy and the sense of pity which is familiar in all countries
+      where Islam has gained sway is characteristic also of the Crusades.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the narrative of the Crusades belongs rather to the history of
+      Europe than of any one country, it is so closely intertwined with the
+      history of Egypt at this period that some digression is necessary. About
+      twenty years after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Turks, in 1076, the
+      Holy Sepulchre was visited by a hermit of the name of Peter, a native of
+      Amiens, in the province of Picardy, France. His resentment and sympathy
+      were excited by his own injuries and the oppression of the Christian name;
+      he mingled his tears with those of the Patriarch, and earnestly inquired
+      if no hope of relief from the Greek emperors of the East could be
+      entertained. The Patriarch exposed the vices and weakness of the
+      successors of Constantine. &ldquo;I will rouse,&rdquo; exclaimed the hermit, &ldquo;the
+      martial nations of Europe in your cause;&rdquo; and Europe was obedient to the
+      call of the hermit. The astonished Patriarch dismissed him with epistles
+      of credit and complaint; and no sooner did he land at Bari than Peter
+      hastened to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff. Pope Urban II. received
+      him as a prophet, applauded his glorious design, promised to support it in
+      a general council, and encouraged him to proclaim the deliverance of the
+      Holy Land. Invigorated by the approbation of the pontiff, this zealous
+      missionary traversed with speed and success the provinces of Italy and
+      France. He preached to innumerable crowds in the churches, the streets,
+      and the highways: the hermit entered with equal confidence the palace and
+      the cottage; and the people of all classes were impetuously moved by his
+      call to repentance and arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first Crusade was headed by Godefroy de Bouillon, Duke of Lower
+      Lorraine; Baldwin, his brother; Hugo the Great, brother of the King of
+      France; Robert, Duke of Normandy, son of William the Conqueror; Raymond of
+      St. Gilles, Duke of Toulouse; and Bohemond, Prince of Tarentum. Towards
+      the end of 1097 A.D. the invading force invested Antioch, and, after a
+      siege of nine months, took it by storm. Edessa was also captured by the
+      Crusaders, and in the middle of the summer of 1098 they reached Jerusalem,
+      then in the hands of the Fatimites.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      El-Mustali b&rsquo;Illah Abu&rsquo;l Kasim, son of Mustanssir, was then on the throne,
+      but he was only a nominal ruler, for El-Afdhal, a son of El-Gemali, had
+      the chief voice in the affairs of the kingdom. It was the army of Kasim
+      that had captured Jerusalem. The city was besieged by the Crusaders, and
+      it surrendered to them after forty days. Twice did new expeditions arrive
+      from Egypt and attempt to retake the city, but with disastrous results,
+      and further expeditions were impossible for some time, owing to the
+      internal disorders in Egypt. Mustali died after a reign of about four
+      years; and some historians record, as a truly remarkable circumstance,
+      that he was a Sunnite by creed, although he represented a Shiite dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next ruler, El-Amir, was the five-year-old son of Mustali, and
+      El-Afdhal conducted the government until he became of age to govern. His
+      first act was to put El-Afdhal to death. Under El-Amir the internal
+      condition of Egypt continued unsatisfactory, and the Crusaders, who had
+      been very successful in capturing the towns of Syria, were only deterred
+      from an advance on Egypt by the death of their leader, Baldwin. In a.h.
+      524, some of the surviving partisans of El-Afdhal, it is said, put El-Amir
+      to death, and a son of El-Afdhal assumed the direction of affairs, and
+      appointed El-Hafiz, a grandson of Mustanssir as caliph. Afdual&rsquo;s son,
+      whose name was Abu Ali Ahmed, perished in a popular tumult. The new caliph
+      had great trouble with his next three viziers, and at length abolished the
+      office altogether. After reigning twenty years, he was succeeded by his
+      licentious son, Dhafir, whose faults led to his death at the hand of his
+      vizier, El-Abbas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the ensuing six years the supreme power in Egypt was mainly the bone
+      of contention between rival viziers, although El-Faiz, a boy of five, was
+      nominally elected caliph on the death of Dhafir. El-Abbas was worsted by
+      his rival, Tataë, and fled to Syria with a large sum of money; but he fell
+      into the hands of the Crusaders, was returned to Tataë, and crucified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/013.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="013.jpg Enamelled Glass Cup from Arabia " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The last of the Fatimite caliphs, El-Adid, in 555 a.h., was raised to the
+      throne by Tataë, but his power was merely the shadow of sovereignty.
+      Tataë&rsquo;s tyranny, however, became so odious that the caliph had him
+      assassinated a year after his accession, but he concealed the fact that he
+      had instigated the murder. The caliph appointed Tataë&rsquo;s son, El-Adil, as
+      vizier in his stead. The governorship of Upper Egypt was at this time in
+      the hands of the celebrated Shawir, whom El-Adil dispossessed, but in a
+      test of battle, El-Adil was defeated and put to death. In his turn, Shawir
+      yielded to the more powerful Ed-Durghan, and fled to Damascus. There he
+      enlisted the aid of the Atabeg Sultan Nur ed-Din, who sent his army
+      against Ed-Durghan, with the result that Shawir was reinstated in power in
+      Egypt. He thereupon threw off his promised allegiance to Nur ed-Din, whose
+      general, Shirkuh (who had led the Damascenes to Egypt), took up a
+      strategic position. Shawir appealed for aid to the Crusaders, and with the
+      help of Amaury, King of Jerusalem, Shawir besieged his friend Shirkuh. Nur
+      ed-Din was successfully attacking the Crusaders elsewhere, and in the end
+      a peace was negotiated, and the Damascenes left Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two years later, Nur ed-Din formulated a plan to punish the rebellious
+      Shawir. Persecuted by Shirkuh, Nur ed-Din sent him with his army into
+      Egypt. The Franks now joined with Shawir to defend the country, hoping
+      thereby to baffle the schemes of Nur ed-Din. The Christian army was amazed
+      at all the splendour of the caliph&rsquo;s palace at Cairo. Shawir retreated to
+      entice the invaders on, who, advancing beyond their base, were soon
+      reduced to straits. Shirkuh then tried to come to terms with Shawir
+      against the Christians as a common foe, but without success. He next
+      thought of retreating, without fighting, with all his Egyptian plunder.
+      Persuaded at length to fight, he defeated the Franks and finally came to
+      terms with Shawir, whereby the Franco-Egyptian alliance came to an end,
+      and he then left Egypt on receiving an indemnity, Shawir still remaining
+      its ruler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/015.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="015.jpg Gate of El Futuh at Cairo " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The peace, however, did not last long, and Nur ed-Din sent Shirkuh again
+      with many Frankish free-lancers against the ill-fated country. On the
+      approach of the army towards Cairo, the vizier set fire to the ancient
+      city of Fostât, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the invaders,
+      and it burned continually for fifty days. El-Adid now sought aid of Nur
+      ed-Din, who, actuated by zeal against the Franks, and by desire of
+      conquest, once more despatched Shirkuh. In the meantime negotiations had
+      been opened with Amaury to raise the siege of Cairo on payment of an
+      enormous sum of money. But, before these conditions had been fulfilled,
+      the approach of the Syrian army induced Amaury to retreat in haste.
+      Shirkuh and Saladin entered the capital in great state, and were received
+      with honour by the caliph, and with obsequiousness by Shawir, who was
+      contriving a plot which was fortunately discovered, and for which he paid
+      with his life. Shirkuh was then appointed vizier by El-Adid, but, dying
+      very shortly, he was succeeded in that dignity by his nephew Saladin (A.D.
+      1169).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Saladin inaugurated his reign with a series of brilliant successes. Egypt
+      once again took an important place among the nations, and by the wars of
+      Saladin it became the nucleus of a great empire. Military glory was never
+      the sole aim of Saladin and his successors. They continued to extend to
+      letters and the arts their willing patronage, and the beneficial effects
+      of this were felt upon the civilisation of the country. Though ruler of
+      Egypt, Saladin gained his greatest renown by his campaigns against the
+      Crusaders in Syria. The inability of Nur ed-Din&rsquo;s son, El-Malik es-Salih
+      Ismail, to govern the Syrian dominions became an excuse for Saladin&rsquo;s
+      occupation of Syria as guardian of the young prince, and, once having
+      assumed this function, he remained in fact the master of Syria. He
+      continued to consolidate his power in these parts until the Crusaders,
+      under Philip, Count of Flanders, laid siege to Antioch. Saladin now went
+      out to meet them with the Egyptian army, and fought the fierce battle of
+      Ascalon, which proved to be disastrous to himself, his army being totally
+      defeated and his life endangered. After this, however, he was fortunate
+      enough to gain certain minor advantages, and continued to hold his own
+      until a famine broke out in Palestine which compelled him to come to terms
+      with the Crusaders, and two years later a truce was concluded with the
+      King of Jerusalem, and Saladin returned to Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 576 a.h., he again entered Syria and made war on
+      Kilidj-Arslan, the Seljukide Sultan of Anatolia, and on Leon, King of
+      Armenia, both of whom he forced to come to terms. Soon after his return,
+      Saladin again left Egypt to prosecute a war with the Crusaders, since it
+      was plain that neither side was desirous of remaining at peace. Through an
+      incident which had just occurred, the wrath of the Crusaders had been
+      kindled. A vessel bearing fifteen hundred pilgrims had been wrecked near
+      Damietta, and its passengers captured. When the King of Jerusalem
+      remonstrated, Saladin replied by complaining of the constant inroads made
+      by Renaud de Châtillon. This restless warrior undertook an expedition
+      against Eyleh, and for this purpose constructed boats at Kerak and
+      conveyed them on camels to the sea. But this flotilla was repulsed, and
+      the siege was raised by a fleet sent thither by El-Adil, the brother of
+      Saladin, and his viceroy. A second expedition against Eyleh was still more
+      unfortunate to the Franks, who were defeated and taken prisoners. On this
+      occasion the captives were slain in the valley of Mina. Saladin then
+      threatened Kerak, encamped at Tiberias, and ravaged the territory of the
+      Franks. He next made a futile attempt to take Beirut. He was more
+      successful in a campaign against Mesopotamia, which he reduced to
+      submission, with the exception of Mosul. While absent here, the Crusaders
+      did little except undertake several forays, and Saladin at length returned
+      towards Palestine, winning many victories and conquering Aleppo on the
+      way. He next ravaged Samaria, and at last received the fealty of the lord
+      of Mosul, though he did not succeed in actually conquering the city.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1186 war broke out again between Saladin and the Christian
+      hosts. The sultan had respected a truce which he had made with Baldwin the
+      Leper, King of Jerusalem, but the restless Renaud, who had previously
+      attacked Eyleh, had broken through its stipulations. His plunder of a rich
+      caravan enraged Saladin, who forthwith sent out orders to all his vassals
+      and lieutenants to prepare for a Holy War. In the year 1187 he marched
+      from Damascus to Kerak, where he laid close siege to Renaud. At the same
+      time a large body of cavalry was sent on towards Nazareth under his son
+      El-Afdhal. They were met by 730 Knights Hospitallers and Templars, aided
+      by a few hundred foot-soldiers. Inspired by the heroic Jacques de Maillé,
+      marshal of the Temple, they defied the large Saracen army. In the conflict
+      which ensued, the Crusaders immortalised themselves by fighting until only
+      three of their number were left alive, who, after the conflict was over,
+      managed to escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after this, Saladin himself approached with a great army of eighty
+      thousand men, and the Christians with all their forces hastened to meet
+      him upon the shores of Lake Tiberias. The result of this battle proved to
+      be the most disastrous defeat which the Christians had yet suffered. They
+      were weakened by thirst, and on the second day of the conflict a part of
+      their troops fled. But the knights nevertheless continued to make a heroic
+      defence until they were overwhelmed by numbers and forced to flee to the
+      hills of Hittûn. A great number of Crusaders fell in this conflict, and
+      Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, and his brother, Renaud de Châtillon,
+      were among the prisoners of war. The number of those taken was very great,
+      and Saladin left an indelible stain upon a reign otherwise renowned for
+      mercy and humanity by allowing the prisoners to be massacred. Tiberias,
+      Acre, Nabulus, Jericho, Ramleh, Cæsarea, Arsûr, Jaffa, Beirut, and many
+      other places now fell into the hands of the conqueror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/019.jpg" width="100%" alt="019.jpg Arab Drinking-vessels " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Tyre successfully resisted Saladin&rsquo;s attacks. Ascalon surrendered on
+      favourable conditions, and, to crown all, Jerusalem itself fell a prey to
+      his irresistible arms. The great clemency of Saladin is chronicled on this
+      occasion by Christian historians, but the same was an offence to many of
+      the Moslems and is but little referred to by their historians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tyre was now again besieged and was on the point of capture when the
+      besieged were relieved by the arrival of Conrad, son of the Marquis of
+      Monferrat. The defence was now fought with such vigour that Saladin
+      abandoned it and made an attack upon Tripoli, but with no better success,
+      although he succeeded in forcing Bohemond, Prince of Antioch, and ruler of
+      Tripoli, to submit on terms favourable to himself. After this, Saladin
+      took part in the defence of the ever-memorable siege of Acre, which called
+      forth deeds of gallantry and heroism on both sides, and which lasted for
+      two years, during which it roused the interest of the whole of the
+      Christian world. The invading army were in time reinforced by the
+      redoubtable Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England, and Philip II. of
+      France, and, breaking down all opposition, they captured the city, and
+      floated upon its walls the banners of the cross in the year 1191 A.D.
+      Unfortunately for the good name of the Christians, an act of ferocious
+      barbarity marred the lustre of their triumph, for 2,700 Moslems were cut
+      down in cold blood in consequence of the failure of Saladin to fulfil the
+      terms of the capitulation; and the palliative plea that the massacre was
+      perpetrated in the heat of the assault can scarcely be urged in
+      extenuation of this enormity. While many historians have laid the blame on
+      King Richard, the historian Michaud believes it rather to have been
+      decided on in a council of the chiefs of the Crusade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a period of rest and debauchery, the army of the Crusaders, led on
+      by King Richard, began to march towards Jerusalem. Saladin harassed his
+      advance and rendered the strongholds on the way defenceless and ravaged
+      the whole country. Richard was nevertheless ever victorious. His great
+      personal bravery struck terror into the Moslems, and he won an important
+      victory over them at Arsûr. Dissensions now broke out among chiefs of the
+      Crusaders, and Richard himself proved to be a very uncertain leader in
+      regard to the strategy of the campaign. So serious were these drawbacks
+      that the ultimate aim of the enterprise was thereby frustrated, and the
+      Crusaders never attained to their great object, which was the re-conquest
+      of Jerusalem. At the time when the Christian armies were in possession of
+      all the cities along the coast, from Jaffa to Tyre, and the hosts of
+      Saladin were seriously disorganised, a treaty was concluded and King
+      Richard sailed back on the return journey to England. The glory acquired
+      by Saladin, and the famous campaigns of Richard Cour de Lion, have
+      rendered the Third Crusade the most memorable in history, and the exploits
+      of the heroes on both sides shed a lustre on the arms of both Moslems and
+      Christians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Saladin died about a year after the conclusion of this peace, at Damascus,
+      A.D. 1193, at the age of fifty-seven. With less rashness and bravery than
+      Richard, Saladin possessed a firmer character and one far better
+      calculated to carry on a religious war. He paid more attention to the
+      results of his enterprises; more master of himself, he was more fit to
+      command others. When mounting the throne of the Atabegs, Saladin obeyed
+      rather his destiny than his inclinations; but, when once firmly seated, he
+      was governed by only two passions,&mdash;that of reigning and that of
+      securing the triumph of the Koran. On all other subjects he was moderate,
+      and when a kingdom or the glory of the Prophet was not in question, the
+      son of Ayyub was admired as the most just and mild of Muhammedans. The
+      stern devotion and ardent fanaticism that made him take up arms against
+      the Christians only rendered him cruel and barbarous in one single
+      instance. He displayed the virtues of peace amidst the horrors of war.
+      &ldquo;From the bosom of the camps,&rdquo; says an Oriental poet, &ldquo;he covered the
+      nations with the wings of his justice, and poured upon his cities the
+      plenteous showers of his liberality.&rdquo; During his reign many remarkable
+      public works were executed. The Muhammedans, always governed by fear, were
+      astonished that a sovereign could inspire them with so much love, and
+      followed him with joy to battle. His generosity, his clemency, and
+      particularly his respect for an oath, were often the subjects of
+      admiration to the Christians, whom he rendered so miserable by his
+      victories, and of whose power in Asia he had completed the overthrow.
+      Previous to his death, Saladm had divided the kingdom between his three
+      sons; El-Afdhal received Damascus, Southern Syria, and Palestine, with the
+      title of sultan; El-Aziz obtained the kingdom of Egypt, and Ez Zahir the
+      princedom of Aleppo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      El-Aziz undertook a campaign against Syria, but was defeated and obliged
+      to retreat to Cairo on account of a mutiny among his troops. El-Afdhal
+      pursued him, and had already pressed forward as far as Bilbeis, when
+      El-Adil, who had hitherto espoused his cause, fearing that he might become
+      too powerful, forced him to conclude a peace. The only advantage he
+      obtained was that he regained possession of Jerusalem and the southern
+      part of Syria. Soon after, El-Adil prevailed upon his nephew Aziz, with
+      whom he stood on friendly terms, to renew the war and to take Damascus;
+      El-Afdhal was betrayed, and only Sarchod was left to him, whereas El-Adil
+      occupied Damascus and forced Aziz to return to Egypt again (June, 1196).
+      After Aziz&rsquo;s death, in November, 1198, El-Afdhal was summoned by some of
+      the emirs to act as regent in Egypt. Others called upon El-Adil to adopt
+      the same course. El-Afdhal, however, became master of Egypt, and besieged
+      Damascus, reinforced by his brother Zahir, who feared his uncle&rsquo;s ambition
+      no less than himself. The agreement between the brothers, however, did not
+      last long; their armies separated, and El-Afdhal was obliged to raise the
+      siege and retreat to Egypt. He was pursued by his uncle, and forced, after
+      several skirmishes, to surrender the capital and content himself once more
+      with Sarchod and one or two towns on the Euphrates (February, 1200).
+      El-Adil ruled for a short time in the name of El-Aziz&rsquo;s son; he soon came
+      forward as sultan, forced Zahir to recognise him as his suzerain, and
+      appointed his son El-Muzzain as governor of Damascus; the towns which
+      belonged to him in Mesopotamia were distributed among his other sons, and
+      he thus became, to a certain extent, the overlord of all the lands
+      conquered by Saladin. His son, El-Ashraf, later became lord of Chelat in
+      Armenia, and his descendant, Masud, Kamil&rsquo;s son, obtained possession of
+      happy Arabia; so that the name Malik Adil was pronounced in all the Moslem
+      chancels from the borders of Georgia to the Gulf of Aden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/025.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="025.jpg Vase in the Abbott Collection, New York " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      El-Adil was so much engaged with wars against the Moslem princes,&mdash;the
+      princes of Nissibis and Mardin,&mdash;and also with repulsing El-Afdhal,
+      who wished to recover his lost kingdom, that he was unable to proceed with
+      any force against the Crusaders; he took unwilling measures against them
+      when they actually broke the peace, and was always ready to conclude a new
+      treaty. He took Jaffa by storm when the pilgrims, armed by Henry VI., came
+      to Palestine and interfered with the Moslem devotions, and when the
+      chancellor Conrad thereupon seized Sidon and Beirut, El-Adil contented
+      himself with laying waste the former town and hindering the capture of the
+      fortress Joron; Beirut he allowed to fall into the enemy&rsquo;s hands. Still
+      later he permitted several attacks of the Christians&mdash;such as the
+      devastation of the town Fuah, situated on the Rosetta arm of the Nile&mdash;to
+      pass unnoticed, and even bought peace at the expense of the districts of
+      Ramleh and Lydda, which had formerly belonged to him. It was not until the
+      year 1206 that he acted upon the offensive against the regent, John of
+      Ibelin, and even then he contented himself with slight advantages and
+      concluded a new truce for thirty years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly before his death, El-Adil, like his brother Saladin, narrowly
+      escaped losing all his glory and the fruits of so many victories. Pope
+      Honorius III. had successfully aroused the zeal of the Western nations for
+      a new Crusade. Numerous well-armed and warlike-minded pilgrims&mdash;among
+      whom were King Andreas of Hungary and Duke Leopold of Austria&mdash;landed
+      at Acre in 1217, and King John of Jerusalem led them against the Moslems.
+      El-Adil hastened from Egypt to the scene of action, but was forced to
+      retreat to Damascus and to give up the whole of the southern district,
+      with the exception of the well-fortified holy town, to be plundered by the
+      Christians. In the following spring, whilst El-Adil was in Syria, a
+      Christian fleet sailed to Damietta, and besieged the town. The attacking
+      forces were composed of Germans and Hungarians, who had embarked at
+      Spalato on the Adriatic for St. Jean d&rsquo;Acre, where they spent a year in
+      unfortunate expeditions and quarrels with the Christians of Syria. They
+      were joined by a fleet of three hundred boats furnished by North Germans
+      and Frisians, who, leaving the banks of the Rhine, had journeyed there by
+      way of the Straits of Gibraltar, prolonging the journey by a year&rsquo;s
+      fighting in Portugal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Christians then in Palestine had persuaded the Crusaders to begin with
+      an attack on Egypt, and they had therefore chosen to land at Damietta.
+      This was a large commercial town to the east of one of the arms of the
+      Nile, which was defended by three walls and a large tower built on an
+      island in the middle of the Nile, from which started the chains that
+      barred the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Frisian sailors constructed a castle of wood, which was placed between
+      the masts of two ships, and from which the Crusaders were able to leap to
+      the tower, and thus they were able to blockade and starve the town. The
+      siege was long, and an epidemic breaking out among the besiegers carried
+      off a sixth of their number. The sultan tried to succour the besieged by
+      floating down the stream corpses of camels, which were stuffed with
+      provisions, but the Christians captured them. He then offered to give the
+      Crusaders, on condition they would depart, the True Cross and all he
+      possessed of the kingdom of Jerusalem; but Pelagius, the papal legate,&mdash;a
+      Spanish monk who had himself named commander-in-chief,&mdash;rejected the
+      offer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      El-Adil was so stunned by the news of the success of the Christians that
+      he died a few days after (August, 1218). El-Kamil, however, was not
+      discouraged; he not only defended Damietta, but also harassed the enemy in
+      their own camp by means of hordes of Bedouins. Not until he was forced, by
+      a conspiracy of his troops in favour of his brother El-Faiz, to fly to
+      Cairo, did the Christians succeed in getting across the Nile and
+      completely surrounding Damietta. Order was soon restored in Egypt, owing
+      to the arrival of Prince Muzzain, who had taken over the government of
+      Damascus on the death of his father. The rebels were chastised, and both
+      brothers proceeded towards Damietta: they could not succeed, however, in
+      raising the siege, and the garrison diminished daily through hunger,
+      sickness, and constant attacks, and the fortress soon fell into the hands
+      of the Crusaders, almost without a blow (November 5, 1219). The Crusaders
+      pillaged the town, taking from it four hundred thousand gold pieces. The
+      Italians also settled there, and made it the seat of their commerce with
+      Egypt. This conquest caused excitement in Europe, and the Pope called
+      Pelagius &ldquo;the second Joshua.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0012" id="linkimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:29%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/027.jpg"
+       alt="027.jpg Public Fountain, Cairo. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      If the Franks had been more at peace among themselves, they might easily
+      have pushed forward to Cairo after the fall of Damietta. But the greatest
+      discontent prevailed between the papal legate, Pelagius, and King John of
+      Brienne, so that the latter soon after left Egypt, while Pelagius was
+      forced to wait for reinforcements before he could get away from Damietta.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      El-Kamil, meanwhile, reinforced his army with the help of the friendly
+      Syrian princes, and, by destroying the channels and dams of the Nile
+      canals, so endangered the Christian camp that they were soon forced to sue
+      for peace, and offered to quit Damietta on the condition of an unmolested
+      retreat. El-Kamil, equally anxious for peace, accepted these conditions
+      (August, 1221). Scarcely had the Æyubites thus warded off: the threatening
+      danger when they proceeded to fall out among themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the death of El-Kamil, who in the end was generally regarded as
+      overlord, a new war broke out, in March, 1238, between his son El-Adil
+      II., who was reigning in Egypt, and his brother Ayyub, who occupied
+      Damascus. Ayyub conquered Egypt, but, in his absence, his uncle Ismail,
+      Prince of Balbek, seized upon Damascus and made a league with the Franks
+      in Palestine and several of the Syrian princes. Through this unnatural
+      league, Ismail, however, estranged not only the Moslem inhabitants of
+      Syria, but also his own army. Part of the army deserted in consequence to
+      Ayyub, who was thus enabled easily to subdue the allied army (1240).
+      Another coalition was formed against him a few years later, and this time
+      Da&rsquo;ud of Kerak was one of the allies. Ayyub sent a strong army of
+      Egyptians, negroes, and Mamluks under the future sultan, Beybars, to
+      Syria. The Syrian troops fought unwillingly against their fellow-believers
+      in the opposite ranks, and the wild Chariz-mites, who had also joined the
+      ranks, inspired them with terror, so that they deserted the field of
+      battle in the neighbourhood of Gaza (October, 1244). The Christians, left
+      to themselves, were not in a position to resist the enemy&rsquo;s attacks; and
+      the Egyptians made themselves masters of Jerusalem and Hebron, and in the
+      following year obtained Damascus, Balbek, Ascalon, and Tiberias. In 1248
+      Ayyub came again into Syria, in order to chastise El-Malik en-Nasir,
+      Prince of Aleppo, who had seized upon Hemessa when he heard of the coming
+      Crusaders under Saint Louis. To this end he made peace with the natives of
+      Aleppo, and returned to Jerusalem in order to make the necessary
+      preparations for defence. The pilgrims, however, succeeded in landing, for
+      Emir Fakhr ed-Din, the Egyptian commander, had taken to flight after a
+      short skirmish, and the fortress was allowed to fall into the hands of the
+      enemy (June, 1249). Ayyub now established a firm footing in the town of
+      Cairo&mdash;which his father had founded&mdash;in a district intersected
+      by canals, and harassed the Christian camp with his light cavalry. Louis
+      was expecting reinforcements, but they did not arrive until the
+      inundations of the Nile made any advance into the interior almost
+      impossible. At last, on the 21st of December, the Christian army arrived
+      at the canal of Ashmum Tanah, which alone separated them from the town of
+      Mansuria. The Egyptians were now commanded by Emir Fakhr ed-Din. Ayyub had
+      died a month before, but his wife, Shejret ed-Durr, kept his death a
+      secret until his son Turan Shah should arrive from Mesopotamia. Fakhr
+      ed-Din did everything in his power to retrieve his former error. He
+      attacked the Christians when they were engaged in building a dam across
+      the canal, hindering their work on the southern bank with his
+      throwing-machines, destroying their towers with Greek fire; and when, in
+      spite of all discouragements, their toilsome work was nearly finished, he
+      rendered it useless by digging out a new basin, into which he conducted
+      the water of the Ashmum canal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 8th of February, 1250, the French crossed the canal, but, instead
+      of collecting there, as the king had commanded, so as to attack the enemy
+      <i>en masse</i>, several troops pressed forward against the Egyptians, and
+      many, including the Count of Artois, the king&rsquo;s brother, were killed by
+      the valiant enemy under Beybars. The battle remained long undecided, for
+      the Egyptians had barricaded Cairo so well that it could only be stormed
+      at the cost of many lives, and after the capture the army needed rest. The
+      Egyptians took advantage of this delay to bring a fleet up in the rear of
+      the Egyptian ships, which, in combination with the fleet stationed near
+      Mansuria, attacked and completely destroyed them. As soon as they were
+      masters of the Nile, the Egyptians landed troops below the Christian camp,
+      which was thus completely cut off from Damietta, and soon suffered the
+      greatest hardships from lack of provisions. Under these circumstances,
+      Louis opened negotiations with Turan Shah, and when these proved
+      fruitless, nothing remained for him but to return to Damietta. Although
+      they began their retreat by night, they did not thus escape the vigilance
+      of the Egyptians. The fugitives were overtaken on the following morning,
+      and so shut in by the enemy that resistance was impossible. A large
+      portion of the army was cut to pieces, in spite of their surrender; the
+      rest, together with the king and his brother, were taken prisoners and
+      brought in triumph to Cairo. Turan Shah treated the king with
+      consideration and hastened to conclude peace with the Bahritic Mamluks,&mdash;so
+      called because they had been brought up on the Nile (Bahr), on the island
+      Rhodha,&mdash;as soon as the ransom money of his prisoners was assured.
+      The Bahrites grumbled at this peace because it left the Christians in
+      Palestine in possession of their towns, and they forthwith murdered Turan
+      Shah, with the help of Shejret ed-Durr, whom he had maltreated (May 2,
+      1250).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After Turan Shah&rsquo;s death, his mother was proclaimed sultana, and the
+      Mamluk Aibek became general of the army. Later, when the caliph of Baghdad
+      revolted against the rule of a woman, Aibek assumed the title of sultan
+      and married Shejret ed-Durr. He ruled again after some time in the name of
+      a young descendant of Kamil, so as to be able to fight against the
+      Ayyubids in Syria, who, with En-Nasir at their head, had taken possession
+      of Damascus, with an appearance of right. A battle took place between
+      Aibek and the Syrians (February, 1251), which was decided in favour of
+      Aibek in consequence of the treachery of the Turks under Nasir. Aibek
+      again assumed the title of sultan after the victory, but was soon after to
+      be murdered by the Mamluks, who were unwilling to be subject to any
+      control. He anticipated their plot, however, and slew their leader, the
+      Emir Aktai, putting his followers to flight. He then demanded the diploma
+      of investiture and the insignia of his office from the caliph, and also
+      pressed the Prince of Mosul to grant him his daughter in marriage. His own
+      wife, unable to endure such perfidy, had him murdered in his bath (April
+      10, 1257).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/029.jpg" width="100%" alt="29.jpg " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      When Beybars first ascended the throne, he assumed the name of Sultan
+      Kahir (the over-ruler), but afterwards, when he was informed that this
+      name had always brought misfortune to its bearer, he changed it to that of
+      Sultan Zahir (the Glorious).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now that he was absolute master of Syria and Egypt, Beybars tried to
+      obliterate the remembrance of the misdeeds he had formerly been guilty of
+      by means of undertakings for the general good and for the furtherance of
+      religion. He had the mosques repaired, founded pious institutions,
+      designed new aqueducts, fortified Alexandria, had all the fortresses
+      repaired and provisioned which the Mongols had razed to the ground, had a
+      large number of great and small war-ships built, and established a regular
+      post between Cairo and Damascus. In order to obtain a semblance of
+      legitimacy, since he was but a usurper, Beybars recognised a nominal
+      descendant of the house of Abbas as caliph, who, in the proper course of
+      things, ought to invest him with the dominions of Syria and Egypt. Beybars
+      bade his governors receive this descendant of the house of the Prophet
+      with all suitable marks of honour, and invited him to come to Egypt. When
+      he approached the capital, the sultan himself went out to meet him,
+      followed by the vizier, the chief cadi, and the chief emirs and
+      notabilities of the town. Even the Jews and Christians had to take part in
+      the procession, carrying respectively the Tora and the Gospel. The caliph
+      made his entrance into Cairo with the greatest pomp, rode through the town
+      amidst the shouts of the multitude, and proceeded to the citadel, where
+      Beybars had appointed him a magnificent dwelling. Some days afterwards the
+      caliph had a reception of the chief cadi, the most celebrated theologians
+      and lawyers of Egypt, and many notables of the capital. The Arabs who
+      formed his escort and an eunuch from Baghdad testified to the identity of
+      the caliph&rsquo;s person, the chief cadi recognised their assertion as valid,
+      and was the first to do homage to him as caliph. Thereupon the sultan
+      arose, took the oath of allegiance to him and swore to uphold both the
+      written laws of the Koran and those of tradition; to advance the good and
+      hinder the evil, to fight zealously for the protection of the faith only,
+      to impose lawful taxes, and to apply the taxes only to lawful purposes.
+      After the sultan had finished, homage was done by the sheiks, the emirs,
+      and the other chief officers of the kingdom. The caliph invested the
+      sultan with power over all the kingdoms subject to Islam, as well as over
+      all future conquests, whereupon the people of all classes were admitted to
+      do homage likewise. Then command was sent out to all the distant princes
+      and governors to do homage to the caliph, who has assumed the name of
+      El-Mustanssir, and to place his name beside that of the sultan in their
+      prayers and also on their coins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beybars&rsquo; treatment of his viziers, governors, and other important emirs,
+      one or other of whom he either imprisoned or executed on every possible
+      occasion, was merciless, but he proceeded even more shamelessly against
+      Malik Mughith, Prince of Kerak and Shaubek, whom he feared so much as one
+      of the bravest descendants of the house of Ayyub that he stamped himself
+      publicly as a perjured assassin, in order to get him out of the way.
+      Beybars had at first, without any declaration of war, in fact, without any
+      notification of it in Egypt, suddenly sent a detachment of troops under
+      the leadership of Emir Bedr ed-Din Aidimri, which took the fortress
+      Shaubek by surprise, and placed the Emir Saif ed-Din Bilban el-Mukhtasi in
+      it as governor. In the next year, in order to win over Mughith, he
+      liberated his son Aziz, whom Kotuz had captured at Damascus and imprisoned
+      at Cairo; he also assured Mughith of his friendly intentions towards him
+      and repeatedly urged him to arrange a meeting. El-Malik el-Mughith did not
+      trust Beybars, and invented all kinds of reasons not to accept his
+      invitations. Beybars resolved at last to calm the fears of his intended
+      victim by means of a written oath. The fears of Mughith, however, were not
+      allayed, and he hesitated to fall in with the wish of the sultan and to
+      appear at his court. The following year, when the sultan came to Syria and
+      again urged a meeting, he was at a loss for an excuse, and was forced
+      either to acknowledge his mistrust or risk everything. He sent his mother
+      first to Gaza, where she was received with the greatest friendliness by
+      the sultan, and sent back laden with costly presents; on her return to
+      Kerak, corrupted by the hospitality and generosity of the sultan, she
+      persuaded her son to wait on him, as did also his ambassador Alamjad with
+      equal zeal. Finally he set out from Kerak&mdash;when he had made his
+      troops do homage to his son El-Malik el-Aziz&mdash;on a visit to the
+      sultan, who wras then in Tur. The sultan rode out to meet him as far as
+      Beisan. Malik Mughith wished to dismount when he perceived the sultan, but
+      he would not permit this, and rode beside Mughith till he reached his own
+      tent. Here he was separated from his followers, thrown into chains, and
+      brought into the citadel of Cairo (a.h. 660). In order to palliate this
+      crime, the sultan made public the correspondence of the Prince of Kerak
+      with the Mongols, which it was thought would stamp the former as a traitor
+      to Islam. The judges whom he brought with him, and amongst whom we find
+      the celebrated historian Ibn Khallikan, who was then chief judge of
+      Damascus, declared him guilty, but we only have historical proof of the
+      sending of his son into Hulagu&rsquo;s camp to beg that his province might be
+      spared, at a time when all the princes of Syria, seized with panic, threw
+      themselves at the feet of the Mongolian general. Be that as it may, he
+      none the less committed a piece of treachery, since he had sworn not to
+      call him to account for his former crimes. Beybars hoped, now that he had
+      disposed of Malik Mughith, that the fortress Kerak would immediately
+      surrender to his emissary, Emir Bedr ed-Din Beisari, but the governor of
+      the fortress feared to trust the promises of a perjurer and offered
+      resistance. Beybars therefore set out for Syria with all the necessary
+      siege apparatus, constructed by the best engineers of Egypt and Syria. The
+      garrison saw the impossibility of a long resistance and capitulated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of Malik Mughith, El-Malik el-Aziz, a boy of twelve, was honoured
+      as prince and taken to Egypt, as also Mughith&rsquo;s family. His emirs and
+      officials were treated with consideration, but the prince was later thrown
+      into prison. Nothing certain is known with regard to the death of Mughith.
+      According to some reports, because he offended the wife of Beybars, when
+      as a wandering Mamluk he once was staying with him, he was delivered over
+      to the sultan&rsquo;s wives and was put to death by them; another account says
+      that he died of hunger in prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the conquest of Shekif, the sultan made an attack on the province of
+      Tripoli because Prince Bok-mond, Governor of Antioch and Tripoli, was his
+      bitterest enemy and the truest ally of the Mongolians, and had, moreover,
+      at the time of Hulagu&rsquo;s attack on Syria, made himself master of several
+      places which till then had belonged to the Mussulmans. The whole land was
+      wasted, all the houses destroyed, all Christians who fell into the hands
+      of the troops were murdered, and several strongholds in the mountains
+      conquered. Laden with rich booty, the Moslem army set out for Hemessa.
+      From here Beybars proceeded towards Hamah and divided the army into three
+      divisions; one division, under the Emir Bedr ed-Din Khaznadar (treasurer),
+      was to take the direction of Suwaidiya, the port of Antioch; the second,
+      under Emir Izz ed-Din Ighan, struck the route towards Der-besak; the
+      third, which he led himself, proceeded in a straight line over Apamaa and
+      Schoghr towards Antioch, which was the meeting-place for the two other
+      emirs, and would so be shut in from the north, the west, and the south. On
+      the 16th May the sultan found himself in front of the town, which
+      contained a population of over one hundred thousand. Fighting soon ensued
+      between the outposts of the sultan and the constable who advanced against
+      him at the head of the militia. The latter was defeated, and the constable
+      himself taken prisoner. On the 3d of Ramadhan the whole army had united
+      and preparations were made for the siege. Meanwhile the sultan had already
+      attempted to persuade the imprisoned constable to return to the town and
+      enduce them to surrender, and to leave his own son behind as a hostage.
+      But when several days had passed in fruitless discussions, at last the
+      sultan gave the word for the attack. In spite of the resistance of the
+      Christians, the walls were scaled on the same day, and the garrison
+      retired thereupon into the citadel; the inhabitants were massacred or
+      taken prisoner and all the houses plundered. No one could escape, for
+      Beybars had blocked all the entrances. On the next day the garrison, women
+      and children included, which numbered eight thousand, surrendered on
+      account of lack of water and meal. The chiefs apparently made their escape
+      during the confusion and fled into the mountains. The garrison only saved
+      their lives by surrendering. Beybars had them chained and distributed as
+      slaves amongst his troops; he then had the other prisoners and the rest of
+      the booty brought together, and proceeded with the lawful distribution.
+      When everything had been settled, the citadel was set on fire, but the
+      conflagration was so great that the whole town was consumed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beybars died soon after his return from Asia Minor (July 1, 1277).
+      According to some reports his death was occasioned by a violent fever;
+      other accounts say that he died in consequence of a poison which he had
+      prepared for an Ayyubid and which he accidentally took himself. He had
+      designated the eldest of his sons as his successor, under the name of
+      El-Malik es-Said, and in order to give him a strong support he had married
+      him to the daughter of the Emir Kilawun, one of his best and most
+      influential generals. In spite of all this, however, es-Said was not able
+      to maintain himself on the throne for any length of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kilawun conspired against his master, and was soon able to ascend the
+      throne under the title of El-Malik el-Mansur. His fame as a warrior was
+      already established, and he added to his successes during his ten years&rsquo;
+      reign. His first task was to quell disturbances in Syria, and he
+      despatched an army thither and captured Damascus. In the year 680 of the
+      Hegira he took the field in person against a large force of Tatars,
+      defeated them, and raised the siege of Rahabah. Eight years later he laid
+      siege to Tripoli, then rich and flourishing after two centuries of
+      Christian occupation, and the town was taken and its inhabitants killed.
+      Other expeditions were undertaken against Nubia, but the Nubians, after
+      they had been twice defeated, appear to have re-established themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/039.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="039.jpg Court in the Moristan of The Kilawun " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The fortress of Acre was at this time the only important stronghold still
+      retained by the Christians, and for its conquest Kilawun was making
+      preparations when he died, on the 10th of November, 1290. Kilawun, says
+      the modern historian Weil, has been unduly praised by historians, most of
+      whom lived in the reign of his son. He was certainly not so bloodthirsty
+      as Beybars, and he also oppressed his subjects less. He, too, cared more
+      for the increase and establishment of his kingdom than for justice and
+      good faith. He held no agreement sacred, if he could get any advantage by
+      breaking it, as was shown by his behaviour towards the Crusaders and the
+      descendants of Beybars. The most beautiful monument which he left behind
+      him was a huge building outside Cairo, which included a hospital, a
+      school, and his own tomb. The hospital was so large that every disease had
+      a special room allotted to it; there were also apartments for women, and
+      large storerooms for provisions and medical requirements, and a large
+      auditorium in which the head doctor delivered his lectures on medicine.
+      The expenses were so great&mdash;for even people of wealth were taken
+      without compensation&mdash;that special administrators were appointed to
+      oversee and keep an account of the necessary outlay. Besides these
+      officers, several stewards and overseers were appointed to control the
+      revenues devoted to the hospital by different institutions. Under the dome
+      of the tomb the Koran and traditional charters were taught, and both
+      teachers and scholars received their payment from the state. A large
+      adjacent hall contained a library of many works on the Koran, tradition,
+      language, medicine, practical theology, jurisprudence, and literature, and
+      was kept in good condition by a special librarian and six officials. The
+      school building contained four audience-halls for the teachers of the
+      Islamite schools, and in addition to these a school for children, into
+      which sixty poor orphans were received without any charge and provided
+      with board, lodging, and clothes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Khalil, the son of Kilawun, who succeeded him, with the title of El-Malik
+      el-Ashraf, was able to begin operations in the spring of 1291 against
+      Acre, and on the 18th of May, after an obstinate resistance, the town was
+      taken by storm. Those who could not escape by water were either cut down
+      or taken prisoner; the town was plundered, then burnt, and the
+      fortifications razed to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0015" id="linkimage-0015">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:48%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/043.jpg"
+       alt="043.jpg Window in the Mausoleum of Kilawun " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      After the fall of Acre, towns such as Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and others,
+      which were still in the hands of the Christians, offered no resistance,
+      and were either deserted by their inhabitants or given up to the enemy.
+      El-Ashraf, now that he had cleared Syria of the Crusaders, turned his arms
+      against the Mongols and their vassals. He began with the storming of Kalat
+      er-rum, a fortress on the Upper Euphrates in the neighbourhood of Bireh,
+      the possession of which was important both for the defence of Northern
+      Syria and for attacks on Armenia and Asia Minor. In spite of many pompous
+      declarations that this was only the beginning of greater conquests in Asia
+      Minor and Irak, he retired as soon as the Ilkhan Kaikhatu sent a strong
+      detachment of troops against him. Later on he threatened the Prince of
+      Armenia-Minor with war, and obliged him to hand over certain border towns.
+      He also exchanged some threatening letters with Kaikhatu. But neither
+      reigned long enough to make these threats good, for Kaikhatu was soon
+      after dethroned by Baidu, and Baidu in his turn by Gazan (1295), after
+      many civil wars which had continually hindered him from carrying on a
+      foreign war. El-Ashraf was murdered in 1294, whilst hunting, by the regent
+      Baidara, whom he had threatend to turn out of his office. Kara Sonkor,
+      Lajin, El-Mansuri, and some of the other emirs had conspired with Baidara
+      in the hope that, when once the deed was accomplished, all the chiefs in
+      the kingdom would applaud their action, since El-Ashraf had slain and
+      imprisoned many influential emirs, and was generally denounced as an
+      irreligious man, who transgressed not only against the laws of Islam, but
+      also against those of nature. Baidara, however, immediately proceeded to
+      mount the throne, and a strong party, with the Emir Ketboga at its head,
+      was formed against him. Ketboga called upon El-Ashraf&rsquo;s Mamluks to take
+      vengeance, pursued the rebels, and killed Baidara. He then returned to
+      Cairo, and, after long negotiations with the governor of the capital,
+      Muhammed, a younger brother of El-Ashraf, was proclaimed sultan, with the
+      title of El-Malik en-Nasir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muhammed en-Nasir occupies such an important place in the history of these
+      times that the other Moslem princes may easily be grouped around him. He
+      was only nine years old when he was summoned to be ruler of the kingdom of
+      the Mamluks. Naturally he was the sultan only in name, and the real power
+      lay in the hands of Ketboga and Vizier Shujai. These two lived in perfect
+      harmony so long as they were merely occupied with the pursuit of their
+      rivals,&mdash;not only the friends and followers of El-Ashraf&rsquo;s murderer,
+      but also the innocent ex-vizier of El-Ashraf, because he had treated them
+      with contempt and was in possession of riches for which they were greedy.
+      He shared the fate of the king&rsquo;s assassins, for, in spite of the
+      intercession of the ladies of the royal harem, he ended his life on the
+      gallows. But as soon as the two rulers had got rid of their enemies and
+      appeased their own avarice, their peaceful union was at an end, for each
+      wished to have complete control over the sultan. Shujai had the Mamluks of
+      the late sultan on his side; while Ketboga, who was a Mongol by birth, had
+      with him all the Mongols and Kurds who had settled in the kingdom during
+      Beybars&rsquo; reign. A Mongol warned Ketboga against Shujai, who had made all
+      necessary preparations to throw his rival into prison, and he immediately
+      was attacked by Ketboga and defeated after several attempts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ketboga&rsquo;s ambition was not yet fulfilled, although he was now supreme
+      ruler. He first demanded homage as regent; as he met with no opposition,
+      he conceived the idea of setting the sultan, Nasir, aside; and he hoped to
+      carry out his plan with the assistance of Lajin and Kara Sonkor,
+      El-Ashraf&rsquo;s murderers, and their numerous following. He had the pardon of
+      these two emirs proclaimed, whereupon they left their hiding-places and
+      joined Ketboga, for it was to their interest also that the sultan should
+      be put out of the way. This <i>coup d&rsquo;état</i> was a complete success
+      (December, 1294), but in spite of these plans, Ketboga&rsquo;s reign was both
+      unfortunate and brief. The old emirs were vexed with him because he raised
+      his own Mamluks to the highest posts of honour, and the clergy were
+      displeased because he received favourably a number of Mongols, although
+      they were heathens. The people blamed him for the severe famine which
+      visited Egypt and Syria and which was followed by a terrible pestilence.
+      Several emirs, with Lajin again at their head, conspired against him, and
+      forced their way into his tent while he was on the way to Syria;
+      overpowering the guard, they attempted to get possession of his person. He
+      managed to escape, however, and so saved his life and liberty, but Lajin
+      obtained possession of the throne, with the agreement of the other emirs.
+      In spite of his advantages, both as man and as pious Moslem, and in spite
+      of his brilliant victories over the princes of Armenia, Lajin was
+      murdered, together with his successor, and Nasir, who was then living in
+      Kerak, was recalled as sultan (January, 1299).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nasir was still too young to reign alone; he had to let himself be ruled
+      by the emirs who had already assumed a kind of regency before his return.
+      At the head of these emirs stood Sellar and Beybars Jashingir. Distrust
+      and uneasiness existed between these two, one of whom was regent and the
+      other prefect of the palace, for each wanted to assume the chief power;
+      but soon their private intrigues were put into the background by a common
+      danger. The Ilkhan Gazan was actively preparing for war against the Mamluk
+      kingdom because the Governor of Aleppo had fallen upon Mardin, a town
+      belonging to the Mongols, and brutally maltreated the inhabitants; also
+      because the refugees from Egypt and Syria assured him that the moment was
+      favourable for extending his dominion over these lands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The internal history of Egypt at this period offers nothing but tedious
+      strifes between different emirs, and specially between the two most
+      powerful, Beybars and Sellar, who would have often brought it to open
+      warfare had not their friends and followers intervened. They agreed,
+      however, on one point, namely, to keep the sultan as long as possible from
+      taking over the reins of government, and to keep him as secluded as
+      possible in order to deprive him of all influence. Whilst Sellar was
+      wasting immense sums, the sultan was in fact almost starving. When Sellar
+      went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, he paid the debts of all the Moslems who
+      had retired to this town; he further distributed ten thousand malters of
+      fruit amongst the poor people in the town, and so much money and
+      provisions that they were able to live on it for a whole year. He also
+      treated the inhabitants of Medina and Jiddah in an equally generous way.
+      The sultan, who was hunting in Lower Egypt, at the same time tried in vain
+      to obtain a small loan from the Alexandrian merchants, to buy a present
+      for his wife. Finally, his vizier, who had granted him two thousand dinars
+      ($5,060), was accused on Sellar&rsquo;s return of embezzling the public money,
+      was led round the town on a donkey, and beaten and tortured so long that
+      he succumbed under his torments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1307, when Nasir was twenty-three years old, though still
+      treated as a child, he attempted, with the help of the Emir Bektimur, who
+      commanded the Mamluks in the palace, to seize the persons of his
+      oppressors. The plan failed, for they had their spies everywhere, and the
+      only result was that the sultan&rsquo;s faithful servants were banished to
+      Syria, and the sultan himself was more oppressed than ever. It was two
+      years before he succeeded in deceiving his tyrants. He expressed the wish
+      to make a pilgrimage to Mecca; this was granted, as the emirs saw nothing
+      dangerous in it, and, moreover, as a religious duty, it could not be
+      resisted. As soon as he reached the fortress Kerak, with the help of those
+      soldiers in his escort who were devoted to his cause, and having deceived
+      the governor by means of false letters, he obtained possession of the
+      fortress, and immediately declared his independence of the guardianship of
+      Sellar and Beybars. Sellar and Beybars, on hearing this, immediately
+      summoned the sultan to return to Cairo; but, even before they received his
+      answer, they realised that their rule was over, and that either they must
+      quit the field, or Nasir must be dethroned. After long consideration
+      amongst themselves, they proceeded to the choice of another sultan, and
+      the choice fell on Beybars (April, 1309). Beybars accepted the proffered
+      throne on the condition that Sellar also retained his place. He confirmed
+      the other emirs also in their offices, hoping thereby to gain their
+      support.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/049.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="049.jpg Interior of the Mosque, Kilawun " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The change of government met with no resistance in Egypt, where the
+      majority of the emirs had long been dependent on Beybars and Sellar. In
+      Syria, on the other hand, the emirs acting as governors refused to
+      acknowledge Beybars, partly from devotion to Nasir&rsquo;s race, and partly
+      because the choice had been made without their consent. Only Akush,
+      Governor of Damascus, who was an old friend of Beybars, and like him a
+      Circassian, took the oath of allegiance. The governors of Aleppo, Hamah,
+      and Tripoli, together with the governors of Safed and Jerusalem, called
+      upon Nasir to join them, and, with the help of his other followers, to
+      reconquer Egypt. The cunning sultan, who saw that the time for open
+      resistance had not yet arrived, since Egypt was as yet too unanimous, and
+      Damascus also had joined the enemy, advised them to deceive Beybars and to
+      take the oath of allegiance, which they could break later, as having been
+      obtained by force. He himself feigned to submit to the new government, and
+      even had the prayers carried on from the chancel in Beybars&rsquo; name. Beybars
+      was deceived, although he knew with certainty that Nasir carried on a
+      lively intercourse with the discontented emirs. He relied chiefly on
+      Akush, who kept a strict watch over Nasir&rsquo;s movements. The spies of Akush,
+      however, were open to corruption, and they failed later to take steps to
+      render Nasir harmless at the right moment. Beybars believed Nasir to be
+      still in Kerak, when he was well on the way to Damascus; and when he
+      finally received news of this, the rebellion had already gone so far that
+      some of the troops who had been sent out against the sultan had already
+      deserted to his side. The only possible way of allaying the storm was for
+      Beybars to put himself at the head of his troops, and, joining forces with
+      Akush, to offer battle to Nasir. The necessary courage and resolution
+      failed him. Instead of having recourse to the sword, he applied to the
+      caliph, who declared Nasir an exile, and summoned all believers to listen
+      to the Sultan Beybars&mdash;whom he had consecrated&mdash;and to take part
+      in the war against the rebel, Nasir. But the summons of the caliph, which
+      was read in all the chancels, had not the slightest effect. The belief in
+      the caliph had long disappeared, except in so far as he was considered a
+      tool of the sultan on whom he depended. Even Beybars&rsquo; party mocked the
+      caliph&rsquo;s declaration, and wherever it was read manifestations were made in
+      favour of the exile. Beybars, also, was now deserted by Sellar, and he at
+      length was obliged to resign. Beybars was then seized and throttled by
+      Nasir, and Sellar was starved to death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nasir, who now came to the throne, had grown suspicious and treacherous on
+      account of the many hardships and betrayals endured by him during his
+      youth. He was, however, favourable to the Christians, and to such an
+      extent that he received anonymous letters reproaching him for allowing
+      Moslems to be oppressed by Christian officials. He found them to be
+      experienced in financial matters, for, in spite of all decrees, they had
+      never ceased to hold secretaryships in different states: they were,
+      moreover, more unscrupulous than born Muhammedans, who always had more
+      respect for law, custom, and public opinion. Certainly the sultan
+      considered the ministers in whom he placed great confidence less dangerous
+      if they were wow-Moslems, since he was their only support, whereas
+      comrades in religion could always find plenty of support and might easily
+      betray him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nasir died on the 6th of June, 1341, at about fifty-eight years of age,
+      after a reign of forty-three years. His rule, which did not actually begin
+      until he mounted the throne for the third time, lasted thirty-two years.
+      During this period he was absolute ruler in the strongest sense of the
+      word; every important affair was decided by him alone. The emirs had to
+      refer all matters to him, and were a constant source of suspicion and
+      oversight. They might not speak to each other in his presence, nor visit
+      each other without his consent. The mildest punishment for breaking such
+      decrees was banishment to Syria. Nasir inspired them with fear rather than
+      with love and respect, and, as soon as it was known that his illness was
+      incurable, no one paid any further attention to him. He died as a pious
+      Moslem and repentant sinner in the presence of some of his servants. His
+      burial, which took place by night, was attended by a few emirs, and only
+      one wax candle and one lamp were carried before the bier. As one of his
+      biographers justly remarks, the rich sultan, whose dominion had extended
+      from the borders of Abyssinia to Asia Minor and up the Euphrates as far as
+      Tunis, and the father of a large family, ended his life like a stranger,
+      was buried like a poor man, and brought to his grave like a man without
+      wife or child. Nasir was the last sultan who ruled over the Bahritic
+      Mamluk kingdom with a firm hand. After his death we read of one
+      insurrection after another, and the sultans were either deposed or became
+      mere slaves of the emirs. Abu Bekr, whom Nasir had appointed his
+      successor, did not hold his own for quite two months, because he
+      maltreated the discontented emirs and put his favourites in their places.
+      An insurrection, with the Emir Kausun at its head, was formed against him;
+      he was dethroned and his six-year-old brother Kujuk was proclaimed sultan
+      in his stead. The dethroned sultan was banished to Upper Egypt, whither
+      his elder brother Ahmed should have been brought; Ahmed, however, refused
+      to leave his fortress of Kerak, and, finding support among the Syrian
+      emirs, he conspired against Kausun, who was at this moment threatened also
+      with an insurrection in Cairo. After several bloody battles, Kausun was
+      forced to yield, and Ahmed was proclaimed sultan (January, 1342). Ahmed,
+      however, preferred a quiet, peaceful life to the dangerous post of sultan,
+      and not until he had received the most solemn oaths of allegiance did he
+      proceed to his capital, where he arrived quite unexpectedly, so that no
+      festivities had been prepared. After some time, he had all the Syrian
+      emirs arrested by his Mam-luks, because they tried to usurp his powers; he
+      then appointed a regent, and himself returned to Kerak, taking with him
+      everything he had found in the sultan&rsquo;s palace, and there he remained in
+      spite of the entreaties of the faithful emirs, and lived simply for his
+      own pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The natural consequence of all this was Ahmed&rsquo;s deposition in June, 1342.
+      His brother Ismail, a good-hearted youth of seventeen years, sent troops
+      to Kerak to demand an oath of allegiance from Ahmed, but they could effect
+      nothing, as the fortress was well fortified and provisioned, and,
+      moreover, many of the emirs, both in Syria and Egypt, were still in league
+      with Ahmed. Not until fresh troops had been sent, and Ahmed himself
+      betrayed, did they succeed in taking the fortress; and Ahmed was put to
+      death in 1344. Ahmed&rsquo;s death made such a deep impression upon the weak
+      sultan that he fell into a fit of depression which gradually increased
+      until he died in August of the following year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/055.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="055.jpg Frieze in Mosque of Sultan Hasan " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      His brother and successor, Shaban, was an utter profligate, cruel,
+      faithless, avaricious, immoral, and pleasure-loving. Gladiators played an
+      important part at his court, and he often took part in their contests.
+      Horse-racing, cock-fights, and such like amusements occupied him much more
+      than state affairs, and the whole court followed his example. As long as
+      Shaban did not offend the emirs, he was at liberty to commit any
+      atrocities he pleased, but, as soon as he seized their riches and
+      imprisoned and tortured them, his downfall was certain. Ilbogha, Governor
+      of Damascus, supported by the other Syrian emirs, sent him a list of his
+      crimes and summoned him to abdicate. Meanwhile an insurrection had broken
+      out in Cairo, and, although Shaban expressed his willingness to abdicate,
+      he was murdered by the rebels in September, 1346. His brother Haji met
+      with a similar fate after a reign of fifteen months, though some accounts
+      affirm that he was not murdered but only exiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haji was succeeded by his brother Hasan, who was still a minor; the emirs
+      who ruled in his name competed for the highest posts until Baibagharus and
+      his brother Menjik carried off the victory. These two ruled supreme for a
+      time. The so-called &ldquo;black death&rdquo; was ravaging Egypt; many families were
+      decimated, and their riches fell to the state. The disease, which differed
+      from the ordinary pest in the blood-spitting and internal heat, raged in
+      Europe and Asia, and spread the greatest consternation even amongst the
+      Moslems, who generally regarded disease with a certain amount of
+      indifference, as being a divine decree. According to Arabic sources, the
+      black death had broken out in China and from there had spread over the
+      Tatar-land of Kipjak; from here it took its course towards Constantinople,
+      Asia Minor, and Syria on the one hand, and towards Greece, Italy, Spain,
+      France, and Germany on the other, and was probably brought to Egypt from
+      Syria. Not only men, but beasts and even plants were attacked. The ravages
+      were nowhere so fearful as in Egypt; in the capital alone in a few days as
+      many as fifteen or twenty thousand people were stricken. As the disease
+      continued to rage for two years, there was soon a lack of men to plough
+      the fields and carry on the necessary trades; and to increase the general
+      distress, incursions were made by the tribes of Turcomans and Bedouins,
+      who plundered the towns and villages. Scarcely had this desperate state of
+      affairs begun to improve when court intrigues sprang up afresh, and only
+      ended with the deposition of the sultan in August, 1351. He was recalled
+      after three years, during which his brother had reigned, and he was
+      subsequently deposed and put to death in March, 1361. Finally the
+      descendants of Nasir, instead of his sons, began to rule. First came
+      Muhammed Ibn Haji, who, as soon as he began to show signs of independence,
+      was declared to be of unsound mind by his chief emir, Ilbogha; then
+      Shaban, the son of Husain (May, 1363), who was strangled in March, 1377;
+      and finally Husain&rsquo;s eight-year-old son Ali. After repeated contests,
+      Berkuk and Berekeh, two Circassian slaves, placed themselves at the head
+      of the government. Berkuk, however, wished to be absolute, and soon put
+      his co-regent out of the way (1389). He contented himself at first with
+      being simply regent, and, even when Ali died, he declared his six-year-old
+      brother Haji, sultan. The following year, when he discovered a conspiracy
+      of the Mamluks against him, and when many of the older emirs were dead, he
+      declared that it was for the good of the state that no longer a child, but
+      a man capable of directing internal affairs and leading an army against
+      the enemy, should take over the government. The assembly, whom he had
+      bribed beforehand, supported him, and he was appointed sultan in November,
+      1382.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The external history of Egypt during this time is but scanty. She suffered
+      several defeats at the hands of the Turcomans in the north of Syria, lost
+      her supremacy in Mecca through the influence of the princes of South
+      Arabia, and both Alexandria and several other coast towns were attacked
+      and plundered by European fleets. This last event occurred in Shaban&rsquo;s
+      reign in 1365. Peter of Lusignan, King of Cyprus, had, in league with the
+      Genoese, the Venetians, and Knights of Rhodes, placed himself at the head
+      of a new Crusade, and since his expedition was a secret even in Europe,&mdash;for
+      he was thought to be advancing against the Turks,&mdash;it was easy for
+      him to take the Egyptians by surprise, and all the more so because the
+      Governor of Alexandria happened to be absent at the time. The militia
+      tried in vain to prevent their landing, and the small garrison held out
+      for but a short time, so that the prosperous and wealthy town was
+      completely sacked and many prisoners were taken before the troops arrived
+      from Cairo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/059.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="059.jpg Inside the Mosque of Hassan " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Christians living in Egypt suffered from this attack of the King of
+      Cyprus. They had to find ransom money for the Moslem prisoners and to
+      provide means for fitting out a new fleet. All negotiations with Cyprus,
+      Genoa, and Venice were immediately broken off. This event, however, had
+      the effect of reconciling the Italian traders again with Egypt, and an
+      embassy came both from Genoa and Venice, expressing regret at what had
+      happened, with the assurance that the government had had no hint of the
+      intentions of the King of Cyprus. Genoa also sent back sixty prisoners who
+      had fallen to them as their share of the Alexandrian booty. As Egypt&rsquo;s
+      trade would also be at a standstill if they had no further negotiations
+      with the Franks, who imported wood, metal, arms, oil, coral, wool,
+      manufacturing and crystal wares in exchange for spices, cotton, and sugar,
+      the former trade relations were re-established. The war with Cyprus
+      continued, however; Alexandria was again threatened and Tripoli was
+      surprised by the Cyprian fleet, whereupon a number of European merchants
+      in Egypt were arrested. In the year 1370, after the death of Peter of
+      Lusignan, peace and an exchange of prisoners were finally brought about.
+      After this peace the Egyptians were able to concentrate their whole force
+      against Leo VI., Prince of Smaller Armenia, who was brought as a prisoner
+      to Cairo; and with him the supremacy of the Christians in this land was at
+      an end: henceforth Egypt was ruled by Egyptian governors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Faraj, Berkuk&rsquo;s son and successor, had to suffer for his father&rsquo;s
+      political mistakes. He had scarcely ascended the throne when the Ottomans
+      seized Derenda, Albustan, and Malatia. Preparations for war were made, but
+      given up again when it was seen that Bayazid could not advance any farther
+      south. Faraj was only thirteen years old, and all the old intrigues
+      amongst the emirs broke out again. In Cairo they fought in the streets for
+      the post of regent; anarchy and confusion reigned in the Egyptian
+      provinces, and the Syrians wished to revolt against the sultan. When at
+      last peace was re-established in Egypt, and Syria was reduced, the latter
+      country was again attacked by the hordes of Tamerlane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tamerlane conquered the two important cities of Aleppo and Hemessa, and
+      Faraj&rsquo;s forces returned to Egypt. When the sultan&rsquo;s ally, Bayazid, was
+      defeated, Faraj concluded a peace with Tamerlane, at the price of the
+      surrender of certain lands. In 1405 Tamerlane died, and Faraj was
+      collecting troops for the purpose of recovering Syria when domestic
+      troubles caused him to flee from Egypt, his own brother Abd el-Aziz
+      heading the insurrection. In the belief that Faraj was dead, Aziz was
+      proclaimed his successor, but three months later Faraj was restored, and
+      it was not until 1412 that he was charged with illegal practices and
+      beheaded, his body being left unburied like that of a common malefactor.
+      The fact that criminal proceedings were brought against the sultan is
+      evidence of a great advance in the spirit of civilisation, but the event
+      must be regarded more as a proof of its possibility than as a
+      demonstration of its establishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/063.jpg" width="100%" alt="063.jpg Mosque of Berkuk " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Caliph El-Mustain was then proclaimed sultan, but after some months he
+      was dethroned and his former prime minister, Sheikh Mahmudi, took over the
+      reins of government (November, 1412). Although Sheikh had obtained the
+      throne of Egypt so easily, he experienced great difficulty in obtaining
+      the recognition of the emirs. Newruz, Governor of Damascus, in league with
+      the other governors, made a determined resistance, and he was obliged to
+      send a strong army into Syria to put down the rebels. Newruz, after
+      suffering one defeat, threw himself into the citadel of Damascus and
+      capitulated, when Sheikh had sworn to keep the terms of the capitulation.
+      Newruz&rsquo;s ambassadors, however, had not a sufficient knowledge of Arabic to
+      perceive that the oath was not binding, and when Newruz, trusting to this
+      oath, appeared before Sheikh, he was immediately thrown into chains, and
+      afterwards murdered in prison because the cadis declared the oath was not
+      binding. In the next year (1415) Sheikh was obliged to make another
+      expedition against Syria to re-conquer some of the places of which the
+      smaller princes had taken possession during the civil war. One of these
+      princes was the Prince Muhammed of Karaman, who had taken the town of
+      Tarsus. Sheikh was summoned by Muhammed&rsquo;s own brother to overcome him,
+      which he easily succeeded in doing. Many other princes were forced to
+      submit, and finally the town of Malatia, which the Turcoman Husain had
+      stormed, was recaptured. The war against Husain and the Prince of Karaman
+      was to have been continued, but Sheikh was forced to return home, owing to
+      a wound in his foot. As soon as certain misunderstandings between Sheikh
+      and Kara Yusuf had been cleared up, another army was despatched into Asia
+      Minor, for Tarsus had been recaptured by the Prince of Karaman, who had
+      driven out the Prince of Albustan, whom Sheikh had installed. Ibrahim, the
+      sultan&rsquo;s son, took command of this army, and occupied Caasarea, Nigdeh,
+      and Kara-man. Whilst he was occupied in the interior of Asia Minor, the
+      Governor of Damascus had defeated Mustapha, son of the Prince of Karaman,
+      and the Prince Ibrahim of Ramadhan, near Adana, which latter town, as well
+      as Tarsus, he had re-conquered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince of Karaman, who now advanced against Caasarea, suffered a total
+      defeat. Mustapha remained on the field of battle, but his father was taken
+      prisoner and sent to Cairo, where he lingered in confinement until after
+      the death of the sultan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0020" id="linkimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/065.jpg" width="100%" alt="065.jpg the Tomb of Berkuk " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Once again was Syria threatened by Kara Yusuf, but he was soon forced to
+      return to Irak by the conspiracy of his own son, Shah Muhammed, who lived
+      in Baghdad. As soon as this insurrection was put down, Kara Yusuf was
+      obliged to give his whole attention to Shah Roch, the son of Tamerlane,
+      who had raised himself to the highest power in Persia, and was now
+      attempting to re-conquer the province of Aderbaijan. Kara Yusuf placed
+      himself at the head of an army to protect this province, but suddenly died
+      (November, 1420) on the way to Sultania, and his possessions were divided
+      among his four sons, Shah Muhammed, Iskander, Ispahan, and Jihan Shah, who
+      all, just as the descendants of Tamerlane had done, immediately began to
+      quarrel among themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sultan was already very ill when the news of Kara Yusufs death reached
+      him. The death of Ibrahim, his son, whom he had caused to be poisoned, on
+      his return from Asia Minor, weighed heavily upon him and hastened his
+      death, which took place on January 13, 1421. He left immense riches behind
+      him, but could not obtain a proper burial; everything was at once seized
+      by the emirs, who did not trouble themselves in the least about his
+      corpse. He had been by no means a good sultan; he had brought much misery
+      upon the people, and had oppressed the emirs. But in spite of all he had
+      many admirers who overlooked his misdeeds and cruelty, because he was a
+      pious Moslem; that is, he did not openly transgress against the decrees of
+      Islam, favoured the theologians, and distinguished himself as an orator
+      and poet; he also founded a splendid mosque, a hospital, and a school for
+      theology. His whole life abounds in contrasts. After he had broken his
+      oath to Newruz, he spent several days in a cloister to make atonement for
+      this crime, and was present at all the religious ceremonies and dances.
+      Although he shed streams of blood to satisfy his avarice, he wore a
+      woollen garment, and bade the preachers, when they mentioned his name
+      after that of Muhammed, to descend a step on the staircase of the chancel.
+      Under a religious sultan of this stamp, the position of the
+      non-Muhammedans was by no means an enviable one. The Jews and Christians
+      had to pay enormous taxes and the old decrees against them were renewed.
+      Not only were they forced to wear special colours, but the length of their
+      sleeves and head-bands was also decreed, and even the women were obliged
+      to wear a distinctive costume.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0021" id="linkimage-0021">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/067.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="067.jpg a Title-page of the Koran Of The Time Of Shaban " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Sheikh appointed his son Ahmed, one year old, as his successor, and named
+      the emirs who were to act as regents until he became of age. Tatar, the
+      most cunning and unscrupulous of these emirs, soon succeeded in obtaining
+      the supreme power and demanded homage as sultan (August 29, 1421); but he
+      soon fell ill and died after a reign of about three months. He, too,
+      appointed a young son as his successor and named the regents, but Bursbai
+      also soon grasped the supreme power and ascended the throne in 1422. He
+      had of course many insurrections to quell, but was not obliged to leave
+      Egypt. As soon as peace was restored in Syria, Bursbai turned his
+      attention to the European pirates, who had long been harassing the coasts
+      of Syria and Egypt. They were partly Cypriots and partly Catalonians and
+      Genoese, who started from Cyprus and landed their booty on this island.
+      Bursbai resolved first to conquer this island. He despatched several ships
+      with this object in view; they landed at Limasol, and, having burnt the
+      ships in the harbour and plundered the town, they returned home. The
+      favourable result of this expedition much encouraged the sultan, and in
+      the following year he sent out a large fleet from Alexandria which landed
+      in Famagosta. This town soon surrendered and the troops proceeded to
+      plunder the neighbouring places, and defeated all the troops which Prince
+      Henry of Lusignan sent out against them. When they had advanced as far as
+      Limasol, the Egyptian commander, hearing that Janos, the King of Cyprus,
+      was advancing with a large army against him, determined to return to Egypt
+      to bring his enormous booty into safety. In July, 1426, a strong Egyptian
+      fleet set out for the third time, landed east of Limasol, and took this
+      fortress after a few days&rsquo; fighting. The Moslem army was, however, forced
+      to retreat. But the Cypriots scattered instead of pursuing the enemy, and
+      the Mamluks, seeing this, renewed their attack, slew many Christians and
+      took the king prisoner. The capital, Nicosia, then capitulated, whereupon
+      the Egyptian troops returned to Egypt with the captive king and were
+      received with great jubilation. The King of Cyprus, after submitting to
+      the greatest humiliations, was asked what ransom he could pay. He replied
+      that he possessed nothing but his life, and stuck to this answer, although
+      threatened with death. Meanwhile, Venetian and other European merchants
+      negotiated for the ransom money, and the sultan finally contented himself
+      with two hundred thousand dinars (about $500,000). Janos, however, was not
+      set at liberty, but sent to Cyprus as the sultan&rsquo;s vassal. After the death
+      of Janos in 1432, his son, John II., still continued to pay tribute to
+      Egypt, and when he died (1458) and his daughter Charlotte became Queen of
+      Cyprus, James II., the natural son of John II., fled to Egypt and found a
+      friendly reception at the sultan&rsquo;s court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0022" id="linkimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/069.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="069.jpg Prayer-niche in the Mosque of The Sultan Mahmudi " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The sultan then ruling was Inal, and he promised to re-install James as
+      King of Cyprus. Meanwhile messengers arrived from the queen, offering a
+      higher tribute, and Inal allowed himself to be persuaded by his emirs to
+      acknowledge Charlotte as queen, and to hand James over to her ambassadors.
+      But as soon as the ambassadors had left the audience-chamber, a tumult
+      arose; the people declared that the sultan had only the advantage of the
+      Franks&mdash;especially of Prince Louis of Savoy&mdash;in view, and they
+      soon took such a threatening attitude that Inal was forced to declare
+      himself for James again and renew his former preparations. In August,
+      1460, an Egyptian fleet bore James to Cyprus, and with the help of the
+      Egyptian troops he soon obtained the island, with the exception of the
+      fortress Cerines, which Queen Charlotte still had in her power. The
+      majority of the Egyptian troops now returned to Egypt, and only some
+      hundred men remained with James. Later, when the Genoese declared
+      themselves on the side of Charlotte, fresh troops had to be sent out from
+      Egypt, but, as soon as James had taken Famagosta and had no further need
+      of them, he dismissed them (1464).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bursbai despised no means by which he might enrich himself; he
+      appropriated the greater part of the inheritance of the Jews and
+      Christians; he even taxed poor pilgrims, in spite of the fact that he was
+      a pious Moslem, prayed much, fasted, and read the Koran. He turned Mecca
+      into a money-market. At the very moment when pious pilgrims were praying
+      for the forgiveness of their sins, one of his heralds was proclaiming:
+      &ldquo;Whoever buys wares and does not pay toll for them in Egypt has forfeited
+      his life.&rdquo; That is to say, all wares bought in Mecca or Jiddah had to go
+      out of their way to Egypt in order to be laid under toll in this land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0023" id="linkimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/071.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="071.jpg Ornamental Page from a Koran of the Fourteenth Century " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In appointing his son Yusuf to the consulship, Bursbai counted on the
+      devotedness of his Mamluks, and the Emir Jakmak, whom he appointed as his
+      chief adviser, and, in fact, Yusuf&rsquo;s coronation, in June, 1438, met with
+      no resistance. After three months, however, Jakmak, feeling himself
+      secure, quietly assumed the sultan&rsquo;s place; at first he had much
+      resistance to put down, but soon his prudence and resolution established
+      him safely in spite of all opposition. As soon as the rebels in the
+      interior had been dealt with, Yusuf, as a good Muhammedan, wished to
+      attack the Christians, and chose the island of Rhodes as the scene of the
+      Holy War, hoping to obtain this island as easily as Bursbai had obtained
+      the island of Cyprus. But the Order of St. John, to whom this island
+      belonged, had its spies in Egypt, so that the sultan&rsquo;s intentions were
+      discovered and preparations for defence were made. The only result of the
+      sultan&rsquo;s repeated expeditions was the devastation of some unimportant
+      coast towns; all attempts on the capital failed, so that the siege was
+      soon raised and peace concluded with the chief master of Rhodes (1444).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jakmak&rsquo;s relations with the foreign chiefs were most friendly. He
+      constantly exchanged letters and gifts with both Sultan Murad and Shah
+      Roch. The sons of Kara Yelek and the princes of the houses of Ramadhan and
+      Dudgadir submitted to him; also Jihangir, Kara Yelek&rsquo;s grandson and
+      Governor of Amid, tried to secure his friendship, as did the latter&rsquo;s
+      deadly enemy, Jihan Shah, the son of Kara Yusuf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0024" id="linkimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/073.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="073.jpg Mosque of Kait Bey, Cairo " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Jakmak&rsquo;s rule was mild compared with that of Bursbai, and we hear less of
+      extraordinary taxes, extortions, executions, and violence of the Mamluks.
+      Although he was beloved by the people and priests on account of his piety,
+      he could not secure the succession of his son Osman, in favour of whom he
+      abdicated fourteen days before his death (February, 1453). Osman remained
+      only a month and a half on the throne; he made himself odious to the emirs
+      who did not belong to his Mamluks. The Mamluks of his predecessors
+      conspired against him, and at their head stood his own Atabeg, the Emir
+      Inal, a former Mamluk of Berkuk. Osman was warned, but he only mocked
+      those who recommended him to watchfulness, since he believed his position
+      to be unassailable. He had forgotten that his father was a usurper, who,
+      although himself a perjurer, hoped to bind others by means of oaths. His
+      eyes were not opened until he had lost all means of defence. He managed to
+      hold out for seven days, after which the citadel was captured by the
+      rebels, and he was forced to abdicate on the 19th of March. Inal became,
+      even more than his predecessors had been, a slave to those Mamluks to whom
+      he owed his kingdom. They committed the greatest atrocities and threatened
+      the sultan himself when he tried to hold them in check. They plundered
+      corpses on their way to the grave, and attacked the mosques during the
+      hours of service in order to rob the pilgrims.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were so hated and feared that, when many of them were carried off by
+      the plague, their deaths were recorded by a contemporary historian as a
+      benefit to all classes of society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the hour of his death (26th February, 1461), Inal appointed his son
+      Ahmed as his successor, but the latter was no more able to maintain
+      himself on the throne than his predecessors had been, in spite of his
+      numerous good qualities. He was forced to submit in the strife with his
+      emirs, and on the 28th of June, 1461, after a reign of four months and
+      three days, he was dethroned, and the Emir Khosh Kadem, a former slave of
+      the Sultan Sheikh, of Greek descent, was proclaimed in his stead. Khosh
+      Kadem reigned for seven years with equity and benignity, and under one of
+      his immediate successors, El-Ashraf Kait Bey, a struggle was begun with
+      the Ottoman Turks. On the death of Muhammed II., dissensions had arisen
+      between Bayazid II. and Jem. Jem, being defeated by Bayazid, retired to
+      Egypt, which led to the invasion and conquest of Syria, hitherto held by
+      the Sultan of Egypt. On surrendering Tarsus and Adana to Bayazid, Kait Bey
+      was suffered to end his days in peace in A.D. 1495. After many
+      dissensions, the brave and learned El-Ghuri ascended the throne, and Selim
+      I., the Turkish sultan, soon found a pretext for an attack upon the Mamluk
+      power. A long and sanguinary battle was fought near Aleppo, in which
+      El-Ghuri was finally defeated through treachery. He was trampled to death
+      by his own cavalry in their attempt to escape from the pursuing Ottomans.
+      With his death, in A.D. 1516, Egypt lost her independence. Tuman Bey, a
+      nephew of the deceased, fiercely contested the advance of the Ottomans,
+      but was defeated and treacherously killed by the Turks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0025" id="linkimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/076.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="076.jpg Wadi Feiran, in the Sinai Peninsula " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      A long period of Turkish misrule now opened for the ill-fated country,
+      though some semblance of conciliation was attempted by Selim&rsquo;s appointment
+      of twenty-four Mamluk beys as subordinate rulers over twenty-four military
+      provinces of Egypt. These beys were under the control of a Turkish pasha,
+      whose council was formed of seven Turkish chiefs, while one of the Mamluk
+      beys held the post of Sheikh el-Beled or Governor of the Metropolis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0026" id="linkimage-0026">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/077.jpg" width="100%" alt="077.jpg Mausoleum of El-ghuri " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      For nearly two centuries the Turkish pashas were generally obeyed in
+      Egypt, although there were frequent intrigues and quarrels on the part of
+      competing Mamluk beys to secure possession of the coveted post of Sheikh
+      el-Beled. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century the authority of
+      the Turkish pashas had become merely nominal, while that of the beys had
+      increased to such an extent that the government of Egypt became a military
+      oligarchy. The weakness of the Turks left the way open for the rise of any
+      adventurer of ability and ambition who might aspire to lead the Mamluks to
+      overthrow the sovereignty of the Porte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1768 the celebrated Ali Bey headed a revolt against the Turks,
+      which he maintained for several years with complete success. A period of
+      good but vigorous government lasted Curing the years in which he
+      successfully resisted the Ottoman power. Ali&rsquo;s generals also gained for
+      him considerable influence beyond the borders of Egypt. Muhammed Abu
+      Dhahab was sent by him to Arabia and entered the sacred city of Mecca,
+      where the sherif was deposed. Ali also despatched an expedition to the
+      eastern shores of the Red Sea, and Muhammed Bey, after his successes in
+      Arabia, invaded Syria and wrested that province from the power of the
+      sultan. The victorious soldier, however, now plotted against his master
+      and took the lead in a military revolt. As a result of this, Ali Bey fell
+      into an ambuscade set by his own rebellious subjects, and died from
+      poisoning m 1786. Thus terminated the career of the famous Mamluk, a man
+      whose energy, talents, and ambition bear a strong resemblance to those of
+      the later Mehe-met Ali.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muhammed Bey, the Mamluk who had revolted against Ali Bey, now tendered
+      his allegiance to the Porte. To the title of Governor of the Metropolis
+      was also added that of Pasha of Egypt. He subdued Syria, and died during
+      the pillage of Acre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0027" id="linkimage-0027">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/080b.jpg" width="100%" alt="080b.jpg Bonaparte in Egypt " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     From painting by M. Orange
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      After his death violent dissensions again broke out. The Porte supported
+      Ismail Bey, who retained the post of Governor of the Metropolis (Sheikh
+      el-Beled) until the terrible plague of 1790, in which he perished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His former rivals, Ibrahim and Murad, now returned; and eight years later
+      were still in the leadership when the news was brought to Egypt that a
+      fleet carrying thirty thousand men, under Bonaparte, had arrived at
+      Alexandria on an expedition of conquest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkimage-0028" id="linkimage-0028">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/080.jpg" width="100%" alt="080.jpg " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="linkimage-0029" id="linkimage-0029">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/081.jpg" width="100%" alt="081.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.&mdash;THE FRENCH IN EGYPT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>Napoleon&rsquo;s campaign: Battles of the Pyramids and of Abukir: Siege of
+      Acre: Kléber&rsquo;s administration: The evacuation of Egypt.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the close of the eighteenth century Egypt&rsquo;s destiny passed into the
+      hands of the French. Napoleon&rsquo;s descent upon Egypt was part of his vast
+      strategic plan for the overthrow of Great Britain. He first of all
+      notified the Directory of this design in September, 1797, in a letter sent
+      from Italy. Late in the same year and during 1798 vast preparations had
+      been in progress for the invasion of England. Napoleon then visited all
+      the seaports in the north of France and Holland, and found that a direct
+      invasion of England was a practical impossibility because the British held
+      command over the sea. The suggested invasion of Egypt was now seriously
+      considered. By the conquest of Egypt, it was contended, England would be
+      cut off from the possession of India, and France, through Egypt, would
+      dominate the trade to the Orient. From Egypt Napoleon could gather an army
+      of Orientals and conquer the whole of the East, including India itself. On
+      his return, England would prove to be too exhausted to withstand the
+      French army at home and would fall a prey to the ambitions of the First
+      Consul. The Directory assented to Bonaparte&rsquo;s plans the more readily
+      because they were anxious to keep so popular a leader, the idol of the
+      army, at a great distance from the centre of government. While the
+      preparations were in process, no one in England knew of this undertaking.
+      The French fleet lay in various squadrons in ports of Italy, from which
+      thirty thousand men were embarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte arrived at Toulon on May 9, 1798. His presence rejoiced the
+      army, which had begun to murmur and to fear that he would not be at the
+      head of the expedition. It was the old army of Italy, rich and covered
+      with glory, and hence had much less zeal for making war; it required all
+      the enthusiasm with which the general inspired his soldiers to induce them
+      to embark and proceed to an unknown destination. On seeing him at Toulon,
+      they were inflamed with ardour. Bonaparte, without acquainting them with
+      their destination, exhorted the soldiers, telling them that they had great
+      destinies to fulfil, and that &ldquo;the genius of liberty, which had made the
+      republic from her birth the arbitress of Europe, decreed that she should
+      be so to the most remote seas and nations.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0030" id="linkimage-0030">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="083.jpg (104K)" src="images/083.jpg" width="100%" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The squadron of Admiral Brueys consisted of thirteen sail of the line, and
+      carried about forty thousand men of all arms and ten thousand seamen. It
+      had water for one month and provisions for two. It sailed on the 19th of
+      May, amid the thunders of the cannons and the cheers of the whole army.
+      Violent gales did some damage to a frigate on leaving the port, and
+      Nelson, who was cruising with three sail of the line in search of the
+      French fleet, suffered so severely from the same gales that he was obliged
+      to bear up for the islands of St. Pierre to refit. He was thus kept at a
+      distance from the French fleet, and did not see it pass. It steered first
+      towards Genoa to join the convoy collected in that port, under the command
+      of General Baraguay d&rsquo;Hilliers. It then sailed for Corsica, to call for
+      the convoy at Ajaccio commanded by Vaubois, and afterwards proceeded to
+      the sea of Sicily to join the division of Civita Vecchia, under the
+      command of Desaix.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte&rsquo;s intention was to stop at Malta, and there to make by the way a
+      bold attempt, the success of which he had long since prepared by secret
+      intrigues. He meant to take possession of that island, which, commanding
+      the navigation of the Mediterranean, became important to Egypt and could
+      not fail soon to fall into the hands of the English, unless they were
+      anticipated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte made great efforts to join the division from Civita Vecchia; but
+      this he could not accomplish until he was off Malta. The five hundred
+      French sail came in sight of the island on June 9th, twenty-two days after
+      leaving Toulon. This sight filled the city of Malta with consternation.
+      The following day (June 10th) the French troops landed on the island, and
+      completely invested Valetta, which contained a population of nearly thirty
+      thousand souls, and was even then one of the strongest fortresses in
+      Europe. The inhabitants were dismayed and clamoured for surrender, and the
+      grand master, who possessed little energy, and recollected the generosity
+      of the conqueror of Rivoli at Mantua, hoping to save his interest from
+      shipwreck, released one of the French knights, whom he had thrown into
+      prison when they refused to fight against their countrymen, and sent him
+      to Bonaparte to negotiate. A treaty was soon concluded, by which the
+      Knights of Malta gave up to France the sovereignty of Malta and the
+      dependent islands. Thus France gained possession of the best harbour in
+      the Mediterranean, and one of the strongest in the world. It required the
+      ascendency of Bonaparte to obtain it without fighting; and it necessitated
+      also the risk of losing some precious days, with the English in pursuit of
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The French fleet weighed anchor on the 19th of June, after a stay of ten
+      days. The essential point now was not to fall in with the English. Nelson,
+      having refitted at the islands of St. Pierre, had returned on June 1st to
+      Toulon, but the French squadron had been gone twelve days. He had run from
+      Toulon to the roads of Taglia-mon, and from the roads of Tagliamon to
+      Naples, where he had arrived on June 20th, at the very moment when
+      Bonaparte was leaving Malta. Learning that the French had been seen off
+      Malta, he followed, determined to attack them, if he could overtake them.
+      At one moment, the English squadron was only a few leagues distant from
+      the immense French convoy, and neither party was aware of it. Nelson,
+      supposing that the French were bound for Egypt, made sail for Alexandria,
+      and arrived there before them; at not finding them, he flew to the
+      Dardanelles to seek them there. By a singular fate, it was not till two
+      days afterwards that the French expedition came in sight of Alexandria, on
+      the 1st of July, which was very nearly six weeks since it sailed from
+      Toulon. Bonaparte immediately sent on shore for the French consul. He
+      learned that the English had made their appearance two days before, and,
+      supposing them to be not far off, he resolved that very moment to attempt
+      a landing. It was impossible to enter the harbour of Alexandria, for the
+      place appeared disposed to defend itself; it became necessary, therefore,
+      to land at some distance on the neighbouring coast, at an inlet called the
+      Creek of the Marabou. The wind blew violently and the sea broke with fury
+      over the reefs on the shore. It was near the close of the day, but
+      Bonaparte gave the signal and resolved to go on shore immediately. He was
+      the first to disembark, and, with great difficulty, four or five thousand
+      men were landed in the course of the evening and the following night.
+      Bonaparte resolved to march forthwith for Alexandria, in order to surprise
+      the place and to prevent the Turks from making preparations for defence.
+      The troops instantly commenced their march. Not a horse was yet landed:
+      the staff of Bonaparte, and Caffarelli himself, notwithstanding his wooden
+      leg, had to walk four or five leagues over the sands, and came at daybreak
+      within sight of Alexandria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That ancient city no longer possessed its magnificent edifices, its
+      innumerable houses, and its immense population. Three-fourths of it was in
+      ruins. The Turks, the wealthy Egyptians, the European merchants dwelt in
+      the modern town, which was the only part preserved. A few Arabs lived
+      among the ruins of the ancient city: an old wall, flanked by towers,
+      enclosed the new and the old town, and all around extended those sands
+      which in Egypt are sure to advance wherever civilisation recedes. The four
+      thousand French led by Bonaparte arrived there at daybreak. Upon this
+      sandy beach they met with Arabs only, who, after firing a few
+      musket-shots, fled to the desert. Napoleon divided his men into three
+      columns. Bon, with the first column, marched on the right towards the
+      Rosetta gate; Kléber, with the second, marched in the centre towards the
+      gate of the Catacombs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Arabs and the Turks, excellent soldiers behind a wall, kept up a
+      steady fire, but the French mounted with ladders and got over the old
+      wall. Kléber was the first who fell, seriously wounded on the forehead.
+      The Arabs were driven from ruin to ruin, as far as the new town, and the
+      combat seemed likely to be continued from street to street, and to become
+      sanguinary, when a Turkish captain served as a mediator for negotiating an
+      arrangement. Bonaparte declared that he had not come to ravage the
+      country, or to wrest it from its ruler, but merely to deliver it from the
+      domination of the Mamluks, and to revenge the outrages which they had
+      committed against France. He promised that the authorities of the country
+      should be upheld; that the ceremonies of religion should continue to be
+      performed as before; that property should be respected. On these
+      conditions, the resistance ceased, and the French were masters of
+      Alexandria. Meanwhile, the remainder of the army had landed. It was
+      immediately necessary to decide where to place the squadron safely&mdash;whether
+      in the harbour or in one of the neighbouring roads;&mdash;to form at
+      Alexandria an administration adapted to the manners of the country; and
+      also to devise a plan of invasion in order to gain possession of Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this period the population of Egypt was, like the towns that covered
+      it, a mixture of the wrecks of several nations,&mdash;Kopts, the survivors
+      of the ancient inhabitants of the land; Arabs, who conquered Egypt from
+      the Kopts; and Turks, the conquerors of the Arabs. On the arrival of the
+      French, the Kopts amounted at most to two hundred thousand: poor,
+      despised, brutalised, they had devoted themselves, like all the proscribed
+      classes, to the most ignoble occupations. The Arabs formed almost the
+      entire mass of the population. Their condition was infinitely varied: some
+      were of high birth, carrying back their pedigree to Muhammed himself; and
+      some were landed proprietors, possessing traces of Arabian knowledge, and
+      combining with nobility the functions of the priesthood and the
+      magistracy, who, under the title of sheikhs, were the real aristocracy of
+      Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0031" id="linkimage-0031">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/091.jpg" width="100%" alt="091.jpg the Prophet Muhammed " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The original of the illustration (upon the opposite page) is
+     to be seen in a finely illuminated MS. of the ninth century,
+     A. D., preserved in the India Office, London. The picture is
+     of peculiar interest, being the only known portrait of
+     Muhammed, who is evidently represented as receiving the
+     divine command to propagate Muhammedanism.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the divans, they represented the country, when its tyrants wished to
+      address themselves to it; in the mosques, they formed a kind of
+      university, in which they taught the religion and the morality of the
+      Koran, and a little philosophy and jurisprudence. The great mosque of
+      Jemil-Azar constituted the foremost learned and religious body in the
+      East. Next to these grandees came the smaller landholders, composing the
+      second and more numerous class of the Arabs; then the great mass of the
+      inhabitants, who had sunk into the state of absolute helots. These last
+      were hired peasants or fellahs who cultivated the land, and lived in
+      abject poverty. There was also a class of Arabs, namely, the Bedouins or
+      rovers, who would never attach themselves to the soil, but were the
+      children of the desert. These wandering Arabs, divided into tribes on both
+      sides of the valley, numbered nearly one hundred and twenty thousand, and
+      could furnish from twenty to twenty-five thousand horse. They were brave,
+      but fit only to harass the enemy, not to fight him. The third and last
+      race was that of the Turks; but it was not more numerous than the Kopts,
+      amounting to about two hundred thousand souls at most, and was divided
+      into Turks and Mamluks. The Turks were nearly all enrolled in the list of
+      janizaries; but it is well known that they frequently had their names
+      inscribed in those lists, that they might enjoy the privileges of
+      janizaries, and that a very small number of them were really in the
+      service. Very few of them composed the military force of the pasha. This
+      pasha, sent from Constantinople, was the sultan&rsquo;s representative in Egypt;
+      but, escorted by only a few janizaries, he found his authority invalidated
+      by the very precautions which Sultan Selim had formerly taken to preserve
+      it. That sultan, judging that Egypt was likely from its remoteness to
+      throw off the dominion of Constantinople, and that a clever and ambitious
+      pasha might create there an independent empire, had, as we have seen,
+      devised a plan to frustrate such a motive, should it exist, by instituting
+      a Mamluk soldiery; but it was the Mamluks, and not the pasha, who rendered
+      themselves independent of Constantinople and the masters of Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Egypt was at this time an absolute feudality, like that of Europe in the
+      Middle Ages. It exhibited at once a conquered people, a conquering
+      soldiery in rebellion against its sovereign, and, lastly, an ancient
+      degenerate class, who served and were in the pay of the strongest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two beys, superior to the rest, ruled Egypt: the one, Ibrahim Bey,
+      wealthy, crafty, and powerful; the other, Murad Bey, intrepid, valiant,
+      and full of ardour. They had agreed upon a sort of division of authority,
+      by which Ibrahim Bey had the civil, and Murad Bey the military, power. It
+      was the business of the latter to fight; he excelled in it, and he
+      possessed the affection of the Mam-luks, who were all eager to follow him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte immediately perceived the line of policy which he had to pursue
+      in Egypt. He must, in the first place, wrest that country from its real
+      masters, the Mam-luks; it was necessary for him to fight them, and to
+      destroy them by arms and by policy. He had, moreover, strong reasons to
+      urge against them; for they had never ceased to ill-treat the French. As
+      for the Porte, it was requisite that he should not appear to attack its
+      sovereignty, but affect, on the contrary, to respect it. In the state to
+      which it was reduced, that sovereignty was not to be dreaded, and he could
+      treat with the Porte, either for the cession of Egypt, by granting certain
+      advantages elsewhere, or for a partition of authority, in which there
+      would be nothing detrimental; for the French, in leaving the pasha at
+      Cairo, and transferring to themselves the power of the Mamluks, would not
+      occasion much regret. As for the inhabitants, in order to make sure of
+      their attachment, it would be requisite to win over the Arab population.
+      By respecting the sheikhs, by flattering their old pride, by increasing
+      their power, by encouraging their secret desire for the re-establishment
+      of their ancient glories, Bonaparte reckoned upon ruling the land, and
+      attaching it entirely to him. By afterwards sparing persons and property,
+      among a people accustomed to consider conquest as conferring a right to
+      murder, pillage, and devastate, he would create a sentiment that would be
+      most advantageous to the French army. If, furthermore, the French were to
+      respect women and the Prophet, the conquest of hearts would be as firmly
+      secured as that of the soil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Napoleon conducted himself agreeably to these conclusions, which were
+      equally just and profound. He immediately made his plans for establishing
+      the French authority at Alexandria, and for quitting the Delta and gaining
+      possession of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. It was the month of July; the
+      Nile was about to inundate the country. He was anxious to reach Cairo
+      before the inundation, and to employ the time during which it should last
+      in establishing himself there. He ordered everything at Alexandria to be
+      left in the same state as formerly; that the religious exercises should be
+      continued; and that justice should be administered as before by the cadis.
+      His intention was merely to possess himself of the rights of the Mamluks,
+      and to appoint a commissioner to levy the accustomed imposts. He caused a
+      divan, or municipal council, composed of the sheikhs and principal persons
+      of Alexandria, to be formed, in order to consult them on all the measures
+      which the French authority would have to take. He left three thousand men
+      in garrison in Alexandria, and gave the command of it to Kléber, whose
+      wound was liable to keep him in a state of inactivity for a month or two.
+      He directed a young Frenchman of extraordinary merit, and who gave promise
+      of becoming a great engineer, to put Alexandria in a state of defence, and
+      to construct there all the necessary works. This was Colonel Cretin, who,
+      in a short time, and at a small expense, executed superb works at
+      Alexandria. Bonaparte then ordered the fleet to be put in a place of
+      security. It was a question whether the large ships could enter the port
+      of Alexandria. A commission of naval officers was appointed to sound the
+      harbour and make a report. Meanwhile, the fleet was anchored in the road
+      of Abukir, and Bonaparte ordered Brueys to see to it that this question
+      should be speedily decided, and to proceed to Corfu if it should be
+      ascertained that the ships could not enter the harbour of Alexandria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After he had attended to all these matters, he made preparations for
+      marching. A considerable flotilla, laden with provisions, artillery,
+      ammunition, and baggage, was to run along the coast to the Rosetta mouth,
+      enter the Nile, and ascend the river at the same time as the French army.
+      He then set out with the main body of the army, which, after leaving the
+      two garrisons in Malta and Alexandria, was about thirty thousand strong.
+      He had ordered his flotilla to proceed as high as Ramanieh, on the banks
+      of the Nile. There he purposed to join it, and to proceed up the Nile
+      parallel with it, in order to quit the Delta and to reach Upper Egypt, or
+      Bahireh. There were two roads from Alexandria to Ramanieh; one through an
+      inhabited country, along the sea-coast and the Nile, and the other shorter
+      and as the bird flies, but across the desert of Damanhour. Bonaparte,
+      without hesitation, chose the shorter. It was of consequence that he
+      should reach Cairo as speedily as possible. De-saix marched with the
+      advanced guard, and the main body followed at a distance of a few leagues.
+      They started on the 6th of July. When the soldiers found themselves amidst
+      this boundless plain, with a shifting sand beneath their feet, a scorching
+      sun over their heads, without water, without shade, with nothing for the
+      eye to rest upon but rare clumps of palm-trees, seeing no living creatures
+      but small troops of Arab horsemen, who appeared and disappeared at the
+      horizon, and sometimes concealed themselves behind sand-hills to murder
+      the laggards, they were profoundly dejected. They found all the wells,
+      which at intervals border the road through the desert, destroyed by the
+      Arabs. There were left only a few drops of brackish water, wholly
+      insufficient for quenching their thirst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0032" id="linkimage-0032">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:42%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/097.jpg" alt="097.jpg Street Dogs " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      They had been informed that they should find refreshments at Damanhour,
+      but they met with nothing there but miserable huts, and could procure
+      neither bread nor wine; only lentils in great abundance, and a little
+      water. They were obliged to proceed again into the desert. Bonaparte saw
+      the brave Lannes and Murat take off their hats, dash them on the sand, and
+      trample them under foot. He, however, overawed all: his presence imposed
+      silence, and sometimes restored cheerfulness. The soldiers would not
+      impute their sufferings to him, but grew angry with those who took
+      pleasure in observing the country. On seeing the men of science stop to
+      examine the slightest ruins, they said they should not have been there but
+      for them, and revenged themselves with witticisms after their fashion.
+      Caffarelli, in particular, brave as a grenadier, and inquisitive as a
+      scholar, was considered by them as the man who had deceived the general
+      and drawn him into this distant country. As he had lost a leg on the
+      Rhine, they said, &ldquo;He, for his part, laughs at this: he has one foot in
+      France.&rdquo; At last, after severe hardships, endured at first with
+      impatience, and afterwards with gaiety and fortitude, they reached the
+      Nile on the 10th of July, after a march of four days. At the sight of the
+      Nile and of the water so much longed for, the soldiers flung themselves
+      into it, and, bathing in its waves, forgot their fatigues. Desaix&rsquo;
+      division, which from the advance-guard had become the rear-guard, saw two
+      or three hundred Mamluks galloping before it, whom they dispersed by a few
+      volleys of grape. These were the first that had been seen, which warned
+      the French that they would speedily fall in with the hostile army. The
+      brave Murad Bey, having received the intelligence of the arrival of
+      Bonaparte, was actually collecting his forces around Cairo. Until they
+      should have assembled, he was hovering with a thousand horse about the
+      army, in order to watch its march.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The army waited at Ramanieh for the arrival of the flotilla. It rested
+      till July 13th, and set out on the same day for Chebreiss. Murad Bey was
+      waiting there with his Mamluks. The flotilla, which had set out first and
+      preceded the army, found itself engaged before it could be supported.
+      Murad Bey had a flotilla also, and from the shore he joined his fire to
+      that of his light Egyptian vessels. The French flotilla had to sustain a
+      very severe combat. Perrée, a naval officer who commanded it, displayed
+      extraordinary courage; he was supported by the cavalry, who had come
+      dismounted to Egypt, and who, until they could equip themselves at the
+      expense of the Mamluks, had taken their passage by water. Two gunboats
+      were retaken from the enemy, and Perrée was repulsed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment the army came up; it was composed of five divisions, and
+      had not yet been in action with its singular enemies. To swiftness and the
+      charge of horse, and to sabre-cuts, it would be necessary to oppose the
+      immobility of the foot-soldier, his long bayonet, and masses presenting a
+      front on every side. Bonaparte formed his five divisions into five
+      squares, in the centre of which were placed the baggage and the staff. The
+      artillery was at the angles. The five divisions flanked one another. Murad
+      Bey flung upon these living citadels a thousand or twelve hundred intrepid
+      horse; who, bearing down with loud shouts and at full gallop, discharging
+      their pistols, and then drawing their formidable sabres, threw themselves
+      upon the front of the squares. Encountering everywhere a hedge of bayonets
+      and a tremendous fire, they hovered about the French ranks, Fell before
+      them, or scampered off in the plain at the utmost speed of their horses.
+      Murad Bey, after losing a few of his bravest men, retired for the purpose
+      of proceeding to the point of the Delta, and awaiting them near Cairo at
+      the head of all his forces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This action was sufficient to familiarise the army with this new kind of
+      enemy, and to suggest to Bonaparte the kind of tactics which he ought to
+      employ with them. He pursued his march towards Cairo, and the flotilla
+      ascended the Nile abreast of the army. It marched without intermission
+      during the following days, and, although the soldiers had fresh hardships
+      to endure, they kept close to the Nile, and could bathe every night in its
+      waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The army now approached Cairo, where the decisive battle was to be fought.
+      Murad Bey had collected here the greater part of his Mamluks, nearly ten
+      thousand in number, and they were attended by double the number of
+      fellahs, to whom arms were given, and who were obliged to fight behind the
+      intrenchments. He had also assembled some thousands of janizaries, or
+      spahis, dependent on the pasha, who, notwithstanding Bonaparte&rsquo;s letter of
+      conciliation, had suffered himself to be persuaded to join his oppressors.
+      Murad Bey had made preparations for defence on the banks of the Nile. The
+      great capital, Cairo, is situated on the right bank of the river, and on
+      the opposite bank Murad Bey had pitched his tent, in a long plain
+      extending from the river to the pyramids of Gizeh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 21st of July, the French army set itself in motion before daybreak.
+      As they approached, they saw the minarets of Cairo shooting up; they saw
+      the pyramids increase in height; they saw the swarming multitude which
+      guarded Embabeh; they saw the glistening arms of ten thousand horsemen
+      resplendent with gold and steel, and forming an immense line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0033" id="linkimage-0033">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:38%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/101.jpg" alt="Gathering Dates " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The face of Bonaparte beamed with enthusiasm. He began to gallop before
+      the ranks of the soldiers, and, pointing to the pyramids, he exclaimed,
+      &ldquo;Consider, that from the summit of those pyramids forty centuries have
+      their eyes fixed upon you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the battle of the Pyramids, as it was called, the enemy&rsquo;s force of
+      sixty thousand men was almost completely annihilated. The Mamluks,
+      bewildered by European tactics, impaled themselves upon the bayonets of
+      the French squares. Fifteen thousand men of all arms fell upon the field.
+      The battle had cost the French scarcely a hundred killed and wounded; for,
+      if defeat is terrible for broken squares, the loss is insignificant for
+      victorious squares. The Mamluks had lost their best horsemen by fire or
+      water: their forces were dispersed, and the possession of Cairo secured.
+      The capital was in extraordinary agitation. It contained more than three
+      hundred thousand inhabitants, many of whom were indulging in all sorts of
+      excesses, and intending to profit by the tumult to pillage the rich
+      palaces of the beys.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The French flotilla, however, had not yet ascended the Nile, and there was
+      no means of crossing to take possession of Cairo. Some French traders who
+      happened to be there were sent to Bonaparte by the sheikhs to arrange
+      concerning the occupation of the city. He procured a few light boats, or
+      djerms, and sent across the river a detachment of troops, which at once
+      restored tranquillity, and secured persons and property from the fury of
+      the populace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte established his headquarters at Gizeh, on the banks of the Nile,
+      where Murad Bey had an imposing residence. A considerable store of
+      provisions was found both at Gizeh and at Embabeh, and the soldiers could
+      make amends for their long privations. No sooner had he settled in Cairo
+      than he hastened to pursue the same policy which he had already adopted at
+      Alexandria, and by which he hoped to gain the country. The essential point
+      was to obtain from the sheikhs of the mosque of Jemil-Azar a declaration
+      in favour of the French. It corresponded to a papal bull among Christians.
+      On this occasion Bonaparte exerted his utmost address, and was completely
+      successful. The great sheikhs issued the desired declaration, and exhorted
+      the Egyptians to submit to the envoy of God, who reverenced the Prophet,
+      and who had come to deliver his children from the tyranny of the Mamluks.
+      Bonaparte established a divan at Cairo, as he had done at Alexandria,
+      composed of the principal sheikhs, and the most distinguished inhabitants.
+      This divan, or municipal council, was intended to serve him in gaining the
+      minds of the Egyptians, by consulting it, and learning from it all the
+      details of the internal administration. It was agreed that similar
+      assemblies should be established in all the provinces, and that these
+      subordinate divans should send deputies to the divan of Cairo, which would
+      thus be the great national divan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte resolved to leave the administration of justice to the cadis. In
+      execution of his scheme of succeeding to the rights of the Mamluks, he
+      seized their property, and caused the taxes previously imposed to continue
+      to be levied for the benefit of the French army. For this purpose it was
+      requisite that he should have the Kopts at his disposal. He omitted
+      nothing to attach them to him, holding out hopes to them of an
+      amelioration of their condition. He sent generals with detachments down
+      the Nile to complete the occupation of the Delta, which the army had
+      merely traversed, and sent others towards the Upper Nile, to take
+      possession of Middle Egypt. Desaix was placed with a division at the
+      entrance of Upper Egypt, which he was to conquer from Murad Bey, as soon
+      as the waters of the Nile should subside in the autumn. Each of the
+      generals, furnished with detailed instructions, was to repeat in the
+      country what had been done at Alexandria and at Cairo. They were to court
+      the sheikhs, to win the Kopts, and to establish the levy of the taxes in
+      order to supply the wants of the army. Bonaparte was also attentive to
+      keep up the relations with the neighbouring countries, in order to uphold
+      and to appropriate to himself the rich commerce of Egypt. He appointed the
+      Emir Hadgi, an officer annually chosen at Cairo, to protect the great
+      caravan from Mecca. He wrote to all the French consuls on the coast of
+      Barbary to inform the beys that the Emir Hadgi was appointed, and that the
+      caravans might set out. At his desire the sheikhs wrote to the sherif of
+      Mecca, to acquaint him that the pilgrims would be protected, and that the
+      caravans would find safety and protection. The pasha of Cairo had followed
+      Ibraham Bey to Belbeys. Bonaparte wrote to him, as well as to the several
+      pashas of St. Jean d&rsquo;Acre and Damascus, to assure them of the good
+      disposition of the French towards the Sublime Porte. The Arabs were struck
+      by the character of the young conqueror. They could not comprehend how it
+      was that the mortal who wielded the thunderbolt should be so merciful.
+      They called him the worthy son of the Prophet, the favourite of the great
+      Allah, and sang in the great mosque a litany in his praise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Napoleon, in carrying out his policy of conciliating the natives, was
+      present at the Nile festival, which is one of the greatest in Egypt. It
+      was on the 18th of August that this festival was held. Bonaparte had
+      ordered the whole army to be under arms, and had drawn it up on the banks
+      of the canal. An immense concourse of people had assembled, who beheld
+      with joy the brave man of the West attending their festivals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was by such means that the young general, as profound a politician as
+      he was a great captain, contrived to ingratiate himself with the people.
+      While he flattered their prejudices for the moment, he laboured to diffuse
+      among them the light of science by the creation of the celebrated
+      Institute of Egypt. He collected the men of science and the artists whom
+      he had brought with him, and, associating with them some of the best
+      educated of his officers, established the institute, to which he
+      appropriated a revenue and one of the most spacious palaces in Cairo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conquest of the provinces of Lower and Middle Egypt had been effected
+      without difficulty, and had cost only a few skirmishes with the Arabs. A
+      forced march upon Belbeys had been sufficient to drive Ibrahim Bey into
+      Syria, where Desaix awaited the autumn for wresting Upper Egypt from Murad
+      Bey, who had retired thither with the wrecks of his army.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fortune was, meanwhile, preparing for Bonaparte the most terrible of all
+      reverses. On leaving Alexandria, he had earnestly recommended to Admiral
+      Brueys to secure his squadron from the English, either by taking it into
+      the harbour of Alexandria, or by proceeding with it to Corfu; and he had
+      particularly enjoined him not to leave it in the road of Abukir, for it
+      was much better to fall in with an enemy when under sail than to receive
+      him at anchor. A warm discussion had arisen on the question whether the
+      ships of 80 and 120 guns could be carried into the harbour of Alexandria.
+      As to the smaller ships, there was no doubt; but the larger would require
+      lightening so much as to enable them to draw three feet less water. For
+      this purpose it would be necessary to take out their guns, or to construct
+      floats. On such conditions, Admiral Brueys resolved not to take his
+      squadron into the harbour. The time which he spent, either in sounding the
+      channels to the harbour, or in waiting for news from Cairo, caused his own
+      destruction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Admiral Brueys was moored in the road of Abukir. This road is a very
+      regular semicircle, and his thirteen ships formed a line parallel to the
+      shore, and so disposed that he believed no British ship could pass between
+      him and the shore, if an attack were made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nelson, after visiting the Archipelago, and returning to the Adriatic,
+      Naples, and Sicily, had at length obtained the certain knowledge of the
+      landing of the French at Alexandria. He immediately steered in that
+      direction in order to seek and put to flight their squadron. He sent a
+      frigate to look out for it, and to reconnoitre its position. The English
+      frigate, having made her observations, rejoined Nelson, who, being
+      informed of all the particulars, immediately stood in for Abukir, and
+      arrived there August 1, 1798, at about six o&rsquo;clock in the evening. Admiral
+      Brueys was at dinner. He immediately ordered the signal for battle to be
+      given; but so unprepared was the squadron to receive the enemy, that the
+      hammocks were not stowed away on board any of the ships, and part of the
+      crews were on shore. The admiral despatched officers to send the seamen on
+      board, and to demand part of those who were in the transports. He had no
+      conception that Nelson would dare to attack him the same evening, and
+      conceived that he should have time to receive the reinforcements for which
+      he had applied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nelson resolved to attack immediately, and to push in between the French
+      ships and the shore at all hazards. &ldquo;Before this time to-morrow&rdquo; said he,
+      &ldquo;I shall have gained a peerage or Westminster Abbey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The number of vessels was equal on both sides, namely, thirteen ships of
+      war. The engagement lasted upwards of fifteen hours. All the crews
+      performed prodigies of valour. The brave Captain Du Petit-Thouars had two
+      of his limbs shot off. He ordered snuff to be brought him, and remained on
+      his quarter-deck, and, like Brueys, waited till a cannon-ball despatched
+      him. The entire French squadron, excepting the two ships and two frigates
+      carried off by Villeneuve, was destroyed. Nelson had suffered so severely
+      that he could not pursue the fugitives. Such was the famous battle of
+      Abukir, the most disastrous that the French had ever sustained, and
+      involved the most far-reaching consequences. The fleet which had carried
+      the French to Egypt, which might have served to succour or to recruit
+      them, which was to second their movements on the coast of Syria,&mdash;had
+      there been any to execute,&mdash;which was to overawe the Porte, to force
+      it to put up with false reasoning, and to oblige it to wink at the
+      invasion of Egypt, which finally, in case of reverses, was to convey the
+      French back to their country,&mdash;that fleet was destroyed. The French
+      ships were burned. The news of this disaster spread rapidly in Egypt, and
+      for a moment filled the army with despair. Bonaparte received the tidings
+      with imperturbable composure. &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we must die in this
+      country, or get out of it as great as the ancients.&rdquo; He wrote to Kléber:
+      &ldquo;This will oblige us to do greater things than we intended. We must hold
+      ourselves in readiness.&rdquo; The great soul of Kléber was worthy of this
+      language: &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied Kléber, &ldquo;we must do great things. I am preparing
+      my faculties.&rdquo; The courage of these men supported the army, and restored
+      its confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="107 (133K)" src="images/107.jpg" width="100%" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte strove to divert the thoughts of the soldiers by various
+      expeditions, and soon made them forget this disaster. On the festival of
+      the foundation of the republic, he endeavoured to give a new stimulus to
+      their imagination; he engraved on Pompey&rsquo;s Pillar the names of the first
+      forty soldiers slain in Egypt. They were the forty who had fallen in the
+      attack on Alexandria; and the names of these men, sprung from the villages
+      of France, were thus associated with the immortality of Pompey and
+      Alexander.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte, after the battle of the Pyramids, found himself master of
+      Egypt. He began to establish himself there, and sent his generals into the
+      provinces to complete their conquest. Desaix, placed at the entrance of
+      Upper Egypt with a division of about three thousand men, was directed to
+      reduce the remnants of Murad Bey&rsquo;s force in that province. It was in the
+      preceding year (October, 1798), at the moment when the inundation was
+      over, that Desaix had commenced his expedition. The enemy had retired
+      before him, and did not wait for him till he reached Sediman; there, on
+      October 7th, Desaix fought a sanguinary battle with the desperate
+      remainder of Murad Bey&rsquo;s forces. Two thousand French had to combat with
+      four thousand Mamluks and eight thousand fellahs, intrenched in the
+      village of Sediman. The battle was conducted in the same manner as that of
+      the Pyramids, and like all those fought in Egypt. The fellahs were behind
+      the walls of the village, and the horse in the plain. The field of battle
+      was thickly strewn with slain. The French lost three hundred men. Desaix
+      continued his march during the whole winter, and, after a series of
+      actions, reduced Upper Egypt as far as the cataracts. He made himself
+      equally feared for his bravery and beloved for his clemency. In Cairo,
+      Bonaparte had been named Sultan Kebir, the Fire Sultan. In Upper Egypt,
+      Desaix was called the &ldquo;Just Sultan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte had meanwhile marched to Belbeys, to drive Ibrahim Bey into
+      Syria, and he had collected by the way the wrecks of the caravan of Mecca,
+      plundered by the Arabs. Returning to Cairo, he continued to establish
+      there an entirely French administration. Thus passed the winter between
+      1798 and 1799 in the expectation of important events. During this
+      interval, Bonaparte received intelligence of the declaration of war by the
+      Porte, and of the preparations which it was making against him with the
+      aid of the English. Two armies were being formed, one at Rhodes, the other
+      in Syria. These two armies were to act simultaneously in the spring of
+      1799, the one by landing at Abukir near Alexandria, the other by crossing
+      the desert which separates Syria from Egypt. Bonaparte was instantly aware
+      of his position, and determined, as was his custom, to disconcert the
+      enemy and to forestall any offensive movement by a sudden attack. He could
+      not cross the desert which parts Egypt from Syria in summer, and he
+      resolved to avail himself of the winter for destroying the assemblages of
+      troops forming at Acre, at Damascus, and in the principal towns. Djezzar,
+      the celebrated pasha of Acre, was appointed seraskier of the army
+      collected in Syria. Abd Allah Pasha of Damascus commanded its
+      advanced-guard, and had proceeded as far as the fort of El Arish, which is
+      the key to Egypt on the side next to Syria. Bonaparte resolved to act
+      immediately. He was in communication with the tribes of the Lebanon. The
+      Druses, Christian tribes, the Mutualis, and schismatic Muhammedans offered
+      him assistance, and ardently wished for his coming. By a sudden assault on
+      Jaffa, Acre, and some other badly fortified places, he might in a short
+      time gain possession of Syria, add this fine conquest to that of Egypt,
+      make himself master of the Euphrates, as he was of the Nile, and thus
+      command all the communications with India.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0034" id="linkimage-0034">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/112.jpg" width="100%" alt="112.jpg a Fountain at Cairo " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte commenced his march very early in February at the head of
+      Kléber&rsquo;s, Régnier&rsquo;s, Lannes&rsquo;s, Bon&rsquo;s, and Murat&rsquo;s divisions, about
+      thirteen thousand strong. He arrived before the fort El Arish on February
+      15th, and, after a slight resistance, the garrison surrendered themselves
+      prisoners, to the number of thirteen hundred men. Ibrahim Bey, having
+      attempted to relieve it, was put to flight, and, after a severe march
+      across the desert, they reached Gaza. They took that place in the sight of
+      Djezzar Pasha, and found there, as in the fort of El Arish, a great
+      quantity of ammunition and provisions. From Gaza the army proceeded to
+      Jaffa (the ancient Joppa), where it arrived on March 3rd. This place was
+      surrounded by a massive wall, flanked by towers, and it contained a
+      garrison of four thousand men. Bonaparte caused a breach to be battered in
+      the wall, and then summoned the commandant, who only answered by cutting
+      off the head of the messenger. The assault was made, and the place stormed
+      with extraordinary intrepidity, and given up for thirty hours to pillage
+      and massacre. Here, too, was found a considerable quantity of artillery
+      and supplies of all kinds. There were some thousands of prisoners, whom
+      the general could not despatch to Egypt, because he had not the ordinary
+      means for escorting them, and he would not send them back to the enemy to
+      swell their ranks. Bonaparte decided on a terrible measure, the most cruel
+      act of his life. Transported into a barbarous country, he had adopted its
+      manners, and he ordered all the prisoners to be put to death. The army
+      consummated with obedience, but with a sort of horror, the execution that
+      was commanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte then advanced upon St. Jean d&rsquo;Acre, the ancient Ptolemais,
+      situated at the foot of Mount Carmel. It was the only place that could now
+      stop him. If he could make himself master of this fortress, Syria would be
+      his. But the ferocious Djezzar had shut himself up there, with all his
+      wealth and a strong garrison, and he also reckoned upon support from Sir
+      Sidney Smith, then cruising off that coast, who supplied him with
+      engineers, artillerymen, and ammunition. It was probable, moreover, that
+      he would be soon relieved by the Turkish army collected in Syria, which
+      was advancing from Damascus to cross the Jordan. Bonaparte hastened to
+      attack the place, in hopes of taking it, as he had done Jaffa, before it
+      was reinforced with fresh troops, and before the English had time to
+      improve its defences. The trenches were immediately opened. The siege
+      artillery sent by sea from Alexandria had been intercepted by Sir Sidney
+      Smith, who captured seven vessels out of the nine. A breach was effected,
+      and dispositions were made for the assault, but the men were stopped by a
+      counterscarp and a ditch. They immediately set about mining. The operation
+      was carried on under the fire of all the ramparts, and of the fine
+      artillery which Sir Sidney Smith had taken from the French. The mine was
+      exploded on April 17th, and blew up only a portion of the counterscarp.
+      Unluckily for the French, the place had received a reinforcement of
+      several thousand men, a great number of gunners trained after the European
+      fashion, and immense supplies. It was a siege on a large scale to be
+      carried on with thirteen thousand men, almost entirely destitute of
+      artillery. It was necessary to open a new mine to blow up the entire
+      counterscarp, and to commence another covered way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte now ordered Kléber&rsquo;s division to oppose the passage of the
+      Jordan by the army coming from Damascus. The enemy was commanded by Abd
+      Allah Pasha of Damascus, and numbered about twenty-five thousand men and
+      twelve thousand horse. A desperate battle was fought in the plain of
+      Fouli, and for six hours Kléber, with scarcely three thousand infantry in
+      square, resisted the utmost fury of the Turkish cavalry. Bonaparte, who
+      had been making a rapid march to join Kléber, suddenly made his appearance
+      on the field of battle. A tremendous fire, discharged instantaneously from
+      the three points of this triangle, assailed the Mamluks who were in the
+      midst, drove them in confusion upon one another, and made them flee in
+      disorder in all directions. Kléber&rsquo;s division, fired with fresh ardour at
+      this sight, rushed upon the village of Eouli, stormed it at the point of
+      the bayonet, and made a great carnage among the enemy. In a moment the
+      whole multitude was gone, and the plain was left covered with dead. During
+      this interval the besiegers had never ceased mining and countermining
+      about the walls of St. Jean d&rsquo;Acre. The siege of Acre lasted for
+      sixty-five days. Bonaparte made eight desperate but ineffectual assaults
+      upon the city, which were repulsed by eleven furious sallies on the part
+      of the besieged garrison. It was absolutely necessary to relinquish the
+      enterprise. The strategic point in the East was lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0035" id="linkimage-0035">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/114b.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="114b.jpg Cairo--eskibieh Quarter " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      For two months the army had been before Acre; it had sustained
+      considerable losses, and it would have been imprudent to expose it to
+      more. The plague was in Acre, and the army had caught the contagion at
+      Jaffa. The season for landing troops approached, and the arrival of a
+      Turkish army near the mouths of the Nile was expected. By persisting
+      longer, Bonaparte was liable to weaken himself to such a degree as not to
+      be able to repulse new enemies. The main point of his plan was effected,
+      since he had rendered the enemy in that quarter incapable of acting. He
+      now commenced his march to recross the desert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte at length reached Egypt after an expedition of nearly three
+      months. It was high time for him to return; for the spirit of insurrection
+      had spread throughout the whole Delta. His presence produced everywhere
+      submission and tranquillity. He gave orders for magnificent festivities at
+      Cairo to celebrate his triumphs in Syria. He had to curb not only the
+      inhabitants, but his own generals and the army itself. A deep discontent
+      pervaded it. They had been for a whole year in Egypt. It was now the month
+      of June, and they were still ignorant of what was passing in Europe, and
+      of the disasters of France. They merely knew that the Continent was in
+      confusion, and that a new war was inevitable. Bonaparte impatiently waited
+      for further particulars, that he might decide what course to pursue, and
+      return, in case of need, to the first theatre of his exploits. But he
+      hoped first to destroy the second Turkish army assembled at Rhodes, the
+      very speedy landing of which was announced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This army, put on board numerous transports and escorted by Sir Sidney
+      Smith&rsquo;s squadron, appeared on July 11th in sight of Alexandria, and came
+      to anchor in the road of Abukir, where the French squadron had been
+      destroyed. The point chosen by the English for landing was the peninsula
+      which commands the entrance to the road, and bears the same name. The
+      Turks landed with great boldness, attacked the intrenchments sword in
+      hand, carried them, and made themselves masters of the village of Abukir,
+      putting to death the garrison. The village being taken, it was impossible
+      for the fort to hold out, and it was obliged to surrender. Marmont, who
+      commanded at Alexandria, left the city at the head of twelve hundred men
+      to hasten to the assistance of the troops at Abukir. But, learning that
+      the Turks had landed in considerable numbers, he did not dare to attempt
+      to throw them into the sea by a bold attack, and returned to Alexandria,
+      leaving them to establish themselves quietly in the peninsula of Abukir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0036" id="linkimage-0036">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/119.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="119.jpg Cairo from the Left Bank of The Nile " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Turks amounted to nearly eighteen thousand infantry. They had no
+      cavalry, for they had not brought more than three hundred horses, but they
+      expected the arrival of Murad Bey, who was to leave Upper Egypt, skirt the
+      desert, cross the oases, and throw himself into Abukir with two or three
+      thousand Mamluks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Bonaparte was informed of the particulars of the landing, he
+      immediately left Cairo, and made from that city to Alexandria one of those
+      extraordinary marches of which he had given so many examples in Italy. He
+      took with him the divisions of Lannes, Bon, and Murat. He had ordered
+      Desaix to evacuate Upper Egypt, and Kleber and Régnier, who were in the
+      Delta, to approach Abukir. He had chosen the point of Birket, midway
+      between Alexandria and Abukir, at which to concentrate his forces, and to
+      manouvre according to circumstances. He was afraid that an English army
+      had landed with the Turks. The next day, the 7th, he was at the entrance
+      of the peninsula.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte made his dispositions with his usual promptitude and decision.
+      He ordered General D &lsquo;Estaing, with some battalions, to march to the hill
+      on the left, where the one thousand Turks were posted; Lannes to march to
+      that on the right, where the two thousand others were; and Murat, who was
+      at the centre, to make the cavalry file on the rear of the two hills.
+      D&rsquo;Estaing marched to the hill on the left and boldly ascended it: Murat
+      caused it to be turned by a squadron. The Turks, at sight of this, quitted
+      their post, and fell in with the cavalry, which cut them to pieces, and
+      drove them into the sea, into which they chose rather to throw themselves
+      than to surrender. Precisely the same thing was done on the right. Lannes
+      attacked the two thousand janizaries; Murat turned them, cut them in
+      pieces, and drove them into the sea. D&rsquo;Estaing and Lannes then moved
+      towards the centre, formed by a village, and attacked it in front. The
+      Turks there defended themselves bravely, reckoning upon assistance from
+      the second line. A column did in fact advance from the camp of Abukir; but
+      Murat, who had already filed upon the rear of the village, fell sword in
+      hand upon this column, and drove it back into Abukir. D&rsquo;Estaing&rsquo;s infantry
+      and that of Lannes entered the village at the charge step, driving the
+      Turks out of it, who were pushed in all directions, and who, obstinately
+      refusing to surrender, had no retreat but the sea, in which they were
+      drowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From four to five thousand had already perished in this manner. The first
+      line was carried: Bonaparte&rsquo;s object was accomplished. He immediately
+      followed up his success with desperate fighting to complete his victory on
+      the moment. The Turks, affrighted, fled on all sides, and a horrible
+      carnage was made among them. They were pursued at the point of the bayonet
+      and thrust into the sea. More than twelve thousand corpses were floating
+      in the bay of Abukir, and two or three thousand more had perished by the
+      fire or by the sword. The rest, shut up in the fort, had no rescue but the
+      clemency of the conqueror. Such was that extraordinary battle in which a
+      hostile army was entirely destroyed. Thus, either by the expedition to
+      Syria, or by the battle of Abukir, Egypt was delivered, at least for a
+      time, from the forces of the Porte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having arrived in the summer before the inundation, Bonaparte had employed
+      the first moments in gaining possession of Alexandria and the capital,
+      which he had secured by the battle of the Pyramids. In the autumn, after
+      the inundation, he had completed the conquest of the Delta, and consigned
+      that of Upper Egypt to Desaix. In the winter he had undertaken the
+      expedition to Syria, and destroyed Djezzar&rsquo;s Turkish army at Mount Tabor.
+      He had now, in the second summer, just destroyed the second army of the
+      Porte at Abukir. The time had thus been well spent; and, while Victory was
+      forsaking in Europe the banners of France, she adhered to them in Africa
+      and Asia. The tricolour waved triumphant over the Nile and the Jordan, and
+      over the places which were the cradle of the Christian religion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bonaparte was as yet ignorant of what was passing in France. None of the
+      despatches from the Directory or from his brothers had reached him, and he
+      was a prey to the keenest anxiety. With a view to obtaining some
+      intelligence, he ordered brigs to cruise about, to stop all merchantmen,
+      and to gain from them information of the occurrences in Europe. He sent to
+      the Turkish fleet a flag of truce, which, under the pretext of negotiating
+      an exchange of prisoners, was for the purpose of obtaining news. Sir
+      Sidney Smith stopped this messenger, treated him exceedingly well, and,
+      perceiving that Bonaparte was ignorant of the disasters of France, took a
+      spiteful pleasure in sending him a packet of newspapers. The messenger
+      returned and delivered the packet to Bonaparte. The latter spent the whole
+      night in devouring the contents of those papers, and informing himself of
+      what was passing in his own country. His determination was immediately
+      taken, and he resolved to embark secretly for Europe, and on August 22nd,
+      taking with him Berthier, Lannes, Murât, Andréossy, Marmont, Berthollet,
+      and Monge, and escorted by some of his guides, he proceeded to a retired
+      spot on the beach, where boats were awaiting them. They got into them and
+      went on board the frigates, <i>La Muiron</i> and <i>La Carrère</i>. They
+      set sail immediately, that by daylight they might be out of sight of the
+      English cruisers. Unfortunately it fell calm; fearful of being surprised,
+      some were for returning to Alexandria, but Bonaparte resolved to proceed.
+      &ldquo;Be quiet,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;we shall pass in safety.&rdquo; Like Cæsar, he reckoned
+      upon his fortune. Menou, who alone had been initiated into the secret,
+      made known in Alexandria the departure of General Bonaparte, and the
+      appointment which he had made of General Kléber to succeed him. This
+      intelligence caused a painful surprise throughout the army. The most
+      opprobrious epithets were applied to this departure. They did not consider
+      that irresistible impulse of patriotism and ambition, which, on the news
+      of the disasters of the republic, had urged him to return to France. They
+      perceived only the forlorn state in which he had left the unfortunate
+      army, which had felt sufficient confidence in his genius to follow him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kléber was not fond of General Bonaparte, and endured his ascendency with
+      a sort of impatience, and now he was sorry that he had quitted the banks
+      of the Rhine for the banks of the Nile. The chief command did not
+      counterbalance the necessity of remaining in Egypt, for he took no
+      pleasure in commanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0037" id="linkimage-0037">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:52%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/124.jpg"
+       alt="124.jpg Statue of General Kleber at Strasburg " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Kléber, however, was the most popular of the generals among the soldiery.
+      His name was hailed by them with entire confidence, and somewhat cheered
+      them for the loss of the illustrious commander who had just left them. He
+      returned to Cairo, assumed the command with a sort of ostentation, and
+      took possession of the fine Arabian mansion which his predecessor had
+      occupied in the Ezbekieh Place. But it was not long before the solicitudes
+      of the chief command, which were insupportable to him, the new dangers
+      with which the Turks and the English threatened Egypt, and the grief of
+      exile, which was general, filled his soul with the most gloomy
+      discouragement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kléber, together with Poussielgue, the administrator of the army, at once
+      prepared and addressed despatches to the Directory, placing the condition
+      of the troops, the finances, and the number of the enemy in the most
+      melancholy light. These despatches fell into the hands of the English, and
+      the duplicate reports found their way into the hands of Bonaparte himself.
+      Bonaparte had left instructions with Kléber to meet every possible
+      contingency during his absence, even to the necessity of an evacuation of
+      Egypt. &ldquo;I am going to France,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;either as a private man or as a
+      public man; I will get reinforcement sent to you. But if by next spring
+      (he was writing in August, 1799) you have received no supplies, no
+      instructions; if the plague has carried off more than fifteen hundred men,
+      independently of losses by war; if a considerable force, which you should
+      be incapable of resisting, presses you hard, negotiate with the vizier:
+      consent even, if it must be so, to an evacuation; subject to one
+      condition, that of referring to the French government; and meanwhile
+      continue to occupy. You will thus have gained time, and it is impossible
+      that, during the interval, you should not have received succour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The instructions were very sound; but the case foreseen was far from being
+      realised at the time when Kléber determined to negotiate for the
+      evacuation of Egypt. Murad Bey, disheartened, was a fugitive in Upper
+      Egypt with a few Mamluks. Ibrahim Bey, who, under the government of the
+      Mamluks, shared the sovereignty with him, was then in Lower Egypt towards
+      the frontier of Syria.. He had four hundred horse. Djezzar Pasha was shut
+      up in St. Jean d&rsquo;Acre, and, so far from preparing a reinforcement of men
+      for the army of the grand vizier, he viewed, on the contrary, with high
+      displeasure, the approach of a fresh Turkish army, now that his pashalik
+      was delivered from the French. As for the grand vizier, he was not yet
+      across the Taurus. The English had their troops at Mahon, and were not at
+      this moment aggressive. At Kléber&rsquo;s side was General Menou, who viewed
+      everything under the most favourable colours, and believed the French to
+      be invincible in Egypt, and regarded the expedition as the commencement of
+      a near and momentous revolution in the commerce of the world. Kléber and
+      Menou were both honest, upright men; but one wanted to leave Egypt, the
+      other to stay in it; the clearest and most authentic returns conveyed to
+      them totally contrary significations; misery and ruin to one, abundance
+      and success to the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In September, 1799, Desaix, having completed the conquest and subjugation
+      of Upper Egypt, had left two movable columns for the pursuit of Murad Bey,
+      to whom he had offered peace on condition of his becoming a vassal of
+      France. He then returned to Cairo by the order of Kléber, who wished to
+      make use of his name in those negotiations into which he was about to
+      enter. During these proceedings, the army of the grand vizier, so long
+      announced, was slowly advancing. Sir Sidney Smith, who convoyed with his
+      squadron the Turkish troops destined to be transported by sea, had just
+      arrived off Dami-etta with eight thousand janizaries, and on the first of
+      November, 1799, the landing of the first division of four thousand
+      janizaries was effected. At the first tidings of this disembarkation,
+      Kléber had despatched Desaix with a column of three thousand men; but the
+      latter, uselessly sent to Damietta, had found the victory won,&mdash;the
+      Turkish division having been completely destroyed by General Verdier,&mdash;and
+      the French filled with unbounded confidence. This brilliant achievement
+      ought to have served to encourage Kléber; unfortunately, he was swayed at
+      once by his own lack of confidence and that of the army. In this
+      disposition of mind, Kléber had sent one of his officers to the vizier
+      (who had entered Syria), to make new overtures of peace. General
+      Bonaparte, with a view to embroiling the vizier with the English, had
+      previously entertained the idea of setting on foot negotiations, which, on
+      his part, were nothing more than a feint. His overtures had been received
+      with great distrust and pride. Kléber &lsquo;s advances met with a favourable
+      reception, through the influence of Sir Sidney Smith, who was preparing to
+      play a prominent part in the affairs of Egypt. This officer had largely
+      contributed to prevent the success of the siege of St. Jean d&rsquo;Acre; he was
+      proud of it, and had devised a <i>ruse de guerre</i> by taking advantage
+      of a momentary weakness to wrest from the French their valuable conquest.
+      With this view, he had disposed the grand vizier to listen to the
+      overtures of Kléber. Kléber, on his part, despatched Desaix and
+      Poussielgue as negotiators to Sir Sidney Smith; for, since the English
+      were masters of the sea, he wished to induce them to take part in the
+      negotiation, so that the return to France might be rendered possible. Sir
+      Sidney manifested a disposition to enter into arrangements, acting as
+      &ldquo;Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty,&rdquo; and attributing to
+      himself a power which he had ceased to hold since the arrival of Lord
+      Elgin as ambassador at Constantinople. Poussielgue was an advocate for
+      evacuation; Desaix just the reverse. The conditions proposed by Kléber
+      were unreasonable: not that they were an exorbitant equivalent for what
+      was given up in giving up Egypt, but because they were not feasible. Sir
+      Sidney made Kléber sensible of this. Officers treating for a mere
+      suspension of arms could not include topics of vast extent in their
+      negotiation, such as the demand for the possession of the Venetian
+      Islands, and the annulment of the Triple Alliance. But it was urgently
+      necessary to settle two points immediately: the departure of the wounded
+      and of the scientific men attached to the expedition, for whom Desaix
+      solicited safe-conduct; and secondly, a suspension of arms, for the army
+      of the grand vizier, though marching slowly, would soon be in presence of
+      the French. It had actually arrived before the fort of El Arish, the first
+      French post on the frontiers of Syria, and had summoned it to surrender.
+      The negotiations, in fact, had been going on for a fortnight on board <i>Le
+      Tigre</i>, while floating at the pleasure of the winds off the coasts of
+      Syria and Egypt: the parties had said all they had to say, and the
+      negotiations could not be continued to any useful purpose without the
+      concurrence of the grand vizier. Sir Sidney, availing himself of a
+      favourable moment, pushed off in a boat which landed him on the coast,
+      after incurring some danger, and ordered the captain of <i>Le Tigre</i> to
+      meet him in the port of Jaffa, where Poussielgue and Desaix were to be put
+      ashore, if the conferences were to be transferred to the camp of the grand
+      vizier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the moment when the English commodore reached the camp, a horrible
+      event had occurred at El Arish. The grand vizier had collected around him
+      an army of seventy or eighty thousand fanatic Mussulmans. The Turks were
+      joined by the Mamluks. Ibrahim Bey, who had some time before retired to
+      Syria, and Murad Bey, who had descended by a long circuit from the
+      cataracts to the environs of Suez, had become the auxiliaries of their
+      former adversaries. The English had made for this army a sort of
+      field-artillery, drawn by mules. The fort of El Arish, before which the
+      Turks were at this moment, was, according to the declaration of General
+      Bonaparte, one of the two keys of Egypt; Alexandria was the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Turkish advanced-guard having reached El Arish, Colonel Douglas, an
+      English officer in the service of Turkey, summoned Cazals, the commandant,
+      to surrender. The culpable sentiments which the officers had too much
+      encouraged in the army then burst forth. The soldiers in the garrison at
+      El Arish, vehemently longing, like their comrades, to leave Egypt,
+      declared to the commandant that they would not fight, and that he must
+      make up his mind to surrender the fort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0038" id="linkimage-0038">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:46%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/130.jpg" alt="130.jpg a Modern Fanatic " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The gallant Cazals indignantly refused, and a struggle with the Turks
+      ensued. During this contest, the recreants, who insisted on surrendering,
+      threw ropes to the Turks; these ferocious enemies, once hoisted up into
+      the fort, rushed, sword in hand, upon those who had given them admission
+      into the fort, and slaughtered a great number of them. The others, brought
+      back to reason, joined the rest of the garrison, and, defending themselves
+      with desperate courage, were most of them killed. A small number obtained
+      quarter, thanks to that humane and distinguished officer, Colonel Douglas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now the 30th of December: the letter written by Sir Sidney Smith to
+      the grand vizier, to propose to him a suspension of arms, had not reached
+      him in time to prevent the melancholy catastrophe at El Arish. Sir Sidney
+      Smith was a man of generous feelings: this barbarous massacre of a French
+      garrison horrified him, and, above all, it made him fearful of the rupture
+      of the negotiations. He lost no time in sending explanations to Kléber,
+      both in his own name and that of the grand vizier, and he added the formal
+      assurance that all hostility should cease during the negotiations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kléber, when informed of the massacre of El Arish, did not manifest as
+      much indignation as he ought to have done; he was aware that, if he was
+      too warm upon that subject, all the negotiations might be broken off. He
+      was more urgent than ever for a suspension of arms; and, at the same time,
+      by way of precaution, and to be nearer to the theatre of the conferences,
+      he left Cairo, and transferred his headquarters to Salahieh, on the very
+      border of the desert, two days&rsquo; march from El Arish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime, Desaix and Poussielgue, detained by contrary winds, had
+      not been able to land at Gaza till the 11th, and to reach El Arish before
+      the 13th.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evacuation and its conditions soon became the sole subject of
+      negotiation. After long discussions it was agreed that all hostility
+      should cease for three months; that those three months should be employed
+      by the vizier in collecting, in the ports of Rosetta, Abukir, and
+      Alexandria, the vessels requisite for the conveyance of the French army;
+      by General Kléber, in evacuating the Upper Nile, Cairo, and the contiguous
+      provinces, and in concentrating his troops about the point of embarkation;
+      that the French should depart with the honours of war; that they should
+      cease to impose contributions; but that, in return, the French army should
+      receive three thousand purses, equivalent at that time to three million
+      francs, and representing the sum necessary for its subsistence during the
+      evacuation and the passage. The forts of Katieh, Salahieh, and the
+      Belbeys, forming the frontier of Egypt towards the desert of Syria, were
+      to be given up ten days after the ratification; Cairo forty days after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The terms of the convention being arranged, there was nothing more to be
+      done but sign it. Kléber, who had a vague feeling of his fault,
+      determined, in order to cover it, to assemble a council of war, to which
+      all the generals of the army were summoned. The council met on the 21st of
+      January, 1800. The minutes of it still exist. Desaix, although deeply
+      grieved, was swept along by the torrent of popular opinion, gave way to it
+      himself, and affixed his signature on the 28th of January to the
+      convention of El Arish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile preparations were being made for departure; Sir Sidney Smith had
+      returned to his ship. The vizier advanced and took possession,
+      consecutively, of the entrenched positions of Katieh, Salahieh, and
+      Belbeys, which Kléber, in haste to execute the convention, faithfully
+      delivered up to him. Kléber returned to Cairo to make his preparations for
+      departure, to call in the troops that were guarding Upper Egypt, to
+      concentrate his army, and then to direct it upon Alexandria and Rosetta at
+      the time stipulated for embarkation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While these events were occurring in Egypt, the English cabinet had
+      received advice of the overtures made by General Kléber to the grand
+      vizier and to Sir Sidney Smith. Believing that the French army was reduced
+      to the last extremity, it lost no time in sending off an express order not
+      to grant any capitulation unless they surrendered themselves prisoners of
+      war. These orders, despatched from London on the 17th of December, reached
+      Admiral Keith in the island of Minorca in the first days of January, 1800;
+      and, on the 8th of the same month, the admiral hastened to forward to Sir
+      Sidney Smith the instructions which he had just received from the
+      government. He lost no time in writing to Kléber, to express his
+      mortification, to apprise him honestly of what was passing, to advise him
+      to suspend immediately the delivery of the Egyptian fortresses to the
+      grand vizier, and to conjure him to wait for fresh orders from England
+      before he took any definite resolutions. Unfortunately, when these advices
+      from Sir Sidney arrived at Cairo, the French army had already executed in
+      part the treaty of El Arish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kléber instantly countermanded all the orders previously given to the
+      army. He brought back from Lower Egypt to Cairo part of the troops that
+      had already descended the Nile; he ordered his stores to be sent up again;
+      he urged the division of Upper Egypt to make haste to rejoin him, and gave
+      notice to the grand vizier to suspend his march towards Cairo, otherwise
+      he should immediately commence hostilities. The grand vizier replied that
+      the convention of El Arish was signed; that it must be executed; that, in
+      consequence, he should advance towards the capital. At the same instant,
+      an officer sent from Minorca with a letter from Lord Keith to Kléber,
+      arrived at the headquarters. Kléber, fired with indignation at the demand
+      for surrender, caused Lord Keith&rsquo;s letter to be inserted in the order of
+      the day, adding to it these few words: &ldquo;Soldiers, to such insults there is
+      no other answer than victory. Prepare for action.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Agents from Sir Sidney had hastened up to interpose between the French and
+      the Turks, and to make fresh proposals of accommodation. Letters, they
+      said, had just been written to London, and, when the convention of El
+      Arish was known there, it would be ratified to a certainty; in this
+      situation, it would not be right to suspend hostilities, and wait. To this
+      the grand vizier and Kléber consented, but on conditions that were
+      irreconcilable. The grand vizier insisted that Cairo should be given up to
+      him; Kléber, on the contrary, that the vizier should fall back to the
+      frontier. Under these conditions, fighting was the only resource.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 20th of March, 1800, in the plain of Heliopolis, ten thousand
+      soldiers, by superiority in discipline and courage, dispersed seventy or
+      eighty thousand foes. Kléber gave orders for the pursuit on the following
+      day. When he had ascertained with his own eyes that the Turkish army had
+      disappeared, he resolved to return and reduce the towns of Lower Egypt,
+      and Cairo in particular, to their duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He arrived at Cairo on the 27th of March. Important events had occurred
+      there since his departure. The population of that great city, which
+      numbered nearly three hundred thousand inhabitants, fickle, inflammable,
+      inclined to change, had followed the suggestions of Turkish emissaries,
+      and fallen upon the French the moment they heard the cannon at Heliopolis.
+      Pouring forth outside the walls during the battle, and seeing Nassif-Pasha
+      and Ibrahim Bey, with some thousand horse and janizaries, they supposed
+      them to be the conquerors. Taking good care not to undeceive the
+      inhabitants, the Turks affirmed that the grand vizier had gained a
+      complete victory, and that the French were exterminated. At these tidings,
+      fifty thousand men had risen in Cairo, at Bulak, and at Gizeh, and Cairo
+      became a scene of plunder, rapine, and murder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0039" id="linkimage-0039">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/137.jpg" width="100%" alt="137.jpg Citadel of Cairo " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      During these transactions, General Friant arrived, detached from Belbeys,
+      and lastly Kléber himself. Though conqueror of the grand vizier&rsquo;s army,
+      Kléber had a serious difficulty to surmount to subdue an immense city,
+      peopled by three hundred thousand inhabitants, partly in a state of
+      revolt, occupied by twenty thousand Turks, and built in the Oriental
+      style; that is to say, having narrow streets, divided into piles of
+      masonry, which were real fortresses. These edifices, receiving light from
+      within, and exhibiting without nothing but lofty walls, had terraces
+      instead of roofs, from which the insurgents poured a downward and
+      destructive fire. Add to this that the Turks were masters of the whole
+      city, excepting the citadel and the square of Ezbekieh, which, in a
+      manner, they had blockaded by closing the streets that ran into it with
+      embattled walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this situation, Kléber showed as much prudence as he had just shown
+      energy in the field. He resolved to gain time, and to let the insurrection
+      wear itself out. The insurgents could not fail at length to be undeceived
+      respecting the general state of things in Egypt, and to learn that the
+      French were everywhere victorious, and the vizier&rsquo;s army dispersed.
+      Nassif-Pasha&rsquo;s Turks, Ibrahim Bey&rsquo;s Mamluks, and the Arab population of
+      Cairo could not agree together long. For all these reasons, Kléber thought
+      it advisable to temporise and to negotiate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was gaining time, he completed his treaty of alliance with Murad
+      Bey. He granted to him the province of Sai&rsquo;d, under the supremacy of
+      France, on condition of paying a tribute equivalent to a considerable part
+      of the imposts of that province. Murad Bey engaged, moreover, to fight for
+      the French; and the French engaged, if they should ever quit the country,
+      to facilitate for him the occupation of Egypt. Murad Bey faithfully
+      adhered to the treaty which he had just signed, and began by driving from
+      Upper Egypt a Turkish corps which had occupied it. The insurgents of Cairo
+      obstinately refused to capitulate, and an attack by main force was,
+      therefore, indispensable for completing the reduction of the city, during
+      which several thousand Turks, Mamluks, and insurgents were killed, and
+      four thousand houses were destroyed by fire. Thus terminated that
+      sanguinary struggle, which had commenced with the battle of Heliopolis on
+      the 20th of March, and which ended on the 25th of April with the departure
+      of the last lieutenants of the vizier, after thirty-five days&rsquo; fighting
+      between twenty thousand French on one side, and, on the other, the whole
+      force of the Ottoman empire, seconded by the revolt of the Egyptian towns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the Delta all the towns had returned to a state of complete submission.
+      Murad Bey had driven from Upper Egypt the Turkish detachment of Dervish
+      Pasha. The vanquished everywhere trembled before the conqueror, and
+      expected a terrible chastisement. Kléber, who was humane and wise, took
+      good care not to repay cruelties with cruelties. The Egyptians were
+      persuaded that they should be treated harshly; they conceived that the
+      loss of life and property would atone for the crime of those who had risen
+      in revolt. Kléber called them together, assumed at first a stern look, but
+      afterwards pardoned them, merely imposing a contribution on the insurgent
+      villages. Cairo paid ten million francs, a burden far from onerous for so
+      large a city, and the inhabitants considered themselves as most fortunate
+      to get off so easily. Eight millions more were imposed upon the rebel
+      towns of Lower Egypt. The army, proud of its victories, confident in its
+      strength, knowing that General Bonaparte was at the head of the
+      government, ceased to doubt that it would soon receive reinforcements.
+      Kléber had in the plain of Heliopolis made the noblest amends for his
+      momentary faults.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He entered upon a second conquest, showing clemency and humanity on all
+      sides, and everywhere he laboured hard to encourage the arts and
+      industries and agriculture. He assembled the administrators of the army,
+      the persons best acquainted with the country, and turned his attention to
+      the organisation of the finances of the colony. He restored the collection
+      of the direct contributions to the Kopts, to whom it had formerly been
+      entrusted, and imposed some new customs&rsquo; duties and taxes on articles of
+      consumption. He gave orders for the completion of the forts constructing
+      around Cairo, and set men to work at those of Lesbeh, Damietta, Burlos,
+      and Rosetta, situated on the sea-coast. He pressed forward the works of
+      Alexandria, and imparted fresh activity to the scientific researches of
+      the Institute of Egypt, and a valuable mass of information was embodied in
+      the great French work, the &ldquo;Description de l&rsquo;Egypte.&rdquo; From the cataracts
+      to the mouths of the Nile, everything assumed the aspect of a solid and
+      durable establishment. Two months afterwards, the caravans of Syria,
+      Arabia, and Darfur began to appear again at Cairo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a deplorable event snatched away General Kléber in the midst of his
+      exploits and of his judicious government. He was assassinated in the
+      garden of his palace by a young man, a native of Aleppo, named Suleiman,
+      who was a prey to extravagant fanaticism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With Kléber&rsquo;s death, Egypt was lost for France. Menou, who succeeded him,
+      was very far beneath such a task. The English offered to make good the
+      convention of El Arish, but Menou refused, and England prepared for an
+      invasion, after attempting vainly to co-operate with the Turks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who had been appointed as British commissioner,
+      landed with the English army alone at Abukir. After fierce skirmishing,
+      the French and English met on the plains of Alexandria. In the frightful
+      conflict which ensued, Sir Ralph Abercrombie was slain, but the battle
+      ended with the retreat of the French. Damietta surrendered on April 19th.
+      The French were now divided, while Menou hesitated. General Hutchinson
+      took the place of the deceased British commander. A great battle was
+      fought at Cairo, which was won by the British, and the capital itself now
+      fell into their hands. General Hutchinson then closed in upon Alexandria;
+      and, after hard fighting, Menou at length surrendered. The French troops
+      were allowed to return to France with all their belongings, except the
+      artillery, August 27, 1801.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="142 (34K)" src="images/142.jpg" width="100%" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> ======================= <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkB2HCH0001" id="linkB2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br /> <a name="linkBimage-0004"
+       id="linkBimage-0004">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/143.jpg" width="100%" alt="141.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.&mdash;THE RULE OF MEHEMET ALI
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>Mehemet&rsquo;s rise to power: Massacre of the Mamluks: Invasion of the
+      Morea: Battle of Navarino: Struggle with the Porte: Abbas Pasha, Muhammed
+      Said, and Ismail Pasha: Ismail&rsquo;s lavish expenditure: Foreign bondholders
+      and the Dual Control.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the beginning of the eighteenth century, the destiny of Egypt was the
+      destiny of one man; he aided the political movements, and accelerated or
+      retarded social activity; he swayed both commerce and agriculture, and
+      organised the army to his liking; he was the heart and brain of this
+      mysterious country. Under the watchful eyes of Europe, attentive for more
+      than forty years, this Macedonian soldier became the personification of
+      the nation under his authority, and, in the main, the history of the
+      country may be summed up in the biography of Mehemet Ali. If we consider
+      the events of his life, and the diverse roads by which he reached the
+      apogee of his fortunes, reviewing the scenes, now sombre, now magnificent,
+      of that remarkable fate, we obtain a complete picture of Egypt itself,
+      seen from the most intimate, real, and striking point of view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the most authentic accounts, Mehemet Ali was born in 1768 (a.
+      h. 1182), at Cavala, a seaport in Turkey in Europe. He was yet very young
+      when he lost his father, Ibrahim Agha, and soon after this misfortune, his
+      uncle and sole remaining relative, Tussun-Agha, was beheaded by order of
+      the Porte. Left an orphan, Mehemet Ali was adopted by the Tchorbadji of
+      Praousta, an old friend of his father, who brought him up with his own
+      son. The boy spent his early youth in the discharge of unimportant
+      military duties, where, however, he frequently found opportunity to
+      display his intelligence and courage. He was even able to render many
+      services to his protector in the collecting of taxes, which was always a
+      difficult matter in Turkey, and occasionally necessitated a regular
+      military expedition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anxious to reward Mehemet for all his services, and also doubtless
+      desirous of a still closer connection, the aged Tchorbadji married him to
+      his daughter. This was the beginning of the young man&rsquo;s success; he was
+      then eighteen years old. Dealings with a French merchant of Cavala had
+      inspired him with a taste for commerce, and, devoting himself to it, he
+      speculated with much success, chiefly in tobacco, the richest product of
+      his country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This period of his life was not without its influence upon Egypt, for we
+      know how strenuously the pasha endeavoured to develop the commercial and
+      manufacturing industries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The French invasion surprised him in the midst of these peaceful
+      occupations. The Porte, having raised an army in Macedonia, ordered the
+      Tchorbadji to furnish a contingent of three hundred men, who entrusted the
+      command of this small force to his son Ali Agha, appointing Mehemet Ali,
+      whose merit and courage he fully appreciated, as his lieutenant. The
+      Macedonain recruits rejoined the forces of the pasha-captain, and landed
+      with the grand vizier at Abukir, where was fought that battle which
+      resulted in victory for France and the complete defeat of the sultan&rsquo;s
+      army. Completely demoralised by this overthrow, Ali Agha left Mehemet Ali
+      in command of his troops, and quitted the army.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is well to consider in a brief survey the state of the country at the
+      moment when the incapacity of General Menou compelled the French to
+      withdraw from Egypt. Arrayed against each other were the troops of the
+      sultan, numbering four thousand Albanians and those forces sent from
+      England under the command of Admiral Keith, on one side; and on the other
+      were the Mamluks striving for supremacy; and it was a question whether
+      this powerful force would once more rule Egypt as before the French
+      invasion, or whether the country would again fall under the dominion of
+      the Porte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was occasion for anxiety among the Mamluks themselves; their two
+      principal beys, Osman-Bardisi and Muhammed el-Elfi, instead of
+      strengthening their forces by acting in concert, as Murad Bey and Ibrahim
+      Bey had done before the French occupation, permitted their rivalry for
+      power so completely to absorb them that it was finally the means of
+      encompassing their ruin and that of their party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first pasha invested with the viceroyalty of Egypt after the departure
+      of the French troops was Muhammed Khusurf, who faithfully served the
+      Porte. His government was able and zealous, but the measures he employed
+      against his haughty antagonists lacked the lofty intelligence
+      indispensable to so difficult a task. Muhammed Khusurf, whose rivalry with
+      Mehemet Ali had for some years attracted European attention, found himself
+      at last face to face with his future opponent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Ali, by dint of hard work and the many important services rendered
+      to his country, had passed through successive stages of promotion to the
+      rank of serchime, which gave him the command of three or four thousand
+      Albanians. Foreseeing his opportunity, he had employed himself in secretly
+      strengthening his influence over his subordinates; he allied himself with
+      the Mam-luks, opened the gates of Cairo to them, and, joining
+      Osman-Bardisi, marched against Khusurf. He pursued the viceroy to
+      Damietta, taking possession of the town, conducted his prisoner to Cairo,
+      where he placed him in the custody of the aged Ibrahim Bey, the Nestor of
+      the Mamluks (1803).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment, the second Mamluk bey, Muhammed el-Elfi, returned from
+      England, whither he had accompanied the British to demand protection when
+      they evacuated Alexandria in March of the same year, and landed at Abukir.
+      This arrival filled Bardisi with the gravest anxiety, for Muhammed el-Elfi
+      was his equal in station, and would share his power even if he did not
+      deprive him of the position he had recently acquired through his own
+      efforts. These fears were but too well founded. Whilst Bardisi was
+      securing his position by warfare, el-Elfi had gained the protection of
+      England, and, as its price, had pledged himself to much that would
+      compromise the future of Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Far from openly joining one or other of the rival parties, Mehemet Ali
+      contented himself with fanning the flame of their rivalry. The rank of
+      Albanian captain, which gave him the air of a subaltern, greatly
+      facilitated the part he intended to play. He worked quietly and with
+      unending perseverance. Flattering the ambitions of some, feeding the
+      resentment of others, winning the weak-minded with soft words, overcoming
+      the strong by his own strength; presiding over all the revolutions in
+      Cairo, upholding the cause of the pashas when the Mamluks needed support,
+      and, when the pasha had acquired a certain amount of power, uniting
+      himself with the Mamluk against his allies of yesterday; above all,
+      neglecting nothing which could secure him the support of the people, and
+      making use for this end of the sheikhs and Oulemas, whom he conciliated,
+      some by religious appearances, others by his apparent desire for the
+      public good, he thus maintained his position during the numerous changes
+      brought about by the respective parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, in the beginning of March, 1805, as the people were beginning
+      to weary of disturbances as violent as they were frequent, Mehemet Ali
+      promised the sheikhs to restore peace and order if they would assure him
+      their co-operation and influence. He then incited a revolt against the
+      Oulemas, besieged Kourshyd Pasha in the citadel, made himself master of
+      Cairo in the space of a few days, and finished his work by expelling the
+      Mamluks. The Albanians and Oulemas, completely carried away by his valour
+      and manouvres, proclaimed him pasha immediately. Always prudent, and
+      anxious to establish his claims upon the favour of the Porte, Mehemet Ali
+      feigned to refuse. After considerable hesitation, which gave way before
+      some costly gifts, or possibly on consideration of the difficulties
+      hitherto experienced in establishing the authority of the pashas, the
+      Turkish government determined to confirm the choice of the Egyptian
+      people. Mehemet Ali received, therefore, the firman of investiture on July
+      9,1805; but during the ensuing seven months he governed in Lower Egypt
+      only, Alexandria still being under the authority of an officer delegated
+      by the sultan. As for Upper Egypt, it had remained the appanage of the
+      Mamluk beys, who had contrived to retain possession of the Saïd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Ali had no sooner been proclaimed than Elfi, who had reorganised
+      his party in Upper Egypt, did all in his power to overthrow the new pasha.
+      He first offered to assist Kourshyd to regain his former position; he
+      promised his allegiance to the Porte on condition of the dismissal of
+      Mehemet Ali, and then turned his attention to England. He found difficulty
+      in obtaining her concurrence by promising to give up the chief ports of
+      Egypt. These negotiations, suspended the first time by M. Dro-vetti, the
+      French consul at Alexandria, co-operating with the pasha, were again
+      renewed some time after through the influence of the English ambassador,
+      who, in the name of his country, demanded the re-establishment of the
+      Mamluks, guaranteeing the fidelity of Elfi. The Porte at once sent a fleet
+      to Egypt bearing a firman, appointing Mehemet Ali to the pashalic of
+      Salonica. At this juncture, the viceroy, feeling sure of the support of
+      the sheikhs, who had assisted him to his present position, only sought to
+      temporise. He soon received the further support of the Mamluk beys of
+      Bardisi&rsquo;s party, who forgot their personal grievances in the desire to be
+      revenged upon the common foe; at the same time, twenty-five French
+      Mamluks, urged thereto by M. Drovetti, deserted the ranks of Elfi&rsquo;s
+      adherents and joined Mehemet Ali.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Pasha of Egypt possessed a zealous partisan in the French ambassador
+      at Constantinople. The latter, perceiving that the secession of the
+      Mamluks made the regaining of their former power an absolute
+      impossibility, pleaded the cause of Mehemet Ali with the Porte, and
+      obtained a firman re-establishing his viceroyalty, on condition of his
+      payment of an annual tribute of about $1,000,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The power of Mehemet Ali was beginning to be more firmly established, and
+      the almost simultaneous deaths of Osman-Bardisi and Muhammed el-Elfi
+      (November, 1806, and January, 1807) seemed to promise a peaceful future,
+      when, on March 17th, the English, displeased at his reconciliation with
+      the Porte, arrived in Egypt. Their forces numbered some seven or eight
+      thousand men, and it was the intention to stir up the Mamluks and render
+      them every assistance. A detachment of the English forces, led by General
+      Fraser, took possession of Alexandria, which the English occupied for six
+      months without being able to attempt any other enterprise. The remainder
+      of the troops were cut to pieces at Rosetta by a small contingent of
+      Albanians: thus ended the expedition. The viceroy, who at the beginning of
+      the campaign had displayed really Oriental cruelty, and sent more than a
+      thousand heads of English soldiers to Cairo to decorate Rumlieh, finished
+      his operations by an act of European generosity, and delivered up his
+      prisoners without demanding ransom. The plan of defence adopted by the
+      pasha was the work of Drovetti, to whom, consequently, is due some of the
+      glory of this rapid triumph.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Ali, having nothing further to fear from the English, who
+      evacuated Egypt in September, 1807, began to give scope to his ambitious
+      schemes, when the easily disturbed policy of the Porte saw fit to send the
+      wily pasha against the Wahabis, who threatened to invade the Holy Places.
+      Before obeying these injunctions, the viceroy deemed it wise, previous to
+      engaging in a campaign so perilous, to ensure Egypt against the dangers
+      with which, in the absence of the forces, she would be menaced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0005" id="linkBimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/151.jpg" width="100%" alt="151.jpg Mosque of Mehemit Ali " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      But Egypt had no more powerful enemies than the Mamluks, who, since 1808,
+      had kept the country in a constant state of agitation. Mehemet Ali
+      therefore determined to put an end to this civil war, root and branch, and
+      to exterminate completely this formidable adversary. He did not hesitate
+      in the choice of means. War would not have succeeded; murder, therefore,
+      was the only alternative, and the viceroy adopted this horrible means of
+      accomplishing his designs. He invited the entire Mam-luk corps to a
+      banquet, which he proposed to give in the Citadel Palace in honour of the
+      departure of Tussun Pasha for Mecca. This palace is built upon a rock, and
+      is reached by perpendicular paths. On May 1st, the day fixed upon for the
+      festivity, Mehemet Ali received his guests in great splendour and with a
+      cordiality calculated to dispel any suspicions the Mamluks might have
+      entertained. At the conclusion of the banquet, as they were returning
+      home, they were fired upon in the narrow pass, where retreat and
+      resistance were perfectly impossible. Thus, after having defeated the
+      bravest troops in the world, they died obscurely, ingloriously, and unable
+      to defend themselves. Hassan Bey, brother of the celebrated Elfi, spurred
+      his horse to a gallop, rode over the parapets, and fell, bruised and
+      bleeding, at the foot of the walls, where some Arabs saved him from
+      certain death by aiding his flight. The few who escaped massacre took
+      refuge in Syria or Dongola.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst this horrible drama was being enacted in Cairo, similar scenes were
+      taking place in those provinces whose governors had received stringent
+      commands to butcher every remaining Mamluk in Egypt. THUs nearly all
+      perished, and that famous corps was destroyed for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although Mehemet Ali had no doubt whatever as to the intentions which had
+      prompted the Porte to organise the expedition against the Wahabis, he
+      hastened to prepare for this lengthy war. Mehemet himself was in command
+      of an army in the Hedjaz when Latif Pasha arrived, bearing a firman of
+      investiture to the pashalic of Egypt. Luckily, Mehemet Ali on his
+      departure had left behind him, as vekyl, a trustworthy man devoted to his
+      interests, namely, Mehemet Bey. This faithful minister pretended to favour
+      the claims of Latif Pasha, and then arrested him, and had him publicly
+      executed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this moment the real reign of Mehemet Ali begins. Possessed of a
+      fertile country, he promptly began to consider the ways and means of
+      improving the deplorable state of its finances, and to grasp all the
+      resources which agriculture and commerce could yield for the realisation
+      of his ambitious schemes. Nothing must be neglected in the government of a
+      country for so many years the scene of incessant warfare; the labourer
+      must be made to return to the field he had deserted during the time of
+      trouble; political and civil order must be reestablished so as to reassure
+      the inhabitants, and secure the resumption of long abandoned industries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most important matter was to restrain the depredations of the
+      Bedouins, and, to assure the obedience of these hitherto unsubdued tribes,
+      he kept their sheikhs as hostages: at the same time he checked the
+      delinquencies of the Kopts, in whose hands the government of the
+      territories had been from time immemorial. A sure and certain peace thus
+      having been ensured to the interior of the country, the pasha turned his
+      attention to another enterprise, the accomplishment of which is always
+      somewhat difficult after a lengthy crisis. He wished to encourage and
+      regulate the payment of taxes without hindering the financial operations
+      of private individuals. To this end, he re-established the custom of
+      receiving tribute in kind, and to support the payment of this tribute he
+      organised the export trade. A thousand vessels built at his own expense
+      ploughed the waters of the Nile in all directions, and conveyed Egyptian
+      produce to the shores of the Mediterranean, where huge warehouses stored
+      the goods destined for foreign countries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Ali preserved a continual intercourse with foreign merchants, and
+      the country owed many fortunate innovations to these relations:
+      agriculture was enriched by several productions hitherto unknown. A
+      Frenchman, M. Jumel, introduced improvements in the production of cotton,
+      whilst M. Drovetti, the pasha&rsquo;s tried friend, helped to further the
+      establishment of manufactories by his advice and great experience of men
+      and things. Before long, cotton mills were built, cloth factories, a sugar
+      refinery, rum distillery, and saltpetre works erected. The foreign trade
+      despatched as much as seven million <i>ardebs</i> of cereals every year,
+      and more than six hundred thousand bales of cotton. In return, European
+      gold flowed into the treasury of this industrious pasha, and the revenues
+      of Egypt, which hitherto had never exceeded $150,000,000, were more than
+      doubled in 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The very slight success which Mehemet Ali had obtained when commanding the
+      irregular forces during the expedition against the Wahabis decided him to
+      put a long-cherished idea into execution, namely, to organise an army on
+      European lines. Henceforth this became the sole occupation of the
+      enterprising pasha and the exclusive goal of his perseverance. The
+      Nizam-Jedyd was proclaimed in the month of July, 1815, and all the troops
+      were ordered to model themselves after the pattern of the French army.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This large undertaking, which in 1807 had cost Selim III. his life, proved
+      almost as fatal to Mehemet Ali. A terrible insurrection broke out amongst
+      the alien soldiers, who principally composed the army; the infuriated
+      troops rose against the tyrant and the unbeliever, the palace was
+      pillaged, and the pasha had scarcely time to seek the shelter of his
+      citadel. His only means of saving his life and recovering his authority
+      was solemnly to promise to abandon his plan. Mehemet Ali therefore
+      deferred his military schemes and awaited the opportunity to test its
+      success upon the natives, who would be far more easily managed than the
+      excitable strangers, brought up as they were on the old traditions of the
+      Okaz and the Mamluks. The war which still raged in Arabia gave him the
+      means of ridding himself of the most indomitable men, whom he despatched
+      to Hedjaz under the command of Ibrahim Pasha, his eldest son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now came success to console Mehemet Ali for the failure of his reformatory
+      plans. After a long series of disasters, Ibrahim succeeded, in the year
+      1818, in taking Abd Allah Ibn-Sonud, the chief of the Wahabis, prisoner.
+      He sent him to the Great Pasha, a name often applied to Mehemet Ali in
+      Egypt, at Cairo, bearing a portion of the jewels taken from the temple at
+      Mecca. The unfortunate man was then taken to Constantinople, where his
+      punishment bore testimony to the victory rather than the clemency of his
+      conquerors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In reward for his services, the sultan sent Ibrahim a mantle of honour and
+      named him Pasha of Egypt, which title conferred on him the highest rank
+      among the viziers and pashas, and even placed him above his own father in
+      the hierarchy of the dignitaries of the Turkish Empire. At the same time
+      Mehemet Ali was raised to the dignity of khan, an attribute of the
+      Ottomans, and the greatest distinction obtainable for a pasha, inasmuch as
+      it was formerly exclusively reserved for the sovereigns of the Crimea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0006" id="linkBimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:38%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/157.jpg" alt="157.jpg the Cotton Plant " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      After destroying Daryeh, the capital of Nedj, Mehemet Ali conceived the
+      idea of extending his possessions in the interior of Africa, and of
+      subduing the country of the negroes, where he hoped to find much treasure.
+      He accordingly sent his son, Ishmail Pasha, with five thousand men, upon
+      this expedition, which ended most disastrously with the murder of Ishmail
+      and his guard by Melek Nemr, and the destruction of the remainder of his
+      forces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1824, Sultan Mahmud, realising the impossibility of putting
+      down the Greek insurrection by his own unaided forces, bent his pride
+      sufficiently to ask help of his vassal Mehemet Ali. Mehemet was now in
+      possession of a well-drilled army and a well-equipped fleet, which were
+      placed at the service of the sultan, who promised him in return the
+      sovereignty of Crete, the pashalic of Syria, and possibly the reversion of
+      Morea for his son Ibrahim. The Greeks, deceived by their easy successes
+      over the undisciplined Turkish hosts, failed to realise the greatness of
+      the danger which threatened them. The Egyptian fleet managed, without
+      serious opposition, to enter the Archipelago, and, in December, 1824,
+      Ibrahim, to whom Mehemet Ali had entrusted the supreme command of the
+      expedition, established his base in Crete, within striking distance of the
+      Greek mainland. The following February he landed with four thousand
+      regular infantry and five hundred cavalry at Modon, in the south of Morea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Greeks were utterly unable to hold their own against the
+      well-disciplined fellaheen of Ibrahim Bey, and, before the end of the
+      year, the whole of the Peloponnesus, with the exception of a few
+      strongholds, was at the mercy of the invader, and the report was spread
+      that Ibrahim intended to deport the Greek population and re-people the
+      country with Moslem negroes and Arabs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only barrier opposed to the entire extinction of the Greek population
+      was their single stronghold of Missolonghi, which was now besieged by
+      Rashid Pasha and the Turks. If Ibrahim had joined his forces with the
+      besieging army of the Turks, Missolonghi could hardly have resisted their
+      combined attack, and the Greek race would have been in danger of suffering
+      annihilation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the Great Powers of Europe were seriously concerned with this
+      threatened destruction of the Greeks. England proposed a joint
+      intervention in defence of Greece on the part of the Powers, but Russia
+      desired to act alone. A huge army was gradually concentrated upon the
+      Turkish frontier. The Greek leaders now offered to place Greece under
+      British protection, and the Duke of Wellington was sent to St. Petersburg
+      to arrange the terms of the proposed joint intervention. A protocol was
+      signed at St. Petersburg April 4, 1826, whereby England and Russia pledged
+      themselves to cooperate in preventing any further Turco-Egyptian
+      agression. A more definite agreement was reached in September, aiming at
+      the cutting off of Ibrahim in Morea by a united European fleet, thus
+      forcing the Turks and Egyptians to terms. On July 6,1827, a treaty was
+      signed at London, between England, France, and Russia, which empowered the
+      French and English admirals at Smyrna to part the combatants&mdash;by
+      peaceful means if possible, and if not, by force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Admiral Codrington at once sailed to Nauplia. The Greeks were willing to
+      accept an armistice, but the Turks scorned the offer. At about this time
+      an Egyptian fleet of ninety-two vessels sailed from Alexandria and joined
+      the Ottoman fleet in the bay of Navarino (September 7th). Five days later
+      Admiral Codrington arrived and informed the Turkish admiral that any
+      attempt to leave the bay would be resisted by force. French vessels had
+      also arrived, and Ibrahim agreed not to leave the bay without consulting
+      the sultan. A Greek flotilla having destroyed a Turkish flotilla, Ibrahim
+      took this as a breach of the convention and sailed out to sea, but
+      Codrington succeeded in turning him back. Ibrahim now received
+      instructions from the Porte to the effect that he should defy the Powers.
+      A new ultimatum was at once presented and the allied fleet of the European
+      Powers entered the bay of Navarino. The Turco-Egyptian fleet was disposed
+      at the bottom of the bay in the form of a crescent. Without further
+      parleying, as the fleet of the English and their allies approached, the
+      Turks and Egyptians began to fire, and a battle ensued, apparently without
+      plan on either side: the conflict soon became general, and Admiral
+      Codrington in the <i>Asia</i> opened a broadside upon the Egyptian
+      admiral, and quickly reduced his vessel to a wreck. Other vessels in rapid
+      succession shared the same fate, and the conflict raged with great fury
+      for four hours. When the smoke cleared off, the Turks and Egyptians had
+      disappeared, and the bay was strewn with fragments of their ships.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0007" id="linkBimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/161.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="161.jpg a Distinguished Egyptian Jew " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Admiral Codrington now made a demonstration before Alexandria, and Mehemet
+      Ali gladly withdrew his forces from co-operating with such a dangerous
+      ally as the sultan had proved himself to be. Before the French expedition,
+      bound for the Morea, had arrived, all the Egyptian forces had been
+      withdrawn from the Peloponnesus, and the French only arrived after the
+      Anglo-Egyptian treaty had been signed August 9, 1828.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Ali&rsquo;s chief ambition had always been to enlarge the circle of
+      regeneration in the East. In Morea he had failed through European
+      intervention. He felt that his nearer neighbour, Syria, which he had long
+      coveted, would be an easier conquest, and he made the punishment of
+      Abdullah Pasha of Acre, against whom he had many grievances, his excuse to
+      the Porte. In reality it was a case of attacking or being attacked.
+      Through a firman of the Divan of Constantinople, which had been published
+      officially to the European Powers, he knew that his secret relations with
+      Mustapha Pasha of Scodra had become known. He knew also that letters had
+      been intercepted in which he offered this pasha money, troops, and
+      ammunition, while engaging himself to march on the capital of the empire,
+      and that these letters were now in the hand of the Sultan Mahmud. He wras
+      also informed that the Porte was preparing to send a formidable army to
+      Egypt; and his sound instinct taught him what to do in this position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ibrahim Pasha was appointed commander-in-chief of the invading army, which
+      was composed of six regiments of infantry, four of cavalry, forty
+      field-pieces, and many siege-pieces. Provisions, artillery, and ammunition
+      were on board the men-of-war. Thousands of baggage camels and ambulances
+      were being collected ready for departure when cholera broke out. Coming
+      from India, after having touched along the coasts of the Persian Gulf, it
+      had penetrated into the caravan to Mecca, where the heat and dearth of
+      water had given it fresh intensity. It raged in the Holy Town, striking
+      down twenty thousand victims, and touched at Jeddah and Zambo, where its
+      effects were very dire. Passing through Suez, it decimated the population,
+      and in August it reached Cairo and spread to Upper and Lower Egypt. The
+      army did not escape the common scourge, and when about to invade Syria was
+      overtaken by the epidemic. Five thousand out of ninety thousand perished.
+      All preparations for the expedition were abandoned until a more temperate
+      season improved the sanitary conditions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About the beginning of October, 1831, the viceroy gave orders to his son
+      to prepare for departure, and on November 2d the troops started for El
+      Arish, the general meeting-place of the army. Ibrahim Pasha went to
+      Alexandria, whence he embarked with his staff and some troops for landing.
+      Uniting at El Arish, the army marched on Gaza and took possession of that
+      town, dispersing some soldiers of the Pasha of Acre. Thence it turned to
+      Jaffa, where it met with no resistance, the Turkish garrison having
+      already evacuated the town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this time the army which had sailed from Alexandria was cruising about
+      the port of Jaffa, and Ibrahim Pasha landed there and took over the
+      command of the army, which advanced slowly on St. Jean d&rsquo;Acre, seizing
+      Caiffa to facilitate the anchoring of the fleet, which had landed
+      provisions, artillery, and all kinds of ammunition. After six months&rsquo;
+      siege and ten hours&rsquo; fighting, Ibrahim Pasha obtained possession of St.
+      Jean d&rsquo;Acre, under whose walls fell so many valiant crusaders, and which,
+      since the repulse of Napoleon, had passed for all but impregnable.
+      Abdullah Pasha evinced a desire to be taken to Egypt, and he landed at
+      Alexandria, where he was warmly welcomed by the viceroy, who complimented
+      him on his defence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hostile in everything to Mehemet Ali, the Porte seized every opportunity
+      of injuring him. When Sultan Mahmud learned of the victory of the
+      viceroy&rsquo;s troops in Syria, he sent one of his first officers to enquire
+      the reason of this invasion. The viceroy alleged grievances against the
+      Pasha of Acre, to which his Highness replied that he alone had the right
+      to punish his subjects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eyes of Europe were now fixed upon the Levant, where a novel struggle
+      was going on between vassal and suzerain. Authority and liberty were again
+      opposing each other. The Powers watched the struggle with intense
+      interest. The viceroy protested against bearing the cost of the war, and
+      demanded the investiture of Syria. Mehemet Ali was then declared a rebel,
+      and a firman was issued against him, in support of which excommunication
+      an army of sixty thousand men advanced across Asia Minor to the Syrian
+      boundaries, while a squadron of twenty-five sail stood in the Dardanelles
+      ready to weigh anchor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0008" id="linkBimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/165.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="165.jpg Mosque of Muad at Cairo " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Porte forbade the ambassadors of the Powers to import ammunition into
+      Egypt, for it feared that the viceroy might find a support whose strength
+      it knew only too well. But the viceroy had no need of this, for his former
+      connections with Europe had put him in a position of independence, whereas
+      the Porte itself was obliged to fall back on this support. Russia, the one
+      of the three Great Powers whose disposition it was to support the
+      authority of the sultan, lent him twenty thousand bayonets, whilst Ibrahim
+      Pasha made his advance to the gates of Constantinople.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Immediately after the taking of St. Jean d&rsquo;Acre Ibrahim Pasha, following
+      up his successes, had turned towards Damascus, which town he entered
+      without a blow being struck, the governor and the leading inhabitants
+      having taken flight. The commander-in-chief established his headquarters
+      under the walls of the conquered country, and then marched in three
+      columns on Horns. The battle of Horns (July 8, 1832) demonstrated the vast
+      superiority of the Egyptian troops. On both sides there were about thirty
+      thousand regular soldiers, but the Egyptians were the better organised,
+      the better disciplined, and the more practised in the arts of war. When it
+      is remembered that at Horns the Turks lost two thousand men killed, and
+      2,500 taken prisoners, while the Egyptian casualties were only 102 killed
+      and 162 wounded, one is not astonished at the enthusiasm with which
+      Ibrahim Pasha wrote after the battle: &ldquo;I do not hesitate to say that two
+      or three hundred thousand of such troops would cause me no anxiety.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not surprising that the beaten pashas were so struck with terror
+      that in their flight they abandoned sixteen more pieces of artillery and
+      all the ammunition they had managed to save from their defeat. They fled
+      as if they could not put sufficient distance between themselves and their
+      redoubtable enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This battle foretold the result of the Syrian campaign. The population of
+      Syria seemed to call for the domination of the conqueror; the viceroy
+      protested his submission to the Porte and his desire for peace, and
+      meanwhile Ibrahim Pasha marched forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Porte counted on its fleet to guard the Dardanelles, but it needed an
+      army and a commander to oppose Ibrahim Pasha, who again defeated the Turks
+      at Oulon-Kislak. He then advanced towards the plains of Anatolia, where he
+      met Rashid Pasha.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now December, 1830, and the atmosphere was heavy with a thick fog.
+      The armies opened fire on each other on December 21st, with the town of
+      Koniah in the background. The grand vizier was at the head of close on
+      sixty thousand men, while the Egyptian army only comprised thirty
+      thousand, including the Bedouins. The fighting had continued for about six
+      hours when Rashid Pasha was taken prisoner; the news of his capture spread
+      along the Turkish lines and threw them into disorder, and the Egyptians
+      remained masters of the field, with twenty pieces of mounted cannon and
+      some baggage: the Turks had lost only five hundred men, while the Egyptian
+      losses were but two hundred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The battle of Koniah was the last act in the Syrian drama. The sultan&rsquo;s
+      throne was shaken, and its fall might involve great changes in the
+      politics of the world. Ibrahim Pasha was only three days&rsquo; journey from the
+      Bosphorus, and the way was open to him, with no Turkish army to fight and
+      the whole population in his favour. In Constantinople itself Mehemet Ali
+      had a powerful party, and, if the West did not interfere, the Ottoman
+      Empire was at an end. However, European diplomacy considered that, in
+      spite of its weakness, it should still weigh in the balance of the
+      nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Trembling in the midst of his harem, Sultan Mahmud cried for help, and
+      Russia, his nearest neighbour, heard the call. This was the Power that,
+      either from sympathy or ambition, was the most inclined to come to his
+      aid. The Emperor Nicholas had offered assistance in a letter brought to
+      the sultan by the Russian General Mouravieff, and a Russian squadron
+      appeared in the Bosphorus with eight thousand men for disembarkment. The
+      Russians, however, agreed not to set foot on shore unless Mehemet Ali
+      should refuse the conditions that were being proposed to him. The viceroy
+      refused the conditions, which limited his possessions to the pashalics of
+      Acre, Tripoli, and Seyd, and which seemed to him incompatible with the
+      glory won by his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sultan did not wish to give up Syria, but that province was no longer
+      his. The sword of Ibrahim had severed the last bonds that fastened it to
+      him, and he was obliged to yield it, as well as the district of Andama. On
+      his side, the viceroy acknowledged himself a vassal of the Porte, and
+      agreed to make an annual payment of the monies he received from the pashas
+      of Syria. This peace was concluded on May 14, 1833, and was called the
+      peace of Kutayeh, after the place where Ibrahim signed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was impossible that the convention of Kutayeh should be more than an
+      armistice. The pasha benefited by it too greatly not to desire further
+      advantages, and the sultan had lost so much that he must needs make some
+      attempt at recovery. Mahmud&rsquo;s annoyance was caused by the fact and nature
+      of the dispossession rather than by its material extent. The descendant of
+      the Os-manlis, ever implacable in his hatreds, who had allowed Syria, the
+      cradle of his race, to be wrested from him, now awaited the hour of
+      vengeance. Mehemet Ali knew himself to be strong enough to carry a sceptre
+      ably, and he realised that there would be no need for his numerous
+      pashalics to pass out of his family. Henceforth his mind was filled with
+      thoughts of independence and the rights of succession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0009" id="linkBimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/169.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="169.jpg a Muhammedan Praying Priest " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The viceroy and the sultan continued to strengthen their forces, and a
+      conflict occurred near Nezib on June 24, 1839. The Egyptians completely
+      routed their adversaries, despite the strenuous resistance of the Imperial
+      Guard, who, when called upon to surrender, cried in the same words used at
+      Waterloo, &ldquo;Khasse sultanem mamatenda darrhi tuffenguini iere Koimas.&rdquo;
+       (&ldquo;The guards of the sultan surrender arms only to death&rdquo;).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Greatly elated, Ibrahim flung himself into the arms of his companion in
+      glory, Suleiman Pasha. His prediction was verified: &ldquo;This time we will go
+      to Constantinople, or they shall come to Cairo.&rdquo; They set out for
+      Constantinople; but the viceroy was again generous. Through the mediation
+      of Captain Caillé, aide-de-camp to Marshal Soult, who, in the name of
+      France, demanded a cessation of hostilities, Mehemet Ali desired his son
+      not to proceed into Asia Minor; so the general halted before Aintab, the
+      scene of his victories, as he had done on a former occasion before
+      Kutayeh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Consumptive and exhausted with his excesses, Mahmud, whose virtue lay in
+      his ardent love of reforms, died before his time, but this untimely demise
+      at least spared him the knowledge of the Nezib disaster and the treason of
+      his fleet, which passed into the hands of the viceroy. Hafiz Pasha, routed
+      by Ibrahim, was arraigned on his return to Constantinople for leading the
+      attack before receiving the official mandate; but the Turkish general
+      produced an autograph of his defunct master. The sultan had been false to
+      the last, and deceived both European ambassadors and the ministers of the
+      empire, by means of mysterious correspondence, combined with his
+      protestations for the maintenance of peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was while Mehemet Ali was organising the national guard of Egypt, and
+      arranging the military training of the workmen employed in his many
+      factories, that the unlucky treaty of July 15, 1840, which gave the whole
+      of Syria to the Sublime Porte, was concluded. Four Western Powers had
+      secretly met in London and agreed to deprive the sovereign of the Nile of
+      his conquests, and fling him again at the foot of the throne, which he had
+      treated as a plaything. Mehemet Ali haughtily protested against the
+      desecration of his rights, and France, his faithful ally, with hand on
+      sword-hilt, threatened to draw it against whosoever should touch Egypt.
+      England and Austria covered the Syrian sea-coast with their sails and
+      guns. Beyrut, Latakia, Tortosa, Tripoli, Saida, Tyre, St. Jean d&rsquo;Acre were
+      bombarded and fell. This formidable coalition despatched Lord Napier to
+      Alexandria as negotiator. Mehemet Ali accepted the overtures, and a
+      convention guaranteed to him, as Pasha of Egypt, rights of succession
+      unknown to all other pashalics of the empire. The hatti-sherif of January
+      12, 1841, consolidated this privilege, with, however, certain restrictions
+      which were regarded as inadmissible by France, the viceroy, and the
+      cabinets. A new act of investiture, passed on June 1, 1841, confirmed the
+      viceroy in the possession of Egypt, transmissible to his male heirs, and
+      also in the government of Nubia. Mehemet Ali asked no more, France
+      declared herself satisfied, and, to prove it, became once more a member of
+      the European league by the treaty of July 15, 1841, which, without being
+      directly connected with the European question, dealing as it did with the
+      claims of Turkey upon the Dardanelles, implied, none the less, accordance
+      upon the Eastern situation. As a token of reconciliation, the Ottoman
+      Porte soon raised its former rival, Mehemet Ali, to the rank of sadrazam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The political history of Mehemet Ali was now at an end. All the results,
+      good or bad, of his career, had reached fulfilment. As a vanquished
+      conqueror he had been able to remain firm in the midst of catastrophe; his
+      fatherly ideas and feelings had been his salvation. Had he been absolutely
+      heroic, he would have considered it a duty, for his courage and his name&rsquo;s
+      sake, to carry the struggle on to the bitter end, and to perish in the
+      whirlpool he had raised. He showed that he desired to act thus, but in his
+      children&rsquo;s interests he refrained, and this was, we believe, the only
+      influence of importance which made him give way. It is true that there was
+      not much difference between a throne crumbling to ruins, or one built
+      thereon; such as it was, however, it seemed firmly secured to his
+      children, and it was for them to strengthen the foundations. The pasha
+      considered this a fitting reward for his labours; as for himself, he was
+      over seventy years of age, and ready to lay down his burdens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0010" id="linkBimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/173.jpg" width="100%" alt="173.jpg Egyptian Harmem " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      A man without learning and surrounded by barbarian soldiers, Mehemet Ali
+      appears before the world as nature made him. Dissimulation, diplomacy, and
+      deceit, coupled with capability, great courage, genius, and much
+      perseverance, brought him to the head of the government of Egypt. To gain
+      his ends he flattered the powerful Ulemas who were the nation&rsquo;s
+      representatives to the sultan, but, once having obtained his object, he
+      dismissed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though a clever politician, he was a bad administrator. Being alternately
+      blindly confident and extremely suspicious, he did not choose well the men
+      he employed as his auxiliaries, and, being a Turk and a devout Mussulman,
+      Mehemet Ali wished to give back to the Turks the power they had lost. He
+      only took account of the results of any undertaking, without paying any
+      attention to the difficulties surmounted in its execution, and this
+      characteristic made him commit many injustices. It was his habit to treat
+      men as levers, which he put aside when he had no further use for them. He
+      was quick of apprehension, and of very superior intelligence, and his
+      whole character was a mixture of generosity and meanness, of greatness and
+      littleness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Ali was an affable, an easy business man, and dominated by a
+      desire to talk. He enjoyed relating the incidents of his past life, and,
+      when not preoccupied by affairs of importance, his conversation was full
+      of charm. The foreigners who visited him were always much impressed with
+      his superiority, while his lively humour, his freedom, and that air of
+      good nature he knew so well how to adopt, all captivated his visitors. The
+      expression of his face was exceedingly mobile, and quickly communicated
+      itself to the men who surrounded him, who were in constant observation of
+      his moods, so that one could judge of the state of mind of the viceroy by
+      the calm or disturbed appearance of his servants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mehemet Ali was anxious, his look became fierce, his forehead
+      wrinkled, and his eyes shone with anger, while his speech was broken and
+      his manner brusque and imperious. As regards those in his service, Mehemet
+      Ali was by turns severe or gentle, tolerant or impatient, irascible, and
+      surprisingly forbearing. He was jealous of the glory of others, and
+      desired all honours for himself. He was an enemy of all that was slow. He
+      liked to do everything, to decide everything, and worked night and day.
+      All letters, notices, and memoranda that referred to his government, he
+      read himself or had them read to him. Picked men translated French and
+      English political newspapers into Turkish, and he encouraged discussion on
+      all subjects of high interest, although generally imposing his own
+      opinion. He did not always keep strictly to his word. He was a stoic, and
+      great pain could not destroy his habitual gaiety, and when very ill he
+      would still speak affably to those around him; but illnesses with him were
+      rare, for his health was, as a rule, excellent. He was very careful about
+      his appearance, and was fond of women without being their slave; in his
+      youth his life had been dissolute. He was above the prejudices of his
+      nation, and prayed very often, although a fatalist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the age of forty-five he learned to read, and he held European learning
+      in great esteem, confessing it superior to that of Turkey; but he
+      continued to regard European scientists and artists only as salaried
+      foreigners, whom he hastened to replace by natives as soon as he
+      considered the latter sufficiently enlightened. Mehemet Ali made one great
+      mistake, with which his nearest servants reproach him, and that is with
+      not having introduced into his family learned men from Europe, picked men
+      devoted to his cause, and well versed in the special things of which his
+      country was in need.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had they been brought into a close contact with the viceroy, and admitted
+      unreservedly to all the privileges the Turks enjoyed, these men would have
+      adopted Egypt as their country. They would have spoken the language and
+      have become the&rsquo; sentinels and safeguards necessary for the maintenance of
+      useful institutions which the Turks either refused or did not understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the administration of Mehemet Ali, public hygiene was not
+      neglected, and a sanitary council watched over the health of the country.
+      Measures were taken to increase the cleanliness and sanitation of the
+      towns; military hospitals were built, and a lazarette was established at
+      Alexandria, whilst vaccine was widely used. In the country the planting of
+      many trees helped the atmosphere, and Egypt, which Europeans had hitherto
+      regarded as the seat of a permanent plague epidemic, became more and more
+      a healthy and pleasurable resort. Mehemet, whose aims were always for the
+      furthering of Egyptian prosperity, profited by the leisure of peace to
+      look after the industrial works. Two great projects that occupied his
+      attention were the Nile dams and the construction of a railway from Suez
+      to Cairo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The actual condition of the canalisation of Egypt, while vastly improved
+      by the viceroy, was still far from complete. Canals, partial dams, and
+      embankments were attempted; fifty thousand draw-wells carried the water up
+      to a considerable height, but the system of irrigation was insufficient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The railway from Cairo to Suez was an easier, though not less important,
+      work. The road crossed neither mountain, river, nor forest, while a series
+      of little plains afforded a firm foundation, requiring very few
+      earthworks. Its two iron arms stretched out into the desert, and
+      steam-engines could traverse the distance from the Nile to the Red Sea in
+      three hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suez would thus become a suburb of Cairo, and thus, being brought closer
+      to Egypt, would regain her trade. This enterprise, just as the former one,
+      gave promise of bringing to Egypt the two sources of national wealth and
+      prosperity: agriculture and trade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0011" id="linkBimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/179.jpg" width="100%" alt="179.jpg Harbor of the Bulak " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The agricultural unity which Mehemet Ali constituted enabled him to bring
+      about improvements which with private proprietorship would have been
+      impossible. The fellah, careless of to-morrow, did not sow for future
+      reaping, and made no progress, but when Mehemet Ali undertook the control
+      of agricultural labour in Egypt, the general aspect of the country
+      changed, though, in truth, the individual condition of the fellah was not
+      improved. Besides the work of irrigation by means of canals, dykes, and
+      banks, and the introduction of the cultivation of indigo, cotton, opium,
+      and silk, the viceroy had also planted thousands of trees of various
+      kinds, including 100,000 walnut-trees; he ordered the maimours, or
+      prefects, to open up the roads between the villages, and to plant trees.
+      He wished the villages, towns, and hamlets to be ornamented, as in Europe,
+      with large trees, under whose shelter the tired traveller could rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the various districts were vast tracts of land which for a long time
+      the plough had not touched. Concessions of these lands were made to
+      Franks, Turks, Greeks, and Armenians, which concessions were free, and for
+      a term of seven or eight years, while the guarantees were exempt from
+      taxes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the closing years of his life, between 1841 and 1849, Mehemet
+      occupied himself with improvements in Egypt. He continued to prosecute his
+      commercial speculations, and manufacturing, educational, and other
+      schemes. The barrage of the Nile, which has only been finished during the
+      British occupation, was begun under his direction. In 1847 he visited
+      Constantinople, and was received with the rank of a vizier. In the year
+      1848 symptoms of imbecility appeared, and his son Ibrahim was declared his
+      successor. After a reign of only two months he died. Mehemet Ali&rsquo;s death
+      occurred on the 3rd of August, 1849. His direct successor was his
+      grandson, Abbas Pasha, who held the sceptre of Egypt as the direct heir of
+      Ibrahim Pasha. This prince took but little interest in the welfare of his
+      country. He had in him no spark of the noble ambition of his predecessor,
+      and no trace of his genius, and he showed no desire for progress or
+      reforms. He was a real prince of the ancient East, suspicious, sombre, and
+      careless of the destiny of the country entrusted to his care. He liked to
+      withdraw to the privacy of his palace, and, isolated in the midst of his
+      guards, to live that life of the distrustful and voluptuous despots of the
+      East. The palace of Bar-el-Beda, which he had built on the road to Suez in
+      the open desert, a palace without water, lifting its head in the solitude
+      like a silent witness of a useless life and tragic death, impresses the
+      traveller with astonishment and fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Abbas Pasha was weak in his negotiations with the European Powers, and
+      this was well for Egypt, as their representative was able to hold in check
+      his silent hostility to Western civilisation. Such guardianship is useful
+      when exercised over a prince like Abbas Pasha, but it tends to become
+      troublesome and baneful when it attempts to interfere with the government
+      of an active and enlightened sovereign animated by just and generous
+      intentions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Muhammed Said, the successor of Abbas Pasha, was born in 1822, nine years
+      later than his nephew Abbas. He was brought up in Europe by French
+      professors, and M. Kornig, a distinguished Orientalist, remained with his
+      pupil and became his secretary. He not only instructed him in all branches
+      of knowledge becoming to his rank, but also developed in him a love of
+      European civilisation and noble sentiments, of which he gave proof from
+      the moment of his accession. He was imbued with liberal principles, which
+      in an Eastern potentate give proof of great moral superiority, and in this
+      respect Muhammed Said wras second to no prince in Europe. He worked for
+      the emancipation of his subjects and the civilisation of Egypt, and was
+      not content to produce that superficial civilisation which consists in
+      transplanting institutions that the mass of the people could not
+      understand. Said Pasha endeavoured to pursue his father&rsquo;s policy and to
+      carry out his high aims. He had not, however, the strength of character
+      nor the health necessary to meet the serious difficulties involved in such
+      a task, and he will be chiefly remembered by his abolition of the more
+      grinding government monopolies, and for the concession of the Suez Canal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After his death Said Pasha was succeeded in the vice-royalty by his
+      nephew, Ismail Pasha, who was proclaimed viceroy without opposition early
+      in the year 1863. Ismail, the first who accepted the title of khédive from
+      the sultan, was born on December 31, 1830, being the second of the three
+      sons of Ibrahim, and grandson of Mehemet Ali. He had been educated at the
+      Ecole d&rsquo;Etat Major at Paris, and when Ahmed, the eldest son of Ibrahim,
+      died in 1858, Ismail became the heir to his uncle Said. He had been
+      employed, after his return to Egypt, on missions to the sovereign pontiff;
+      the emperor, Napoleon III.; and the Sultan of Turkey. In the year 1861 he
+      was despatched with an army of 18,000 men to quell an insurrection in the
+      Sudan, which undertaking he brought to a successful conclusion. On
+      ascending the throne he was much gratified to find that, on account of the
+      scarcity of cotton, resulting from the Civil War in America, the revenues
+      had very considerably increased from the export of the Egyptian cotton. At
+      this date the cotton crop was worth $125,000,000, instead of $25,000,000,
+      which was the normal value of the Egyptian output. It was a very serious
+      misfortune to Egypt that during his sojourn abroad Ismail had learned many
+      luxurious ways, and had also discovered that European nations were
+      accustomed to make free use of their credit in raising sums of money for
+      their immediate advantage. From this moment Ismail started upon a career
+      which gave to Egypt, in the eyes of the world, a fictitious grandeur, and
+      which made him one of the most talked-of rulers among the cabinets and
+      peoples of the European countries. He began by transferring his own
+      private debts to the state, and thereafter looked upon Egypt merely as his
+      private estate, and himself as the sovereign landholder. Without any sense
+      of his responsibility to the Egyptians themselves, he increased his own
+      fame throughout Europe in the sumptuous fashion of a spendthrift
+      millionaire. He deemed it necessary for his fame that Egypt should possess
+      institutions modelled upon those of European countries, and he applied
+      himself with energy to achieve this, and without any stint of expense. By
+      burdening posterity for centuries to come, Ismail, during the two decades
+      subsequent to his accession, always had a supply of ready money with which
+      to dazzle European guests. During his entire reign Egypt swarmed with
+      financiers and schemers of every description, to whom the complacent
+      Ismail lent an only too willing ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1866, in return for an increase of tribute, he obtained from
+      the sultan a firman giving him the title of khédive (Turkish, <i>khidewi</i>,
+      a king), and changing the law of succession to that of direct descent from
+      father to-son; and in 1873 he obtained a new firman, purchased again at an
+      immense cost to his subjects, which rendered him practically independent
+      of the sultan. Ismail projected vast schemes of internal reform. He
+      remodelled the system of customs and the post-office, stimulated
+      commercial progress, and created the Egyptian sugar industry. He
+      introduced European improvements into Cairo and Alexandria; he built vast
+      palaces, entertained visitors with lavish generosity, and maintained an
+      opera and a theatre. By his order the distinguished composer, Verdi,
+      produced the famous opera &ldquo;Aïda&rdquo; for the entertainment of his illustrious
+      guests on the occasion of their visit to Egypt during the festivities
+      connected with the opening of the Suez Canal. On this occasion Mariette
+      Bey ransacked the tombs of the ancient Egyptian kings in order to
+      reproduce in a lifelike manner the costumes and scenery appropriate for
+      the occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0012" id="linkBimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/185.jpg" width="100%" alt="185.jpg a Fellah Plowing " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The opening of this canal gave Ismail much prominence in the courts of
+      Europe. He was made a Grand Commander of the Bath, and the same year
+      visited Paris and London, where he was received by Queen Victoria and
+      welcomed by the lord mayor. In 1869 he again visited London. By his great
+      power of fascination and lavish expenditure he was ever able to make a
+      striking impression upon the foreign courts. During the opening of the
+      canal, when Ismail gave and received royal honours, treating monarchs as
+      equals, and being treated by them in like manner, the jealousy of the
+      sultan was aroused. Ismail, however, contrived judiciously to appease the
+      suspicions of his overlord, Abdul Aziz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1876 the old system of consular jurisdiction for foreigners
+      was abolished, and the system of mixed courts was introduced, by which
+      European and native judges sat together to try all civil cases, without
+      respect to nationality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1874 Darfur, a province in the Sudan west of Kordofan, was
+      annexed by Ismail. He also engaged in a disastrous war against the
+      Abyssinians, who had ever shown themselves capable of resisting the
+      inroads of Egyptians, Muhammedans, Arabs, and even of European invaders,
+      as was proven by the annihilation of a large Italian army of invasion, and
+      the abandonment of the campaign against Abyssinia by the Italians in the
+      closing years of the nineteenth century.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0013" id="linkBimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/187.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="187.jpg Arabs at a Desert Spring " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It was true that Ismail had attempted to carry out the great schemes of
+      his grandfather for the regeneration of the Orient, and it is possible
+      that, if the jealousy of European Powers had not prevented the army of
+      Ibrahim Bej from controlling immense territories in Syria and Anatolia,
+      which they had won by conquest, that the regeneration of the Orient might
+      have been accomplished at least a century earlier. No people would have
+      benefited more by the success of Mehemet Ali&rsquo;s policy than the Christian
+      people who to-day are under the rule of the barbarous Turks. With the
+      regeneration of the Orient, the trade of European nations in the East
+      would have been very largely increased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0014" id="linkBimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:50%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/190.jpg"
+       alt="190.jpg Part of Cairo, Showing the Mulqufs on The Houses Of Modern Egypt " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The policy of regeneration, wisely begun by Mehemet Ali, was resumed
+      within Egypt itself in a spendthrift manner by his grandson Ismail. Every
+      act of his reign, with its ephemeral and hollow magnificence, moved
+      towards the one inevitable result of foreign intervention. The price of
+      all the transient splendour was the surrender by slow degrees of the
+      sovereignty and independence of Egypt itself. The European Powers of late
+      have withdrawn their interest in the betterment of the native populations
+      in the Asiatic dominions of the sultan, and have concerned themselves
+      exclusively with the immediate interests of commerce and the enforcement
+      of debts contracted to European bondholders. All progress in the later
+      history of Egypt has originated in the desire of the European Powers to
+      see Egypt in a position capable of meeting her indebtedness to foreign
+      bondholders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In so far as the cry raised of &ldquo;Egypt for the Egyptians&rdquo; was a protest
+      against forcing the Egyptians to pay for an assumed indebtedness which was
+      at least four times greater than anything they had actually received, no
+      movement was ever more just and righteous than the protest of the
+      fellaheen against foreign control, a movement which has been chiefly
+      associated with the name of Arabi Pasha. The issue of Ismail&rsquo;s financial
+      troubles was most ignominious and disastrous to Egypt, after nearly a
+      hundred years of heroic struggles to keep pace with the progress of modern
+      Europe. Had Ismail modelled his career upon that of his illustrious
+      grandfather, rather than that of Napoleon III., with which it shows many
+      striking parallels, it is probable that the advantage secured to Egypt
+      through the British occupation might have resulted in political and
+      financial independence. When the crash came, and the order for his
+      deposition was sent by the sultan, Ismail resigned the khedivate in
+      complete submission; and, taking away with him a large private fortune and
+      a portion of the royal harem, he spent the remainder of his life in
+      retirement at Naples and Constantinople, and was buried with solemn pomp
+      in the royal cemetery at Cairo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="linkBimage-0015" id="linkBimage-0015">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/191.jpg" width="100%" alt="191.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkB2HCH0002" id="linkB2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV&mdash;THE BRITISH INFLUENCE IN EGYPT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>Ismail deposed: Tewfik Pasha: Revolt of Arabi Pasha: Lord Wolseley and
+      the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir: The Mahdist Rising: General Gordon in the
+      Sudan: Death of Gordon: The Sudan abandoned and re-conquered: Battle of
+      Onidurman: Khartum College: Financial Stability: Abbas II.: Education,
+      Law, and the improved condition of the Fellaheen: The Caisse de la Dette</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The official deposition of Ismail Pasha by the sultan of Turkey, Abdul
+      Hamid, occurred on June 26, in the year 1879, and his son Tewfik assumed
+      the khedivate, becoming practically the protégé of England and Egypt. To
+      understand how this came to pass, it is necessary to review the account of
+      the financial embarrassments of Ismail. In twelve years he had extracted
+      more than $400,000,000 from the fellaheen in taxes. He had borrowed
+      another $400,000,000 from Europe at the same time, of which nominal sum he
+      probably received $250,000,000 in cash. The loans were ostensibly
+      contracted for public works. Possibly ten per cent, of the borrowed money
+      was profitably laid out. The railways were extended; Upper Egypt was
+      studded with sugar factories,&mdash;most of them doomed to failure,&mdash;and
+      certain roads and gardens were made about the city of Cairo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The remainder of this enormous sum of money was spent in purchasing a
+      change in the law of succession, and the new title of khédive; in
+      disastrous Abyssinian campaigns; in multiplying shoddy palaces, and in
+      personal extravagance, which combined Oriental profusion with the worst
+      taste of the Second Empire. Useless works engaged the corvee; the
+      fellaheen were evicted from vast tracts, which became ill-managed estates;
+      and their crops, cattle, and even seed were taken from them by the
+      tax-gatherers, so that they died by hundreds when a low Nile afflicted the
+      land. The only persons who flourished in Ismail&rsquo;s time were foreign
+      speculators and adventurers of the lowest type. As these conditions became
+      more serious, the khédive attempted to find some means of protection
+      against the concession-monger. He adopted a suggestion of the wise Nubar
+      Pasha, and instituted the mixed tribunals for adjudging civil cases
+      between natives and foreigners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Powers agreed to the establishment of these tribunals, and intended to
+      enforce the decisions of the courts, even in case that Ismail himself were
+      the delinquent. When later the khédive repudiated the mixed tribunals,
+      this action precipitated his fall. It became increasingly difficult for
+      the khédive to meet his accumulated obligations. The price of cotton had
+      fallen after the close of the American war, and there was less response
+      from the impoverished people to the Cour-bash, which in 1868 was still
+      more strictly enforced; and soon this enforcement by the mixed tribunal of
+      debts due to foreigners by an agricultural population, who lived by borrowing,
+      and were accustomed to settle their debts by haggling, aggravated the
+      misery of the fellaheen, and led to that universal despair which was to
+      give strength and significance to the Arabist revolt. It was no uncommon
+      procedure for the Levantine money-lender to accompany the tax-gatherer
+      into the provinces with a chest of money. He paid the taxes of the
+      assembled and destitute fellaheen, who in return were obliged to give
+      mortgages on their crops or holdings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The desperate state of Egyptian finance, which led to the sale of the
+      precious Suez Canal shares, at last opened the eyes of the bondholders.
+      Mr. G. T. Goschen (Viscount Goschen) and M. Joubert were deputed to Egypt
+      on behalf of the foreign creditors. The accounts were found to be in a
+      state of wild confusion, with little or no chance of learning the actual
+      facts controlling the financial situation. The minister of finance, or
+      &ldquo;Mufet-tish,&rdquo; Ismail Pasha Sadeck, was now arrested and banished to
+      Dongola.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an immediate prospect of a dual control by England and France.
+      Commissioners were appointed to constitute a caisse, or court, for
+      receiving the interest due to the bondholders. The great mass of the debt
+      was then unified, but the Goschen and Joubert arrangement was found to be
+      too severe for the impoverished country. A low Nile and a famine resulted
+      in a demand for an investigation into the administration, and the
+      following year Ismail was obliged to authorise a commission of inquiry.
+      The waste, extravagance, and wholesale extortion from the peasantry
+      revealed by this report made a deep impression upon Europe, and Ismail was
+      forced to disgorge the estates which he had received from the fellaheen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime, the khédive was not inactive in taking measures to
+      prevent the advent of a confirmed foreign control. He created a
+      constitutional ministry, upon whom the responsibility rested for the
+      different branches of the administration. He likewise fomented an outburst
+      of feeling among the Moslems against the foreign element in the
+      constitutional ministry. This was intended to strengthen the pro-Egyptian
+      element in the government, and Ismail thus hoped to demonstrate to the
+      European Powers the uselessness of attempting to subordinate the Egyptians
+      to foreign methods of finance and control. Ismail subsequently dismissed
+      the ministry, and soon afterwards the controllers themselves. Knowing well
+      the jealousy which existed between England and France, he believed that
+      there was a chance that he might successfully play off one Power against
+      the other. If the Moslems had not been so severely oppressed by taxation,
+      and Ismail had acted with courage and firmness, it is probable that he
+      might have held his own, and Egypt might have refused to again accept the
+      dual control.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bismarck now intervened, and hinted to the sultan that he would receive
+      the support of the Powers, and Abdul Hamid immediately sent a telegram to
+      the Egyptian government that Ismail Pasha was deposed from the khedivate.
+      At this moment his courage gave way, and Ismail surrendered his throne to
+      his son Tewfik.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0016" id="linkBimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/195.jpg" width="100%" alt="195.jpg the Khedive Tewfik " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Tewfik had the misfortune to enter upon a doleful heritage of an empty
+      treasury, a starving people, and an army ready to mutiny. There were now
+      two parties in Egypt. The military movement was of the least importance.
+      The superior posts in the army had been occupied by Circassians since the
+      days of Mehemet Ali.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      196 THE BRITISH INFLUENCE IN EGYPT
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slave boys were bought and trained as officers. The number and quality of
+      the Circassians had deteriorated, but they still held the most important
+      posts. The fellaheen officers, under Arabi, who had been brought to
+      protest against reductions in the military establishment, now claimed that
+      the Circassians should make way for the Egyptians. Together with this
+      military dissatisfaction was also a strong civil movement towards national
+      reform, which included a number of serious and sensible administrative
+      reforms, which have since been carried out. Arabi Pasha was the leader of
+      the National Party, and had hopes of convincing fair-minded people of the
+      justice of their cause; but many influences, some good and some bad, were
+      at work simultaneously to divert him from constitutional methods towards
+      making his appeal to the violent and fanatical element.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at this time a divergence between English and French views in dealing
+      with the situation had manifested itself, having its root in earlier
+      history. France, now as in 1840, was aiming at the policy of detaching
+      Egypt from the control of the unprogressive Turks; England aimed at the
+      maintenance of the much talked of integrity of the Ottoman Empire. The
+      French premier, Gambetta, was determined that there should be no
+      intervention on the part of the Turks. He drafted the &ldquo;Identic Note&rdquo; in
+      January, 1881, and induced Lord Granville, the English Foreign Secretary,
+      to give his assent. This note contained the first distinct threat of
+      foreign intervention. The result was a genuine and spontaneous outburst of
+      Moslem feeling. All parties united to protest against foreign
+      intervention, joined by the fellaheen, who now saw an opportunity of
+      freeing themselves from foreign usurers, to whom they had become so
+      unjustly indebted. Riots broke out in Alexandria in 1881. Gambetta was
+      replaced by the hesitating Freycinet, who looked upon the intervention
+      with alarm, and upon Germany with suspicion. England was thus at the last
+      moment left to act alone. Past experience had taught her that the destiny
+      of Egypt lay in the hands of the dominant sea-power of the Mediterranean,
+      and that Egypt must not be neglected by the masters of India. After a vain
+      attempt to bring about mediation through Dervish Pasha, the special
+      commissioner of the Porte, it was discovered that the Nationalist Party
+      was too little under control to be utilised in any further negotiations.
+      Ahmed Arabi Pasha had greatly increased his influence, and had finally
+      been appointed Minister of War. On the 11th of June there was serious
+      rioting, in which many Greeks and Maltese, four Englishmen, and six
+      Frenchmen were slain. Arabi now stepped forward to preserve order, being
+      at this moment practically the dictator of Egypt. While endeavouring to
+      maintain order, he also threw up earthworks to protect the harbour of
+      Alexandria, and trained the guns upon the British fleet. The admiral in
+      charge, Sir Beauchamp Seymour, who was waiting for the arrival of the
+      Channel Squadron, sent word to the Egyptians to cease the construction of
+      fortifications. The request was not fully assented to, although it was
+      reinforced by an order from the Porte. An ultimatum was presented on July
+      10, commanding Arabia to surrender the forts. The terms were refused, and
+      eight ships and five gunboats prepared for action on the following day. At
+      the same time the French fleet retired upon Port Said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first shot was fired on July 11th, at seven o&rsquo;clock in the morning, by
+      the Alexandrians, and in reply an iron hail rained upon the forts of the
+      Egyptians from the guns of the British fleet. Arabi&rsquo;s troops fought well
+      and aimed correctly, but their missiles were incapable of penetrating the
+      armour of the ironclads. One fort after another was silenced. Lord Charles
+      Beresford, in command of the gunboat <i>Condor</i>, led a brilliant attack
+      upon Fort Marabout. The firing re-opened on the next day, and a flag of
+      truce was soon displayed. After some unsatisfactory parleying the
+      bombardment was resumed, and when a second flag of truce was unfurled it
+      was discovered that Arabi Pasha had retreated to Kefr-el-Dowar, fourteen
+      miles away from Alexandria. On his departure the city was given over to
+      plunder and destruction. The convicts escaped from the prison, and,
+      joining forces with the Arabs, looted and burned the European quarters.
+      Two thousand persons, mostly Greeks and Levantines, were slain, and an
+      enormous quantity of property destroyed. Admiral Seymour then sent a body
+      of sailors on land, who patrolled the streets and shot down the looters,
+      and order was thus finally restored in Alexandria. The khédive, who was
+      forced to fly for his life to an English steamer, was reinstated in the
+      Ras-el-Tin Palace, under an escort of seven hundred marines. The British
+      admiral was afterwards severely criticised for not having put a stop to
+      the rioting before it assumed such serious proportions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arabi&rsquo;s army of 6,000 was now increased by recruits flocking in from every
+      port in Egypt. After considerable pressure had been brought to bear upon
+      the khédive, Tewfik issued a proclamation dismissing Arabi from his
+      service. To enforce the submission of the Arabists, an English army of
+      33,000 men was gradually landed in Egypt, under the command of Sir Garnet
+      Wolseley, with an efficient staff, including Sir John Adye, Sir Archibald
+      Alison, Sir Evelyn Wood, and General Hamley. An Indian contingent also
+      arrived under General Macpherson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Garnet, after making a feint to land near Alexandria, steamed to Port
+      Said and disembarked, moving up the Suez Canal in order to join forces
+      with the Indian contingent, who were advancing from Suez. Fighting took
+      place over the control of the canal at the Mahsameh and Kassassin Locks,
+      and at the latter place the British cavalry won an important victory over
+      the Egyptian advance-guard. Arabi&rsquo;s stronghold was at Tel-el-Kebir, and
+      the English were very anxious to win a decisive victory before the troops
+      which the sultan was sending from Constantinople under Dervish and Baker
+      Pasha should arrive. On September 12, 1882, preparations had been
+      completed for an advance, and the army of 11,000 infantry and 2,000
+      cavalry, with sixty pieces of artillery, moved forward during the night to
+      within a mile of Arabi&rsquo;s lines. The Egyptians had 20,000 regulars, of
+      which number 2,500 were cavalry, with seventy guns, and they were also
+      aided by 6,000 Bedouins. Though well situated, the army of Arabi was taken
+      by surprise, and the following day, in response to the various flanking
+      movements of the British, directed by Wolseley, and the direct charge of
+      the Highlanders, they made but a very indifferent defence. In a brief
+      space of time the Egyptians were in full retreat, Arabi fleeing to Cairo.
+      The Indian contingent occupied Zagazig, and General Drury-Lowe rode with
+      his cavalry for thirty-nine miles, and entered Cairo on the evening of the
+      14th. Arabi made a dignified surrender, and with him 10,000 men also gave
+      themselves up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Nationalist movement was now at an end, the various garrisons
+      surrendering one after another, and the greater part of the British army
+      left Egypt, 12,000 men remaining behind to maintain order. The Egyptian
+      government wished to try Arabi as a rebel in a secret tribunal. It was
+      generally believed that this would have meant a death sentence. Mr.
+      Wilfrid Blunt, a distinguished British Liberal and a friend of Arabi, who
+      had often expressed his sympathy with the cause of the Nationalists in
+      their endeavour to free Egypt from the slavery of the foreign bondholder,
+      now raised a vigorous protest in favour of an open trial. He personally
+      contributed to the defence of Arabi, and his efforts led to the
+      commutation of the sentence of death to that of perpetual exile in Ceylon&mdash;a
+      sentence which was subsequently very much modified. Arabi Pasha returned
+      to Egypt in the year 1902, after an exile which had lasted about nine
+      years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0017" id="linkBimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/201.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="201.jpg Palace Op the Khedive at Alexandria " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The difficult task of readjusting the government of Egypt was then
+      undertaken. Proposals were made to France for a modification of the dual
+      control, in which France was offered the presidency of the Debt
+      Commission. France, however, refused to accept the compromise, and the
+      British government finally determined upon independent action. In place of
+      the officials through whom the two governments had hitherto exercised the
+      control, a single financial adviser was appointed, who was not allowed to
+      take part in the direct administration of the country. The outline of this
+      adjustment was given in a circular note addressed by Lord Granville to the
+      Powers. He declared that an army would remain in Egypt as long as it was
+      required; representative institutions were to be created; the Egyptian
+      army and gendarmery were to be placed in the hands of Englishmen; the
+      Diara estates were to be economically managed; foreigners were to be
+      placed upon the same footing as natives in regard to taxation. The other
+      Powers, including Turkey but excluding France, accepted the agreement. The
+      office of financial adviser was given to Sir Edgar Vincent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The important work of the reconstruction of Egypt now began in earnest.
+      Sir Benson Maxwell set about establishing an effective means for the
+      impartial administration of justice, and Colonel Moncrieff undertook the
+      responsibility for the work of irrigation. Mr. Clifford Lloyd created a
+      police system, reorganised the prisons and hospitals, and set free the
+      untried prisoners. Baker Pasha formed a provincial gendarmery, and Sir
+      Evelyn Wood organised an army of six thousand men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1883, while this work of reconstruction was proceeding, a
+      religious insurrection, which had originated two years previously, was
+      forced upon the notice of the government. It has already been related that
+      the Ismailian sect of the Muhammedans had introduced the doctrine of a
+      coming Messiah, or Mahdi, who was to be the last of the imans, and the
+      incarnation of the universal soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a few impostors had exploited this doctrine to their own advantage,
+      and some of the Arabian tribes were firmly convinced that the Mahdi had
+      come, and that the Mahdis who had appeared to their kinsmen elsewhere were
+      merely clever charlatans. In the year 1881 Muhammed Ahmet, a religious
+      leader among the Moslem Arabs in the Central African provinces of Kordofan
+      and Darfur, proclaimed himself as the Mahdi, and called upon the
+      Muhammedans to initiate a holy war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0018" id="linkBimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:34%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/204.jpg" alt="204.jpg Osman Digna " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Mahdi&rsquo;s continued advances were rendered possible by the precarious
+      state of affairs in Egypt. After a settlement was effected in 1883, Hicks
+      Pasha, an officer of courage and ability, who had retired from the Indian
+      army, gathered 11,000 men at Omdurman to quell the Mahdist insurrection.
+      With this force he started up the Nile and struck across the desert to
+      El-Obeid, where his troops were decoyed into a ravine, and after three
+      days&rsquo; fighting his whole army was annihilated by the Mahdist army
+      numbering about 300,000 men. The entire Sudan then revolted against Egypt.
+      The redoubtable Osman Digna appeared with the Hadendowa Arabs off the
+      coast of the Red Sea, and harassed the Egyptian garrison. Osman defeated
+      Captain Moncrieff and an army of 3,000 Bashi-Bazouks led by Baker Pasha.
+      Egypt, under the advisement of the British government, then attempted to
+      withdraw from the Sudan. It was decided that the western provinces of
+      Kordofan and Dafur should be abandoned, but that important centres like
+      Khartum on the Nile should be preserved, at least for a time. Here all the
+      Egyptian colonists were to congregate. If the revolting Arab tribes,
+      called by the general name of Dervishes, would not come to friendly terms
+      with the settlers, then, in time, it was decided that Khartum itself, and
+      every other locality in the Sudan, should be entirely relinquished, except
+      the ports of the Red Sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General Gordon was sent to Khartum to make terms with the Mahdi and
+      prepare for eventualities. The evacuation of this place was almost
+      immediately decided upon by the British Cabinet, and Gordon arrived on
+      February 18, 1884, but, being unsupported by European troops, he found the
+      position an exceedingly difficult one to maintain. The Mahdi scorned his
+      overtures, and Osman Digna was daily closing in upon the Egyptian port of
+      Suakin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The British then determined to act with vigour. Sinkitat had fallen on
+      February 8th, and to protect Tokar and Suakin they landed four thousand
+      men and fought a fierce battle with nine thousand Hadendowas at El - Teb
+      February 28, 1884. The Egyptian garrison of Tokar, when the British army
+      arrived, was found to have compromised with the Mahdists. Later on was
+      fought the battle of Tamai against Osman Digna, during which a body of
+      Arabs rushed the British guns and broke up the formation of their square.
+      The British were on the point of defeat, but they managed to recover the
+      lost guns, and scatter the Hadendowas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General Gordon&rsquo;s situation was now extremely critical. It was hoped that
+      an army might advance from Suakin across the desert to Berber, and then
+      ascend the Nile to Khartum. In the meantime, Gordon urgently called for
+      help, and, after interminable delays, in the autumn of 1884, an English
+      army under Lord Wolseley started up the Nile to relieve him. The troops of
+      Wolseley were aided by a camel corps of one thousand men, who were
+      organised to make a rush across the desert. On the 16th of January, 1885,
+      the camel troops came up with the enemy and fought the decisive battle of
+      Matammeh. The Mahdist troops were mown down by rifles and Gatling-guns as
+      soon as they were within short range. Immediately after the battle, Sir
+      Charles Wilson determined to use the Egyptian flotilla to make an
+      immediate advance. The steamers were protected, and a small relief force
+      started on January 24th. They came in sight of Khartum on the 28th, but
+      were fired upon from every side. At this moment, a native called from the
+      bank that the city had fallen, and that the heroic Gordon had been killed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A history of Egypt would be incomplete without some account of that leader
+      whose bravery, humanitarian views, and understanding of the Oriental
+      character have made him famous among the pioneers of Christian
+      civilisation in Asia and Africa. Fresh from his laurels won in the service
+      of the Chinese government in suppressing the Tai-peng rebellion, Gordon
+      returned to England in 1871. In 1874 he accepted a position from Egypt,
+      with the consent of the British government. He journeyed to Cairo and up
+      the Nile to take up the command as governor of the Equatorial Provinces in
+      succession to Sir Samuel Baker. There he laboured with incessant energy to
+      put down the slave-trade and to secure the welfare of the natives. He
+      established a series of Egyptian outposts along the Abyssinian frontier
+      and made a survey of Lake Albert Nyanza. Returning to Cairo in 1874, after
+      some delay, he was appointed by Ismail Pasha as governor-general of the
+      whole of the Egyptian Sudan. A war followed with Abyssinia, and, after the
+      army, led by Egyptian officers, had been beaten twice, Gordon went to
+      Massowah to negotiate with the Abyssinian monarch, Atti Johannes. He next
+      proceeded to Khartum, and vigorously undertook the suppression of the
+      slave-trade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0019" id="linkBimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/207.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="207.jpg Mosque of the Ibriham at Desuk " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Gordon&rsquo;s death at Khartum, in 1884, is one of the greatest tragedies of
+      modern history. Supported neither by Egypt nor by the English army, of a
+      different religion from all his followers, pressed on all sides by the
+      Mah-dist forces, Gordon gallantly kept his few faithful followers at his
+      side, and, with incessant activity and heroism, protected the remaining
+      Egyptian colonists of the cities along the Nile, over which he still held
+      control. He had called upon the British government to send aid across the
+      desert from Suakin via Berber, but this request had been denied him.
+      Berber then fell, and he was cut off to the north by many hundred miles of
+      territory occupied by Mahdists. On January the 1st, nearly a month before
+      the long-delayed succour approached the beleaguered city, the provisions
+      had given out. He had written on December 14th that, with two hundred men,
+      he could have successfully kept up the defence. As his army had been
+      starving since the 5th of January, it is difficult to understand how he
+      managed to hold out till January the 26th. On this date, two days before
+      the relief expedition approached, the Mahdi&rsquo;s troops attacked Khartum,
+      and, finding Gordon&rsquo;s men too weak to fight, the defences were cut down,
+      and the heroic Gordon was killed by a shot at the head of the steps of the
+      palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon learning of the death of Gordon, the relief expedition retreated,
+      finding that the object of their advance had proved to be a hopeless one.
+      A general evacuation was begun, and Dongola and the whole country south of
+      Wady Haifa surrendered. The Mahdi, soon after winning Khartum, died, and
+      was succeeded by the Califa Abdulla at Taashi. This change facilitated the
+      Anglo-Egyptian retreat. About the same time Slatin Bey surrendered in
+      Darfur and embraced Muhammedan-ism, and Lupton Bey, following his example,
+      also adopted the religion of Islam, and yielded in Bahr-el-Ghazel. Emin
+      Pasha alone retained his authority, derived originally from Egypt, in the
+      province of Equatoria. Sir H. M. Stanley afterwards made his famous
+      journey &ldquo;Through Darkest Africa&rdquo; and rescued this famous pasha. This noted
+      explorer died May 9, 1904.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the autumn of 1885, the dervish Emir of Dongola, Muhammed el-Kheir,
+      advanced upon the Egyptian frontier. On December 30th he was met by the
+      Egyptian troops under Sir Frederick Stephenson. The Egyptian troops,
+      unaided by Europeans, attacked the dervishes at Ginnis and totally
+      defeated them, winning two guns and twenty banners. It was a source of
+      much gratification that the Egyptian fellaheen had proved themselves so
+      courageous and well disciplined in the encounter with the fierce hosts of
+      the desert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0020" id="linkBimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/210.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="210.jpg Lord Kitchener of Khartum " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In October, 1886, Wad en Nejumi, the victor of El-Obeid, was sent by the
+      califa to invade Egypt. The advance of this army was delayed by trouble
+      within the Sudan; but the califa, having at length beaten his enemies, in
+      the year 1889 sent large reinforcements northwards to carry on the
+      campaign against Egypt with vigour. The Egyptian troops, with one squadron
+      of hussars, fought a decisive engagement with Wad en Nejumi on August 3rd
+      of the same year. The dervish leader, many of his emirs, and twelve
+      hundred Arab warriors were slain; four thousand more were taken prisoners,
+      and 147 dervish standards were captured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ever-increasing progress of Egypt during the next ten years, together
+      with the accounts received from escaped prisoners of the reign of terror
+      and inhumanity which obtained in the Sudan, brought the question of the
+      reconquest of the lost provinces once more into prominence. The Italians
+      had met with a fearful disaster in fighting against the Abyssinians at the
+      battle of Adowa on March 1,1896. They were holding Kassala within the
+      ex-Egyptian territory by invitation from England, and a reason was
+      presented for attacking the dervishes elsewhere in order to draw off their
+      army from Kassala. With the appointment of Sir Henry Kitchener, on March
+      11,1896, as sirdar of the Egyptian army, the final period of hostilities
+      was entered upon between Egypt and the independent Arabs of the Central
+      African Provinces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General Kitchener was ordered to build a railroad up the Nile, and to push
+      forward with a well-organised Egyptian army, whose chief officers were
+      Englishmen. The whole scheme of the invasion was planned with consummate
+      forethought and deliberation, the officials and advisers in charge of the
+      enterprise being chosen from the most tried and able experts in their
+      several provinces. Lieut.-Col. E. P. C. Girouard, a brilliant young
+      Canadian, undertook the work of railroad reconstruction. Col. L. Bundle
+      was chief of the staff, and Major R. Wingate head of the Intelligence
+      Department, ably assisted by the ex-prisoner of the califa, Slatin Bey.
+      The army consisted in the beginning almost entirely of Egyptian and
+      Sudanese troops, together with one battalion of the North Staffordshire
+      Regiment. There were eight battalions of artillery, eight camel corps, and
+      sixty-three gunboats which steamed up the Nile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After some sharp skirmishing, the advance was made to Dongola, when the
+      English battalion was sent home disabled, and in time was replaced by a
+      strong English brigade under General Gatacre. Early in 1897, a railroad
+      had been thrown across the desert from Wady Haifa towards Abu Hamed,
+      obviating the need of making an immense detour around the bend of the Nile
+      near Dongola. The califa had, by this time, organised his defence. The
+      Jaalin tribe had revolted against him at Metammeh, and had sought for help
+      from the Egyptians, but before the supply of rifles arrived, the dervishes
+      under the Emir Mahmud stormed Metammeh and annihilated the whole tribe of
+      the Jaalin Arabs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The van of the army of invasion, both the flying corps and the flotilla of
+      gunboats, advanced upon Abu Hamed towards the end of August. Major-General
+      Hunter carried the place by storm. Berber was found to be deserted, and
+      was occupied on September 5th. Hunter burned Adarama and reconnoitred on
+      the Atbara. The gunboats bombarded Metammeh and reduced the place to
+      ruins. The sirdar, General Kitchener, then went on a mission to Kassala,
+      where he found the Italians anxious to evacuate. He thereupon made an
+      agreement whereby the Egyptians should occupy the place, which was
+      accordingly accomplished under Colonel Parsons on Christmas Day, 1897.
+      Disagreements among the dervishes prevented them from making any concerted
+      defence, and early in 1896 Kitchener renewed the advance and captured the
+      dervish stores at Shendy on March 27th. The zeriba or camp of Mahmud was
+      attacked and stormed with great loss to the dervishes on the 5th of April.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the date scheduled beforehand by Lord Kitchener, just after the annual
+      rains had refreshed the country, the Anglo-Egyptian army made its final
+      advance upon Khartum. There were ten thousand British troops and fifteen
+      thousand Egyptians. The forces were concentrated at Wady Hamed, sixty
+      miles above Omdurman, from which point they bombarded the city with shells
+      filled with deadly lyddite, and the mosque and tomb of the late Mahdi were
+      destroyed. At length the entire army advanced to within four miles of
+      Khartum. On September 2nd the cavalry and a horse battery reached Kasar
+      Shanbal. From this point they saw the whole army of the califa, consisting
+      of from forty to fifty thousand men, advancing to confront them from
+      behind the hills. The Anglo-Egyptians advanced to meet the dervishes
+      disposed in the form of a horseshoe, with either end resting upon the
+      banks of the river. At intervals along the whole line of the army were
+      field-pieces and Maxims, and the gunboats were within reach to aid in
+      shelling the enemy. The British soldiers then built a square sand rampart
+      called a zarilea, and their Egyptian allies dug defensive trenches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the front and left the dervishes came on in great strength, but, when
+      the Maxims, the field-guns, and the repeating rifles opened fire upon
+      them, at a comparatively close range, a frightful havoc was the result.
+      All who remained to fight were immediately shot down, and the whole field
+      was cleared in fifteen minutes. The dervishes retreated behind the hills,
+      and were joined by fresh forces. General MacDonald, in making a detour
+      with a body of Lancers, was suddenly beset by two thousand dervish
+      riflemen, who fiercely charged him on three sides. Quickly forming a
+      square, he succeeded by desperate efforts in repelling the enemy, until he
+      was reinforced by Kitchener, who perceived his desperate situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The calif then attacked the extreme left wing of the army, but was again
+      driven off. The Anglo-Egyptians were now in a position to deliver the main
+      attack upon the dervish defences. The troops of the califa fought with
+      heroic bravery, fearlessly advancing within range of the Anglo-Egyptian
+      fire, but each time they were mown down by the cross fire of the Maxims
+      and rifles. Vast numbers were slain, and some divisions of the dervishes
+      suffered complete annihilation. They left ten thousand dead upon the
+      field, and ten thousand wounded. The rest fled in all directions, a
+      scattered and straggling force, with the califa himself. The
+      Anglo-Egyptians lost but two thousand men. Few prisoners were taken, for,
+      in almost every instance, the dervishes refused to surrender, and even
+      when wounded used their swords and spears against the rescuers of the
+      ambulance corps. All the fighting was over by midday, and in the afternoon
+      General Kitchener entered Omdurman, and the army encamped in the vicinity.
+      Slatin Bey was duly installed as governor in the name of the Egyptian
+      khédive. The European prisoners of the califa were now released, and on
+      Sunday, the 4th of September, the sirdar and all his army held a solemn
+      service in memory of General Gordon near the spot where he was killed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bodies of men were now sent out on all sides to pacify the country, and
+      the sirdar, who had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Kitchener of
+      Khartum, started on an expedition up the Nile in a gunboat, in order to
+      settle the difficult question arising from the occupation of Pashoda by a
+      French corps under Major Marchand. The ability and strategy of this French
+      commander were of a very high order. The general plan of the expedition
+      had been in accord with French military traditions, based upon former
+      attempts in India and America to separate the British colonial dominions,
+      or to block the way to their extension by establishing a series of
+      military outposts or forts at certain strategic points chosen for this
+      purpose. Had the French designs under Desaix in India, or of the army of
+      occupation in the Mississippi Valley in the eighteenth century, been
+      supported by a powerful fleet, there is no doubt that British colonisation
+      would have suffered a severe setback. If Major Marchand remained in
+      Fashoda, the route to all the upper regions of the Nile would be cut off
+      from any English or Egyptian enterprise. Accordingly, Lord Kitchener ran
+      the risk of grave international complications by advancing upon Fashoda to
+      meet Major Marchand. Fortunately, a temporary agreement was entered upon
+      that the home governments should decide the question at issue, and Lord
+      Kitchener then hoisted the Anglo-Egyptian flag south of the French
+      settlement, and the officers fraternised over glasses of champagne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is now believed that Russia would have aided France if it had come to a
+      war, but the French government thought the affair not of sufficient
+      importance to warrant an international struggle over the retention of
+      Fashoda, and the respective spheres of influence of France and Great
+      Britain were finally agreed upon early in the following year by the Niger
+      Convention, which left the whole of the ex-Egyptian provinces under
+      British protection, as far south as the Equatorial Lakes, and as far west
+      as the border line between Darfur and Wadai.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The calif was subsequently pursued from place to place in the desert, and
+      was at length overtaken by Colonel Wingate at Om Dubreikat. The dervish
+      leader fought a desperate fight; and, refusing to fly, was slain with all
+      his personal followers on November 26, 1899.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The total cost of these campaigns had been incredibly small, not amounting
+      in all to the total of $12,000,000, and the railroad, the cost of which is
+      here included in the expenditure, is of permanent value to Egypt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the re-occupation of Khartum, it was again, as in Gordon&rsquo;s time,
+      made the seat of government, the dervish capital having been located
+      across the Nile at Omdurman. For a memorial to Gordon, $500,000 was
+      enthusiastically raised in England. The memorial took the practical form
+      of an educational establishment for the natives of the Sudan, the
+      foundation-stone of which was laid by Lord Cromer in January, 1900. The
+      school is intended to be exclusively for Muhammedans, and only the Moslem
+      religion is to be taught within its walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though the Mahdism, of which the late califa had been the leading spirit,
+      had degenerated into a struggle of slave-traders versus civilisation, the
+      calif at least showed conspicuous courage in the manner in which he faced
+      his death. For the last twenty years, during which the revolts of the
+      dervishes had troubled the outlying provinces of the Egyptian dominions,
+      trade had been almost at a standstill; large numbers of blacks had been
+      enslaved; an equal number probably had been slaughtered, and whole regions
+      depopulated. The total population was cut down during these years to
+      one-half of what it previously had been, and it was of vital importance to
+      Egypt to reconquer all the lost provinces which lay upon the banks of the
+      river Nile. If the prosperity of Egypt is to rest upon a sound basis, and
+      not be subjected to periodic overthrow at the hands of the hostile
+      inhabitants of the south, it is essential that the Upper Nile should be
+      under the control of those who are responsible for the welfare of the
+      country. Egypt is the gift of the Nile, and the entire population of Egypt
+      is dependent upon this river. To secure prosperity for the country and to
+      develop Egyptian resources to the fullest extent, the rulers of Egypt must
+      also be the rulers of the Nile. When the Anglo-Egyptian expedition under
+      Kitchener set out to reconquer the Sudan, the development of Egypt had
+      been progressing in all directions at a rapid rate. Having greater
+      interests to defend, less indebtedness to meet, and greater facilities for
+      meeting the taxes due the home government, no less than the foreign
+      bondholders, the time was ripe in which to take that great step towards
+      securing the prosperity of Egypt in the future by finally destroying the
+      community of slaveholders, which, under the sanction of Mahdism, brutally
+      tyrannised over the non-Muhammedan population.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0021" id="linkBimage-0021">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/218.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="218.jpg Slave Boats on the Nile " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      From the beginning of the British occupation, the English have been
+      engaged in persevering efforts at reform in every branch of the
+      administration. The reforms which they instituted in the different
+      departments of the army, finance, public works, and the police system were
+      not at first popular. The native officials found out that they could not
+      use methods of extortion; the upper classes, the pashas, and the wealthy
+      landowners also discovered that they were not at liberty to do as they
+      pleased, and that the English inspectors of irrigation strictly regulated
+      the water-supply. It has since been fully demonstrated that the curtailing
+      of their privilege to make use of the water when and how they chose is
+      more than compensated by improved conditions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the fifteen years previous to 1898, the population of Egypt had
+      increased by about three million, or forty-three per cent. It was then ten
+      million; it is now nearly eleven million. Within the boundaries of the
+      irrigated land Egypt has always been a very populous country. By the
+      effort to expand this area of irrigation, the way was prepared for a
+      considerable increase in the total population. There are sections of this
+      land where the density of the population averages from seven to eight
+      hundred or even a thousand persons to the square mile. In early times, the
+      population was still greater, as the irrigation area was increased by the
+      great reservoir of Lake Mceris. When Omar made a census (A.D. 640), there
+      were to be found six million Kopts, exclusive of the aged, the young, and
+      the women, and three hundred thousand Greeks: this would imply, even at
+      that decadent period, a total population of fifteen million.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The increased prosperity shown by the railroads is most satisfactory. Two
+      hundred and twelve miles of new railroad have been constructed, and an
+      enormous development of the railroad and telegraph business has resulted.
+      Since the year 1897 railroad development has been very rapid, and, with
+      the line to the Sudan, amounted in 1904 to some two thousand miles. From
+      the Sudan railway it is intended ultimately to extend a railroad system
+      through the heart of Africa, from Cairo to Capetown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great progress has been made in all departments of public works. Hundreds
+      of agricultural roads have been built, and the mileage of canals and
+      drains has been largely increased to the very great benefit of the
+      Egyptian peasant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The quantity of salt sold was doubled between 1881 and 1897, while the
+      price has been reduced nearly forty per cent. The tonnage of the port of
+      Alexandria increased from 1,250,000 pounds to 2,549,739 between 1881 and
+      1901. This increase was paralleled by a like increase in Alexandria&rsquo;s
+      great rival, Port Said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Evelyn Baring (Viscount Cromer) was appointed consul-general and
+      financial adviser to Egypt in January, 1884, succeeding in this position
+      Sir Edward Malet. Sir Evelyn was nominally the financial adviser, but
+      practically the master of Egypt. The khédive never ventured to oppose the
+      carrying out of his wishes, since the British army of occupation was ever
+      at his beck and call to lend its weight to the commands which he issued to
+      the government under the appearance of friendly advice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most serious obstacle to the progress of Egypt has been the authority
+      of the mixed administrations, the chief of which is the Caisse de la
+      Dette. The main object of these administrations is to secure for European
+      bondholders payment of the debts incurred by Egypt chiefly under the
+      incredibly profligate government of Ismail Pasha. The Caisse de la Dette
+      has commissions from six of the Powers. It receives from the tax-gatherer
+      all the taxes apportioned to the payment of the interest for foreign
+      indebtedness. Its influence, however, extends much farther, and the Caisse
+      exercises the right of prohibiting expenditure on the part of the Egyptian
+      government until its own demands for current interest have been complied
+      with. It further has the right to veto any loan which the Egyptian
+      government might be willing to raise, however urgent the necessity might
+      be, unless it can be demonstrated that there is not the least likelihood
+      that payment of the shareholders whom the Caisse represents will be in the
+      least degree affected. If all that the Caisse claimed as belonging to its
+      jurisdiction were really allowed to it by the Anglo-Egyptian government,
+      the Caisse or International Court might exercise an arbitrary control over
+      Egyptian affairs. It has many times seriously attempted to block the
+      progress of Egypt with the sole aim of considering the pockets of the
+      foreign shareholders, and in entire disregard to the welfare of the
+      people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Added to this tribunal is the Railway Board and the Commissions of the
+      Daira and Domains. The Railway Board administers the railroads,
+      telegraphs, and the port of Alexandria. The Daira and Domains Commissions
+      administer the large estates, mortgaged to the holders of the loans raised
+      by Ismail Pasha under these two respective names. The Daira Estate yielded
+      a surplus over and above the amount of interest on the debt paid, for the
+      first time, in 1890. The Domain Estate had to face a deficit until the
+      year 1900. Until these respective dates the Egyptian government itself was
+      obliged to pay the deficit due to the bondholders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0022" id="linkBimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/223.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="223.jpg Viscount Cromer (sir Evelyn Baring) " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1884, the Convention of London was signed by the European
+      Powers, which was, however, for the most part, oppressive and unjust to
+      the Egyptians. The amount of money raised by taxation, which was allowed
+      to be spent in one year, was limited to the definite sum of $25,927,890.
+      Fortunately for Egypt, the London Convention had one clause by which
+      $44,760,000 could be utilised for the development of the country. With
+      this sum the indemnities of Alexandria were paid, defects in the payment
+      of interest were made good, and a small sum was left wherewith to increase
+      irrigation and other useful works. The criminal folly of the former lavish
+      expenditure was now demonstrated by a brilliant object-lesson. This small
+      sum, when kept out of the hands of the rapacious bondholders, and applied
+      to the development of the rich soil of Egypt, was found to work wonders.
+      From the moment when the finances of Egypt were for the first time used to
+      develop what is naturally the richest soil in the world, progress towards
+      betterment grew rapidly into the remarkable prosperity of to-day. For a
+      time, however, the government was obliged to use extreme parsimony in
+      order to keep the country from further falling under the control of the
+      irresponsible bondholders. Finally, in the year 1888, Sir Evelyn Baring
+      wrote to the home government that the situation was so far improved that
+      in his judgment &ldquo;it would take a series of untoward events seriously to
+      endanger the stability of Egyptian finance and the solvency of the
+      Egyptian government.&rdquo; The corner had been turned, and progressive
+      financial relief was at length afforded the long-suffering Egyptian people
+      in the year 1890. After several years of financial betterment, it was
+      decided to devote future surpluses to remunerative objects, such as works
+      of irrigation, railway extension, the construction of hospitals, prisons,
+      and other public buildings, and in the improvement of the system of
+      education. Great difficulty was experienced in making use of this surplus,
+      on account of technical hindrances which were persistently placed in the
+      way of the Egyptian government by the Caisse de la Dette. These
+      difficulties are now almost entirely removed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1896 it was decided, as has been narrated, to be for the interest of
+      Egypt to start a campaign against the dervishes. Appeal was made to the
+      Caisse de la Dette to raise additional funds for the necessary expenses of
+      the projected campaign. The Caisse, following its universal precedent,
+      immediately vetoed the project. England then made special grants-in-aid to
+      Egypt, which both aided the Egyptian government and greatly strengthened
+      her hold upon Egypt. By means of this timely assistance, Egypt was enabled
+      successfully to pass through the period of increased expenditure incurred
+      by the reconquest of the Sudan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the lifetime of Khedive Tewfik, who owed his throne to the British
+      occupation, there had been little or no disagreement between the British
+      and Egyptian authorities. In the year 1887 Sir Henry Drummond Wolff
+      prepared a convention, in accordance with which England promised to leave
+      Egypt within three years from that date. At the last moment the sultan,
+      urged by France and Russia, refused to sign it, and the occupation which
+      these two Powers would not agree to legalise even for a period of three
+      years was now less likely than ever to terminate. The following year
+      Tewfik dismissed Nubar Pasha, who had, by the advice of the foreign
+      Powers, stood in the way of reforms planned by the English officials.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tewfik died in 1892, and was succeeded by Abbas Hilmi Pasha, called
+      officially Abbas II. He was born in 1874, and was barely of age according
+      to Turkish law, which fixes magistracy at eighteen years of age in the
+      case of the succession to the throne. He came directly from the college at
+      Vienna to Cairo, where his accession was celebrated with great pomp; and
+      the firman, confirming him in all the powers, privileges, and territorial
+      rights which his father had enjoyed, was read from the steps of the palace
+      in Abdin Square. For some time the new khédive did not cooperate with
+      cordiality with Great Britain. He was young and eager to exercise his
+      power. His throne had not been saved for him by the British, as his
+      father&rsquo;s had been, and he was surrounded by intriguers, who were scheming
+      always for their own advantage. He at first appeared almost as
+      unprogressive as his great-uncle, Abbas I., but he later learned to
+      understand the importance of British counsels. During his visit to England
+      in 1899 he frankly acknowledged the great good which England had done in
+      Egypt, and declared himself ready to cooperate with the officials
+      administering British affairs. This friendliness was a great change from
+      the disposition which he had shown in previous years, during the
+      long-drawn-out dispute between himself and Sir Evelyn Baring regarding the
+      appointment of Egyptian officials. The controversy at one time indicated a
+      grave crisis, and it is reported that on one occasion the British agent
+      ordered the army to make a demonstration before the palace, and pointed
+      out to the young ruler the folly of forcing events which would inevitably
+      lead to his dethronement. The tension was gradually relaxed, and
+      compromises brought about which resulted in harmony between the khédive
+      and the British policy of administration, and no one rejoiced more than
+      Abbas Hilmi over the victory of Omdurman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0023" id="linkBimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/227.jpg" width="100%" alt="227.jpg Bazar in Aswan " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Agricultural interests are dearer to the heart of the khédive than
+      statecraft. He rides well, drives well, rises early, and is of abstemious
+      habits. Turkish is his mother tongue, but he talks Arabic with fluency and
+      speaks English, French, and German very well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An agreement between England and Egypt had been entered upon January 19,
+      1899, in regard to the administration of the Sudan. According to this
+      agreement, the British and Egyptian flags were to be used together, and
+      the supreme military and civil command was vested in the governor-general,
+      who is appointed by the khédive on the recommendation of the British
+      government, and who cannot be removed without the latter&rsquo;s consent. This
+      has proved so successful that the governor-general, Sir Reginald Wingate,
+      reported in 1901:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I record my appreciation of the manner in which the officers,
+      non-commissioned officers, soldiers, and officials,&mdash;British,
+      Egyptian, and Sudanese,&mdash;without distinction, have laboured during
+      the past year to push on the work of regenerating the country. Nor can I
+      pass over without mention the loyal and valuable assistance I have
+      received from many of the loyal ulemas, sheiks, and notables, who have
+      displayed a most genuine desire to see their country once more advancing
+      in the path of progress, material success, and novel development.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1898 there were in all about 10,000 schools, with 17,000 teachers and
+      228,000 pupils. Seven-eighths of these schools were elementary, the
+      education being confined to reading, writing, and the rudiments of
+      arithmetic. The government has under its immediate direction eighty-seven
+      schools of the lowest grade, called kuttabs, and thirty-five of the higher
+      grades, three secondary, two girls&rsquo; schools, and ten schools for higher or
+      professional education,&mdash;the school of law, the school of medicine,
+      with its pharmaceutical school and its school for nursing and obstetrics,
+      polytechnic schools for civil engineers, two training-schools for
+      schoolmasters, a school of agriculture, two technical schools, one
+      training-school for female teachers, and the military school. In addition
+      to the schools belonging to the Ministry of Public Instruction, there were
+      under the inspection of that department in 1901 twenty-three primary
+      schools of the higher grade, with an attendance of 3,585, and 845 schools
+      of the lowest grade, with 1,364 teachers and an attendance of 26,831
+      pupils. There are 187 schools attached to various Protestant and Catholic
+      missions, and forty-three European private schools.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Koptic community supports one thousand schools for elementary
+      education, twenty-seven primary boys&rsquo; and girls&rsquo; schools, and one college.
+      The teaching of the Koptic language in the schools is now compulsory; the
+      subjects taught, and the methods of teaching them, are the same as in
+      vogue in other countries. Fifty per cent, of the Koptic male population
+      can read and write well. The indigenous tribunals of the country are
+      called Mehkemmehs, and are presided over by cadis. At the present time
+      they retain jurisdiction in matters of personal law relating to marriage
+      succession, guardianship, etc. Beyond this sphere they also fulfil certain
+      functions connected with the registration of title of land. In matters of
+      personal law, however, the native Christians are subject to their own
+      patriarchs or other religious leaders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In other matters, natives are justiciable before the so-called native
+      tribunals, established during the period of the British occupation. These
+      consist of forty-six summary tribunals, each presided over by a single
+      judge, who is empowered to exercise jurisdiction in matters up to $500 in
+      value, and criminal jurisdiction in offences punishable by fine or by
+      imprisonment of three years or less. Associated with these are seven
+      central tribunals, each chamber consisting of three judges. There is also
+      a court of appeal in Cairo, one-half of its members being Europeans. In
+      criminal matters there is always a right to appeal, sometimes to the court
+      of appeal, sometimes to a central tribunal. In civil matters an appeal
+      lies from a summary tribunal to a central tribunal in matters exceeding
+      $500 in value, and from the judgment of a central tribunal in the first
+      instance to the court of appeal in all cases. The prosecution in criminal
+      matters is entrusted to the parquet, which is directed by a
+      procurer-general; the investigation of crime is ordinarily conducted by
+      the parquet, or by the police under its direction. Offences against
+      irrigation laws, which were once of such frequent occurrence and the
+      occasion of injustice and lawlessness, are now tried by special and
+      summary administration tribunals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The capitulations or agreements concerning justice entered into by all the
+      Great Powers of Europe and the Ottoman Empire, relative to the trial and
+      judgment of Europeans, include Egypt as an integral part of the Turkish
+      Empire. Foreigners for this reason have the privilege of being tried by
+      European courts. But if one party in a case is European and another
+      Egyptian, there are special mixed tribunals, established in 1876,
+      consisting partly of native and partly of foreign judges. These tribunals
+      settle civil and also some criminal cases between Egyptians and Europeans,
+      and in 1900 penal jurisdiction was conferred upon them in connection with
+      offences against the bankruptcy laws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are three mixed tribunals of the first class, with a court of
+      appeal, sitting at Alexandria. Civil cases between foreigners of the same
+      nationality are tried before their own consular courts, which also try
+      criminal cases not within the jurisdiction of the mixed tribunals, in
+      which the accused are foreigners. By this well organised administration of
+      justice, crime has steadily decreased throughout Egypt, and the people
+      have learned to enjoy the benefit of receiving impartial justice, from
+      which they had been shut off for many centuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About sixty per cent, of the inhabitants of modern Egypt belong to the
+      agricultural class&mdash;the fellaheen. The peasantry are primitive and
+      thrifty in their habits, and hold tenaciously to their ancient traditions.
+      They are a healthy race, good-tempered and tractable, and fairly
+      intelligent, but, like all Southern nations breathing a balmy atmosphere,
+      they are unprogressive. Centuries of oppression have not, however, crushed
+      their cheerfulness. There is none of that abject misery of poverty among
+      the Egyptians which is to be seen in cold countries. There is no
+      starvation amongst them. Food is cheap, and a peasant can live well on a
+      piastre (five cents) a day. A single cotton garment is enough for
+      clothing, and the merest hut affords sufficient protection. The wants of
+      the Egyptians are few. Their condition, now freed from forced labour,
+      called the &ldquo;Courbash,&rdquo; as also from injustice, crushing taxation, and
+      usury, which characterised former administrations, compares favourably
+      with the peasantry of many countries in Europe, and is equal, if not
+      superior, to that of the peasantry of England itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the British protection there has been a renewal of the Koptic
+      Christian race. They are easily to be distinguished from their Muhammedan
+      countrymen, being lighter in colour, and resembling the portraits on the
+      ancient monuments. They are a strong community in Upper Egypt, whither
+      they fled from the Arab invaders, and they there hold a large portion of
+      the land. They live mostly in the towns, are better educated than other
+      Egyptians, and are employed frequently in the government service as clerks
+      and accountants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Koptic is still studied for church purposes by the Kopts, who both by
+      their physiognomy and by their retention of the old Egyptian institution
+      of monasticism are the only true descendants having the social and
+      physical heredity of the ancient Egyptians. Four of the oldest monasteries
+      in the world still survive in the Natron Valley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0024" id="linkBimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/232.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="232.jpg Mosque of El Ghuri at Cairo " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In spite of their distinguished social ancestry, the Kopts are by no means
+      a superior class morally to the fellaheen, who are in part the descendants
+      of those ancient Egyptians who renounced the Christian religion, the
+      language and institutions of the Egyptian Christians, and accepted
+      Muhammedanism and the Arabic language and institutions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The creed of the Kopts is Jacobite. They have three metropolitans and
+      twelve bishops in Egypt, one metropolitan and two bishops in Abyssinia,
+      and one bishop in Khartum. There are also arch-priests, priests, deacons,
+      and monks. Priests must be married before ordination, but celibacy is
+      imposed upon monks and high dignitaries. The Abyssinian Church is ruled by
+      a metropolitan, and bishops are chosen from amongst the Egyptian-Koptic
+      ecclesiastics, nor can the coronation of the King of Abyssinia take place
+      until he has been anointed by the metropolitan, and this only after the
+      authorisation by the Patriarch of Alexandria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="linkBimage-0025" id="linkBimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/235.jpg" width="100%" alt="235.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkB2HCH0003" id="linkB2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.&mdash;THE WATER WAYS OF EGYPT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>The White and Blue Niles: The Barrage: Clearing the Sudd: The Suez
+      Canal: Ancient and modern irrigation: The Dam at Aswan: The modern
+      exploration of the Nile.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between the Sudan and the Mediterranean the only perennial stream is the
+      Nile, a word probably derived from the Semitic root nahal, meaning a
+      valley or a river-valley, and subsequently a &ldquo;river,&rdquo; in a pre-eminent and
+      exclusive sense. The ancient Egyptians called it the Ar or Aur (Koptic,
+      Iaro), or &ldquo;black&rdquo;; hence the Greek word [...] allusion to the colour, not
+      of the water, but of the sediment which it precipitated during the floods.
+      In contrast to the yellow sands of the surrounding desert, the Nile mud is
+      black enough to have given the land itself its oldest name, Kem, or Kemi,
+      which has the same meaning of &ldquo;black.&rdquo; At Khartum, where the White Nile
+      joins the Blue Nile, the main branch has a fall from its upper level in
+      the region of the tropical lakes, four thousand feet above the sea, to
+      twelve hundred feet, while traversing a distance of twenty-three hundred
+      miles. From Khartum to the sea the distance through which the waters of
+      the Nile wend their way is about eighteen hundred and forty miles. During
+      the greater part of this course the flow is level, the average descent
+      being about eight inches per mile. If it were not, therefore, for the
+      obstruction met with in the Nubian section, the course of the Nile would
+      be everywhere navigable. Although no perennial affluents enter the main
+      stream lower down than Khartum, the volume of the Nile remains with little
+      diminution throughout the entire distance to the Mediterranean. During the
+      period of low water the amount of water in different localities is still
+      uniform, notwithstanding all the irrigation, infiltration, and evaporation
+      constantly taking place. The only explanation which has been given to this
+      phenomenon is that there are hidden wells in the bed of the Nile, and from
+      their flow the waste is ever renewed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the earth revolves from west to east, the waters of the Nile tend to be
+      driven upon the right bank on the west, where the current is constantly
+      eating away the sandstone and limestone cliffs. For this reason the left
+      side of the river is far more fertile and well cultivated than the right
+      bank. Below Ombos the valley is narrowly constructed, being but thirteen
+      hundred yards in width, the cliffs overhanging the river on either side,
+      but at Thebes it broadens out to nine or ten miles, and farther up, in the
+      Keneh district, the valley is twelve or fifteen miles in width. The river
+      here approaches within sixty miles of the Red Sea, and it is believed that
+      a branch of the Nile once flowed out into the sea in this direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0026" id="linkBimage-0026">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/237.jpg" width="100%" alt="237.jpg the Plain of Thebes " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Seventy miles below Keneh the Nile throws from its left bank the Bahr
+      Yusef branch, a small current of 350 feet in breadth, which flows for
+      hundreds of miles through the broader strip of alluvial land between the
+      main stream and the Libyan escarpments. In the Beni-Suef district this
+      stream again bifurcates, the chief branch continuing to wind along the
+      Nile Valley to a point above the Delta, where it joins the main stream.
+      The left branch penetrates westward through a gap in the Libyan
+      escarpments into the Fayum depression, ramifying into a thousand
+      irrigating rills, and pouring its overflow into the Birket-el-Qarum, or
+      &ldquo;Lake of Horns,&rdquo; which still floods the lowest cavity and is a remnant of
+      the famous ancient Lake Moris. The Fayum, which is the territory reclaimed
+      from the former lake, is now an exceedingly productive district, a sort of
+      inland delta, fed like the marine delta by the fertilising flood-waters of
+      the Nile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The traveller Junker wrote of this district in 1875: &ldquo;I found myself
+      surrounded by a garden tract of unsurpassed fertility, where there was
+      scarcely room for a path amid the exuberant growths; where pedestrians,
+      riders, and animals had to move about along the embankments of countless
+      canals. Now a land of roses, of the vine, olive, sugar-cane, and cotton,
+      where the orange and lemon plants attain the size of our apple-trees, it
+      was in primeval times an arid depression of the stony and sandy Libyan
+      waste.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      North of the Fayum the Nile flows on to Cairo, where the narrow water way
+      allowed to its course by the two lines of cliffs widens, and the cliffs
+      recede to the right and left. There is thus space for the waters to spread
+      and ramify over the alluvial plain. Nearly all this portion of Egypt has
+      been covered by the sediment of the Nile, and from the earliest times
+      there have been numerous distinct branches or channels of the river
+      running out by separate openings into the sea. As several of these
+      branches have been tapped to a great extent for irrigation, all except two
+      have ceased to be true outlets of the Nile. In the Greek period there were
+      seven mouths and several [...Greek...], or &ldquo;false mouths.&rdquo; The two
+      remaining mouths are those of Rosetta and Damietta, and these were always
+      the most important of the number. They branched off formerly close to the
+      present spot where Cairo stands, a little below Memphis; but during two
+      thousand years the fork has gradually shifted to about thirteen miles
+      lower down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The triangular space enclosed by these two branches and the sea-coast was
+      called by the Greeks the delta, on account of the likeness in shape to the
+      Greek letter of that name A. At the head, or apex, of the triangle stands
+      the famous barrage, or dam, begun in 1847 by Mehemet Ali, for the twofold
+      purpose of reclaiming many thousand acres of waste land, and of regulating
+      the discharge and the navigation through the Delta. The idea was
+      originated by a Frenchman in his service named Linant Bey. This engineer
+      desired to alter the course of the river and build a weir at a point
+      farther to the north, where the contour of land seemed to favour the
+      design more than that of the present locality. Mehemet Ali thought his
+      plans too costly, and accepted in preference those of Mougel Bey.
+      Unexpected difficulties were encountered from the very beginning. Mehemet
+      was exceedingly anxious to hurry the work, and Mougel Bey had only made a
+      beginning, when an exceptionally high Nile carried away all the lime in
+      the concrete base. Mehemet Ali did not live to see the completion of this
+      work. The object, could it have been realised, was to hold up the waters
+      of the Nile during the eight months of the ebb, and thus keep them on a
+      level with the soil, and at the same time to supply Lower Egypt with an
+      amount of water equal to that which came down during flood-time. It was
+      hoped to cover the very large expenditure by the additional land which it
+      was expected would come under irrigation, and by doing away with the
+      primitive <i>shadoofs</i> and setting free for productive enterprise the
+      numerous army of the agricultural labourers who spent the greater part of
+      their time in slowly raising up buckets of water from the Nile and pouring
+      them into the irrigating channels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0027" id="linkBimage-0027">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/240b.jpg" width="100%" alt="240b.jpg Harbour at Suez " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The barrage is a double bridge, or weir, the eastern part spanning the
+      Damietta branch of the Nile, the western part the Rosetta branch. The
+      appearance of the structure is so light and graceful that the spectator
+      finds it hard to conceive of the difficulty and the greatness of the work
+      itself. Architecturally, the barrage is very beautiful, with a noble front
+      and a grand effect, produced by a line of castellated turrets, which mark
+      the site of the sluice gates. There are two lofty crenellated towers,
+      corresponding with the towers over the gateway of a mediaeval baronial
+      castle. The sluices are formed of double cones of hollow iron, in a
+      semicircular form, worked on a radii of rods fixed to a central axis at
+      each side of the sluice-gate. They are slowly raised or let down by the
+      labour of two men, the gates being inflected as they descend in the
+      direction of the bed of that part of the river whose waters are retained.
+      The working of the barrage was never what it was intended to be. After the
+      year 1867 it ceased to be of any practical utility, and was merely an
+      impediment to navigation. Between the years 1885&mdash;90, however, during
+      the British occupation, Sir Colon Scott-Moncrieff successfully completed
+      the barrage at a cost of $2,500,000, and now the desired depth of eight
+      feet of water on the lower part of the Nile can always be maintained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0028" id="linkBimage-0028">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/241.jpg" width="100%" alt="241.jpg the Nile Barrage " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It proved to be of the greatest advantage in saving labour worth hundreds
+      of thousands of dollars a year, and in the irrigation and navigation
+      facilities that had been contemplated as among the benefits which would
+      naturally accrue from its successful completion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Compared with the advance of the land seaward at the estuary of the
+      Mississippi and the Ganges, the advance of the Nile seaward is very slow.
+      This is accounted for by the geological theory that the Delta of the Nile
+      is gradually sinking. If this is so, the tendency of the periodical
+      deposit to raise the level of the Delta will be counteracted by the annual
+      subsidence. These phenomena account for the gradual burial of Egyptian
+      monuments under the sand, although the actual level of the sea above what
+      it formerly was is quite unappreciable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The periodical rise in the Nile, recurring as regularly as the revolutions
+      of the heavenly bodies, necessarily remained an unsolved mystery to the
+      ancients, for until the discovery of the tropical regions, with their
+      mountainous lakes and deluging rains, it was impossible to learn the
+      occasion of this increase. It is now known that the Blue Nile, flowing out
+      of the mountainous parts of Abyssinia, is the sole cause of the periodic
+      overflow of the Nile. Without the tropical rains of the Ethiopian
+      tablelands, there would be no great rise nor any fertilising deposits.
+      Without the White Nile, which runs steadily from the perennial reservoirs
+      of the great Central African lakes, the Lower Nile would assume the
+      character of an intermittent wady, such as the neighbouring Khor Baraka,
+      periodically flushed by the discharge of the torrential downpours from
+      Abyssinia. Though there is a periodical increase in the flow of the upper
+      waters of the White Nile, yet the effect of this, lower down, is minimised
+      by the dense quantities of vegetable drift, which, combining with the
+      forest of aquatic growth, forms those vast barriers, known by the name of
+      <i>sudd</i>, which not only arrest navigation but are able to dam up large
+      bodies of water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0029" id="linkBimage-0029">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:15%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/245.jpg"
+       alt="245.jpg Scale of the Nilometer " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The sudd, it is supposed, stopped the advance of the Roman centurions who
+      were sent up the Nile in the days of Nero. Sir Samuel Baker was the one
+      who first pointed out the great disadvantage of allowing the vegetable
+      matter to accumulate, both to merchants and to those who were employed to
+      suppress the slave-trade. In the year 1863 the two branches of the White
+      Nile were blocked above their junction at Lake No. Once blocked, the
+      accumulation rapidly increased from the stoppage of outlet, forming the
+      innumerable floating islands which at this part of the Nile customarily
+      float down-stream. A marsh of vast extent had been formed, and to all
+      appearance, as Baker narrates, the White Nile had disappeared. Baker cut
+      through fifty miles of the sudd, and urged the khédive to reopen the Nile.
+      The work was successfully undertaken by Ishmail Ayub Pasha, and the White
+      Nile became clear for large vessels when Gordon reached Khartum in 1874.
+      It is practically impossible to keep the central provinces of the Nile
+      open to civilisation unless the course of the Nile is free. Yet in 1878
+      the obstruction had been renewed, and during the occupation of these
+      provinces by the rebel dervishes under the Mahdi and the califa the Nile
+      was completely blocked, as formerly, at Lake No. The alarming failure of
+      the Nile flood in 1899&mdash;1900 was generally attributed to this
+      blockade, and in 1899 fifty thousand dollars was placed at the disposal of
+      the governor-general for reopening the White Nile by removing the vast
+      accumulation of sudd which blocked the Bahr-el-Jebel from Lake No almost
+      as far as Shambeh. The work was started under the direction of Sir William
+      Garstin in 1899. In 1900 the greater part of the sudd had been removed by
+      the strenuous labours of Major Peake, and the Nile again became navigable
+      from Khartum to Rejaf. The sudd was found to be piled up and of almost as
+      close a structure as peat. It was sawn out in blocks ten feet square and
+      carried away by gunboats. In the years 1901&mdash;02 further progress was
+      made, and twenty thousand dollars appropriated for the work; and by means
+      of constant patrolling the sudd is now practically absent from the whole
+      course of the White Nile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The discharge of the flood waters from the Upper Nile begins to make
+      itself felt in Lower Nubia and Egypt in the month of June, at first
+      slightly, and after the middle of July much more rapidly, the river
+      continuing to rise steadily till the first week in October, when it
+      reaches high-water mark, nearly fifty-four or fifty-five feet at the
+      Egyptian frontier, and twenty-five or twenty-six feet at Cairo. A
+      subsidence then sets in, and continues till low-water level is again
+      reached, usually about the end of May. The floods are then much higher and
+      confined to a narrower space in the Nubian section of the Nile, while they
+      gradually die out in the region of the Delta, where the excess seawards is
+      discharged by the Rosetta and Damietta branches. In place of the old
+      Nilometers, the amount of the rise of the Nile is now reported by
+      telegraph from meteorological stations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is popularly supposed that at every rise the plains of the Delta are
+      inundated, but this is not the case. The actual overflow of the banks of
+      the river and canals is the exception, and when it happens is most
+      disastrous. The irrigation of fields and plantations is effected by slow
+      infiltration through the retaining dykes, which are prevented from
+      bursting by the process of slow absorption. The first lands to be affected
+      are not those which are nearest to the dyke, but those which are of the
+      lowest level, because the waters, in percolating through under the ground,
+      reach the surface of these parts first. In Manitoba during a dry season
+      sometimes the roots of the wheat strike down deep enough to reach the
+      reservoir of moisture under ground. In Egypt this underground moisture is
+      what is counted upon, but it is fed by a special and prepared system, and
+      is thus brought to the roots of the plants artificially.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An analysis of the Nile alluvium, which has accumulated in the course of
+      ages to a thickness of from three to four feet above the old river-bed,
+      shows that it contains a considerable percentage of such fertilising
+      substances as carbonate of lime and magnesia, silicates of aluminum,
+      carbon, and several oxides. Where the water has to be raised to higher
+      levels, two processes are used. The primitive shadoof of native origin
+      figured on a monument as far back as 3,300 years ago, and the more modern
+      sakieh was apparently introduced in later times from Syria and Persia. The
+      shadoof is used on small farms, and the sakieh is more often used for
+      larger farms and plantations. These contrivances line the whole course of
+      the Nile from Lower Egypt to above Khartum. The shadoof will raise six
+      hundred gallons ten feet in an hour, and consists of a pole weighted at
+      one end, with a bucket at the other; when the water is raised the weight
+      counterbalances the weight of the full bucket. The sakieh, which will
+      raise twelve hundred gallons twenty or twenty-four feet in an hour, is a
+      modified form of a Persian wheel, made to revolve by a beast of burden; it
+      draws an endless series of buckets up from the water, and automatically
+      empties them into a trough or other receptacle. In former times these
+      appliances were heavily taxed and made the instruments of oppression, but
+      these abuses have been reformed since Egypt came under a more humane form
+      of government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another interesting feature of the water ways of Egypt is the intermittent
+      watercourses. The largest of these is the Khor Baraka (Barka), which flows
+      out towards Tapan, south of Suakin. It presents some analogy to the Nile,
+      and in part was undoubtedly a perennial stream 250 miles long, and
+      draining seven or eight thousand square miles. At present its flat sandy
+      bed, winding between well-wooded banks, is dry for a great part of the
+      year. This route is extensively used for the caravan trade between Suakin
+      and Kassala. During September the water begins to flow, but is spasmodic.
+      After the first flood the natives plant their crops, but sometimes the
+      second flow, being too great, cannot be confined to the limits prepared
+      for it, and the crops are carried away and the sowing must of necessity be
+      started again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0030" id="linkBimage-0030">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/247.jpg" width="100%" alt="247.jpg a Modern Sakieh " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The canals of Egypt are of great aid in extending the beneficial influence
+      of the inundations of the Nile. In Lower Egypt is the Mahmudiyeh Canal,
+      connecting Alexandria with the Rosetta branch, and following the same
+      direction as an ancient canal which preceded it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mehemet Ali constructed this canal, which is about fifty miles long and
+      one hundred feet broad. It is believed that twelve thousand labourers
+      perished during its construction. Between the Rosetta and the Damietta
+      branches of the Nile there are other canals, such as the Manuf, which
+      connects the two branches of the river at a point not far from the Delta.
+      East of the Damietta branch are other canals, occupying the ancient
+      river-beds of the Tanitic and Pelusiac branches of the Nile. One of these
+      is called the canal of the El-Muiz, from the first Fatimite caliph who
+      ruled in Egypt, and who ordered it to be constructed. Another is named the
+      canal of Abul-Munegga, from the name of the Jew who executed this work
+      under the caliph El-&rsquo;Amir, in order to bring water into the province of
+      Sharkiyah. This last canal is connected with the remains of the one which
+      in ancient times joined the Nile with the Red Sea. After falling into
+      neglect it has again in part been restored and much increased in length as
+      the Sweet Water Canal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Further mention may also be made of the great canal called the Bahr-Yusef,
+      or River Joseph, which is important enough to be classed as a ramification
+      of the Nile itself. As has been mentioned, this water way runs parallel
+      with the Nile on the west side below Cairo for about 350 miles to Farshut,
+      and is the most important irrigation canal in Egypt. It is a series of
+      canals rather than one canal. Tradition states that this canal was
+      repaired by the celebrated Saladin. Another tradition, relating that the
+      canal existed in the time of the Pharaohs, has recently been proved to be
+      correct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Egypt possesses not only the greatest natural water way in the world, but
+      also the greatest artificial water way&mdash;the Suez Canal. Before the
+      opening of this canal there were in the past other canals which afforded
+      communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. These ancient
+      canals differed in one respect from the Suez Canal, since they were all
+      fed by the fresh waters of the Nile. One of these still remains in use,
+      and is called the Fresh Water Canal. According to Aristotle, Strabo, and
+      Pliny, Sesostris was the first to conceive and carry out the idea of a
+      water connection between the two seas, by means of the Pelusiac branch of
+      the Nile from Avaris to Bubastis, and by rendering navigable the
+      irrigation canal which already existed between Bubastis and Heroopolis. It
+      is believed by some that the fragment bearing the oval of Ramses II. found
+      near the course of the present canal affords confirmation of this
+      assertion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first authentic account of the carrying out of the conception of an
+      inter-sea water way is to be found in the time of Pharaoh Necho II., about
+      the year 610 B.C. Herodotus records of Necho that he was &ldquo;the first to
+      attempt the construction of the canal to the Red Sea.&rdquo; This canal tapped
+      the Nile at Bubastis, near Zagazig, and followed closely the line of
+      modern Wady Canal to Heroopolis, the site of which lies in the
+      neighbourhood of Toussun and Serapeum, between the Bitter Lakes and Lake
+      Tinseh. At that date the Red Sea reached much farther inland than it does
+      now, and was called in the upper portion the Heroopolite Gulf. The expanse
+      of brackish water, now known as the Bitter Lakes, was then, in all
+      probability, directly connected with the Red Sea. The length of this
+      canal, according to Pliny, was sixty-two miles, or about fifty-seven
+      English miles. This length, allowing for the sinuosity of the valley
+      traversed, agrees with the distance between the site of old Bubastis and
+      the present head of the Bitter Lakes. The length given by Herodotus of
+      more than one thousand stadia (114 miles) must be understood to include
+      the whole distance between the two seas, both by the Nile and by the
+      canal. Herodotus relates that it cost the lives of 120,000 men to cut the
+      canal. He says that the undertaking was abandoned because of a warning
+      from an oracle that the barbarians alone, meaning the Persians, would
+      benefit by the success of the enterprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0031" id="linkBimage-0031">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/251.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="251.jpg Hieroglyphic Record of an Ancient Canal " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The true reason for relinquishing the plan probably was that the Egyptians
+      believed the Red Sea to have been higher in altitude than the Nile. They
+      feared that if the canal were opened between the Nile and the Red Sea the
+      salt water would flow in and make the waters of the Nile brackish. This
+      explanation would indicate a lack of knowledge of locks and sluices on the
+      part of the Egyptians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The work of Necho was continued by Darius, the son of Hystaspes (520
+      B.C.). The natural channel of communication between the Heroopolite Gulf
+      and the Red Sea had begun to fill up with silt even in the time of Necho,
+      and a hundred years later, in the time of Darius, was completely blocked,
+      so that it had to be entirely cleaned out to render it navigable. The
+      traces of this canal can still be plainly seen in the neighbourhood of
+      Shaluf, near the south end of the Bitter Lakes. The present fresh-water
+      canal was also made to follow its course for some distance between that
+      point and Suez. Persian monuments have been found by Lepsius in the
+      neighbourhood, commemorating the work of Darius. On one of these the name
+      of Darius is written in the Persian cuneiform characters, and on a
+      cartouche in the Egyptian form. Until this date it therefore appears that
+      ships sailed up the Pelusiac branch of the Nile to Bubastis, and thence
+      along the canal to Heroopolis, where the cargoes were transhipped to the
+      Red Sea. This inconvenient transfer of cargoes was remedied by the next
+      Egyptian sovereign, who bestowed much care on the water connection between
+      the two seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ptolemy Philadelphus (285 B.C.), in addition to cleaning out and
+      thoroughly restoring the two canals, joined the fresh-water canal with the
+      Heroopolite Gulf by means of a lock and sluices, which permitted the
+      passage of vessels, and were effective in preventing the salt water from
+      mingling with the fresh water. At the point where the canal joined the
+      Heroopolite Gulf to the Red Sea, Ptolemy founded the town of Arsinoë, a
+      little to the north of the modern Suez.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The line of communication between the two seas was impassable during the
+      reign of Cleopatra (31 b.c.). It is believed by some that it was restored
+      during the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan (98-117). During this period
+      the Pelusiac branch of the Nile was very low, the water having almost
+      completely deserted this formerly well-filled course. If Trajan,
+      therefore, undertook to reopen the water way, he must have tapped the Nile
+      much higher up, in order to reach a plentiful supply of water. The old
+      canal near Cairo, which elsewhere joined the line of the former canal on
+      the way to the Bitter Lakes, was once called &ldquo;Amnis Trajanus,&rdquo; and from
+      this it has been inferred that Trajan was really the builder, and that
+      during his reign this canal was cleaned and rendered navigable. As there
+      is no further evidence than the name to prove that Trajan undertook so
+      important an enterprise, the &ldquo;Amnis Trajanus&rdquo; was probably constructed
+      during the Arabic period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Amr had conquered Egypt, according to another account, the caliph
+      Omar ordered him to ship rich supplies of grain to Mecca and Medina,
+      because during the pilgrimages these cities and often the whole of Hedjaz
+      suffered severely from famine. As it was extremely difficult to send large
+      quantities of provisions across the desert on the backs of camels, it is
+      supposed that to facilitate this transportation Omar ordered the
+      construction of the canal from a point near Cairo to the head of the Red
+      Sea. On account of his forethought in thus providing for the pilgrims to
+      the Hedjaz, Omar received the title of &ldquo;Prince of the Faithful&rdquo; (Emir
+      el-Momenéen), which thenceforth was adopted by his successors in the
+      caliphate. One hundred and thirty-four years after this time, El-Mansur,
+      the second caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, is said to have closed the canal
+      to prevent supplies from being shipped to one of the descendants of Ali
+      who had revolted at Medina. Since that time it is probable that it has
+      never been reopened, although there is a report that the Sultan Hakim
+      rendered it available for the passage of boats in the year A.D. 1000,
+      after which it was neglected and became choked with sand. While not
+      thereafter used for navigation, there were parts which during the time of
+      the annual inundation of the Nile were filled with water, until Mehemet
+      Ali prevented this. The parts filled during the inundation extended as far
+      as Sheykh Hanaydik, near Toussun and the Bitter Lakes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old canal which left the Nile at Cairo had long ceased to flow beyond
+      the outskirts of the city, and the still more ancient canal from the
+      neighbourhood of Bubastis, now known as the Wady Canal, extended only a
+      few miles in the direction of the isthmus as far as Kassassin. During the
+      construction of the Suez Canal the need of supplying the labourers with
+      fresh water was imperative. The company, therefore, determined in 1861 to
+      prolong the canal from Kassassin to the centre of the isthmus, and in the
+      year 1863 they brought the fresh-water canal as far as Suez. In one or two
+      places the bed of the old canal was cleared out and made to serve the new
+      canal. The level of the fresh-water canal is about twenty feet above that
+      of the Suez Canal, which it joins at Ismailia by means of two locks. The
+      difference of level between it and the Red Sea is remedied by four locks
+      constructed between Nefeesh and its terminus at Suez. Its average depth of
+      water at high Nile is six feet, and at low Nile three feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A canal from Bulak, near Cairo, passing by Heliopolis and Belbeys, and
+      joining the Wady Canal a few miles east of Zagazig, restores the line of
+      water communication between the Nile and the Red Sea as it existed perhaps
+      in the time of Trajan, and certainly as it was in the time of the Caliph
+      Omar. The improvement of this canal as a means of transit is local and
+      external only.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Napoleon Bonaparte was the first in modern times to take up the subject of
+      a water connection between the two seas. In 1798 he examined the traces of
+      the old canal of Necho and his successors, and ordered Monsieur Lepère to
+      survey the isthmus and prepare a project for uniting the two seas by a
+      direct canal. The result of this French engineer&rsquo;s labours was to discover
+      a supposed difference of thirty feet between the Red Sea at high tide and
+      the Mediterranean at low tide. As this inequality of level seemed to
+      preclude the idea of a direct maritime canal, a compromise was
+      recommended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Owing to the exertions of Lieutenant Waghorn, the route through Egypt for
+      the transmission of the mails between England and India was determined
+      upon in 1839. The Peninsular and Oriental Company established a service of
+      steamers between England and Alexandria, and between Suez and India. In
+      spite of this endeavour nothing was actually accomplished with regard to a
+      canal until 1846, when a mixed commission was appointed to enquire into
+      the subject. This commission entirely exploded the error into which Lepère
+      had fallen in reporting a difference of level between the two seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A plan was projected in 1855 by M. Linant Bey and M. Mougel Bey, under the
+      superintendence of M. de Les-seps, who had already received a firman of
+      concession from Said Pasha. This plan recommended a direct canal between
+      Suez and Pelusium, which should pass through the Bitter Lakes, Lake
+      Tinseh, Ballah, and Menzaleh, and connecting with the sea at each end by
+      means of a lock. A fresh-water canal from Bulak to the centre of the
+      isthmus and thence through Suez, with a conduit for conveying water to
+      Pelusium, was also proposed. This project was in 1856 submitted to an
+      international commission company composed of representatives from England,
+      France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Prussia, and Spain, and the
+      following modification was suggested: that the line of the canal to the
+      north should be slightly altered and brought to a point seventeen and a
+      half miles west of Pelusium, this change being determined upon from the
+      fact that the water at this point was from twenty-five to thirty feet deep
+      at a distance of two miles from the coast, whereas at Pelusium this depth
+      of water was only to be found at a distance of five miles from the coast.
+      It was suggested that the plan for locks be abolished, and the length of
+      the jetties at Suez and Port Said be diminished. Various other details of
+      a minor character were determined, and this project was finally accepted
+      and carried through by the Suez Canal Company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0032" id="linkBimage-0032">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:42%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/259.jpg" alt="259.jpg Ferdinand de Lesseps " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In 1854 M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose father was the first representative
+      of France in Egypt after the occupation, and who was chosen consul at
+      Cairo (1831&mdash;1838), obtained a preliminary concession from Said
+      Pasha, authorising him to form a company for the purpose of excavating a
+      canal between the two seas, and laying down the connections on which the
+      concession was granted. This was followed by the drawing up and revision
+      of the project mentioned above, and by the renewal in 1856 of the first
+      concession with certain modifications and additions. Meanwhile the British
+      government, under the influence of Lord Palmerston, then foreign
+      secretary, endeavoured for various political reasons to place obstacles in
+      the way of the enterprise, and so far succeeded in this unworthy attempt
+      as to prevent the sultan from giving his assent to the concessions made by
+      the viceroy of Egypt. Nothing, however, could daunt the intrepid promoter,
+      M. de Lesseps. He declared his motto to be &ldquo;Pour principe de commencer par
+      avoir de la con-fiance.&rdquo; Undeterred by intrigues, and finding that his
+      project met with a favourable reception throughout the Continent of
+      Europe, he determined, in 1858, to open a subscription which would secure
+      funds for the undertaking. The capital, according to the statistics of the
+      company, approved in the firman of the concession, was to consist of forty
+      million dollars in shares of one hundred dollars each. More than half of
+      this amount was subscribed for, and eventually, in 1860, Said Pasha
+      consented to take up the remaining unallotted shares, amounting to more
+      than twelve million dollars. Disregarding the opposition of the English
+      government, and ignoring the Sublime Porte, which was influenced by
+      England, M. de Lesseps began his work in 1859, and on the 25th of April of
+      that year the work was formally commenced, in the presence of M. de
+      Lesseps and four directors of the company, by the digging of a small
+      trench along the projected line of the canal, on the narrow strip of land
+      between Lake Menzaleh and the Mediterranean. This was followed by the
+      establishment of working encampments in different parts of the isthmus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the first steps were thus taken, incredible difficulties
+      prevented de Lesseps from pushing forward with his work. Towards the close
+      of 1862 the actual results were only a narrow &ldquo;rigole&rdquo; cut from the
+      Mediterranean to Lake Tinseh, and the extension of the freshwater canal
+      from Rasel-Wady to the same point. The principal work done in 1863 was the
+      continuation of the fresh-water canal to Suez. At this point a fresh
+      obstacle arose which threatened to stop the work altogether. Among the
+      articles of the concession of 1856 was one providing that four-fifths of
+      the workmen on the canal should be Egyptians. Said Pasha consented to
+      furnish these workmen by conscription from different parts of Egypt, and
+      the company agreed to pay them at a rate equal to about two-thirds less
+      than was given for similar work in Europe, and one-third more than they
+      received in their own country, and to provide them with food, dwellings,
+      etc. In principle this was the <i>corvée</i>, or forced labour. The
+      fellaheen were taken away from their homes and set to work at the canal,
+      though there is no doubt that they were as well treated and better paid
+      than at home. The injustice and impolicy of this clause had always been
+      insisted upon to the sultan by the English government, and when Ismail
+      Pasha became viceroy, in the year 1863, he saw that the constant drain
+      upon the working population required to keep twenty thousand fresh
+      labourers monthly for the canal was a loss to the country for which
+      nothing could compensate. In the early part of 1864 he refused to continue
+      to send the monthly contingent, and the work was almost stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the consent of all the parties, the subjects in dispute were submitted
+      to the arbitrage of the French Emperor Napoleon III., who decided that the
+      two concessions of 1854 and 1856, being in the nature of a contract and
+      binding on both parties, the Egyptian government should pay an indemnity
+      equal to the fellah labour and $6,000,000 for the resumption of the lands
+      originally granted, two hundred metres only being retained on each side of
+      the canal for the erection of workshops, the deposit of soil, etc., and
+      $3,200,000 for the fresh-water canal, and the right of levying tolls on
+      it. The Egyptian government undertook to keep it in repair and navigable,
+      and to allow the company free use of it for any purpose. The sum total of
+      these payments amounted to $16,800,000, and was to be paid in sixteen
+      instalments from 1864 to 1879.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The company now proceeded to replace by machinery the manual labour, and,
+      thanks to the energy and ingenuity of the principal contractors, Messrs.
+      Borel and Lavalley, that which seemed first of all to threaten destruction
+      to the enterprise now led to its ultimate success. Without the machinery
+      thus called into action, it is probable that the canal would never have
+      been completed when it was. The ingenuity displayed in the invention of
+      this machinery, and its application to this vast undertaking, constituted
+      one of the chief glories in the enterprise of M. de Lesseps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The work now proceeded without interruption of any kind; but at the end of
+      the year 1867 it became evident that more money would be needed, and a
+      subscription was opened for the purpose of obtaining $20,000,000 by means
+      of one hundred dollar shares, issued at $600 a share, and bearing interest
+      at the rate of five dollars a share. When more money was needed in 1869,
+      the government agreed to renounce the interest on the shares held by it
+      for twenty-five years, and more bonds were issued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By help of these subventions and loans the work was pushed onward with
+      great vigour. The sceptical were gradually losing their scepticism, and
+      all the world was awakening to see what an immense advantage to
+      civilisation the triumph of de Lesseps&rsquo; engineering enterprise would be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0033" id="linkBimage-0033">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/263.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="263.jpg the Opening of The Suez Canal " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The great Frenchman had shown consummate skill as an organiser, but still
+      more perhaps as an astute diplomatist, who knew how to upset the
+      machinations of his numerous and powerful opponents by judicious
+      counter-strokes of policy. By the beginning of 1869, the great labours of
+      the company had very nearly reached their completion. The waters, flowing
+      from the Mediterranean, first entered into the Bitter Lakes on March 18,
+      1869. Ismail Pasha was present to watch the initial success of the grand
+      undertaking, and predicted that in a very short space of time the canal
+      would be open to the ships of all the world. The first steamer which made
+      the passage was one which carried M. de Lesseps on board, and which
+      steamed the whole length of the canal September, 1869, in an interval of
+      fifteen hours. This was a great triumph for the intrepid and persevering
+      engineer, whose enterprise had been scoffed at by many men of the greatest
+      European fame, and the completion of which had been delayed by incredible
+      obstacles arising from jealousy or want of funds. By this time the
+      unworthy tactics of the former Palmerston ministry of Great Britain in
+      opposition to a scheme of such universal helpfulness to commerce had been
+      succeeded by an official interest in the success of the enterprise which
+      grew from sentiment, in the first instance, to a willingness later to buy
+      up all the shares held by the Egyptian government. M. de Lesseps gave
+      formal notice early in September that the canal would be opened for
+      navigation on November 17, 1869. The khédive made costly preparations in
+      order that the event might become an international celebration.
+      Invitations were sent to all the sovereigns of Europe. The sultan refused
+      to be present, but the Empress Eugenie accepted the invitation in the name
+      of the French people. The Austrian emperor, the Prussian crown prince, and
+      Prince Amadeus of Italy also took part in the festivity. The initial
+      ceremony was on November 15th, at Port Said. Emperor Francis Joseph landed
+      at midday, and was received with pomp and magnificence by the Khedive
+      Ismail. There were splendid decorations in the streets and triumphal
+      arches were raised. Meanwhile salutes were exchanged between the batteries
+      and the ships of war in the harbour. At night there were gorgeous
+      illuminations and fireworks. The khédive gave a grand ball on his own
+      yacht, at which the Emperor of Austria and all the distinguished guests
+      were in attendance. The French empress then arrived in Alexandria, and was
+      received by Ismail and Francis Joseph with salutes of guns and the
+      acclamations of the people. The next day the French imperial yacht Aigle,
+      with the empress on board, proceeded to steam up the canal, being followed
+      by forty vessels. They reached Ismailia after eight hours and a half, and
+      were there met by vessels coming from the south end at Suez. On November
+      19th the fleet of steamers, led by the French imperial yacht, set out for
+      Suez. They anchored overnight at the Bitter Lakes, and on November 21st
+      the whole fleet of forty-five steamers arrived at Suez and entered the Red
+      Sea. The empress, accompanied by the visiting fleet, returned on November
+      22nd, and reached the Mediterranean on the 23rd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      England, the country which more than any other had opposed the progress of
+      the canal, derived more benefit than any other country from its
+      completion. In 1875 the British government bought 176,600 shares from the
+      khédive for a sum of nearly $20,000,000; and at the present time the value
+      of these shares has risen more than fourfold. By this acquisition the
+      British government became the largest shareholder. Of the shipping which
+      avails itself of this route to the East, which is shorter by six thousand
+      miles than any other, about eighty per cent, is British. In 1891, of 4,207
+      ships, with a grain tonnage of 12,218,000, as many as 3,217 of 9,484,000
+      tons were British.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Extensive works were undertaken in 1894 for the widening of the canal.
+      Illuminated buoys and electric lights have been introduced to facilitate
+      the night traffic, so that, proceeding continuously, instead of stopping
+      overnight, ships can now pass through in less than twenty hours in place
+      of the thirty-five or forty hours which were formerly taken to effect the
+      passage. These greater facilities postponed the need of discussing the
+      project for running a parallel canal to the East which some time ago was
+      thought to be an impending necessity on account of the blockage of the
+      canal by the number of vessels passing through its course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the Anglo-French Convention of 1888, the canal had acquired an
+      international character. Both the water way itself and the isthmus for
+      three miles on either side were declared neutral territory, exempt from
+      blockade, fortification, or military occupation of any kind. The passage
+      is to remain open for all time to ships of all nations, whether they are
+      war-ships or merchantmen or liners, or whether the country to which they
+      belong is engaged in war or enjoying peace. Within this convention was
+      included the fresh-water canal which supplies drinking water to Ismailia
+      and Port Said, and all the floating population about the banks of the Suez
+      Canal. On April 8, 1904, by the terms of a new Anglo-French Colonial
+      Treaty, it has been jointly agreed that the provisions of the Convention
+      of 1888 shall remain in force for the next thirty years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Egypt was the scene of the earliest of all advances in engineering
+      science. The system of irrigation, which originated in the days of the
+      oldest Egyptian dynasties, has remained practically the same through all
+      the intervening centuries until very recent times. During every period of
+      vigorous government the rulers of Egypt paid special attention to
+      irrigation canals and sluices, through which the flood waters could be
+      brought to some hitherto uncultivated area. The famous barrage, projected
+      early in the nineteenth century and only rendered efficient for what it
+      was intended since the British occupation, made very little alteration in
+      the actual supply of water during the seasons of low water in the Nile.
+      The most serious problem is how to ward off the periodical famine years,
+      of which there has been record from the earliest ages, and of which the
+      Book of Genesis has left an account in the history of Joseph and the seven
+      years of plenty and seven years of famine. Without creating such a vast
+      reservoir in the upper waters of the Nile, that the storage there retained
+      can be available in years of low water to fill the river to its accustomed
+      level, it is impossible to prevent the calamity occasioned by leaving many
+      districts of Egypt without cultivation for one or more seasons. With the
+      desire of accomplishing this, Sir Benjamin Baker, the leading authority on
+      engineering works in Egypt, prepared a scheme for reserving a vast storage
+      of water in Upper Egypt at Aswan. It was also decided to follow up the
+      enterprise with another to be undertaken at Assiut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On February 20,1898, the khédive approved of a contract with Messrs. John
+      Aird and Company, which settled the much-debated question of the Nile
+      reservoir and the scheme for the great dam at Aswan. The government was
+      able to start the undertaking without any preliminary outlay. It was
+      agreed that the company should receive the sum of $800,000 a year for a
+      period of thirty years. Aswan, six hundred miles south of Cairo, was
+      selected as an advantageous site because the Nile at that place flows over
+      a granite bed, and is shut in on either side by granite rocks, which, when
+      the course of the river is barred, would form the shores of the artificial
+      irrigation lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before this work started, there had been a long controversy as to the
+      effect produced by the rising waters upon the renowned temple on the Isle
+      of Philæ. Lord Leighton, the president of the Royal Academy, had
+      vigorously protested against allowing the destruction of this famous
+      ancient ruin. In the modification of the plans caused by this protest, it
+      was hoped that no serious harm would result to this well-preserved relic
+      of ancient Egyptian religion and art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0034" id="linkBimage-0034">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/269.jpg" width="100%" alt="269.jpg Approach to Philae " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The enterprise was put through with great rapidity, the project fully
+      realising the designs of its inaugurators. By aid of this great structure,
+      2,500 square miles have been added to the area of the 10,500 miles
+      hitherto subject to cultivation. Its value to the country is at the least
+      worth $100,000,000. The dam extends for one and a quarter miles, and
+      possesses 180 openings, each of which is twenty-three feet high, and will
+      altogether allow the outpour of fifteen thousand tons of water per second.
+      Navigation up and down the Nile has not been impeded, since, by a chain of
+      four locks, vessels are able to pass up and down the river. Each lock is
+      260 feet long and thirty-two feet wide. During flood-time the gates of the
+      dam are open; while the flood is subsiding the gates are gradually closed,
+      and thus, in a long season of low water, the reservoir is gradually filled
+      up for use through a system of canals, whereby the waters can be drawn off
+      for irrigation and the main flow of the Nile can be increased. The lake
+      thus formed is nearly three times the superficial area of Lake Geneva in
+      Switzerland, and the waters are held back for a distance of 140 miles up
+      the course of the river. The reservoir is filled during the months of
+      January and February, and from April to the end of August the water is let
+      out for irrigation purposes from the bottom of the reservoir, thus
+      enabling the sediment, which is of such value, to be carried out through
+      the sluices. Four or five waterings are allowed to percolate from it to
+      the various regions which are thus brought under cultivation, and besides
+      this the main supply of the river itself is artificially increased at the
+      same time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dam has been constructed of granite ashlar taken from quarries near
+      Aswan. These quarries are the very same from which the ancient obelisks
+      were hewn. The amount of rock used was about one million tons in weight.
+      In building the dam it was found to be very difficult to lay the
+      foundation, since the bottom of the river proved to be unsound, although
+      in the preliminary reports it had been declared to be of solid granite. In
+      some instances it was found necessary to dig down for forty feet, in order
+      to lay a perfectly secure foundation on which the heavy wall could be
+      superimposed. This required much additional labour, and great risk and
+      damage was encountered during the progress of the work at the date of the
+      impending rise of the waters of the Nile. Rubble dams were raised to ward
+      off the waters from the point where it was necessary to excavate. The
+      holes were gradually filled with solid blocks of granite; then the base of
+      the structure, one hundred feet in width, was laid, and the massive piers,
+      capable of resisting the immense pressure of the water during the height
+      of the floods, were raised, and the whole edifice was at length completed
+      with great rapidity by the aid of many thousand workmen, just before the
+      rise in the Nile occurred. The official opening of the dam took place on
+      the 10th of December, 1902.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dam at Aswan is the greatest irrigation project ever yet undertaken,
+      but is by no means the last one likely to be executed in relation to the
+      waters of the Nile. A smaller dam is to be constructed at Assiut, in order
+      to supply a system of irrigation in the neighbourhood of that city, and
+      also to carry water across to thousands of acres between this region and
+      Cairo. This project is planned somewhat after the design of the barrage
+      which is below Cairo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is impossible to forecast what engineering skill may have in store for
+      the future of Egypt. One may hope, at least, that the most prosperous days
+      of the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Romans will be reproduced once
+      more for the modern Egyptians, as an outcome of the wise administration
+      which has originated through the occupation of the country by the English,
+      as an international trust held for civilisation. By aid of British
+      initiative, Egypt now controls a vast empire in equatorial Africa and the
+      Sudan, and the great water ways of this immense territory are being
+      gradually brought under such control that the maximum advantage to all the
+      population will be the necessary result. The whole Nile is now opened to
+      commerce. The British have guaranteed equal rights, and what has been
+      called the policy of the &ldquo;open door,&rdquo; for the commerce of all nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The history of the modern exploration of the Nile is closely associated
+      with the history of Egypt in modern times. The men who first visited Egypt
+      and ascended the Nile valley were in almost every case Indo-Euro-peans.
+      The early Egyptians were familiar perhaps with the Nile as far as Khartum,
+      and with the Blue Nile up to its source in Lake Tsana, but they showed
+      little or no interest in exploring the White Nile. In 457 B.C., Herodotus
+      entered Egypt, and ascended the Nile as far as the First Cataract. He then
+      learned many things about its upper waters, and made enquiries about the
+      territories which lay beyond. He heard that the source was unknown; that
+      there was a centre of civilisation in a city of the Ethiopians, in the
+      bend of the Nile at Meroë (Merawi of to-day), but about the regions beyond
+      he was unable to learn anything. Eratosthenes, the earliest geographer of
+      whom we have record, was born in 276 b. c. at Cyrene, North Africa. From
+      the information he gathered and edited, he sketched a nearly correct route
+      of the Nile to Khartum. He also inserted the two Abyssinian affluents, and
+      suggested that lakes were the source of the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Rome extended her domains over Egypt, in 30 B.C., the interest of the
+      Romans was aroused in the solution of the problem of the discovery of the
+      source of the Nile. Strabo set out with Ælius Gallus, the Roman Governor
+      of Egypt, on a journey of exploration up the Nile as far as Philæ, at the
+      First Cataract. About 30 B.C. Greek explorers by the names of Bion,
+      Dalion, and Si-mondes were engaged in active exploration of the Nile above
+      the First Cataract and perhaps south of Khartum, according to the account
+      of Pliny the Elder, writing in 50 A.D. The Emperor Nero, in A.D. 66, sent
+      an expedition up the Nile, and its members journeyed as far as the modern
+      Fashoda and perhaps even beyond the White Nile. Their advance was impeded
+      by the sudd, and, after writing discouraging reports, their attempt was
+      abandoned. Among the Greek merchants who traded on the East African coast
+      was one named Diogenes, who had been informed by an Arab that by a
+      twenty-five days&rsquo; journey one could gain access to a chain of great lakes,
+      two of which were the headwaters of the White Nile. They also said that
+      there was a mountain range, named from its brilliant appearance the
+      Mountains of the Moon. He was informed that the Nile formed from the two
+      head streams, flowed through marshes until it united with the Blue Nile,
+      and then it flowed on until it entered into well-known regions. Diogenes
+      reported this to a Syrian geographer named Marinus of Tyre, who wrote of
+      it in his <i>Geography</i> during the first century of the Christian era.
+      The writings of Marinus disappeared, it is supposed, when the Alexandrian
+      Library was scattered, but luckily Gladius Ptolemy quoted them, and thus
+      they have been preserved for us. Ptolemy wrote, in 150 A.D., the first
+      clearly intelligible account of the origin of the White Nile, the two
+      lakes, Victoria and Albert Nyanza, and the Mountains of the Moon. But no
+      less than 1,740 years elapsed before justice could be done to this ancient
+      geographer, and his account verified. It was Sir Henry M. Stanley who
+      discovered the Ruwanzori mountain range, corresponding to the classical
+      Mountains of the Moon, and who thus justified Ptolemy&rsquo;s view of the
+      topography of Africa. For many years after Ptolemy, the work of exploring
+      the sources of the Nile was entirely discontinued, and the solution of the
+      problem was still wrapped in impenetrable mystery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first modern explorer of any consequence who came from Great Britain
+      was a Scotchman named Bruce. In 1763 he travelled through many ports of
+      Northern Africa and visited the Levant, and subsequently Syria and
+      Palestine. Wherever he went he drew sketches of antiquities, which are now
+      preserved in the British Museum. Landing in Africa in 1786, he went up the
+      Nile as far as Aswan. From there he travelled to the Red Sea and reached
+      Jiddah, the port of Hajas. He then returned to Africa, stopping at
+      Massawra, and from there penetrated into the heart of Abyssinia. The
+      emperor received him with favour and suffered him to reach the Blue Nile,
+      which to the mind of Bruce had always been considered as the main stream
+      of the Nile. Having determined the latitude and longitude, he went down
+      the Blue Nile as far as the site of Khartum, where the waters of the White
+      Nile join with those of the Blue Nile. He next proceeded to Berber, and
+      crossed the desert to Korosko, returning, after a three years&rsquo; journey, in
+      the year 1773. In journeying through France many learned men took a great
+      interest in the story of his explorations, but he was bitterly
+      disappointed to hear that he had not been the first to reach the sources
+      of the Blue Nile. Partly for this reason he delayed publishing his travels
+      for seventeen years after his return. Bruce was a truthful and accurate
+      writer, but nevertheless his book was received on all sides with
+      incredulity. Although received at the British court, he was not given any
+      special honours or decorations. He first pointed out the great importance
+      to England of controlling the Egyptian route to India, and he also secured
+      for English merchants a concession on the Red Sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1812, John Ludwig Burckhardt, of Swiss nationality, the first among
+      Europeans, made a pilgrimage to Mecca and then travelled up the Nile to
+      Korosko, after which he crossed the desert to Berber and Shendy. His death
+      occurred after his return to Cairo, and he left a valuable collection of
+      Oriental manuscripts to the University of Cambridge, England, which were
+      published after his death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1827, a Belgian, named Adolphe Lisiant, ascended the White Nile to
+      within 150 miles of Khartum. The expedition which he led was aided by an
+      English society, called the &ldquo;African Association,&rdquo; which became afterwards
+      a part of the Royal Geographical Society. Many explorers visited the White
+      Nile between 1827 and 1845. In 1845, John Pethrick, a Welshman, explored
+      the Nile for coal and precious metals in the interest of Mehemet Ali.
+      After the death of this pasha, Pethrick visited El-Obeid in Kordofan as a
+      trader, and remained there for five years. In 1853 he ventured upon an
+      enterprise relating to the ivory trade. For this purpose he travelled
+      backwards and forwards upon the White Nile and the Bahr-el-Ghazal for a
+      period of six years, reaching some of the important affluents of the
+      Bahr-el-Ghazal, the Jur and the Jalo, or the Rol. Returning to England, he
+      was commissioned to undertake a relief expedition to help Captains Speke
+      and Grant, who had set out upon their journey of exploration, and in the
+      year 1861 he returned to Central Africa. Interest in the slave-trade
+      deterred him from following the directions under which he had been sent
+      out, namely, to bring relief to Speke and Grant. Sir Samuel Baker
+      anticipated him in relieving the expedition, and this so angered Speke
+      that he attempted to have Pethrick deprived of his consular position.
+      Pethrick died in 1882.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Lieutenant Richard Francis Burton had completed his famous journey
+      through Hedjaz to the sacred city of Mecca, he called at the port of Aden
+      at the southwest extremity of Arabia. While there, he made friends with
+      the authorities, and persuaded them to allow him to penetrate Africa
+      through Somaliland, which is situated to the southwest of Abyssinia. He
+      hoped by an overland journey westbound to strike the Nile at its
+      headwaters. John H. Speke accompanied Burton on his journey, and thus
+      gained his first experience of African exploration. Unfortunately this
+      expedition was not a success, for the Somali were so suspicious of the
+      object of the travellers that they forced them to return to the coast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0035" id="linkBimage-0035">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/277.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="277.jpg the Main Stream of The Nile " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Once more, in 1856, the same party started farther south from Zanzibar.
+      Hearing of a great inland lake, they pressed forwards to make an
+      exploration, but were prevented by the Masai tribes. Burton was now laid
+      up with fever, and Speke formed a large party and crossed the Unyamivezi
+      and Usukuma. On July 30, 1858, they were fortunate enough to cross one of
+      the bays of the southern half of Lake Victoria Nyanza. They struck
+      northwards, and, on August 3rd, gained sight of the open waters of the
+      great lake. Speke did not realise the vast area of the lake at this time,
+      and put down its width at about one hundred miles. As he had promised
+      Burton to return at a certain pre-arranged date, he went back to the
+      coast. Burton, however, was unreasonable enough to be displeased with
+      Speke&rsquo;s discovery, and the two fell into strained relations. On arriving
+      at the coast, Speke at once went back to England, and there raised funds
+      to make a longer and more complete exploration. He was naturally anxious
+      to learn more about the great lake in the middle of the continent, and,
+      besides this, he thought that he could demonstrate to the satisfaction of
+      the scientific world that this vast basin of water was the source of the
+      White Nile. Captain James A. Grant asked leave to accompany Speke, and
+      became his efficient lieutenant. Grant was a good shot, a matter of
+      importance, for it was almost certain that the party would have to
+      confront the danger of being surrounded by wild beasts and hostile
+      natives. He was also a good geologist and painted well in water-colours,
+      and proved himself to be a capable lieutenant to the leader of the party.
+      The Indian government sent the expedition a quantity of ammunition and
+      surveying instruments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party started from Zanzibar for the interior in October, 1860. At
+      Usugara they were detained by the illness of Captain Grant and some of the
+      Hottentot retainers. A number of the instruments were now sent back in
+      order to lighten the burdens, and among other things was returned the
+      cumbrous photographic apparatus, which was the only kind in use in the
+      sixties. At Ugogo serious trouble arose with the native chiefs, who
+      demanded tolls from the party. Many of the remaining porters here
+      deserted, and others were frightened by the hostility of the local tribes.
+      When at length they reached the Unyamivezi most of the beasts of burden
+      had died, and half of the stores they had intended to bring with them were
+      found to have been stolen by the natives. The Arabs here told Speke that
+      there was another lake besides the Victoria, whose waters, according to
+      some, were reported to be salty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fierce internecine wars were now being waged between the tribes of the
+      locality, which made any thought of progress, so long as they lasted, an
+      impossibility. Speke, having successfully endeavoured to negotiate a peace
+      between the chief Mouwa and the Arabs of the region, resolved upon the
+      bold enterprise of pushing on without Grant and the supplies towards
+      Buzina, the nearest country ruled by Bahima chiefs. The venture, however,
+      was a fruitless one, and he bravely struggled to reach Usui. In this he
+      succeeded, remaining there till October, 1861, when he went through the
+      region of the Suwaroras, who demanded excessive tolls for permission to
+      pass through their territory. Proceeding into the wilderness, they were
+      met by envoys from Rumanika, a king whose court they intended to visit,
+      and who had heard in advance of their impending journey. The messengers of
+      the king received them well and brought them to the court. Rumanika now
+      desired them to remain at his capital until he had sent word before them
+      that the party intended to go to Uganda. Grant, about this time, was laid
+      up with an ulcerated leg; and, when the time came for moving forward,
+      Speke was obliged to set out for Uganda alone, which place he entered on
+      January 16, 1862. He became a close friend of the royal family and the
+      chief men, and his beard was a constant source of admiration and
+      conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The illness of Grant prevented him from joining the party at Uganda till
+      the end of May, and on July 7th of the same year, after many delays, they
+      obtained leave from the king to leave Uganda. By July the 28th, Speke had
+      reached the Ripon Falls, where the Victoria Nyanza branch of the Nile
+      flows out of the great lake at the head of Napoleon Gulf. These falls were
+      called after the Marquis of Ripon, who was then the president of the Royal
+      Geographical Society. At this time, Grant, still convalescent, was moving
+      by a more direct route towards Ungaro. Speke met him again on the way
+      thither, and they finished their journey together. After suffering
+      vexatious impositions from the monarch, Speke asked leave to go and visit
+      a new lake which the natives called Lutanzige, but was refused permission.
+      He then sent Bombay, his servant and interlocutor, along the course of the
+      Nile towards the outposts of Pethrick. The messenger returned with hopeful
+      news that there was a clear course open to them in that direction. The
+      whole party then journeyed down the Kafu River to the point where it
+      enters the Nile. On the way thither, they came to the Karuma Falls, and
+      were obliged to march across swampy ground. Finally they met a Sudanese
+      black named Mu-hammed Wad-el-Mek, who was dressed like an Egyptian and who
+      spoke Arabic. Muhammed first of all told them that he had come from
+      Pethrick, but it was later discovered that he was in the employment of
+      Doctor Bono, a trader from Malta. The Sudanese was not anxious that the
+      party should proceed, and told them stories about the impossibility of
+      ascending the river at that time, during the month of December. It was
+      difficult to dissuade Speke, however, and on January 12, 1863, he set out
+      for a place which is now called Affudu. There the party paused for awhile
+      in order to kill enough game to feed the native servants. On the 1st of
+      February, having forced some of the natives into their service as porters,
+      they descended the Nile to its confluence with the Asua River. They next
+      crossed this river, and proceeded onwards to the Nile Rapids, and from
+      thence skirted the borders of the Bari country. On February 15, 1863, they
+      made an entrance into Gondokoro, where the whole party was filled with joy
+      to meet Sir Samuel Baker, who had arrived there on the way out to relieve
+      them. They all advanced together to Khartum, after which Speke and Grant
+      returned to England, in the spring of 1863. Thus was the task of the
+      discovery of the sources of the Nile, which had baffled the seekers for
+      many centuries, at length completed. Speke was received by the Prince of
+      Wales (King Edward VII.), but the satisfaction of being allowed to place
+      an additional motto on his coat-of-arms was the only recognition which he
+      received for his services.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a result of Speke&rsquo;s discoveries, the Victoria Nyanza took its place on
+      the maps of Africa, and a fair conception had been obtained of the size
+      and shape of Lake Albert Nyanza.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0036" id="linkBimage-0036">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/283.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="283.jpg the Ferry at Old Cairo " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The whole course of the White Nile was also revealed with more or less
+      accuracy, and all the mysterious surmises as to the great flow of the Nile
+      from some unknown headwaters of enormous extent were now solved. It was
+      only necessary to fill in the details of the map in regard to the great
+      lakes and the rivers which flowed into them, and further to investigate
+      the extensive territory between the lakes and the Egyptian settlements to
+      the north. Sir Samuel Baker was the man who more than any other helped to
+      supply the details of the work already accomplished. From Cairo he started
+      on a journey up the course of the Nile. When he had reached Berber, he
+      chose the course of the At-bara, or Blue Nile, the branch which receives
+      the floods of water from the Abyssinian table-lands. He travelled up the
+      western frontier of Abyssinia, proceeding as far as the river Rahad, a
+      river flowing into the Blue Nile from the Egyptian side. From this point
+      Baker turned backwards towards Khartum, which he reached in June, 1862,
+      where he made a stay of some duration. He now made up his mind to search
+      for Speke, and went up the White Nile as far as Gondokoro, where the
+      meeting with Speke took place. Baker left this place March 26, 1863, but
+      met with almost insuperable obstacles in trying to make further advance.
+      The porters deserted, the camels died, and the ammunition and the presents
+      intended to ease the way through the territory of native princes had to be
+      all abandoned. Thus disencumbered, his party ascended the White Nile until
+      they reached the Victoria affluent. The Bauyno tribes now prevented his
+      intended advance to the Albert Nyanza. Baker, however, had the good
+      fortune to be well received by the chieftain Kamurasi, and, as he was at
+      this moment suffering from a severe attack of fever, the friendliness of
+      this Central African chieftain was probably the means of saving his life.
+      The king graciously received Baker&rsquo;s present of a double-barrelled gun,
+      and then sent him onward with two guides and three hundred men. The party
+      now managed to push their way to the shores of the Albert Nyanza. They
+      first arrived at a place called Mbakovia, situated near the south-east
+      coast, and on March 16, 1864, they saw for the first time the great lake
+      itself, which they now named the Albert Nyanza. After a short stay at
+      Mbakovia, they proceeded along the coast of the lake until they reached
+      Magungo, where the Victoria branch of the Nile flows into the Albert
+      Nyanza. Continuing the journey up the source of the Victoria Nile, they
+      discovered the Murchison Falls. When they set out for the Karuma Falls the
+      porters deserted, and after many desperate adventures they at length
+      returned to Khartum in May, 1865. Baker then went on to Berber, and
+      crossed the desert to Suakin on the Red Sea. He returned to England late
+      in the year 1865, and was received with honour and decorated by the queen
+      with a well-earned knighthood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1869 Baker entered the service of the Egyptian government, and
+      was commissioned by the viceroy to subdue the regions of Equatorial
+      Africa, and annex them to the Egyptian Empire. To succeed in this
+      enterprise he waged many a war with African tribes like the Boni. On
+      several occasions these conflicts had been forced upon him; on other
+      occasions Baker Pasha was the aggressor, owing to his fixed determination
+      to extend on all sides the limits of the Egyptian Sudan. With all the
+      rulers, however, who treated him well, he remained on terms of loyalty and
+      friendship; and, in time, he inspired them with respect for his fairness
+      and liberality. Baker Pasha scattered the slave-traders on all sides, and,
+      for the time being, effectually broke up their power. The slave-traders of
+      the Sudan were of Arab nationality, and were in the habit of advancing
+      farther, year by year, upon the villages of the defenceless Africans, and
+      spreading their ravages into the heart of Africa. They always attacked the
+      less warlike tribes, and, upon breaking into a negro settlement, would
+      carry off the whole population, except the aged or sick. The slaves were
+      herded together in vast numbers by help of logs of wood sawn in two, with
+      holes cut large enough to enclose the neck of a slave, and the two sides
+      of the log afterwards securely fastened again, thereby yoking together a
+      row of these unfortunate beings. Every year, out of five hundred thousand
+      or more slaves, at least half the number perished.. The markets for the
+      slaves were the cities of the Muhammedans all through North Africa, Syria,
+      Turkey, and Persia. The death-dealing hardships to the slaves were for the
+      most part endured on the long journey to Cairo, or, when the trade was
+      suppressed there, to points north of the Sudan, such as Tripoli, or
+      certain ports on the Red Sea. Those who were hardy enough to reach the
+      slave-markets were usually well treated by their Muhammedan masters.
+      During the time of Baker Pasha&rsquo;s administration, while he was pursuing the
+      slave-traders and establishing Egyptian outposts, the whole course of the
+      Nile from the Great Lakes became well known to the civilised world, though
+      after this period Baker Pasha did not make any further voyages of
+      discovery into unknown parts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the years of 1859 and 1860, an adventurous Dutch lady of fortune,
+      Miss Alexandrine Tinné, journeyed up the Nile as far as Gondokoro, and in
+      1861 she commenced to organise a daring expedition to find the source of
+      the Bahr-el-Ghazel, and explore the territory between the Nile basin and
+      Lake Chad. She started from Khartum, and ascended the Bahr-el-Ghazel as
+      far as the affluent Bahr-el-Hamad. She then crossed overland as far as the
+      Jur and Kosango Rivers, and reached the mountains on the outlying
+      districts of the Nyam-Nyam country. Here the members of the expedition
+      suffered from black-water fever, and only with the greatest difficulty
+      were they able to return to Khartum, where they arrived in July, 1864. In
+      1868 Miss Tinné, nothing-daunted, started for Lake Chad from Tripoli, with
+      the intention of closing in upon the Nile from the eastern sources of the
+      affluents of the Bahr-el-Ghazel. On reaching Wadi-Aberjong, however, this
+      brave-hearted woman was waylaid by the fierce Tuaregs, and was beheaded
+      August 1, 1868.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the sixties, Georg Schweinfurth, a native of Riga, in the Baltic
+      provinces of Russia, set out to explore Nubia, Upper Egypt, and Abyssinia
+      for botanical purposes. Subsequently the Royal Academy of Science in
+      Berlin equipped him for an expedition to explore the region of the
+      Bahr-el-Ghazel. He entered the Sudan by Suakin on the Red Sea, and crossed
+      the desert to Berber, reaching Khartum on November 1, 1868. The following
+      January he set out along the course of the White Nile, passed Getina, and
+      examined the vegetation (sudd) which had drifted down from all the
+      affluents of the White Nile. He prolonged his stay for three years on the
+      Bahr-el-Ghazel, solely absorbed in scientific studies, and, unlike his
+      predecessors, he was unconcerned with reforms and attempts to suppress the
+      slave-trade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Schweinfurth penetrated so far into the heart of Africa that he reached
+      the Congo basin and explored the upper waters of the Welle River, and on
+      his return to Europe he published a work, in 1873, called &ldquo;The Heart of
+      Africa.&rdquo; In this book he tried to demonstrate that the area of the
+      Victoria Nyanza was taken up by a chain of five lakes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About this time, in the same year, the famous Henry Morton Stanley
+      returned to London from his adventurous discovery and relief of Dr. David
+      Livingstone. The distinguished missionary and explorer died not long
+      afterwards, and the fame of his brilliant discoveries and heroic life
+      aroused great sympathy and interest in African exploration. The great
+      river which Livingstone had explored was believed by him to have been the
+      Nile, but was more correctly thought by others to have been the Congo
+      River. On account of the interest aroused in Livingstone, the <i>New York
+      Herald</i> and the <i>Daily Telegraph</i> of London decided to send
+      Stanley on a fully equipped expedition to solve the many problems relating
+      to the heart of Africa about which the civilised world was still in the
+      dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stanley chose the route of Zanzibar, and, landing there, he went up the
+      course of the river and crossed the country to the Victoria Nyanza by the
+      way of Unyamwezi. He reached the lake by the end of February, 1875. On
+      March the 8th he set out to explore the shores of the lake, and mapped the
+      whole region, including its bays, islands, and archipelagoes, with a
+      considerable amount of accuracy. He also examined Napoleon Gulf, and
+      reached as far as Ripon Falls, at which point the waters of the lake flow
+      towards the Albert Nyanza. He then verified the accuracy of Speke&rsquo;s
+      supposition that the Victoria Nyanza really was the main source of the
+      White Nile. Stanley set out from Uganda at the end of the year 1875, and
+      travelled across the country to the Congo. About the same time three
+      English surveyors, Colonels Purdy, Colston, and Sidney Enser, made several
+      topographical reports on much of the territory between the Bahr-el-Ghazel,
+      the Shari, and the Nile. Later on, in 1876, General Gordon sent Romolo
+      Gesei, an Italian in the service of the khédive, to navigate and to
+      explore Lake Albert Nyanza. In the following year Colonel Mason, an
+      American, surveyed the lake, of which he made an accurate topographical
+      chart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1880, Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, an eminent geographer, made some
+      valuable surveys of eastern equatorial Africa, which had the effect of
+      inciting the Royal Geographical Society to send out, in 1882, an
+      expedition under Joseph Thomson, a brilliant young African explorer, in
+      order to find out a direct route to the Victoria Nyanza. Thomson set out
+      from Momhasa early in the year 1883, but he never succeeded in realising
+      the purpose of his mission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Emin Pasha, as we have seen, was the governor appointed by the khédive to
+      rule the Egyptian equatorial provinces. He made a few discoveries, such as
+      the Semliki River, which was called by him Divern. Whilst he was engaged
+      in travelling through the Bahr-el-Ghazel district, the revolt of the Mahdi
+      occurred, and Emin Pasha was isolated from the outer world. In the year
+      1886 Doctor Junker returned to Europe from Emin, and roused great interest
+      by his account of the adventures of the pasha, whom most people had
+      believed to have died, but whom they now learned had set up an independent
+      sovereignty in the heart of Africa, awaiting anxiously the advent of a
+      relief expedition. Then Henry M. Stanley volunteered to go out on a relief
+      expedition to bring Emin Pasha home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stanley avoided the route through the German colony on the East, and
+      started upon his ever memorable relief expedition by the Congo route. The
+      veteran adventurer succeeded in relieving Emin Pasha, and, furthermore, he
+      discovered the Mountains of the Moon, called by the natives Ruwenjori, on
+      May 24, 1888. He also traced to its sources the Semliki River, and
+      explored Lake Albert Edward and a gulf of the Victoria to the south-west.
+      The remainder of this famous journey, for the success of which he was
+      knighted as Sir Henry M. Stanley, was outside the basin of the Nile, and
+      is recorded in his book, &ldquo;Through Darkest Africa.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1900, Dr. Donaldson Smith, an American, made an important journey
+      through the countries between the north end of Lake Rudolf and the
+      Mountain Nile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkBimage-0037" id="linkBimage-0037">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/291.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="291.jpg Examples of Phoenecian Porcelain " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> ===================== <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkC2HCH0001" id="linkC2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <a name="linkCimage-0004"
+       id="linkCimage-0004">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/291b.jpg" width="100%" alt="291b.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI&mdash;THE DECIPHERMENT OF THE HIEROGLYPHS*
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     *The early portion of this chapter is selected, by kind
+     permission of Dr. Henry Smith Williams, from his &ldquo;History
+     of the Art of Writing,&rdquo; Copyright, 1902 and 1903.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <i>The Rosetta Stone: The Discoveries of Dr. Thomas Young: The
+      Classification of the Egyptian Alphabet by Champollion: Egyptian
+      Love-songs and the Book of the Dead</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conspicuously placed in the great hall of Egyptian antiquities, in the
+      British Museum, is a wonderful piece of sculpture known as the Rosetta
+      Stone. A glance at its graven surface suffices to show that three sets of
+      inscriptions are recorded there. The upper one, occupying about one-fourth
+      of the surface, is a pictured scroll, made up of chains of those strange
+      outlines of serpents, hawks, lions, and so on, which are recognised, even
+      by the least initiated, as hieroglyphics. The middle inscription, made up
+      of lines, angles, and half-pictures, one might suppose to be a sort of
+      abbreviated or shorthand hieroglyphic. The third, or lower, inscription,
+      is manifestly Greek, obviously a thing of words. If the screeds above be
+      also made of words, only the elect have any way of proving the fact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fortunately, however, even the least scholarly observer is left in no
+      doubt as to the real import of the thing he sees, for an obliging English
+      label tells us that these three inscriptions are renderings of the same
+      message, and that this message is a &ldquo;decree of the Priests of Memphis
+      conferring divine honours on Ptolemy V., Epiphanes, King of Egypt, B.C.
+      195.&rdquo; The label goes on to state that the upper transcription (of which,
+      unfortunately, only parts of the last dozen lines or so remain, the slab
+      being broken) is in &ldquo;the Egyptian language, in hieroglyphics, or writing
+      of the priests&rdquo;; the second inscription in the same language, &ldquo;in demotic,
+      or the writing of the people&rdquo;; and the third &ldquo;in the Greek language and
+      character.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then comes a brief biography of the Rosetta Stone itself, as follows:
+      &ldquo;This stone was found by the French in 1798 among the ruins of Fort St.
+      Julian, near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. It passed into the hands of
+      the British by the treaty of Alexandria, and was deposited in the British
+      Museum in the year 1801.&rdquo; There is a whole volume of history in that brief
+      inscription, and a bitter sting thrown in, if the reader chance to be a
+      Frenchman. Yet the facts involved could scarcely be suggested more
+      modestly. They are recorded much more bluntly in a graven inscription on
+      the side of the stone, which runs: &ldquo;Captured in Egypt by the British Army,
+      1801.&rdquo; No Frenchman could read those words without a sinking of the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The value of the Rosetta Stone depended on the fact that it gave promise,
+      even when originally inspected, of furnishing a key to the centuries-old
+      mystery of the hieroglyphics. For two thousand years the secret of these
+      strange markings had been forgotten. Nowhere in the world&mdash;quite as
+      little in Egypt as elsewhere&mdash;had any man the slightest clue to their
+      meaning; there were even those who doubted whether these droll picturings
+      really had any specific meaning, questioning whether they were not merely
+      vague symbols of esoteric religious import and nothing more. And it was
+      the Rosetta Stone that gave the answer to these doubters, and restored to
+      the world a lost language and a forgotten literature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trustees of the British Museum recognised that the problem of the
+      Rosetta Stone was one on which the scientists of the world might well
+      exhaust their ingenuity, and they promptly published a carefully
+      lithographed copy of the entire inscription, so that foreign scholarship
+      had equal opportunity with British to try to solve the riddle. How
+      difficult a riddle it was, even with this key in hand, is illustrated by
+      the fact that, though scholars of all nations brought their ingenuity to
+      bear upon it, nothing more was accomplished for a dozen years than to give
+      authority to three or four guesses regarding the nature of the upper
+      inscriptions, which, as it afterwards proved, were quite incorrect and
+      altogether misleading. This in itself is sufficient to show that ordinary
+      scholarship might have studied the Rosetta Stone till the end of time
+      without getting far on the track of its secrets. The key was there, but to
+      apply it required the inspired insight&mdash;that is to say, the shrewd
+      guessing power&mdash;of genius.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man who undertook the task had perhaps the keenest scientific
+      imagination and the most versatile profundity of knowledge of his
+      generation&mdash;one is tempted to say, of any generation. For he was none
+      other than the extraordinary Dr. Thomas Young, the demonstrator of the
+      vibratory nature of light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Young had his attention called to the Rosetta Stone by accident, and his
+      usual rapacity for knowledge at once led him to speculate as to the
+      possible aid this tri-lingual inscription might give in the solution of
+      Egyptian problems. Resolving at once to attempt the solution himself, he
+      set to work to learn Koptic, which was rightly believed to represent the
+      nearest existing approach to the ancient Egyptian language. His amazing
+      facility in the acquisition of languages stood him in such good stead that
+      within a year of his first efforts he had mastered Koptic and assured
+      himself that the ancient Egyptian language was really similar to it, and
+      had even made a tentative attempt at the translation of the Egyptian
+      scroll. His results were only tentative, to be sure, yet they constituted
+      the very beginnings of our knowledge regarding the meaning of
+      hieroglyphics. Just how far they carried has been a subject of ardent
+      controversy ever since. Not that there is any doubt about the specific
+      facts; what is questioned is the exact importance of these facts. For it
+      is undeniable that Young did not complete and perfect the discovery, and,
+      as always in such matters, there is opportunity for difference of opinion
+      as to the share of credit due to each of the workers who entered into the
+      discovery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Young&rsquo;s specific discoveries were these: (1) that many of the pictures of
+      the hieroglyphics stand for the names of the objects actually delineated;
+      (2) that other pictures are sometimes only symbolic; (3) that plural
+      numbers are represented by repetition; (4) that numerals are represented
+      by dashes; (5) that hieroglyphics may read either from the right or from
+      the left, but always from the direction in which the animals and human
+      figures face; (6) that proper names are surrounded by a graven oval ring,
+      making what he called a cartouche; (7) that the cartouches of the
+      preserved portion of the Rosetta Stone stand for the name of Ptolemy
+      alone; (8) that the presence of a female figure after such cartouches, in
+      other inscriptions, always denotes the female sex; (9) that within the
+      cartouches the hieroglyphic symbols have a positively phonetic value,
+      either alphabetic or syllabic; and (10) that several different characters
+      may have the same phonetic value.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0005" id="linkCimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:47%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/296.jpg"
+       alt="296.jpg Jean Francois Champollion " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Just what these phonetic values are, Doctor Young pointed out in the case
+      of fourteen characters, representing nine sounds, six of which are
+      accepted to-day as correctly representing the letters to which he ascribed
+      them, and the three others as being correct regarding their essential or
+      consonantal element. It is clear, therefore, that he was on the right
+      track thus far, and on the very verge of complete discovery. But,
+      unfortunately, he failed to take the next step, which would have been to
+      realise that the same phonetic values given the alphabetic characters
+      within the cartouches were often ascribed to them also when used in the
+      general text of an inscription; in other words, that the use of an
+      alphabet was not confined to proper names. This was the great secret which
+      Young missed, but which his French successor, Jean François Champollion,
+      working on the foundation that Young had laid, was enabled to ferret out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Young&rsquo;s initial studies of the Rosetta Stone were made in 1814; his later
+      publications bore date of 1819. Champollion&rsquo;s first announcement of
+      results came in 1822; his second and more important one in 1824. By this
+      time, through study of the cartouches of other inscriptions, he had made
+      out almost the complete alphabet, and the &ldquo;Riddle of the Sphinx&rdquo; was
+      practically solved. He proved that the Egyptians had developed a
+      relatively complete alphabet (mostly neglecting the vowels, as early
+      Semitic alphabets did also) centuries before the Phoenicians were heard of
+      in history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even this statement, however, must in a measure be modified. These
+      pictures are letters and something more. Some of them are purely
+      alphabetical in character, and some are symbolic in another way. Some
+      characters represent syllables. Others stand sometimes as mere
+      representatives of sounds, and again, in a more extended sense, as
+      representatives of things, such as all hieroglyphics doubtless were in the
+      beginning. In a word, this is an alphabet, but not a perfected alphabet
+      such as modern nations generally use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The word &ldquo;hieroglyphic&rdquo; is applied, as we have seen, to various forms of
+      picture writing; but the original interpretation which the Greeks, who
+      invented it, put upon the word was the &ldquo;holy writing&rdquo; of the Egyptians.
+      The earliest Greek travellers who went to Egypt, when that country was
+      finally opened up to the outside world, must have noticed the strange
+      picture scrolls everywhere to be seen there on the temple walls, on
+      obelisks, on statues, and mummy-cases, as well as on papyrus rolls, which
+      were obviously intended to serve the purpose of handing down records of
+      events to future generations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is now known that this writing of the Egyptians was of a most
+      extraordinary compound character. Part of its pictures are used as direct
+      representations of the objects presented. Here are some examples:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0006" id="linkCimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/298.jpg" width="100%" alt="298.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Again the picture of an object becomes an ideograph, as in the following
+      instances:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the sacred ibis or the sacred bull symbolises the soul. The bee
+      stands for honey, the eyes for the verb &ldquo;to see.&rdquo; Yet again these pictures
+      may stand neither as pictures of things nor as ideographs, but as having
+      the phonetic value of a syllable. Such syllabic signs may be used either
+      singly, as above, or in combination, as illustrated below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But one other stage of evolution is possible, namely, the use of signs
+      with a purely alphabetical significance. The Egyptians made this step
+      also, and their strangely conglomerate writing makes use of the following
+      alphabet:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0007" id="linkCimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/299.jpg" width="100%" alt="299.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In a word, then, the Egyptian writing has passed through all the stages of
+      development, from the purely pictorial to the alphabetical, but with this
+      strange qualification,&mdash;that while advancing to the later stages it
+      retains the use of crude earlier forms. As Canon Taylor has graphically
+      phrased it, the Egyptian writing is a completed structure, but one from
+      which the scaffolding has not been removed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next step would have been to remove the now useless scaffolding,
+      leaving a purely alphabetical writing as the completed structure. Looking
+      at the matter from the modern standpoint, it seems almost incredible that
+      so intelligent a people as the Egyptians should have failed to make this
+      advance. Yet the facts stand, that as early as the time of the Pyramid
+      Builders, say four thousand years B.C.,* the Egyptians had made the
+      wonderful analysis of sounds, without which the invention of an alphabet
+      would be impossible.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The latest word on the subject of the origin of the
+     alphabet takes back some of the primitive phonetic signs to
+     prehistoric times. Among these prehistoric signs are the
+     letters A, E, I, O, U, (V), F and M.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      They had set aside certain of their hieroglyphic symbols and given them
+      alphabetical significance. They had learned to write their words with the
+      use of this alphabet; and it would seem as if, in the course of a few
+      generations, they must come to see how unnecessary was the cruder form of
+      picture-writing which this alphabet would naturally supplant; but, in
+      point of fact, they never did come to a realisation of this seemingly
+      simple proposition. Generation after generation and century after century,
+      they continued to use their same cumbersome, complex writing, and it
+      remained for an outside nation to prove that an alphabet pure and simple
+      was capable of fulfilling all the conditions of a written language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus in practice there are found in the hieroglyphics the strangest
+      combinations of ideographs, syllabic signs, and alphabetical signs or true
+      letters used together indiscriminately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was, for example, not at all unusual, after spelling a word
+      syllabically or alphabetically, to introduce a figure giving the idea of
+      the thing intended, and then even to supplement this with a so-called
+      determinative sign or figure:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0008" id="linkCimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/301.jpg" width="100%" alt="301.jpg Determinative Signs " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Here Queften, monkey, is spelled out in full, but the picture of a monkey
+      is added as a determinative; second, Qenu, cavalry, after being spelled,
+      is made unequivocal by the introduction of a picture of a horse; third,
+      Temati, wings, though spelled elaborately, has pictures of wings added;
+      and fourth, Tatu, quadrupeds, after being spelled, has a picture of a
+      quadruped, and then the picture of a hide, which is the usual
+      determinative of a quadruped, followed by three dashes to indicate the
+      plural number.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Another illustration of the plural number is seen in the
+     sign Pau, on page 298, where the plural is indicated in the
+     same manner.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      These determinatives are in themselves so interesting, as illustrations of
+      the association of ideas, that it is worth while to add a few more
+      examples. The word Pet, which signifies heaven, and which has also the
+      meaning up or even, is represented primarily by what may be supposed to be
+      a conventionalised picture of the covering to the earth. But this picture,
+      used as a determinative, is curiously modified in the expression of other
+      ideas, as it symbolises evening when a closed flower is added, and night
+      when a star hangs in the sky, and rain or tempest when a series of zigzag
+      lines, which by themselves represent water, are appended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0009" id="linkCimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/302a.jpg" width="100%" alt="302a.jpg Hieroglyphics " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      As aids to memory such pictures are obviously of advantage, but this
+      advantage in the modern view is outweighed by the cumbrousness of the
+      system of writing as a whole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why was such a complex system retained? Chiefly, no doubt, because the
+      Egyptians, like all other highly developed peoples, were conservatives.
+      They held to their old method after a better one had been invented. But
+      this inherent conservatism was enormously aided, no doubt, by the fact
+      that the Egyptian language, like the Chinese, has many words that have a
+      varied significance, making it seem necessary, or at least highly
+      desirable, either to spell such words with different signs, or, having
+      spelled them in the same way, to introduce the varied determinatives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here are some examples of discrimination between words of the same sound
+      by the use of different signs:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0010" id="linkCimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/302b.jpg" width="100%" alt="302b.jpg Hieroglyphics " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Here, it will be observed, exactly the same expedient is adopted which we
+      still retain when we discriminate between words of the same sound by
+      different spelling, as to, two, too; whole, hole; through, threw, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the more usual Egyptian method was to resort to the determinatives;
+      the result seems to us most extraordinary. After what has been said, the
+      following examples will explain themselves:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0011" id="linkCimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/303.jpg" width="100%" alt="303.jpg Hieroglyphics " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It goes without saying that the great mass of people in Egypt were never
+      able to write at all. Had they been accustomed to do so, the Egyptians
+      would have been a nation of artists. Even as the case stands, a remarkable
+      number of men must have had their artistic sense well developed, for the
+      birds, animals, and human figures constantly presented on their
+      hieroglyphic scrolls are drawn with a fidelity which the average European
+      of to-day would certainly find far beyond his skill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Until Professor Petrie* published his &ldquo;Medum,&rdquo; and Professor Erman his
+      &ldquo;Grammar,&rdquo; no important work on Egyptian hieroglyphic writing had appeared
+      in recent years.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The information as to the modern investigation in
+     hieroglyphics has been obtained from F. L. Griffith&rsquo;s paper
+     in the 6th Memoir of the Archaeological Survey on
+     Hieroglyphics from the collections of the Egypt Exploration
+     Fund, London, 1894-95.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Professor Petrie&rsquo;s &ldquo;Medum&rdquo; is the mainstay of the student in regard to
+      examples of form for the old kingdom; but for all periods detailed and
+      trustworthy drawings and photographs are found among the enormous mass of
+      published texts.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     *To these may now be added the 105 coloured signs in Beni
+     Hasan, Part III., and still more numerous examples in the
+     Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund (Archaeological
+     Survey), for the season 1895-96.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      There is an important collection of facsimiles at University College,
+      London, made for Professor Petrie by Miss Paget. A large proportion of
+      these are copied from the collections from Beni Hasan and El Bersheh;
+      others are from coffins of later periods, and have only paleographical
+      interest; and others are from earlier coffins in the British Museum. But
+      the flower of the collection consists in exquisite drawings of sculptured
+      hieroglyphics, sometimes with traces of colour, from the tomb of
+      Phtahhotep at Saqqâra, supplemented by a few from other tombs in the same
+      neighbourhood, and from the pyramid of Papi I. These were all copied on
+      the spot in 1895&mdash;96.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only critical list of hieroglyphics with their powers published
+      recently is that of Erman, printed in his &ldquo;Grammar.&rdquo; The system by which
+      he classifies the values&mdash;obscured in the English edition by the
+      substitution of the term of &ldquo;ideograph&rdquo; for <i>Wortzeichen</i> (word-sign)&mdash;displays
+      the author&rsquo;s keen insight into the nature of hieroglyphic writing, and the
+      list itself is highly suggestive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the case of an altogether different system of ancient writing that has
+      come down to us,&mdash;the old cuneiform syllabary of the Assyrians,&mdash;dictionaries,
+      glossaries, and other works of a grammatical character have been preserved
+      to the present day. Documents such as these are, of course, of material
+      aid in regard to obscure texts, but in the case of the Egyptian writing
+      the only surviving native word-list is the Sign Papyrus of Tanis,* which
+      is, unfortunately, of the Roman Period, when the original meanings of the
+      signs had been well-nigh forgotten.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Egypt Exploration Fund, Ninth Memoir, 1889-1890. This is
+     an extra volume, now out of print.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It has its own peculiar interest, but seldom furnishes the smallest hint
+      to the seeker after origins. The famous &ldquo;Hieroglyphics of Horapollo&rdquo;
+       occasionally contains a reminiscence of true hieroglyphics, but may well
+      be a composition of the Middle Ages, embodying a tiny modicum of
+      half-genuine tradition that had survived until then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scattered throughout Egyptological literature there are, as may be
+      imagined, many attempts at explaining individual signs. But any endeavour
+      to treat Egyptian hieroglyphics critically, to ascertain their origins,
+      the history of their use, the original distinction or the relationship of
+      signs that resemble each other, reveals how little is really known about
+      them. For study, good examples showing detail and colouring at different
+      periods are needed, and the evidence furnished by form and colour must be
+      checked by examination of their powers in writing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In investigating the powers of the uses of the signs, dictionaries give
+      most important aid to the student. The key-words of the meanings, viz.,
+      the names of the objects or actions depicted, are often exceedingly rare
+      in the texts. Doctor Brugsch&rsquo;s great Dictionary (1867-82) frequently
+      settles with close accuracy the meanings of the words considered in it,
+      supplying by quotations the proof of his conclusions.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * There has been in preparation since 1897 an exhaustive
+     dictionary, to be published under the auspices of the German
+     government. The academies of Berlin, Gottingen, Leipsig and
+     Munich have charge of the work, and they have nominated as
+     their respective commissioners Professors Erman, Pietsch-
+     mann, Steindorff, and Ebers (since deceased). This colossal
+     undertaking is the fitting culmination of the labours of a
+     century in the Egyptian language and writing. The collection
+     and arrangement of material are estimated to occupy eleven
+     years; printing may thus be begun about 1908.
+
+     Despite its uncritical method of compilation, Levy&rsquo;s bulky
+     Vocabulary (1887-1804), with its two supplements and long
+     tables of signs, is indispensable in this branch of
+     research, since it gives a multitude of references to rare
+     words and forms of words that occur in notable publications
+     of recent date, such as Maspero&rsquo;s excellent edition of the
+     Pyramid Texts. There are also some important special
+     indices, such as Stern&rsquo;s excellent &ldquo;Glossary of the Papyrus
+     Ebers,&rdquo; Piehl&rsquo;s &ldquo;Vocabulary of the Harris Papyrus,&rdquo; Erman&rsquo;s
+     &ldquo;Glossary of the Westcar Papyrus,&rdquo; and Doctor Pudge&rsquo;s
+     &ldquo;Vocabulary&rdquo; of the XVIIIth Dynasty &ldquo;Book of the Dead.&rdquo;
+      Schack&rsquo;s Index to the Pyramid Texts will prove to be an
+     important work, and the synoptic index of parallel chapters
+     prefixed to the work is of the greatest value in the search
+     for variant spellings.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In 1872, Brugsch, in his &ldquo;Grammaire Hiéroglyphique,&rdquo; published a useful
+      list of signs with their phonetic and ideographic values, accompanying
+      them with references to his Dictionary, and distinguishing some of the
+      specially early and late forms. We may also note the careful list in
+      Lepsius&rsquo; &ldquo;Ægyptische Lesestucke,&rdquo; 1883.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Champollion in his &ldquo;Grammaire Egyptienne,&rdquo; issued after the author&rsquo;s death
+      in 1836, gave descriptive names to large numbers of the signs. In 1848, to
+      the first volume of Bunsen&rsquo;s &ldquo;Egypt&rsquo;s Place in Universal History,&rdquo; Birch
+      contributed a long list of hieroglyphics, with descriptions and statements
+      of their separate phonetic and ideographic values. De Rougé, in his
+      &ldquo;Catalogue des signes hiéroglyphiques de l&rsquo;imprimerie nationale,&rdquo; 1851,
+      attached to each of many hundreds of signs and varieties of signs a short
+      description, often very correct. He again dealt with the subject in 1867,
+      and published a &ldquo;Catalogue Raisonné&rdquo; of the more usual signs in the first
+      <i>livraison</i> of his &ldquo;Chrestomathie Egyptienne.&rdquo; Useful to the student
+      as these first lists were, in the early stages of decipherment, they are
+      now of little value. For, at the time they were made, the fine early forms
+      were mostly unstudied, and the signs were taken without discrimination
+      from texts of all periods; moreover, the outlines of the signs were
+      inaccurately rendered, their colours unnoted, and their phonetic and
+      ideographic powers very imperfectly determined. Thus, whenever doubt was
+      possible as to the object represented by a sign, little external help was
+      forthcoming for correct identification. To a present-day student of the
+      subject, the scholarly understanding of De Rougé and the ingenuity of
+      Birch are apparent, but the aid which they afford him is small.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a result of recent discoveries, some very interesting researches have
+      been made in Egyptian paleography in what is known as the <i>signary</i>.*
+      We reach signs which seem to be disconnected from the known hieroglyphs,
+      and we are probably touching on the system of geometrical signs used from
+      prehistoric to Roman times in Egypt, and also in other countries around
+      the Mediterranean.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The information regarding the alphabet here given is
+     derived from the Eighteenth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration
+     Fund, 1899-1890.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      How far these signs are originally due to geometrical invention, or how
+      far due to corruption of some picture, we cannot say. But in any case they
+      stood so detached from the hieroglyphic writing and its hieratic and
+      demotic derivations, that they must be treated as a separate system. For
+      the present the best course is to show here the similarity of forms
+      between these marks and those known in Egypt in earlier and later times,
+      adding the similar forms in the Karian and Spanish alphabets. The usage of
+      such forms in the same country from about 6000 B.C. down to 1200 B.C., or
+      later, shows that we have to deal with a definite system. And it seems
+      impossible to separate that used in 1200 B.C. in Egypt from the similar
+      forms found in other lands connected with Egypt from 800 B.C. down to
+      later times: we may find many of these also in the Kretan inscriptions
+      long before 800 B.C. The only conclusion then seems to be that a great
+      body of signs&mdash;or a <i>signary</i>&mdash;was in use around the
+      Mediterranean for several thousand years. Whether these signs were
+      ideographic or syllabic or alphabetic in the early stages we do not know;
+      certainly they were alphabetic in the later stage. And the identity of
+      most of the signs in Asia Minor and Spain shows them to belong to a system
+      with commonly received values in the later times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What then becomes of the Phoenician legend of the alphabet? Certainly the
+      so-called Phoenician letters were familiar long before the rise of
+      Phoenician influence. What is really due to the Phoenicians seems to have
+      been the selection of a short series (only half the amount of the
+      surviving alphabets) for numerical purposes, as A = 1, E = 5, I = 10, N =
+      50, P = 100.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0012" id="linkCimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:44%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/309.jpg"
+       alt="309.jpg Table of Comparative Symbols " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This usage would soon render these signs as invariable in order as our own
+      numbers, and force the use of them on all countries with which the
+      Phoenicians traded. Hence, before long these signs drove out of use all
+      others, except in the less changed civilisations of Asia Minor and Spain.
+      According to our modern authorities this exactly explains the phenomena of
+      the early Greek alphabets; many in variety, and so diverse that each has
+      to be learned separately, and yet entirely uniform in order. Each tribe
+      had its own signs for certain sounds, varying a good deal; yet all had to
+      follow a fixed numerical system. Certainly all did not learn their forms
+      from an independent Phoenician alphabet, unknown to them before it was
+      selected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The work of Young and Champollion, says Doctor Williams,* gives a new
+      interest to the mass of records, in the form of graven inscriptions, and
+      papyrus rolls, and cases and wrappings, which abound in Egypt, but which
+      hitherto had served no better purpose for centuries than to excite,
+      without satisfying, the curiosity of the traveller.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * History of the Art of Writing, Portfolio I., plate 8.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Now these strange records, so long enigmatic, could be read, and within
+      the past fifty years a vast literature of translations of these Egyptian
+      records has been given to the world. It was early discovered that the
+      hieroglyphic character was not reserved solely for sacred inscriptions, as
+      the Greeks had supposed in naming it; indeed, the inscription of the
+      Rosetta Stone sufficiently dispelled that illusion. But no one, perhaps,
+      was prepared for the revelations that were soon made as to the extent of
+      range of these various inscriptions, and the strictly literary character
+      of some of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A large proportion of these inscriptions are, to be sure, religious in
+      character, but there are other extensive inscriptions, such as those on
+      the walls of the temple of Karnak, that are strictly historical; telling
+      of the warlike deeds of such mighty kings as Thûtmosis III. and Ramses II.
+      Again, there are documents which belong to the domain of belles-lettres
+      pure and simple. Of these the best known example is the now famous &ldquo;Tale
+      of Two Brothers&rdquo;&mdash;the prototype of the &ldquo;modern&rdquo; short story.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Up to the middle of the nineteenth century, no Egyptologist had discovered
+      that the grave-faced personages who lie in their mummy-cases in our great
+      museums ever read or composed romance. Their literature, as far as
+      recovered, was of an eminently serious nature,&mdash;hymns to the
+      divinities, epic poems, writings on magic and science, business letters,
+      etc., but no stories. In 1852, however, an Englishwoman, Mrs. Elizabeth
+      d&rsquo;Orbiney, sent M. de Rougé, at Paris, a papyrus she had purchased in
+      Italy, and whose contents she was anxious to know. Thus was the tale of
+      the &ldquo;Two Brothers&rdquo; brought to light, and for twelve years it remained our
+      sole specimen of a species of literature which is now constantly being
+      added to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This remarkable papyrus dates from the thirteenth century B.C., and was
+      the work of Anna, one of the most distinguished temple-scribes of his age.
+      Indeed, it is to him that we are indebted for a large portion of the
+      Egyptian literature that has been preserved to us. This particular work
+      was executed for Seti II., son of Meneptah, and grandson of Ramses II. of
+      the nineteenth dynasty, while he was yet crown prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tale itself is clearly formed of two parts. The first, up to the
+      Bata&rsquo;s self-exile to the Valley of the Cedar, gives a really excellent
+      picture of the life and habits of the peasant dwelling on the banks of the
+      Nile. The civilisation and moral conditions it describes are distinctly
+      Egyptian. Were it not for such details as the words spoken by the cows,
+      and the miraculous appearance of the body of water between the two
+      brothers, we might say the ancient Egyptians were strict realists in their
+      theory of fiction. But the second part leads us through marvels enough to
+      satisfy the most vivid of imaginations. It is possible, therefore, that
+      the tale as we have it was originally two separate stories.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The main theme of the story has occupied a great deal of attention. Its
+      analogy to the Biblical narrative of Joseph and Potiphar&rsquo;s wife comes at
+      once into the reader&rsquo;s mind. But there is just as close a similarity in
+      the Greek tales, where the hero is killed or his life endangered for
+      having scorned the guilty love of a woman, as in the stories of
+      Hippolytus, Peleus, Bellerophon, and the son of Glaucus, not to mention
+      the extraordinary adventure of Amgiad and Assad, sons of Prince
+      Kamaralzaman, in the <i>Thousand and One Nights</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The religions of Greece and Western Asia likewise contain myths that can
+      be compared almost point for point with the tale of the two brothers. In
+      Phrygia, for example, Atyo scorns the love of the goddess Cybele, as does
+      Bata the love of Anpu&rsquo;s wife. Like Bata, again, he mutilates himself, and
+      is transformed into a pine instead of a persea tree. Are we, therefore, to
+      seek for the common origin of all the myths and romance in the tragedy of
+      Anpu and Bata that was current, we know not how long, before the days of
+      King Seti?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of one thing we may be sure: of this particular type the Egyptian tale is
+      by far the oldest that we possess, and, if we may not look to the valley
+      of the Nile as the original home of the popular tale, we may justly regard
+      it as the locality where it was earliest naturalised and assumed a true
+      literary form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Analogies to the second part of the tale are even more numerous and
+      curious. They are to be found everywhere, in France, Italy, Germany,
+      Hungary, in Russia and all Slavonic countries, Roumania, Peloponnesia, in
+      Asia Minor, Abyssinia, and even India.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of late years an ever-increasing accumulation of the literature of every
+      age of Egyptian history has either been brought to light or for the first
+      time studied from a wider point of view than was formerly possible. In
+      making a few typical selections from the mass of this new material, none
+      perhaps are more worthy of note than some of the love-songs which have
+      been translated into German from Egyptian in &ldquo;Die Liebespoesie der Alten
+      Ægypten,&rdquo; by W. Max Muller. This is a very careful edition of the
+      love-songs on the recto (or upper surface) of the Harris Papyrus 500, and
+      of similar lyrics from Turin, Gizeh, and Paris. The introduction contains
+      an account of Egyptian notions of love and marriage, gathered from
+      hieroglyphic and demotic sources, and a chapter is devoted to the forms of
+      Egyptian verse, its rhythm and accent. The interesting &ldquo;Song of the
+      Harper,&rdquo; which is found on the same Harris Papyrus, is also fully edited
+      and collated with the parallel texts from the Theban tombs, and compared
+      with other writings dealing with death from the agnostic point of view.
+      The following extracts are translated from the German:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     LOVE-SICKNESS
+
+     I will lie down within doors
+     For I am sick with wrongs. T
+     hen my neighbours come in to visit me.
+     With them cometh my sister,
+     She will make fun of the physicians;
+     She knoweth mine illness.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     THE LUCKY DOORKEEPER
+
+     The villa of my sister!&mdash;
+     Her gates (are) in the midst of the domain&mdash;
+     (So oft as) its portals open,
+     (So oft as) the bolt is withdrawn,
+     Then is my sister angry:
+     O were I but set as the gatekeeper!
+     I should cause her to chide me;
+     (Then) I should hear her voice in anger,
+     A child in fear before her!
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     THE UNSUCCESSFUL BIRD-CATCHER
+
+     The voice of the wild goose crieth,
+     (For) she hath taken her bait;
+     (But) thy love restraineth me,
+     I cannot free her (from the snare);
+     (So) must I take (home) my net.
+     What (shall I say) to my mother,
+     To whom (I am wont) to come daily
+     Laden with wild fowl?
+     I lay not my snare to-day
+     (For) thy love hath taken hold upon me.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The most ardent interest that has been manifested in the Egyptian records
+      had its origin in the desire to find evidence corroborative of the Hebrew
+      accounts of the Egyptian captivity of the Jewish people.* The Egyptian
+      word-treasury being at last unlocked, it was hoped that much new light
+      would be thrown on Hebrew history. But the hope proved illusive. After
+      ardent researches of hosts of fervid seekers for half a century, scarcely
+      a word of reference to the Hebrews has been found among the Egyptian
+      records.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The only inscription relating directly to the Israelites
+     will be found described in Chapter VII.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      If depicted at all, the Hebrew captives are simply grouped with other
+      subordinate peoples, not even considered worthy of the dignity of names.
+      Nor is this strange when one reflects on the subordinate position which
+      the Hebrews held in the ancient world. In historical as in other matter,
+      much depends upon the point of view, and a series of events that seemed
+      all-important from the Hebrew standpoint might very well be thought too
+      insignificant for record from the point of view of a great nation like the
+      Egyptians. But the all-powerful pen wrought a conquest for the Hebrews in
+      succeeding generations that their swords never achieved, and, thanks to
+      their literature, succeeding generations have cast historical perspective
+      to the winds in viewing them. Indeed, such are the strange mutations of
+      time that, had any scribe of ancient Egypt seen fit to scrawl a dozen
+      words about the despised Israelite captives, and had this monument been
+      preserved, it would have outweighed in value, in the opinion of
+      nineteenth-century Europe, all the historical records of Thûtmosis,
+      Ramses, and their kin that have come down to us. But seemingly no scribe
+      ever thought it worth his while to make such an effort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has just been noted that the hieroglyphic inscriptions are by no means
+      restricted to sacred subjects. Nevertheless, the most widely known book of
+      the Egyptians was, as might be expected, one associated with the funeral
+      rites that played so large a part in the thoughts of the dwellers by the
+      Nile. This is the document known as &ldquo;The Chapters of the Coming-Forth by
+      Day,&rdquo; or, as it is more commonly interpreted, &ldquo;The Book of the Dead.&rdquo; It
+      is a veritable book in scope, inasmuch as the closely written papyrus roll
+      on which it is enscrolled measures sometimes seventy feet in length. It is
+      virtually the Bible of the Egyptians, and, as in the case of the sacred
+      books of other nations, its exact origin is obscure. The earliest known
+      copy is to be found, not on a papyrus roll, but upon the walls of the
+      chamber of the pyramid at Saqqâra near Cairo. The discovery of this
+      particular recension of &ldquo;The Book of the Dead&rdquo; was made by Lepsius. Its
+      date is 3333 B.C. No one supposes, however, that this date marks the time
+      of the origin of &ldquo;The Book of the Dead.&rdquo; On the contrary, it is held by
+      competent authority that the earliest chapters, essentially unmodified,
+      had been in existence at least a thousand years before this, and quite
+      possibly for a much longer time. Numerous copies of this work in whole or
+      in part have been preserved either on the walls of temples, on papyrus
+      rolls, or upon the cases of mummies. These copies are of various epochs,
+      from the fourth millennium B.C., as just mentioned, to the late Roman
+      period, about the fourth century A.D.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Throughout this period of about four thousand years the essential
+      character of the book remained unchanged. It is true that no two copies
+      that have been preserved are exactly identical in all their parts. There
+      are various omissions and repetitions that seem to indicate that the book
+      was not written by any one person or in any one epoch, but that it was
+      originally a set of traditions quite possibly handed down for a long
+      period by word of mouth before being put into writing. In this regard, as
+      in many others, this sacred book of the Egyptians is closely comparable to
+      the sacred books of other nations. It differs, however, in one important
+      regard from these others in that it was never authoritatively pronounced
+      upon and crystallised into a fixed, unalterable shape. From first to last,
+      apparently, the individual scribe was at liberty to omit such portions as
+      he chose, and even to modify somewhat the exact form of expression in
+      making a copy of the sacred book. Even in this regard, however, the
+      anomaly is not so great as might at first sight appear, for it must be
+      recalled that even the sacred books of the Hebrews were not given final
+      and authoritative shape until a period almost exactly coeval with that in
+      which the Egyptian &ldquo;Book of the Dead&rdquo; ceased to be used at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A peculiar feature of &ldquo;The Book of the Dead,&rdquo; and one that gives it still
+      greater interest, is the fact that from an early day it was the custom to
+      illustrate it with graphic pictures in colour. In fact, taken as a whole,
+      &ldquo;The Book of the Dead&rdquo; gives a very fair delineation of the progress of
+      Egyptian art from the fourth millennium B.C. to its climax in the
+      eighteenth dynasty, and throughout the period of its decline; and this
+      applies not merely to the pictures proper, but to the forms of the
+      hieroglyphic letters themselves, for it requires but the most cursory
+      inspection to show that these give opportunity for no small artistic
+      skill.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to the ideas preserved in &ldquo;The Book of the Dead,&rdquo; it is sufficient here
+      to note that they deal largely with the condition of the human being after
+      death, implying in the most explicit way a firm and unwavering belief in
+      the immortality of the soul. The Egyptian believed most fully that by his
+      works a man would be known and judged after death. His religion was
+      essentially a religion of deeds, and the code of morals, according to
+      which these deeds were adjudged, has been said by Doctor Budge, the famous
+      translator of &ldquo;The Book of the Dead,&rdquo; to be &ldquo;the grandest and most
+      comprehensive of those now known to have existed among the nations of
+      antiquity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0013" id="linkCimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/318.jpg" width="100%" alt="318.jpg Tailpiece " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="linkCimage-0014" id="linkCimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/318b.jpg" width="100%" alt="318b.jpg Phoenician Jewlery " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="linkC2HCH0002" id="linkC2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <a name="linkCimage-0015" id="linkCimage-0015">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/319.jpg" width="100%" alt="319.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII&mdash;THE DEVELOPMENT OF EGYPTOLOGY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>Mariette, Wilkinson, Bunsen, Brugsch, and Ebers: Erman&rsquo;s speech on
+      Egyptology: The Egypt Exploration Fund: Maspero&rsquo;s investigations: The
+      Temple of Bubàstis: Ancient record of &ldquo;Israel&rdquo;: American interest in
+      Egyptology.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accompanying Napoleon&rsquo;s army of invasion in Egypt was a band of savants
+      representative of every art and science, through whom the conqueror hoped
+      to make known the topography and antiquities of Egypt to the European
+      world. The result of their researches was the famous work called
+      &ldquo;Description de l&rsquo;Egypte,&rdquo; published under the direction of the French
+      Academy in twenty-four volumes of text, and twelve volumes of plates.
+      Through this magnificent production the Western world received its first
+      initiation into the mysteries of the wonderful civilisation which had
+      flourished so many centuries ago, on the banks of the Nile. Egypt has
+      continued to yield an ever-increasing harvest of antiquities, which, owing
+      to the dry climate and the sand in which they have been buried, are many
+      of them in a marvellous state of preservation. From the correlation of
+      these discoveries the new science of Egyptology has sprung, which has many
+      different branches, relating either to hieroglyphics, chronology, or
+      archaeology proper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The earliest and most helpful of all the discoveries was that of the
+      famous Rosetta Stone, found by a French artillery officer in 1799, while
+      Napoleon&rsquo;s soldiers were excavating preparatory to erecting fortifications
+      at Fort St. Julien. The deciphering of its trilingual inscriptions was the
+      greatest literary feat of modern times, in which Dr. Thomas Young and J.
+      F. Champollion share almost equal honours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jean François Champollion (1790-1832) is perhaps the most famous of the
+      early students of Egyptian hieroglyphs. After writing his &ldquo;<i>De
+      l&rsquo;écriture hiératique des anciens égyptiens</i>&rdquo; at Paris, he produced in
+      1824 in two volumes, his &ldquo;<i>Précis du système hiéroglyphique des anciens
+      égyptiens,</i>&rdquo; on which his fame largely depends, as he was the first to
+      furnish any practical system of deciphering the symbolic writing, which
+      was to disclose to the waiting world Egyptian history, literature, and
+      civilisation. Champollion wrote many other works relating to Egypt, and
+      may truly be considered the pioneer of modern Egyptology. While much of
+      his work has been superseded by more recent investigations, he was so
+      imbued with the scientific spirit that he was enabled securely to lay the
+      foundation of all the work which followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0016" id="linkCimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/321.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="321.jpg the Great Hall of Abydos " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The distinguished French savant, Augustus Mariette, (1821-1881) began his
+      remarkable excavations in Egypt in the year 1850. The series of
+      discoveries inaugurated by him lasted until the year 1880. Mariette made
+      an ever-memorable discovery when he unearthed the famous Serapeum which
+      had once been the burial-place of the sacred bulls of Memphis, which the
+      geographer Strabo records had been covered over by the drifting sands of
+      the desert even in the days of Augustus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0017" id="linkCimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:40%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/322.jpg" alt="322.jpg Propylon at Denderah " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Serapeum was in the neighbourhood of the Sphinx, and, on account of
+      its great height, remained in part above the ground, and was visible to
+      all passers-by; while everything else in the neighbourhood except the
+      great Pyramid of Khûfûi was totally buried under the sand. Mariette worked
+      his way along the passage between the Great Sphinx and the other lesser
+      sphinxes which lay concealed in the vicinity, and thus gradually came to
+      the opening of the Serapeum. In November, 1850, his labours were crowned
+      with brilliant success. He discovered sixty-four tombs of Apis, dating
+      from the eighteenth dynasty until as late as the reign of Cleopatra. He
+      likewise found here many figures, images, ancient Egyptian ornaments and
+      amulets, and memorial stones erected by the devout worshippers of
+      antiquity. Fortunately for Egyptian archæology and history, nearly all the
+      monuments here discovered were dated, and were thus of the highest value
+      in settling the dates of dynasties and of the reigns of individual
+      monarchs. Mariette afterwards discovered a splendid temple in the same
+      place, which he proved to have been the famous shrine of the god
+      Sokar-Osiris. He was soon appointed by the Egyptian Viceroy, Said Pasha,
+      as director of the new museum of antiquities which was then placed at
+      Bulak, in the vicinity of Cairo, awaiting the completion of a more
+      substantial building at Gizeh. He obtained permission to make researches
+      in every part of Egypt; and with varying success he excavated in as many
+      as thirty-seven localities. In some of the researches undertaken by his
+      direction, it is to be feared that many invaluable relics of antiquity may
+      have been destroyed through the carelessness of the workmen. This is to be
+      accounted for from the fact that Mariette was not always able to be
+      present, and the workmen naturally had no personal interest in preserving
+      every relic and fragment from the past. It is also to be regretted that he
+      left no full account of the work which he undertook, and for this reason
+      much of it had to be gone over again by more modern explorers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the Delta excavations were made at Sais, Bubastis, and elsewhere.
+      Mariette also discovered the temple of Tanis, and many curious
+      human-headed sphinxes, which probably belong to the twelfth dynasty, and
+      represent its kings. He further continued the labours of Lepsius about the
+      necropolis of Memphis and Saqqâra. Here several hundred tombs were
+      discovered with the many inscriptions and figures which these contained.
+      One of the most important of these findings&mdash;a superb example of
+      Egyptian art&mdash;is the statue called by the Arabs &ldquo;The Village Chief,&rdquo;
+       which is now in the museum at Bulak. Mariette followed out his researches
+      on the site of the sacred city of Abydos. Here he discovered the temple of
+      Seti I. of the nineteenth dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0018" id="linkCimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/324.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="324.jpg Types of Egyptian Columns: 1, 2, 3, Geometric &lsquo;, 6-11, Botanical; 4, 5, 12, Hathoric. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      On the walls are beautiful sculptures which are exquisite examples of
+      Egyptian art, and a chronological table of the Kings of Abydos. Here Seti
+      I. and Ramses IL, his son, are represented as offering homage to their
+      many ancestors seated upon thrones inscribed with their names and dates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mariette discovered eight hundred tombs belonging for the most part to the
+      Middle Kingdom. At Denderah he discovered the famous Ptolemaic temple of
+      Hâthor, the goddess of love, and his accounts of these discoveries make up
+      a large volume. Continuing his labours, he excavated much of the site of
+      ancient Thebes and the temple of Karnak, and, south of Thebes, the temple
+      of Medinet-Habu. At Edfu Mariette found the temple of Horus, built during
+      the time of the Ptolemies, whose roof formed the foundation of an Arab
+      village. After persevering excavations the whole magnificent plan of the
+      temple stood uncovered, with all its columns, inscriptions, and carvings
+      nearly intact.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * In connection with the architecture of the ancient
+     Egyptian tombs, it is interesting to note that there was a
+     development of architectural style in the formation of
+     Egyptian columns not dissimilar in its evolution to that
+     which is visible in the case of the Greek and Roman columns.
+
+     The earliest Egyptian column appears to have been of a
+     strictly geometrical character. This developed into a column
+     resembling the Doric order. A second class of Egyptian
+     column was based upon plant forms, probably derived from the
+     practice of using reeds in the construction of mud huts. The
+     chief botanical form which has come down to us is that of
+     the lotus. A more advanced type of decoration utilised the
+     goddess Hâthor for the support of the superincumbent weight
+     and has its analogy in the decadent caraytides of late Roman
+     times.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Owing to Mariette&rsquo;s friendship with the viceroy he was able to guard his
+      right to excavate with strict exclusiveness. He was accustomed to allow
+      other scholars the right to examine localities where he had been the first
+      one to make the researches, but he would not even allow the famous
+      Egyptologist, also his great friend, Heinrich Brugsch, to make excavations
+      in new places. After his death, conditions were somewhat altered, although
+      the general directorship of the excavations was still given exclusively to
+      Frenchmen. The successors of Mariette Bey were Gaston Maspero, E.
+      Grébault, J. de Morgan, and Victor Laret. But as time went on, savants of
+      other nationalities were allowed to explore, with certain reservations.
+      Maspero founded an archaeological mission in Cairo in 1880, and placed at
+      its head, in successive order, MM. Lebebure, Grébault, and Bouriant. The
+      first of all to translate complete Egyptian books and entire inscriptions
+      was Emanuel de Rougé, who exerted a great influence upon an illustrious
+      galaxy of French savants, who followed more or less closely the example
+      set by him. Among these translators we may enumerate Mariette, Charles
+      Deveria, Pierret, Maspero himself, and Revillout, who has proved himself
+      to be the greatest demotic scholar of France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      England is also represented by scholars of note, among whom may be
+      mentioned Dr. Samuel Birch (1813&mdash;85). He was a scholar of recognised
+      profundity and also of remarkable versatility. One of the most important
+      editorial tasks of Doctor Birch was a series known as &ldquo;The Records of the
+      Past,&rdquo; which consisted of translations from Egyptian and
+      Assyrio-Babylonian records. Doctor Birch himself contributed several
+      volumes to this series. He had also the added distinction of being the
+      first translator of the Egyptian <i>Book of the Dead</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another English authority was Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, who wrote several
+      important works on the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians.
+      Wilkinson was born in 1797 and died in 1875. Whoever would know the
+      Egyptian as he was, in manner and custom, should peruse the pages of his
+      Egyptian works. His &ldquo;Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians&rdquo; has been
+      the chief source of information on the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      German scholars have done especially valuable work in the translation of
+      texts from the Egyptian temples, and in pointing out the relation between
+      these texts and historical events. Foremost among practical German
+      archaeologists is Karl Richard Lepsius, who was born in 1810 at Naumburg,
+      Prussia, and died in 1884 at Berlin. In his maturer years he had a
+      professorship in Berlin. He made excursions to Egypt in an official
+      capacity, and familiarised himself at first hand with the monuments and
+      records that were his life-study. The letters of Lepsius from Egypt and
+      Nubia were more popular than his other writings, and were translated into
+      English and widely read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another famous German who was interested in the study of Egyptology was
+      Baron Christian Bunsen (1791-1867). From early youth he showed the
+      instincts of a scholar, but was prevented for many years from leading a
+      scholar&rsquo;s life, owing to his active duties in the diplomatic service for
+      Prussia at Rome and London. During the years 1848&mdash;67, Bunsen brought
+      out the famous work called &ldquo;Egypt&rsquo;s Place in Universal History,&rdquo; which
+      Brugsch deemed to have contributed more than any other work in
+      popularising the subject of Egyptology.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Heinrich Carl Brugsch was born at Berlin in 1827 and died there in 1894.
+      Like Bunsen, he was a diplomatist and a scholar. He entered the service of
+      the Egyptian government, and merited the titles of bey and subsequently of
+      pasha. He became known as one of the foremost of Egyptologists, and was
+      the greatest authority of his day on Egyptian writing. He wrote a work of
+      standard authority, translated into English under the title of &ldquo;The
+      History of Egypt under the Pharaohs.&rdquo; The chronology of Egypt now in use
+      is still based upon the system created by Brugsch, which, though
+      confessedly artificial, nevertheless is able to meet the difficulties of
+      the subject better than any other yet devised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among distinguished German Egyptologists must be mentioned Georg Moritz
+      Ebers (1839-96). He is best known by his far-famed novels, whose subjects
+      are taken from the history of ancient Egypt, perhaps the most popular
+      being &ldquo;An Egyptian Princess.&rdquo; Besides these popular novels and a valuable
+      description of Egypt, Ebers also made personal explorations in the
+      country, and discovered at Thebes the great medical papyrus, which is
+      called the Papyrus Ebers. This remarkable document, to which he devoted so
+      much labour, is our chief source of information regarding the practice of
+      medicine as it existed, and would alone keep the name of Ebers alive among
+      Egyptologists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The leading German Egyptologist of to-day is Dr. Adolf Erman, who was born
+      at Berlin in 1854. He is the worthy successor to Brugsch in the chair of
+      Egyptology at the University of Berlin, and is director of the Berlin
+      Egyptian Museum. His writings have had to do mainly with grammatical and
+      literary investigations. His editions of the &ldquo;Romances of Old Egypt&rdquo; are
+      models of scholarly interpretation. They give the original hieratic text,
+      with translation into Egyptian hieroglyphics, into Latin and into German.
+      Doctor Erman has not, however, confined his labours to this strictly
+      scholarly type of work, but has also written a distinctly popular book on
+      the life of the ancient Egyptians, which is the most complete work that
+      has appeared since the writings of Wilkinson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The memorable speech of Erman, delivered on the occasion of his election
+      as a member of the Berlin Academy, sets forth clearly the progress made in
+      the science of Egyptology and present-day tendencies. On that occasion he
+      said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some of our older fellow-specialists complain that we of the younger
+      generation are depriving Egyptology of all its charm, and that, out of a
+      delightful science, abounding in startling discoveries, we have made a
+      philological study, with strange phonetic laws and a wretched syntax.
+      There is doubtless truth in this complaint, but it should be urged against
+      the natural growth of the science, and not against the personal influence
+      of individuals or its development. The state through which Egyptology is
+      now passing is one from which no science escapes. It is a reaction against
+      the enthusiasm and the rapid advance of its early days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can well understand to outsiders it may seem as though we had only
+      retrograded during later years. Where are the good old times when every
+      text could be translated and understood? Alas! a better comprehension of
+      the grammar has revealed on every side difficulties and impediments of
+      which hitherto nothing had been suspected. Moreover, the number of
+      ascertained words in the vocabulary is continually diminishing, while the
+      host of the unknown increases; for we no longer arrive at the meaning by
+      the way of audacious etymologies and still more audacious guesses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have yet to travel for many years on the arduous path of empirical
+      research before we can attain to an adequate dictionary. There is indeed
+      an exceptional reward which beckons us on to the same goal, namely, that
+      we shall then be able to assign to Egyptian its place among the languages
+      of Western Asia and of Africa. At present we do well to let this great
+      question alone. As in the linguistic department of Egyptology, so it is in
+      every other section of the subject. The Egyptian religion seemed
+      intelligently and systematically rounded off when each god was held to be
+      the incarnation of some power of nature. Now we comprehend that we had
+      better reserve our verdict on this matter until we know the facts and the
+      history of the religion; and how far we are from knowing them is proved to
+      us by every text. The texts are full of allusions to the deeds and
+      fortunes of the gods, but only a very small number of these allusions are
+      intelligible to us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The time has gone by in which it was thought possible to furnish the
+      chronology of Egyptian history, and in which that history was supposed to
+      be known, because the succession of the most powerful kings had been
+      ascertained. To us the history of Egypt has become something altogether
+      different. It comprises the history of her civilisation, her art, and her
+      administration; and we rejoice in the prospect that one day it may be
+      possible in that land to trace the development of a nation throughout five
+      thousand years by means of its own monuments and records. But we also know
+      that the realisation of this dream must be the work of many generations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The so-called &lsquo;demotic&rsquo; texts, which lead us out of ancient Egypt into
+      the Græco-Roman period, were deciphered with the acumen of genius more
+      than half a century ago by Heinrich Brugsch, but to-day these also appear
+      to us in a new light as being full of unexpected difficulties and in
+      apparent disagreement with both the older and the later forms of the
+      language. In this important department we must not shrink from a revision
+      of past work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not further illustrate this theme; but the case is the same in
+      every branch of Egyptology. In each, the day of rapid results is at an
+      end, and the monotonous time of special studies has begun. Hence I would
+      beg the Academy not to expect sensational discoveries from their new
+      associate. I can only offer what <i>labor improbus</i> brings to light,
+      and that is <i>small</i> discoveries; yet in the process of time they will
+      lead us to those very ends which seemed so nearly attainable to our
+      predecessors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The German school may perhaps be said to have devoted its time especially
+      to labours upon Egyptian grammar and philology, while the French school is
+      better known for its excellent work on the history and archaeology of
+      ancient Egypt. On these topics the leading authority among all the
+      scholars of to-day is the eminent Frenchman, Professor Gaston C. C.
+      Maspero, author of the first nine volumes of the present work. He was born
+      at Paris, June 24,1846. He is a member of the French Institute, and was
+      formerly Professor of Egyptian Archeology and Ethnology in the Collège de
+      France, and, more recently, Director of the Egyptian Museum at Bulak. His
+      writings cover the entire field of Oriental antiquity. In this field
+      Maspero has no peer among Egyptologists of the present or the past. He
+      possesses an eminent gift of style, and his works afford a rare
+      combination of the qualities of authority, scientific accuracy, and of
+      popular readableness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some extraordinary treasures from tombs were discovered in the year 1881.
+      At that date Arabs often hawked about in the streets what purported to be
+      genuine works of antiquity. Many of these were in reality imitations; but
+      Professor Maspero in this year secured from an Arab a funeral papyrus of
+      Phtahhotpû I., and after considerable trouble he was able to locate the
+      tomb in Thebes from which the treasure had been taken. Brugsch now
+      excavated the cave, which was found to be the place where a quantity of
+      valuable treasures had been secreted, probably at the time of the sacking
+      of Thebes by the Assyrians. Six thousand objects were secured, and they
+      included twenty-nine mummies of kings, queens, princes, and high priests,
+      and five papyri, among which was the funeral papyrus of Queen Makeru of
+      the twentieth dynasty. The mummy-cases had been opened by the Arabs, who
+      had taken out the mummies and in some instances replaced the wrong ones.
+      Many mummies of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties had been removed
+      to this cave probably for safety, on account of its secrecy. Out of the
+      twenty-nine mummies found here, seven were of kings, nine of queens and
+      princesses, and several more of persons of distinction. The place of
+      concealment was situated at a turn of a cliff southwest of the village of
+      Deîr-el-Baharî.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The explorers managed successfully to identify King Raskamen of the
+      seventeenth dynasty, King Ahmosis I., founder of the eighteenth dynasty,
+      and his queen Ahmo-sis-Nofrîtari, also Queen Arhotep and Princess Set
+      Amnion, and the king&rsquo;s daughters, and his son Prince Sa Amnion. They also
+      found the mummies of Thûtmosis I., Thûtmosis II. and of Thûtmosis III.
+      (Thûtmosis the Great), together with Ramses I., Seti I., Ramses XII., King
+      Phtahhotpû II., and noted queens and princesses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1883 the Egypt Exploration Fund was founded for the purpose of
+      accurate historical investigation in Egypt. The first work undertaken was
+      on a mound called the Tel-el-Mashuta, in the Wadi-et-Tumi-lat. This place
+      was discovered to be the site of the ancient Pithom, a treasure-city
+      supposed to have been built by the Israelites for Pharaoh. In the Greek
+      and Roman period the same place had been called Hereopolis. M. Naville
+      also discovered Succoth, the first camping-ground of the Israelites while
+      fleeing from their oppressor, and an inscription with the word
+      &ldquo;Pikeheret,&rdquo; which he judged to be the Pihahiroth of the Book of Exodus.
+      The next season the site of Zoan of the Bible was explored, a village now
+      termed San.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie started work where a rim of red granite
+      stood up upon one of the many mounds in the neighbourhood. The site of the
+      ancient city had been here, and the granite rim was on the site of a
+      temple. The latter had two enclosure walls, one of which had been built of
+      sun-dried bricks, and was of extreme antiquity; the other was built of
+      bricks of eight times the size and weight of modern bricks, and the wall
+      was of very great strength. Dwelling-houses had been built in the
+      locality, and coins and potsherds discovered. These remains Professor
+      Petrie found to belong to periods between the sixth and twenty-sixth
+      dynasties. Stones were found in the vicinity with the cartouche of King
+      Papi from one of the earliest dynasties. There were also red granite
+      statues of Ahmenemhâît I., and a black granite statue of Kind Usirtasen I.
+      and of King Ahmenemhâît II., and a torso of King Usirtasen II. was found
+      cut from yellow-stained stone, together with a vast number of relics of
+      other monarchs. Parts of a giant statue of King Ramses II. were discovered
+      which must have been ninety-eight feet in height before it was broken, the
+      great toe alone measuring eighteen inches across, and the weight of the
+      statue estimated to be about 1,200 tons. In addition to these relics of
+      ancient monarchs, a large number of antiquities were discovered, with
+      remains of objects for domestic use in ancient Egyptian society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The explorations conducted at Tanis during 1883-84 brought to light
+      objects mainly of the Ptolemaic period, because a lower level had not at
+      that period been reached, but here many invaluable relics of Ptolemaic
+      arts were unearthed. The results of researches were published at this date
+      bearing upon the Great Pyramid. Accurate measurements had been undertaken
+      by Professor Petrie, who was able to prove that during one epoch
+      systematic but unavailing efforts had been made to destroy these great
+      structures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Professor Maspero discovered among the hills of Thebes an important tomb
+      of the eleventh dynasty, which threw light upon obscure portions of
+      Egyptian history, and contained texts of the &ldquo;Book of the Dead.&rdquo; The
+      following year he discovered the necropolis of Khemnis in the
+      neighbourhood of Kekhrneen, a provincial town in Upper Egypt built on the
+      site of the ancient Panopolis. The remains were all in a state of perfect
+      preservation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In July, 1884, Professor Maspero secured permission from the Egyptian
+      government to buy from the natives the property which they held on the
+      site of the Great Temple at Luxor, and to prevent any further work of
+      destruction. These orders, however, were not carried out till early in
+      1885, when Maspero began excavating with one hundred and fifty workmen. He
+      first unearthed the sanctuary of Amenhôthes III., with its massive roof.
+      He brought to light the great central colonnade, and discovered a portico
+      of Ramses II., and many colossi, which were either still erect or else had
+      fallen on the ground. The columns of Amenhôthes III. were next explored,
+      which were found to be among the most beautiful of all specimens of
+      Egyptian architecture. It is believed that Luxor will prove to have been a
+      locality of almost as great a beauty as Karnak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the season of 1884-85 Professor Petrie started excavations at the
+      modern Nehireh, which he learned was the site of the ancient Naucratis.*
+      Here many Greek inscriptions were found.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The investigations on this site were continued in the
+     season of 1888-89.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0019" id="linkCimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:44%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/336.jpg" alt="336.jpg Ruins at Luxor " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This city was one of great importance and a commercial mart during the
+      reign of Ahmosis, although in the time of the Emperor Commodus it had
+      wholly disappeared. Two temples of Apollo were discovered, one of which
+      was built from limestone in the seventh century B.C.; and the other was of
+      white marble, beautifully decorated, and dating from the fifth century.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Magnificent libation bowls were also discovered here, some of which had
+      been dedicated to Hera, others to Zeus, and others to Aphrodite. The lines
+      of the ancient streets were traced, and a storehouse or granary of the
+      ancient Egyptians was unearthed, also many Greek coins. Besides these were
+      discovered votive deposits, cups of porcelain, alabaster jugs, limestone
+      mortars; and trowels, chisels, knives, and hoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Much light was thrown by these discoveries on the progress of the ceramic
+      arts, and many links uniting the Greek pottery with the Egyptian pottery
+      were here for the first time traced. It was learned that the Greeks were
+      the pupils of the Egyptians, but that they idealised the work of their
+      masters and brought into it freer conceptions of beauty and of proportion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. Naville was engaged about this time in controversies as to the true
+      site of this ancient Pithom. He also made, in 1886, a search for the site
+      of Goshen. He believed he had identified this when he discovered at Saft
+      an inscription dedicated to the gods of Kes, which Naville identified with
+      Kesem, the name used in the Septuagint for Goshen. Others, however,
+      disagree, and locate the site of Goshen at a place called Fakoos, twelve
+      miles north of Tel-el-Kebir.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The explorations of 1885-86 started under the direction of Professor W. M.
+      Flinders Petrie, Mr. F. Llewellen Griffith, and Mr. Ernest A. Gardiner.
+      Gardiner set out in the direction of Naucratis, and Petrie and Griffith
+      proceeded to explore the site of Tanis. The mound at which they worked,
+      like many other localities of modern and ancient Egypt, has been known by
+      a variety of names. It is called Tel Farum, or the Mound of the Pharaoh;
+      Tel Bedawi, the Mound of the Bedouins; and Tel Nebesheh, after the name of
+      the village upon this site. There are remains here of an ancient cemetery
+      and of two ancient towns and a temple. The cemetery was found to be unlike
+      those of Memphis, Thebes, or Abydos. It contained many small chambers and
+      groups of chambers irregularly placed about a sandy plain. These were
+      built mostly of brick, but there were other and larger ones built of
+      limestone. A black granite altar of the reign of Ahmenemhait II. was
+      discovered, and thrones of royal statues of the twelfth dynasty. Here were
+      also found a statue of Harpocrates, a portion of a statue of Phtah, with
+      an inscription of Ramses II., a sphinx and tombs of the twentieth century
+      B.C. containing many small relics of antiquity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Professor Petrie went on from here to the site of Tell Defenneh, the
+      Tahpanhes of the Bible, called Taphne in the version of the Septuagint.
+      This proved to be the remains of the earliest Greek settlement in Egypt,
+      and contains no remains from a later period than the twenty-sixth dynasty.
+      It was here that Psammeticus I. established a colony of the Carian and
+      Ionian mercenaries, by whose aid this monarch had won the throne; and this
+      Greek city had been built as one out of three fortresses to prevent the
+      incursions of the Arabians and Syrians. The city of Tahpanhes or Taphne is
+      referred to in the book of Jeremiah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were found on this site the remains of a vast pile of brick
+      buildings, which could be seen in outline from a great distance across the
+      plains. The Arabs called this &ldquo;El Kasr el Bin el Yahudi,&rdquo; that is, &ldquo;The
+      Castle of the Jew&rsquo;s Daughter.&rdquo; This was found to have been a fort, and it
+      contained a stele with a record of the garrison which had been stationed
+      there; pieces of ancient armour and arms were also found in the
+      neighbourhood. There was likewise a royal hunting-box on this site, and
+      all the principal parts of the settlement were found to have been
+      surrounded by a wall fifty feet thick, which enclosed an area of three
+      thousand feet in length and one thousand in breadth. The gate on the north
+      opened towards the Pelusiac canal, and the south looked out upon the
+      ancient military road which led up from Egypt to Syria. Pottery,
+      bronze-work, some exquisitely wrought scale armour, very light but
+      overlapping six times, were unearthed within this enclosure. There were
+      also Greek vases and other Greek remains, dating in the earlier part of
+      the reign of Ahmosis, who had subsequently sent the Greeks away, and
+      prevented them from trading in Egypt. Since this Greek colony came to an
+      end in the year 570 B.C., and as the locality was no longer frequented by
+      Greek soldiers or merchants, it is possible to set an exact term to the
+      period of Greek art which these antiquities represent. The Greek pottery
+      here is so unlike that of Naucratis and of other places that it seems to
+      be well ascertained that it must have been all manufactured at Defenneh
+      itself. Outside the buildings of the Kasr, Petrie discovered a large
+      sun-baked pavement resting upon the sands, and this discovery was of value
+      in explaining a certain passage of the forty-third chapter of Jeremiah,
+      translated from the Revised Version as follows: &ldquo;Then came the word of the
+      Lord to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, Take great stones in thine hand,
+      and hide them in the mortar of the brick-work which is at the entry of
+      Pharaoh&rsquo;s house in Tahpanhes in the sight of the men of Judah [i.e.
+      Johannan and the captains who had gone to Egypt]; and say unto them, Thus
+      saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will send and take
+      Nebuchadrezzar the King of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne
+      upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion
+      over them. And he shall come and smite the land of Egypt.&rdquo; An alternate
+      reading for &ldquo;brickwork&rdquo; is the pavement or square. The pavement which
+      Jeremiah described was evidently the one which Petrie discovered, though
+      he was not able at the time to discover the stones which, according to
+      Jeremiah, had been inserted in the mortar. Outside the camp wall was
+      further discovered the remains of a large settlement, strewn on all sides
+      with bits of pottery and jewelry and a great number of weights.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During this season Maspero carried on researches at Luxor, and proceeded
+      to excavate in the neighbourhood of the Great Sphinx. There are many
+      Egyptian pictures which represent the Sphinx in its entirety down to the
+      paws, but the lower parts had for centuries been buried in the
+      accumulations of sand which had covered up all of the ancient site. It had
+      previously been supposed that the Sphinx had been hewn out of a solid mass
+      of rock resembling an immense boulder. Professor Maspero&rsquo;s excavations
+      enabled him not only to verify the accuracy of the old Egyptian paintings
+      of the Sphinx, but also to show that a vast amphitheatre had been hewn out
+      of the rock round the Sphinx, which was not therefore sculptured from a
+      projecting rock. Since the upper rim of this basin was about on the same
+      level with the head of the figure, it became evident that the ancient
+      sculptors had cut the rock away on all sides, and had subsequently left
+      the Sphinx isolated, as it is at the present day. Maspero dug down during
+      this season to a depth of thirty yards in the vicinity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Professor Maspero&rsquo;s last official act as Director-General of the
+      Excavations and Antiquities of Egypt was his examination of the mummy of
+      Ramses II. found in 1884, in the presence of the khédive and other high
+      dignitaries. The mummy of this great conqueror was well preserved,
+      revealing a giant frame and a face expressive of sovereign majesty,
+      indomitable will, and the pride of the Egyptian king of kings. He then
+      unbandaged the mummy of Nofritari, wife of King Ahmosis I. of the
+      eighteenth dynasty, beside which, in the same sarcophagus, had been
+      discovered the mummy of Ramses ITT. The physiognomy of this monarch is
+      more refined and intellectual than that of his warlike predecessor; nor
+      was his frame built upon the same colossal plan. The height of the body
+      was less, and the shoulders not so wide. In the same season Maspero also
+      discovered an ancient Egyptian romance inscribed on limestone near the
+      tomb of Sinûhît at Thebes. A fragment on papyrus had been preserved at the
+      Berlin Museum, but the whole romance was now decipherable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Professor Maspero resigned his office of directorship on June 5, 1886, and
+      was succeeded in the superintendency of excavations and Egyptian
+      archeology by M. Eugene Grébault. In the same month Grébault started upon
+      the work of unbandaging the mummy of the Theban King Sekenenra Ta-aken, of
+      the eighteenth dynasty. It was under this monarch that a revolt against
+      the Hyksôs, or Shepherd Kings, had originated, in the course of which the
+      Asiatics were expelled from Egypt. The history of this king has always
+      been considered legendary, but from the signs of wounds present in the
+      mummy, it is certain that he had died in battle. In the same season the
+      mummy of Seti I. was unbandaged, and also that of an anonymous prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next season the work of clearing away the sand from around the Great
+      Sphinx was vigorously prosecuted by Grébault. In the beginning of the year
+      1887, the chest, the paws, the altar, and plateau were all made visible.
+      Flights of steps were unearthed, and finally accurate measurements were
+      taken of the great figures. The height from the lowest of the steps was
+      found to be one hundred feet, and the space between the paws was found to
+      be thirty-five feet long and ten feet wide. Here there was formerly an
+      altar; and a stele of Thûtmosis IV. was discovered, recording a dream in
+      which he was ordered to clear away the sand that even then was gathering
+      round the site of the Sphinx.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. Naville and Mr. F. Llewellen Griffiths explored during the season of
+      1886-87 the mound of Tel-el-Yehu-dieh (the mound of the Jew). The site is
+      probably that on which was once built the city that Ptolemy Philadelphus
+      allowed the Jews to construct. The remains of a statue of the cat-headed
+      goddess Bast, to which there is a reference in Josephus, was also found
+      here. The discovery of tablets of definitely Jewish origin make it clear
+      that the modern name had been given to the place for some reason connected
+      with the colony thus proved to have once been settled there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Naville also made researches at Tel Basta, the site of the Bubastis of the
+      Greeks, the Pi Beseth of the Bible, and the Pi Bast of the Egyptians,
+      which was formerly the centre of worship of the goddess Pasht and her
+      sacred animal, the cat. The whole plan of the ancient temple was soon
+      disclosed, the general outline of which bears much resemblance to that of
+      the great Temple of San. In the division which Naville called the Festival
+      Hall were numerous black and red statues inscribed with the name of Ramses
+      II., but many of which were probably not really erected by this monarch.
+      Here there was also found a standing statue of the Governor of Ethiopia, a
+      priest and priestess of the twenty-sixth dynasty, and many other monuments
+      of the greatest historical interest. The hall itself was built of red
+      granite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another hall, which Naville called the &ldquo;Hypostyle Hall,&rdquo; possessed a
+      colonnade of such beauty that it would seem to justify the statement of
+      Herodotus, that the temple of Bubastis was one of the finest in Egypt. The
+      columns were either splendid red granite monoliths, with lotus-bud or
+      palm-leaf capitals; or, a head of Hâthor from which fell two long locks.
+      These columns probably belonged to the twelfth dynasty. In what Naville
+      called the &ldquo;Ptolemaic Hall&rdquo; occurs the name Nephthorheb or Nectanebo I. of
+      the thirtieth dynasty. The relics of this remarkable temple thus cover a
+      period from the sixth to the thirtieth dynasties, some 3,200 years. During
+      this season Professor Petrie made important discoveries in relation to the
+      obscure Hyksôs dominion in Egypt. Many representations of these Shepherd
+      Kings were found, and, from their physiognomy, it was judged that they
+      were not Semites, but rather Mongols or Tatars, who probably came from the
+      same part of Asia as the Mongul hordes of Genghis Khan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early in 1888 excavations were resumed on the site of the great temple of
+      Bubastis by M. Edouard Naville, Mr. F. LI. Griffiths, and the Count
+      d&rsquo;Hulst. The investigation again yielded the usual crop of antiquities
+      that was now always expected from the exploration of the famous sites. A
+      third hall was discovered, which had been built in the time of Osorkon I.,
+      of red granite inlaid with sculptured slabs. There were also many other
+      monuments and remains of the monarchs, together with much valuable
+      evidence relating to the rule of the Hyksôs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Petrie brought to London many beautiful Ptolemaic and Roman portraits,
+      which he had discovered in a vast cemetery near the pyramid which bears
+      the name of King Ahmenemhâît III. The portraits are in an excellent state
+      of preservation, and are invaluable as illustrative of the features,
+      manners, and customs of the Greek and Roman periods in Egyptian history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His researches in the neighbourhood of the Fayum at this time commenced to
+      bear fruit; and many questions were answered regarding the ancient Lake
+      Mceris. It was in this season also that the ever memorable excavations
+      conducted at Tel-el-Amarna were first begun. This place is situated in
+      Upper Egypt on the site of the capital, which had been built by Ahmenhotpû
+      IV. Here were discovered many clay tablets in cuneiform characters
+      containing documents in the Babylonian language. These were found in the
+      tomb of a royal scribe. The list contained a quantity of correspondence
+      from the kings or rulers of Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia
+      to Ahmenhotpû III. and IV. There were Egyptian garrisons in those days in
+      Palestine, and they were accustomed to keep their royal masters well
+      informed as to what was going on in the country. Among other cities
+      mentioned are Byblos, Smyrna, Appo or Acre, Megiddo, and Ashpelon. During
+      this season many relics of early Christian art were discovered. In many
+      cases a pagan picture had been in part painted over, and thus given a
+      Christian significance. Two figures of Isis suckling Horus are, with
+      slight alterations, made to represent the Virgin and the Child. A
+      bas-relief of St. George slaying the dragon was discovered, which closely
+      resembled that of Horus slaying Set.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the following season of 1888-89, Petrie resumed his excavations
+      round the pyramid of Hawara, which was supposed to be the site of the
+      famous Labyrinth. Work had been begun here in the season previous, and it
+      was now to be crowned with great success. All the underground passages and
+      secret chambers under the pyramid were examined, and the inscriptions
+      discovered of King Ahmenemhâît III. prove that this was without doubt the
+      pyramid of the monarch of that name. It was discovered that the Romans had
+      broken into the recesses of these secret chambers, and many broken Roman
+      <i>amphoræ</i> were unearthed. Later Professor Petrie examined the pyramid
+      of Illahûn, which stands at the gate of the Fayum. It is probable that
+      this was on the site of the ancient locks which regulated the flow of the
+      Nile into Lake Moris. Many of the antiquities here discovered bore
+      inscriptions of King Usirtasen II., and, in the same locality, was
+      discovered the site of an early Christian cemetery dating from the fifth
+      or sixth centuries. A few miles from Illahûn, the same indefatigable
+      explorer discovered the remains of another town belonging to the
+      eighteenth or nineteenth dynasties. A wall once surrounded the town, and
+      beyond the wall was a necropolis. The place is now called Tell Gurah, and
+      the relics give inscriptions of Thûtmosis III. or Tûtankhamon and of
+      Horemheb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the same season of 1888&mdash;89, Miss Amelia B. Edwards, who had been
+      sent out by the Egypt Exploration Fund, brought to a conclusion the
+      excavations which had been carried on for several seasons at Bubastis. It
+      was discovered that the temple itself dated back to the reign of the
+      famous Khûfûi (Kheops), the builder of the great Pyramid, since an
+      inscription with his name on it was discovered, together with one
+      inscribed to King Khafrî (Chephren). The monuments discovered on this site
+      were, for the most part, shipped to Europe and America.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The city of Boston, Mass., received a colossal Hâthor-head capital of red
+      granite, part of a colossal figure of a king, an immense lotus-bud capital
+      from the Hypo-style Hall of the temple, a bas-relief in red granite from
+      the Hall of Osorken II., and two bas-reliefs of limestone from the temple
+      of Hâthor, taken from the ancient Termuther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0020" id="linkCimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:34%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/347.jpg"
+       alt="347.jpg the Lotus Flower Nymphaea Lotus " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Specimens recovered from here date from the fourth to the twenty-second
+      dynasties, and the relics from Termuther are from the last period of the
+      Ptolemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early in 1891, Professor Petrie made his exhaustive examination of the
+      pyramid of Me-dum, which he declared to be the earliest of all dated
+      Egyptian pyramids, and probably the oldest dated building in the world.
+      Its builder was Snofrui of the third dynasty; and, joined with it, and in
+      a perfect state of preservation, was the pyramid temple built at the same
+      period. From forty to sixty feet of rubbish had accumulated around the
+      buildings, and had to be removed. The front of the temple was thirty feet
+      wide and nine feet high, and a door was discovered at the south end. A
+      wide doorway leads to the open court built on the side of the pyramid. In
+      the centre of the court stands the altar of offerings, where there is also
+      an inscribed obelisk thirteen feet high. The walls of the temple are all
+      marked with <i>graffiti</i> of visitors who belonged to the twelfth and
+      eighteenth dynasties. A statuette was found dedicated to the gods of the
+      town by a woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tombs at this place had been rifled in ancient times, but many
+      skeletons of people, who had been buried in a crouching attitude, were
+      discovered, and Petrie considered that these belonged to a different race
+      from that which was accustomed to bury the dead recumbent. A quantity of
+      pottery was also unearthed, dating from the fourth century. The method by
+      which the plan of a pyramid was laid out by the ancient Egyptians was
+      discovered in this excavation, and the designs show considerable
+      mechanical ingenuity in their execution, and afford a perfect system for
+      maintaining the symmetry of the building itself, no matter how uneven the
+      ground on which it was to be built.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the spring of 1891, M. Naville started an excavation on the site of the
+      ancient Heracleopolis Magna at a place now named Hanassieh. He found here
+      many Roman and Koptic remains, and further discovered the vestibule of an
+      ancient Egyptian temple. There were six columns, on which Ramses II. was
+      represented as offering gifts. The name of Menephtah was also noticed, and
+      the architraves above the columns were seen to be cut with cartouches of
+      Usirtasen II. of the twelfth dynasty. This temple was probably one of
+      those to the service of which Ramses II. donated some slaves, as is
+      described in one of the papyri of the Harris collection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A stone was discovered by Mr. Wilborn at Luxor, recording a period of
+      seven years&rsquo; successive failure of the Nile to overflow, and the efforts
+      made by a certain sorcerer named Chit Net to remove the calamity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the season of 1895, Professor Petrie and Mr. Quibell discovered
+      homes belonging to paleolithic man on a plateau four thousand feet above
+      the Nile. Thirty miles south of Thebes, there are many large and
+      beautifully worked flints. Their great antiquity is proved by the fact
+      that they are deeply stained, whereas, in the same locality, there are
+      other flints of an age of five thousand years, which show no traces of
+      stains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Close by this site was discovered the abundant remains of a hitherto
+      unknown race. This race has nothing in common with the true Egyptians,
+      although their relics are invariably found with those of the Egyptians of
+      the fourth, twelfth, eighteenth, and nineteenth dynasties. Petrie declares
+      these men to have been tall and powerful, with strong features, a hooked
+      nose, a long, pointed beard, and brown, wavy hair. They were not related
+      to the negroes, but rather to the Amorites or Libyans. The bodies in these
+      tombs are not mummified, but are contracted, though laid in an opposite
+      direction from those discovered at Medum. The graves are open, square
+      pits, roofed over with beams of wood. This ancient race used forked
+      hunting-lances for chasing the gazelle, and their beautiful flints were
+      found to be like those belonging to an excellent collection already
+      existing in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford. They also made an abundant use
+      of copper for adzes, harpoons for spearing fish, and needles for sewing
+      garments. They used pottery abundantly, and its variety is remarkable no
+      less than the quality, which, unlike the Egyptian, was all hand-made and
+      never fashioned by aid of the wheel. They entered Egypt about 3,000 B.C.,
+      and were probably of the white Libyan race, and possibly may have been the
+      foreigners who overthrew the old Egyptian empire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The discovery of the name of &ldquo;Israel&rdquo; in an Egyptian inscription was in a
+      sense, perhaps, the most remarkable event of the year 1895 in archæology.
+      It was first laid before the public by Professor Petrie,* and was treated
+      by Spiegelberg** in a communication to the Berlin Academy, and by
+      Steindorff.***
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Contemporary Review, May 1896.
+
+     ** Sitzberichte, xxv., p. 593. 3.
+
+     *** Zeitschrift fur deutsch. Alt. test. Wiss., 1896, p. 330.
+</pre>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img alt="351 (17K)" src="images/351.jpg" width="100%" />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The name occurs in an inscription dated in the fifth year of Merenptah,
+      the successor of Ramses II., and often supposed to be the Pharaoh of the
+      Exodus. It is there written with the determinative of a people, not of a
+      city or country, and reads in our conventional transliteration <i>Ysiràar</i>,
+      but in reality agrees very closely to the Hebrew [...] the last portion <i>aar</i>
+      being recognised as the equivalent of <i>el</i> in several words.
+      Merenptah states that &ldquo;Israel is fekt (?) without seed (grain or
+      offspring), Syria (Kharu) has become widows (Kharut) of or to Egypt.&rdquo; We
+      can form no conclusion from these statements as to the relation in which
+      the Israelites stood to Pharaoh and to Egypt, except that they are
+      represented as having been powerless. It is pretty clear, however, from
+      the context that they were then in Palestine, or at least in Syria.
+      Steindorff suggests that they may have entered Syria from Chaldæa during
+      the disturbed times in Egypt at the end of the eighteenth dynasty, and
+      connects them with the movements of the Khabiri (Hebrews?) mentioned in
+      the Tel-el-Amarna tablets. On the other hand, it is of course possible, as
+      Professor Petrie points out, that this reference to the Israelites may
+      have some connection with the Exodus itself. M. Clermont Ganneau thinks
+      that the localities mentioned are all in Southern Palestine.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Revue Archéologique, xxix., p. 127.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      M. Edouard Naville found at Thebes many remains of the Punt sculptures.
+      The Puntites appear with their aquiline features, their pointed beards,
+      and their long hair; negroes also of black and brown varieties are
+      represented adjoining the Puntites proper. There are wickerwork huts, and
+      a figure of a large white dog with its ears hanging down. Long-billed
+      birds also appear flying about in the trees. Their nests have been
+      forsaken and robbed, and the men are represented as gathering incense from
+      the trees. Altogether, much invaluable information has been gathered
+      concerning the famous people who lived in the Land of Punt, and with whom
+      for a long period the Egyptians held intercommunication. Other discoveries
+      were made near the great temple of Karnak, and the buildings of
+      Medinet-Habu were cleared of rubbish in order to show their true
+      proportions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From its foundation, the Egypt Exploration Fund has received large
+      pecuniary support from the United States, chiefly through the enthusiasm
+      and energy of Dr. W. C. Winslow, of Boston. In 1880 Doctor Winslow, who
+      had been five months in Egypt, returned to America deeply impressed with
+      the importance of scientific research in Egypt, and, upon hearing of the
+      Exploration Fund in London, he wrote a letter expressive of his interest
+      and sympathy to the president, Sir Erasmus Wilson, which brought a reply
+      not only from him, but also from the secretary, Miss Edwards, expatiating
+      upon the purpose and needs of the society, and outlining optimistically
+      its ultimate accomplishments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doctor Winslow was elected honorary treasurer of the Fund for the United
+      States for the year 1883-84.* Many prominent residents became interested
+      and added their names to its membership, and have given it their effort
+      and their hearty financial support. Among the distinguished American
+      members have been J. R. Lowell, G. W. Curtis, Charles Dudley Warner, and
+      among the chief Canadian members are Doctor Bourinot and Dr. J. William
+      Dawson.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     *The American subscriptions from the year 1883 rapidly
+     increased, and by the year 1895 had figured up to $75,800,
+     and the total number of letters and articles written during
+     that time had grown to 2,467. The organisation in America
+     consists of a central office at Boston, together with
+     independent local societies, such as have already been
+     formed in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The Boston
+     office, and any independent local society, which subscribes
+     not less than $750 a year, is entitled to nominate a member
+     of the Committee. At the end of July, 1884, Doctor Winslow
+     had forwarded to London $1,332.20.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The Fund has always preserved amicable relations with the Government
+      Department of Antiquities in Egypt. Excavations are conducted by skilled
+      explorers, and the results published promptly with due regard to
+      scientific accuracy and pictorial embellishment. The antiquities found are
+      either deposited in the National Museum at Cairo, or distributed among
+      public museums in the United Kingdom and the United States of America and
+      Canada, in strict proportion to the contribution of each locality.
+      Exhibitions are usually held in London in July of each year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Fund now consists of three departments, for each of which separate
+      accounts are kept. These departments are: 1. The Exploration Fund, for
+      conducting archeological research generally, by means of systematic
+      excavations. 2. The Archæological Survey, for preserving an accurate
+      pictorial record of monuments already excavated but liable to destruction.
+      3. The Græco-Roman Branch, for the discovery of the remains of classical
+      antiquity and early Christianity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first work of the Græco-Roman Branch was to publish the recently
+      discovered Oxyrrhynchos papyri, of which two volumes, containing many
+      important classical and theological texts, were issued in 1898 and 1899
+      and 1900. Among its contents are parts of two odes of Pindar, of which one
+      begins with a description of the poet&rsquo;s relation to Xenocritus, the
+      inventor of the Locrian mode of music; a considerable piece of the &ldquo;Kolax&rdquo;
+       of Menander, one of the two plays upon which the &ldquo;Eunuchus&rdquo; of Terence was
+      based; part of a rhetorical treatise in Doric dialect, which is
+      undoubtedly a work of the Pythagorean school; the conclusion of the
+      eighteenth Keo-Tcfe of Julius Africanus, dealing with a question of
+      Homeric criticism; and part of a biography of Alcibiades. A new light is
+      thrown upon some of the less-known departments of Greek literature by a
+      well-preserved papyrus, which contains on one side a prose mime in two
+      scenes, a work of the school of Sophron, having points of resemblance to
+      the fifth mime of Herondas; while on the other side is an amusing farce,
+      partly in prose, partly in verse. The scene is laid on the shores of the
+      Indian Ocean, and the plot turns upon the rescue of a Greek maiden from
+      the hands of barbarians, who speak a non-Greek language with elements
+      apparently derived from Prakrit.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * This is a peculiarly interesting suggestion in view of the
+     fact that there is in the British Museum an unpublished
+     fragment which for some time was considered by Doctor Budge
+     to be a species of Egyptian stenography, but which has also
+     been suggested to be in Pehlevi characters.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The new Homeric fragments include one of Iliad VI., with critical signs
+      and interesting textual notes. Sappho, Euripides (Andromache, &ldquo;Archelaus,&rdquo;
+       and &ldquo;Medea&rdquo;), Antiphanes, Thucydides, Plato (&ldquo;Gorgias&rdquo; and &ldquo;Republic&rdquo;),
+      Æschines, Demosthenes, and Xenophon are also represented. Among the
+      theological texts are fragments of the lost Greek original of the
+      &ldquo;Apocalypse of Baruch&rdquo; and of the missing Greek conclusion of the
+      &ldquo;Shepherd&rdquo; of Hennas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the winter of 1898-99, Doctors Grenfell and Hunt conducted excavations
+      for the Græco-Roman Branch in the Fayûm. In 1899-1900, they excavated at
+      Tebtunis, in the Fayûm, on behalf of the University of California; and by
+      an arrangement between that university and the Egypt Exploration Fund an
+      important section of the Tebtunis papyri, consisting of second-century
+      B.C. papyri from crocodile mummies, was issued jointly by the two bodies,
+      forming the annual volumes of the Græco-Roman Branch for 1900-01 and
+      1901-02. Since 1900 Doctors Grenfell and Hunt have excavated each winter
+      on behalf of the Græco-Roman Branch,&mdash;in 1900-01 in the Fayûm, and in
+      1901-02 both there and at Hibeh, with the result that a very large
+      collection of Ptolemaic papyri was obtained. In the winter of 1902-03,
+      after finishing their work at Hibeh, they returned to Oxyrrhynchos. Here
+      was found a third-century fragment of a collection of sayings of Jesus,
+      similar in style to the so-called &ldquo;Logia&rdquo; discovered at Oxyrrhynchos in
+      1897. As in that papyrus, the separate sayings are introduced by the words
+      &ldquo;Jesus saith,&rdquo; and are for the most part unrecorded elsewhere, though some
+      which are found in the Gospels (e.g. &ldquo;The Kingdom of God is within you&rdquo;
+       and &ldquo;Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first&rdquo;)
+      occur here in different surroundings. Six sayings are preserved,
+      unfortunately in an imperfect condition. But the new &ldquo;Logia&rdquo; papyrus
+      supplies more evidence concerning its origin than was the case with its
+      predecessor, for it contains an introductory paragraph stating that what
+      follows consisted of &ldquo;the words which Jesus, the Living Lord, spake&rdquo; to
+      two of His disciples; and, moreover, one of the uncanonical sayings is
+      already extant in part, the conclusion of it, &ldquo;He that wonders shall reign
+      and he that reigns shall rest,&rdquo; being quoted by Clement of Alexandria from
+      the Gospel according to the Hebrews. It is, indeed, possible that this
+      Gospel was the source from which all this second series of &ldquo;Logia&rdquo; was
+      derived, or they, or some of them, may perhaps have been taken from the
+      Gospel according to the Egyptians, to which Professor Harnack and others
+      have referred the &ldquo;Logia&rdquo; found in 1897. But the discoverers are disposed
+      to regard both series as collections of sayings currently ascribed to our
+      Lord rather than as extracts from any one uncanonical gospel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="linkC2HCH0003" id="linkC2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <a name="linkCimage-0021" id="linkCimage-0021">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/357.jpg" width="100%" alt="357.jpg Page Image " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.&mdash;IMPORTANT RESEARCHES IN EGYPT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>The Royal Tombs at Abydos: Reconstruction of the First and Second
+      Dynasties: The Ten Temples at Abydos: The statuette of Khûfûi: Pottery and
+      Pottery Marks: The Expedition of the University of California.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some interesting explorations have been conducted in Egypt by the
+      Exploration Fund during the four years 1900-04, under the guidance of
+      Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, whose enthusiasm and patience for the work in
+      this field seem to increase with the years of labour. In the winter of
+      1899-1900, Professor Petrie and his zealous helpers began their
+      investigation of the royal tombs of the first dynasty at Abydos.
+      Commenting on this undertaking, Professor Petrie writes:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It might have seemed a fruitless and thankless task to work at Abydos
+      after it had been ransacked by Mariette, and had been for the last four
+      years in the hands of the Mission Amélineau. My only reason was that the
+      extreme importance of results from there led to a wish to ascertain
+      everything possible about the early royal tombs after they were done with
+      by others, and to search even for fragments of the pottery. To work at
+      Abydos had been my aim for years past; but it was only after it was
+      abandoned by the Mission Amélineau that at last, on my fourth application
+      for it, I was permitted to rescue for historical study the results that
+      are here shown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing is more disheartening than being obliged to gather results out of
+      the fraction left behind by past plunderers. In these royal tombs there
+      had been not only the plundering of the precious metals and the larger
+      valuables by the wreckers of early ages; there was after that the
+      systematic destruction of monuments by the vile fanaticism of the Kopts,
+      which crushed everything beautiful and everything noble that mere greed
+      had spared; and worst of all, for history, came the active search in the
+      last four years for everything that could have a value in the eyes of
+      purchasers, or be sold for profit regardless of its source; a search in
+      which whatever was not removed was deliberately and avowedly destroyed in
+      order to enhance the intended profits of European speculators. The results
+      are therefore only the remains which have escaped the lust of gold, the
+      fury of fanaticism, and the greed of speculators in this ransacked spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A rich harvest of history has come from the site which was said to be
+      exhausted; and in place of the disordered confusion of names without any
+      historical connection, which was all that was known from the <i>Mission
+      Amélineau</i>, we now have the complete sequence of kings from the middle
+      of the dynasty before Mena to probably the close of the second dynasty,
+      and we can trace in detail the fluctuations of art throughout these
+      reigns.&rdquo; *
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the time when Professor Maspero brought his history of Egypt to a
+      close, the earliest known historical ruler of Egypt was King Mena or
+      Menés.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * &ldquo;The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty,&rdquo; Parts I.-II.
+     (Eighteenth and Twenty-first Memoirs of the Egypt
+     Exploration Fund), London, 1900-1902.
+
+     ** See Volume I., page 322, et seq.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Mena is the first king on the fragmentary list of Manetho, and the general
+      accuracy of Manetho was supported by the accounts of Herodotus and other
+      ancient writers. For several centuries these accounts were accepted as the
+      basis of authentic history. With the rise of the science of Egyptology,
+      however, search began to be made for some corroboration of the actual
+      existence of Mena, and this was found in the inscriptions of a temple wall
+      at Abydos, which places Mena at the head of the first dynasty; and,
+      allowing for differences of language, the records of Manetho relating to
+      the earlier dynasty were established. Mena was therefore accepted as the
+      first king of the first dynasty up to the very end of the nineteenth
+      century.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a result of Professor Petrie &lsquo;s recent investigations, however, he has
+      been enabled to carry back the line of the early kings for three or four
+      generations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The royal tombs at Abydos lie closely together in a compact group on a
+      site raised slightly above the level of the surrounding plain, so that the
+      tombs could never be flooded. Each of the royal tombs is a large square
+      pit, lined with brickwork. Close around it, on its own level, or higher
+      up, there are generally small chambers in rows, in which were buried the
+      domestics of the king. Each reign adopted some variety in the mode of
+      burial, but they all follow the type of the prehistoric burials, more or
+      less developed. The plain square pit, like those in which the predynastic
+      people were buried, is here the essential of the tomb. It is surrounded in
+      the earlier examples of Zer or Zet by small chambers opening from it. By
+      Merneit these chambers were built separately around it. By Den an entrance
+      passage was added, and by Qa the entrance was turned to the north. At this
+      stage we are left within reach of the early passage-mastabas and pyramids.
+      Substituting a stone lining and roof for bricks and wood, and placing the
+      small tombs of domestics farther away, we reach the type of the
+      mas-taba-pyramid of Snofrui, and so lead on to the pyramid series of the
+      Old Kingdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0022" id="linkCimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/361.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="361.jpg Plan of the Royal Tombs As Abydos " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The careful manner with which all details of a burial were supervised
+      under the first dynasty enables the modern Egyptologist, by a skilful
+      piecing together of evidence, to reconstruct an almost perfect picture of
+      the life of Egypt at the dawn of civilisation. One of our most valuable
+      sources of information is due to the fact that, in building the walls of
+      the royal tombs, there were deposited in certain parts within the walls
+      objects now technically known as <i>deposits</i>. We do not know whether,
+      in selecting these objects, the ancient Egyptian had regard to what he
+      considered their intrinsic value, or whether, as was most probable, it was
+      some religious motive that prompted his action. Often the objects thus
+      deposited come under the designation of pottery, although the vases were
+      sometimes shaped of stone and not of clay. Within such vases all kinds of
+      objects were preserved. The jar or vase was closed with a lump of clay,
+      either flat or conical, and the clay was impressed, while wet, with a
+      seal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A detailed and elaborate examination of the relative positions of the
+      tombs, their dimensions, and the objects found in them, compared with the
+      various fragments of historical records of the early dynasties, enables us
+      to reconstruct the exact order of these ancient rulers. This sequence is:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0023" id="linkCimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/362.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="362.jpg Table of Ancient Rulers * " />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Ka and Zeser were possibly brothers of Mena.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Following the dating tentatively computed by Professor Petrie, the dates
+      of some of these kings are:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0024" id="linkCimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/363a.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="363a.jpg Table of Chronology Of Early Kings " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Thus we have reconstructed the list of Thinite kings before Mena so far as
+      the facts allow, and perhaps so far as we are ever likely to ascertain
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The facts about the second dynasty, the kings after Qa, must now be
+      studied. In the tomb of Perabsen it was found that there were buried with
+      him vases of three other kings, which are therefore his predecessors.
+      Their names are Hotepahaui, Raneb, and Neteren; and it is certain that
+      Raneb preceded Neteren, as the latter had defaced and re-used a vase of
+      the former. As on statue No. 1, Cairo Museum, these three names are in the
+      above order, and, as the succession of two of them is now proved, it is
+      only reasonable to accept them in this order. From all the available facts
+      it seems that we ought to restore the dynasty thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0025" id="linkCimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/363b.jpg" width="100%" alt="363b.jpg Table of Kings " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The oldest tomb that we can definitely assign is that marked B 7, the tomb
+      of King Ka. This is a pit with sloping sides; the thickness of the brick
+      walls is that of the length of one brick, and the soft footing of the wall
+      and pressure of sand behind it has overthrown the longer sides.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0026" id="linkCimage-0026">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:37%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/364.jpg"
+       alt="364.jpg Enlarged Plan of First Dynasty Tombs " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The broken pottery mixed with the sand, which filled it, largely consisted
+      of cylinder jars, like the later prehistoric form; and these had many
+      inscriptions on them, written in ink with a brush, most of which showed
+      the name of Ka in the usual panelled frame. There can therefore be no
+      doubt of the attribution of this tomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tomb B 9 is perhaps that of King Zeser, who seems to have been a
+      successor of Ka. It is of the same construction as that of Ka. The tomb B
+      10 appears to be the oldest of the great tombs, by its easternmost
+      position; and the objects of Narmer point to this as his tomb. In both the
+      thickness and the batter of the walls there is a care shown in
+      proportioning the strength of the ends and the sides. The tomb B 15 is
+      probably that of King Sma. Its walls are not quite so thick, being fifty
+      inches at the end. The post-holes in the floor suggest that there were
+      five on the long side, and one in the middle of each end, as in the tomb
+      of Narmer. But along the sides are holes for roofing beams near the top of
+      the wall. These roof beams do not at all accord with the posts; and this
+      proves that, here at least, the posts were for backing a wooden chamber
+      inside the brick chamber. If this be the case here, it was probably also
+      true in Narmer&rsquo;s tomb; and hence these brick tombs were only the
+      protective shell around a wooden chamber which contained the burial. This
+      same system is known in the first dynasty tombs, and we see here the
+      source of the chambered tombs of Zer and Zet. Before the age of Mena, the
+      space around the wood chamber was used for dropping in offerings between
+      the framing posts; and then, after Mena, separate brick chambers were made
+      around the wooden chamber in order to hold more offerings.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     *This chamber was burnt; and is apparently that mentioned by
+     M. Amélineau, Fouilles, in extenso, 1899, page 107.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The tomb B 19, which contained the best tablet of Aha-Mena, is probably
+      his tomb; for the tomb with his vases at Naqada is more probably that of
+      his queen Neithotep. As both the tombs B 17 and 18 to the north of this
+      contained objects of Mena, it is probable that they were the tombs of some
+      members of his family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great cemetery of the domestics of this age is the triple row of tombs
+      to the east of the royal tombs; in all the thirty-four tombs here, no name
+      was found beside that of Aha on the jar sealings, and the two tombs, B 6
+      and B 14, seen to be probably of the same age. In B 14 were found only
+      objects of Aha, and three of them were inscribed with the name of
+      Bener-eb, probably the name of a wife or a daughter of Mena, which is not
+      found in any other tomb.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Professor Petrie&rsquo;s arguments, although home out by the
+     evidence that he produces, have from time to time been
+     criticised. M. Naville, for example, endeavours to prove
+     that the buildings in the desert are not literally tombs,
+     but rather temples for the cult of their Ka; and that there
+     ought not to be kings anterior to Mena, particularly at
+     Abydos: &ldquo;Narmer&rdquo; is really Boethos, the first king of the
+     second dynasty. According to M. Naville, Boethos, Usaphis,
+     and Miebidos are the only kings as yet identified of the
+     early time. M. Naville also suggests that Ka-Sekhem and Ka-
+     Sekhemui are two names for one king.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0027" id="linkCimage-0027">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/366.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="366.jpg Ebony Tablet of King Aha-mena " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      From the time of Mena has come down to us an ebony tablet, as shown in the
+      illustration. This is the most complete of the inscriptions of this king,
+      and was found in two portions in the tombs marked B 18 and B 19. The signs
+      upon the tablet are most interesting. On the top line, after the cartouche
+      of Aha-Mena, there are two sacred boats, probably of Sokaris, and a shrine
+      and temenos of Nit. In the line below is seen a man making an offering,
+      and behind him is a bull running over undulating ground into a net
+      stretched between two poles, while at the end, standing upon a shrine, is
+      a bird, which appears to be the ibis of Thot. A third line shows three
+      boats upon a canal or river, passing between certain places, and it has
+      been reasonably conjectured that the other signs in this line indicate
+      these places as being Biu, a district of Memphis; Pa She (or &ldquo;the dwelling
+      of the lake&rdquo;), the capital of the Fayum; and the Canal of Mer, or Bahr
+      Yusef. So far this tablet contains picture signs, but the fourth line
+      gives a continued series of hieroglyphics, and is the oldest line of such
+      characters yet discovered. Mr. F. LI. Griffiths translates these
+      characters as &ldquo;who takes the throne of Horus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the north-west corner of the tomb, a stairway of bricks was roughly
+      inserted in later times in order to give access to the shrine of Osiris.
+      That this is not an original feature is manifest: the walls are burnt red
+      by the burning of the tomb, while the stairs are built of black mud brick
+      with fresh mud mortar smeared over the reddened wall. It is notable that
+      the burning of these tombs took place before their re-use in the
+      eighteenth dynasty; as is also seen by the re-built doorway of the tomb of
+      Den, which is of large black bricks over smaller red burnt bricks. It is
+      therefore quite beside the mark to attribute this burning to the Kopts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tomb of King Zer has an important secondary history as the site of the
+      shrine of Osiris, established in the eighteenth dynasty (for none of the
+      pottery offered there is earlier than that of Amenhôthes III.), and
+      visited with offerings from that time until the twenty-sixth dynasty, when
+      additional sculptures were placed here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0028" id="linkCimage-0028">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/368.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="368.jpg Tomb of Zer, 4700 B.c. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Afterwards it was despoiled by the Kopts in erasing the worship of Osiris.
+      It is the early state of the place as the tomb of King Zer that we have to
+      study here, and not its later history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tomb chamber has been built of wood; and the brick cells around it
+      were built subsequently against the wooden chamber, as their rough,
+      unplastered ends show; moreover, the cast of the grain of the wood can be
+      seen on the mud mortar adhering to the bricks. There are also long,
+      shallow grooves in the floor, a wide one near the west wall, three narrow
+      ones parallel to that, and a short cross groove, all probably the places
+      of beams which supported the wooden chamber. Besides these there was till
+      recently a great mass of carbonised wood along the north side of the
+      floor. This was probably part of the flooring of the tomb, which, beneath
+      the woodwork, was covered with a layer of bricks, which lay on clean sand.
+      But all the middle of the tomb had been cleared to the native marl for
+      building the Osiris shrine, of which some fragments of sculpture in hard
+      limestone are now all that remain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A strange feature here is that of the red recesses, such as were also
+      found in the tomb of Zet. The large ones are on the west wall, and in the
+      second cell on the north wall. No meaning can yet be assigned to these,
+      except as spirit-entrances to the cells of offerings, like the false doors
+      in tombs of the Old Kingdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of the plundering of the tombs in various ages, the work of the
+      Egypt Exploration Fund was so thorough that not a few gold objects have
+      been found in the course of recent excavations. By far the most important
+      discovery of recent years was that of some jewelry in the tomb of King
+      Zer. The story of this find is so entertaining, and illustrates so
+      admirably the method of the modern scientific explorer, that we give the
+      account of it in Professor Petrie&rsquo;s own words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;While my workmen were clearing the tomb, they noticed among the rubbish
+      which they were moving a piece of the arm of a mummy in its wrappings. It
+      lay in a broken hole in the north wall of the tomb. The party of four who
+      found it looked into the end of the wrappings and saw a large gold bead,
+      the rosette in the second bracelet. They did not yield to the natural wish
+      to search further or to remove it; but laid the arm down where <i>they</i>
+      found it until Mr. Mace should come and verify it. Nothing but obtaining
+      the complete confidence of the workmen, and paying them for all they find,
+      could ever make them deal with valuables in this careful manner. On seeing
+      it, Mr. Mace told them to bring it to our huts intact, and I received it
+      quite undisturbed. In the evening the most intelligent of the party was
+      summoned as a witness of the opening of the wrappings, so that there
+      should be no suspicion that I had not dealt fairly with the men. I then
+      cut open the linen bandages, and found, to our great surprise, the four
+      bracelets of gold and jewelry. The verification of the exact order of
+      threading occupied an hour or two, working with a magnifier, my wife and
+      Mr. Mace assisting. When recorded, the gold was put in the scales and
+      weighed against sovereigns before the workman, who saw everything. Rather
+      more than the value of gold was given to the men, and thus we ensured
+      their good-will and honesty for the future.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The hawk bracelet consists of thirteen gold and fourteen turquoise plaques
+      in the form of the façade with the hawk, which usually encloses the <i>ka</i>
+      name of the king. The gold hawks have been cast in a mould with two faces,
+      and the junction line has been carefully removed and burnished. The gold
+      was worked by chisel and burnishing; no grinding or file marks are
+      visible. In the second bracelet, with the rosette, two groups of beads are
+      united at the sides by bands of gold wire and thick hair. The fastening of
+      the bracelet was by a loop and button. This button is a hollow ball of
+      gold with a shank of gold wire fastened in it. The third bracelet is
+      formed of three similar groups, one larger, and the other smaller on
+      either side. The middle of each group consists of three beads of dark
+      purple lazuli. The fastening of this bracelet was by a loop and button.
+      The fourth bracelet is fashioned of hour-glass beads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this extraordinary group of the oldest jewelry known, we see unlimited
+      variety and fertility of design. Excepting the plain gold balls, there is
+      not a single bead in any one bracelet which would be interchangeable with
+      those in another bracelet. Each is of independent design, fresh and free
+      from all convention or copying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tomb of Zet consists of a large chamber twenty feet wide and thirty
+      feet long, with smaller chambers around it at its level, the whole bounded
+      by a thick brick wall, which rises seven and a half feet to the roof, and
+      then three and a half feet more to the top of the retaining wall. Outside
+      of this on the north is a line of small tombs about five feet deep, and on
+      the south a triple line of tombs of the same depth. And apparently of the
+      same system and same age is the mass of tombs marked W, which are parallel
+      to the tomb of Zet. Later there appears to have been built the long line
+      of tombs, placed askew, in order not to interfere with those which have
+      been mentioned, and then this skew line gave the di-rection to the next
+      tomb, that of Merneit, and later on to that of Azab. The private graves
+      around the royal tomb are all built of mud brick, with a coat of mud
+      plaster over it, and the floor is of sand, usually also coated over with
+      mud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0029" id="linkCimage-0029">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/372.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="372.jpg Tomb of Zet, Circa 4700 B.c. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The first question about these great tombs is how they were covered over.
+      Some have said that such spaces could not be roofed, and at first sight it
+      would seem almost impossible. But the actual beams found yet remaining in
+      the tombs are as long as the widths of the tombs, and therefore timber of
+      such sizes could be procured. In the tomb of Qa the holes for the beams
+      yet remain in the walls, and even the cast of the end of a beam, and in
+      the tombs of Merneit, Azab, and Mer-sekha are posts and pilasters to help
+      in supporting a roof. The clear span of the chamber of Zet is 240 inches,
+      or 220 if the beams were carried on a wooden lining, as seems likely. It
+      is quite practicable to roof over these great chambers up to spans of
+      twenty feet. The wood of such lengths was actually used, and, if spaced
+      out over only a quarter of the area, the beams would carry their load with
+      full safety. Any boarding, mats, or straw laid over the beams would not
+      increase the load. That there was a mass of sand laid over the tomb is
+      strongly shown by the retaining wall around the top. This wall is roughly
+      built, and not intended to be a visible feature. The outside is daubed
+      with mud plaster, and has a considerable slope; the inside is left quite
+      rough, with bricks in and out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Turning now to the floor, the basis of it is mud plastering, which was
+      whitewashed. On that were laid beams around the sides, and one down the
+      middle: these beams were placed before the mud floor was hard, and have
+      sunk about one-quarter inch into it. On the beams a ledge was recessed,
+      and on this ledge the edges of the flooring planks rested. Such planks
+      would not bend in the middle by a man standing on them, and therefore made
+      a sound floor. Over the planks was laid a coat of mud plaster. This
+      construction doubtless shows what was the mode of flooring the palaces and
+      large houses of the early Egyptians, in order to keep off the damp of the
+      ground in the Nile valley. For common houses a basis of pottery jars
+      turned mouth down was used for the same purpose. A very striking example
+      of this method was unearthed at Koptos.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sides of the great central chamber of Zet are not clear in
+      arrangement. The brick cross walls, which subdivide them into separate
+      cells, have no finished faces on their ends. All the wall faces are
+      plastered and whitewashed; but the ends of the cross walls are rough
+      bricks, all irregularly in and out. Moreover, the bricks project forward
+      irregularly over the beam line. It seems, then, that there was an upright
+      timber lining to the chamber, against which the cross walls were built the
+      walls thus having rough ends projecting over the beams. The footing of
+      this upright plank lining is indicated by a groove left along the western
+      floor beam between the ledge on the beam and the side of the flooring
+      planks. Thus we reach a wooden chamber, lined with upright planks, which
+      stood out from the wall, or from the backs of the beams. How the side
+      chambers were entered is not shown; whether there was a door to each or
+      not. But as they were intended to be for ever closed, and as the chambers
+      in two corners were shut off by brickwork all round, it seems likely that
+      all the side chambers were equally closed. And thus, after the slain
+      domestics and offerings were deposited in them, and the king in the centre
+      hall, the roof would be permanently placed over the whole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The height of the chamber is proved by the cast of straw which formed part
+      of the roofing, and which comes at the top of the course of headers on
+      edge which copes the wall all around the chamber. Over this straw there
+      was laid one course of bricks a little recessed, and beyond that is the
+      wide ledge all round before reaching the retaining wall. The height of the
+      main chamber was 90.6 inches from the floor level.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having examined the central chamber, the chambers at the sides should be
+      next considered. The cross walls were built after the main brick outside
+      was finished and plastered. The deep recesses coloured red, on the north
+      side, were built in the construction; where the top is preserved entire,
+      as in a side chamber on the north, it is seen that the roofing of the
+      recess was upheld by building in a board about an inch thick. The shallow
+      recesses along the south side were merely made in the plastering, and even
+      in the secondary plastering after the cross walls were built. All of these
+      recesses, except that at the south-west, were coloured pink-red, due to
+      mixing burnt ochre with the white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tomb of Merneit was not at first suspected to exist, as it had no
+      accumulation of pottery over it; and the whole ground had been pitted all
+      over by the Mission Amélineau making &ldquo;<i>quelques sondages</i>,&rdquo; without
+      revealing the chambers or the plan. As soon, however, as Petrie began
+      systematically to clear the ground, the scheme of a large central chamber,
+      with eight long chambers for offerings around it, and a line of private
+      tombs enclosing it, stood apparent. The central chamber is very accurately
+      built, with vertical sides parallel to less than an inch. It is about
+      twenty-one feet wide and thirty feet long, or practically the same as the
+      chamber of Zet. Around the chamber are walls forty-eight to fifty-two
+      inches thick, and beyond them a girdle of long, narrow chambers
+      forty-eight inches wide and 160 to 215 inches long. Of these chambers for
+      offerings, Nos. 1, 2, 5, and 7 still contain pottery in place, and No. 3
+      contains many jar sealings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a few yards distant from the chambers full of offerings is a line of
+      private graves almost surrounding the royal tomb. This line has an
+      interruption at the south end of the west side similar to the interruption
+      of the retaining wall of the tomb of Zet at that quarter. It seems,
+      therefore, that the funeral approached it from that direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chamber of the tomb of Merneit shows signs of burning on both the
+      walls and the floor. A small piece of wood yet remaining indicates that it
+      also had a wooden floor like the other tombs. Against the walls stand
+      pilasters of brick; and, although these are not at present more than a
+      quarter of the whole height of the wall, they originally reached to the
+      top. These pilasters are entirely additions to the first building; they
+      stand against the plastering and upon a loose layer of sand and pebbles
+      about four inches thick. Thus it is clear that they belonged to the
+      subsequent stage of the fitting of a roof to the chamber. The holes that
+      are shown in the floor are apparently connected with the construction, as
+      they are not in the mid-line where pillars are likely. At the edge of
+      chamber No. 2 is a cast of plaited palm-leaf matting on the mud mortar
+      above this level, and the bricks are set back irregularly. This shows the
+      mode of finishing off the roof of this tomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0030" id="linkCimage-0030">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/377.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="377.jpg Plans of the Tombs Of Den-setui and Others " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0031" id="linkCimage-0031">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:50%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/379.jpg"
+       alt="379.jpg Tablet of Den-setui, 4600 B.c. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      From the position of the tomb of Den-Setui, it is seen naturally to follow
+      the building of the tombs of Zet and Merneit. It is surrounded by rows of
+      small chambers for offerings, and for the burial of domestics. The king&rsquo;s
+      tomb appears to have contained a large number of tablets of ivory and
+      ebony, for fragments of eighteen were found, and two others are known,
+      making in all twenty tablets from this one tomb. The inscriptions on stone
+      vases are, however, not more frequent than in previous reigns. This tomb
+      appears to have been one of the most costly and sumptuous. The astonishing
+      feature of this chamber is the granite pavement, such considerable use of
+      granite being quite unknown until the step pyramid of Saqqâra early in the
+      third dynasty. At the south-west corner is a strange annex. A stairway
+      leads down from the west and then turns to the north. At the foot of the
+      first flight of steps is a space for inserting planks and brickwork to
+      close the chamber, like the blocking of the door of the tomb of Azab.1
+      This small chamber was therefore intended to be closed. Whether this
+      chamber was for the burial of one of the royal family, or for the deposit
+      of offerings, it is difficult to determine. Of the various rows of graves
+      around the great tomb there is nothing to record in detail. An ebony
+      tablet, presumably of the time of Den, found among the first dynasty
+      tombs, represents a scene in which a king is dancing before Osiris, the
+      god being seated in his shrine. This tablet is the earliest example of
+      those pictorial records of a religious ceremony which, as we now know, was
+      continued almost without change from the first dynasty to the
+      thirty-third. It is interesting to note on this engraving that the king is
+      represented with the <i>hap</i> and a short stick instead of the oar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It should be noted also that the royal name, Setui, occurs in the lower
+      part of the tablet, so that there is a strong presumption that the tablet
+      is of the time of Den-Setui, and the presumption is almost a certainty
+      when the tablet is compared with some sealings found in its vicinity. Mr.
+      F. LI. Griffiths has written at length on this important inscription.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Royal Tombs of the first dynasty, Part I: Eighteenth
+     Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, London, 1900, page 42.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      He thinks that this tablet and two others somewhat similar were the brief
+      annals of the time, and record the historic events and the names of
+      government officials. He translates a portion of the inscription as
+      &ldquo;Opening the gates of foreign lands,&rdquo; and in another part he reads, &ldquo;The
+      master comes, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt.&rdquo; Moreover, he translates
+      certain signs as &ldquo;Sheikh of the Libyans,&rdquo; and he identifies a place named
+      <i>Tny</i> as This, or the capital of the nome in which Abydos lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of this reign also is an ivory tablet finely polished, but blackened with
+      burning, which has engraved upon it the oldest architectural drawing in
+      the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0032" id="linkCimage-0032">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:30%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/380.jpg"
+       alt="380.jpg Architectural Drawing, B.c. 4600. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0033" id="linkCimage-0033">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:25%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/381.jpg"
+       alt="381.jpg Ivory Panel of Den-setui, 4600 B.c. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The inscription on this precious fragment apparently refers to the great
+      chiefs coming to the tomb of Setui, and a picture of a building in the
+      middle of the inscription may be taken as representing on the left the
+      tomb chamber of Den-Setui, with a slight mound over it. The upright
+      strokes represent the steles outside the tombs, adjacent to which is the
+      inclined stairway, while on the right is a diagram of the cemetery, with
+      graves ar-ranged in rows around the tomb, with small steles standing up
+      over the graves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small piece of still another ivory tablet gives an interesting portrait
+      of Den-Setui. This king flourished about 4600 b. c, so that this is
+      perhaps the oldest portrait that can be named and dated. It shows the
+      double crown fully developed, and has an additional interest, inasmuch as
+      the crown of Lower Egypt was apparently coloured red, while the crown of
+      Upper Egypt was white in accordance with the practice that we know existed
+      during the later historic period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the many ivory objects found at Abydos is a small ivory panel from a
+      box which seems to have contained the golden seal of judgment of King Den.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The engraving of this ivory panel is of the finest description, and bears
+      evidence of the magnificent workmanship of the Egyptians 6,500 years ago.
+      It will be seen that enough of the fragment has been preserved to include
+      the cartouche of the monarch, and the snake at the side is the pictograph
+      of judgment. Beneath is the hieroglyph for gold, and at the bottom is a
+      sign which represents a seal cylinder* rolling over a piece of clay.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * It was for a long time thought that this hieroglyphic
+     character represented a finger ring, but as it is now
+     positively known that finger rings were not in use until
+     long after the time of Den, this explanation had to be
+     abandoned in favour of the more correct interpretation of a
+     seal cylinder.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The tomb of Azab-Merpaba is a plain chamber, with rather sloping sides,
+      about twenty-two feet long and fourteen feet wide. The surrounding wall is
+      nearly five feet thick. The lesser and more irregular chamber on the north
+      is of the same depth and construction, fourteen feet by nine. This lesser
+      chamber had no remains of flooring; it contained many large sealings of
+      jars, and seems to have been for all the funeral provision, like the eight
+      chambers around the tomb of Merneit. Around this tomb is a circuit of
+      small private tombs, leaving a gap on the southwest like that of Merneit,
+      and an additional branch line has been added on at the north.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0034" id="linkCimage-0034">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/382.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="382.jpg Stairway in the Tomb Azab " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      All of these tombs are very irregularly built; the sides are wavy in
+      direction, and the divisions of the long trench are slightly piled up, of
+      bricks laid lengthwise, and easily overthrown. This agrees with the rough
+      and irregular construction of the central tomb and offering chamber. The
+      funeral of Azab seems to have been more carelessly conducted than that of
+      any of the other kings here; only one piece of inscribed vase was in his
+      tomb, as against eight of his found in his successor&rsquo;s tomb, and many
+      other of his vases erased by his successor. Thus his palace property seems
+      to have been kept back for his successor&rsquo;s use, and not buried with Azab
+      himself. In some of the chambers much ivory inlaying was found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entrance to the tomb of Azab was by a stairway descending from the
+      east, thus according with the system begun by Den. On the steps, just
+      outside of the door, were found dozens of small pots loosely piled
+      together. These must have contained offerings made after the completion of
+      the burial. The blocking is made by planks and bricks, the whole outside
+      of the planking being covered by bricks loosely stacked, as can be seen in
+      the photograph, the planking having decayed away from before them. The
+      chamber was floored with planks of wood laid flat on the sand, without any
+      supporting beams as in other tombs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tomb of Mersekha-Semempses is forty-four feet long and twenty-five
+      feet wide, surrounded by a wall over five feet thick. The surrounding
+      small chambers are only three to four feet deep where perfect, while the
+      central pit is still eleven and one-half feet deep, though broken away at
+      the top. When examined by Professor Petrie few of the small chambers
+      contained anything. Seven steles were found, the inscriptions of which are
+      marked in the chambers of the plan; and other steles were also found here,
+      scattered so that they could not be identified with the tombs. The most
+      interesting are two steles of dwarfs, which show the dwarf type clearly;
+      with one were found bones of a dwarf. In a chamber on the east was a jar
+      and a copper bowl, which shows the hammer marks, and is roughly finished,
+      with the edge turned over to leave it smooth. The small compartments in
+      the south-eastern chambers were probably intended to hold the offerings
+      placed in the graves; the dividing walls are only about half the depth of
+      the grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0035" id="linkCimage-0035">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/384.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="384.jpg Tomb of Mersekha, Showing Wooden Floor " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The structure of the interior of the tomb of Mersekha is at present
+      uncertain. Only in the corner by the entrance was the wooden flooring
+      preserved; several beams (one now in Cairo Museum) and much broken wood
+      was found loose in the rubbish. The entrance is nine feet wide, and was
+      blocked by loose bricks, flush with wall face, as seen in the photograph.
+      Another looser walling farther out, also seen in the photograph, is
+      probably that of plunderers to hold back the sand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tomb of King Qa, which is the last of the first dynasty, shows a more
+      developed stage than the others. Chambers for offerings are built on each
+      side of the entrance passage, and this passage is turned to the north, as
+      in the mastabas of the third dynasty and in the pyramids. The whole of the
+      building is hasty and defective.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0036" id="linkCimage-0036">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/385.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="385.jpg Plan of Tomb Of Qa, Circa 4500 B.c. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The bricks were mostly used too new, probably less than a week after being
+      made. Hence the walls have seriously collapsed in most of the lesser
+      chambers; only the one great chamber was built of firm and well-dried
+      bricks. In the small chambers along the east side the long wall between
+      chambers 10 and 5 has crushed out at the base, and spread against the
+      pottery in the grave 5, and against the wooden box in grave 2. Hence the
+      objects must have been placed in those graves within a few days of the
+      building of the wall, before the mud bricks were hard enough to carry even
+      four feet height of wall. The burials of the domestics must therefore have
+      taken place all at once, immediately after the king&rsquo;s tomb was built, and
+      hence they must have been sacrificed at the funeral. The pottery placed in
+      the chambers is all figured in position on the plan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0037" id="linkCimage-0037">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:28%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/386.jpg" alt="386.jpg Style of King Qa " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Only three steles were found in the grave of Qa, but these were larger
+      than those of the earlier graves. One of them, No. 48, is the longest and
+      most important inscription that has come down to us from the first
+      dynasty. This lay in a chamber on the west side of the tomb. In the
+      preparation of the stele, the block of stone had been ground all over and
+      edges rounded. On its surface the hieroglyphs were then sketched in red
+      ink, and were finally drawn in black, the ground being then roughly
+      hammered out. There the work stopped, and the final scraping and dressing
+      of the figures was never accomplished. The reading of the signs is
+      therefore difficult, but enough is seen to show that the keeper of the
+      tomb bore the name of Sabef. He had two titles which are now illegible,
+      and was also &ldquo;Overseer of the Sed Festival.&rdquo; This scanty information goes
+      to show how little the official titles were changed between the days of
+      the first dynasty and the time of the building of the pyramids. The stele
+      of the king Qa was found lying over chamber; it is like that found by M.
+      Amélineau, carved in black quartzose stone. Near it, on the south, were
+      dozens of large pieces of fine alabaster bowls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among various objects found in these chambers should be noted the fine
+      ivory carving from chamber 23, showing a bound captive; the large stock of
+      painted model vases in limestone in a box in chamber 20; the set of
+      perfect vases found in chamber 21; a fine piece of ribbed ivory; a piece
+      of thick gold-foil covering of a hotep table, patterned as a mat, found in
+      the long chamber west of the tomb; the deep mass of brown vegetable matter
+      in the north-east chamber; the large stock of grain between chambers 8 and
+      11; and the bed of currants ten inches thick, though dried, which underlay
+      the pottery in chamber 11. In chamber 16 were large dome-shaped jar
+      sealings, with the name of Azab, and on one of them the ink-written signs
+      of the &ldquo;King&rsquo;s ka.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The entrance passage has been closed with rough brick walling at the top.
+      It is curiously turned askew, as if to avoid some obstacle, but the
+      chambers of the tomb of Den do not come near its direction. After nine
+      steps, the straight passage is reached, and then a limestone portcullis
+      slab bars the way, let into grooves on either side; it was, moreover,
+      backed up by a buttress of brickwork in five steps behind it. All this
+      shows that the rest of the passage must have been roofed in so deeply that
+      entry from above was not the obvious course. The inner passage descends by
+      steps, each about five inches high, partly in the slope, partly in the
+      rise of the step. The side chambers open off this stairway by side
+      passages a little above the level of the stairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The interior structure of the tomb of Qa is rather different from any
+      other. Instead of the timber being an entirely separate structure apart
+      from the brick, the brick sides seem here to have been very loosely built
+      against the timber sides. Some detail yet remains of the wooden floor. The
+      roofing is distinct in this tomb, and it is evident that there was an
+      axial beam, and that the side beam only went half across the chamber. This
+      is the only tomb with the awkward feature of an axial doorway, and it is
+      interesting to note how the beam was placed out of the axis to accommodate
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0038" id="linkCimage-0038">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:45%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/389.jpg"
+       alt="389.jpg Stone Chamber of Khasekhemui " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The tomb of Perabsen shows a great change in form since the earlier
+      series. A new dynasty with new ideas had succeeded the great founders of
+      the monarchy; the three reigns had passed by before we can again see here
+      the system of the tombs. Even the national worship was changed, and Set
+      had become prominent. The type of tomb which had been developed under
+      Azab, Mer-sekha, and Qa seems to have given way to the earlier pattern of
+      Zer and Zet. In this tomb of Perabsen we see the same row of small cells
+      separated by cross walls, like those of the early kings; but in place of a
+      wooden central chamber there is a brick chamber, and a free passage is
+      left around it communicating with the cells. What was the form of the
+      south side of that chamber cannot now be traced, as, if any wall existed,
+      it is now entirely destroyed. The entirely new feature is the continuous
+      passage around the whole tomb. Perhaps the object of this was to guard
+      against plunderers entering by digging sideways into the tomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tomb of Khasekhemui is very different from any of the other royal
+      tombs yet known. The total length of the chamber from end to end is two
+      hundred and twenty-three feet, and the breadth in the middle is forty
+      feet, growing wider towards the northern end. The whole structure is very
+      irregular; and, to add to the confusion, the greater part of it was built
+      of freshly made mud bricks, which have yielded with the pressure and
+      flowed out sideways, until the walls are often double their original
+      breadth. It was only owing to this flow of the walls over the objects in
+      the chambers, that so many valuable things were found perfect, and in
+      position. Where the whole of the original outline of a wall had
+      disappeared, the form is given in the plan with wavy outline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The central stone chamber of the tomb of Khasekhemui is the most important
+      part of the whole, as it is the oldest stone construction yet known. The
+      chamber is roughly seventeen by ten feet; the depth is nearly six feet.
+      There is no sign of any roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nearly all the contents of this tomb were removed by the French
+      investigators in 1897. Among the more interesting objects found were
+      sealings of yellow clay, which were curiously enough of different types at
+      opposite ends of the tomb. Copper needles, chisels, axes, and model tools
+      were also found, and a beautiful sceptre of gold and sard was brought to
+      light by Professor Petrie, only an inch or two below a spot that had been
+      cleared by previous explorers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In chamber 2 of the tomb of Khasekhemui were also found six vases of
+      dolomite and one of carnelian. Two of these are shown in the illustration,
+      and each has a cover of thick gold-foil fitted over the top, and secured
+      with a double turn of twisted gold wire, the wire being sealed with a
+      small lump of clay, the whole operation resembling the method of the
+      modern druggist, in fastening a box of ointment. Near these vases were
+      found two beautiful gold bracelets; one, Number 3, is still in a perfect
+      condition; the other, Number 4, has been, unfortunately, crushed by the
+      yielding of the wall of the tomb in which it was deposited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0039" id="linkCimage-0039">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/391.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="391.jpg Gold-capped Vases and Gold Bracelets " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Each royal grave seems to have had connected with it two great steles.
+      Two, for instance, were found in the tomb of Merneit, one of which,
+      however, was demolished. There were also two steles at the grave of Qa. So
+      far only one stele had been found of Zet, and one of Mersekha, and none
+      appear to have survived of Zer, Den, or Azab. These steles seem to have
+      been placed at the east side of the tombs, and on the ground level, and
+      such of them as happened to fall down upon their inscribed faces have
+      generally been found in an excellent state of preservation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hence we must figure to ourselves two great steles standing up, side by
+      side, on the east of the tomb; and this is exactly in accord with the next
+      period that we know, in which, at Medum, Snofrui had two great steles and
+      an altar between them on the east of his tomb; and Rahotep had two great
+      steles, one on either side of the offering-niche, east of his tomb.
+      Probably the pair of obelisks of the tomb of Antef V., at Thebes, were a
+      later form of this system. Around the royal tomb stood the little private
+      steles of the domestics, placed in rows, thus forming an enclosure about
+      the king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of Professor Petrie&rsquo;s most interesting work at Abydos was commenced
+      in November, 1902. In the previous season a part of the early town of
+      Abydos had been excavated, and it was found that its period began at the
+      close of the prehistoric age, and extended over the first few dynasties;
+      the connection between the prehistoric scale and historic reigns was thus
+      settled. The position of this town was close behind the site of the old
+      temples of Abydos, and within the great girdle-wall enclosure of the
+      twelfth dynasty, which stands about half a mile north of the well-known
+      later temples of Seti I. and Ramses II. This early town, being behind the
+      temples, or more into the sandy edge of the desert, was higher up; the
+      ground gently sloping from the cultivated land upward as a sandy plain,
+      until it reaches the foot of the hills, a couple of miles back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The broad result of these new excavations is that ten different temples
+      can be traced on the same ground, though of about twenty feet difference
+      of level; each temple built on the ruins of that which preceded it, quite
+      regardless of the work of the earlier kings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In such a clearance it was impossible to preserve all the structures. Had
+      Petrie and his companions avoided moving the foundations of the
+      twenty-sixth dynasty, they could never have seen much of the earlier work;
+      had they left the paving of the twelfth dynasty in place, they must have
+      sacrificed the objects of the Old Kingdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0040" id="linkCimage-0040">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/393.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="393.jpg General Plan of Buildings at Abydos " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Also, had they only worked the higher levels, and left the rest, the
+      inflow of high Nile would have formed a pond, which would have so rotted
+      the ground that deeper work could not have been carried on in the future.
+      The only course, therefore, was to plan everything fully, and remove
+      whatever stood in the way of more complete exploration. All striking
+      pieces of construction, such as the stone gateways of Papi, were left
+      untouched, and work carried on to deep levels around them; in this way, at
+      the end of the season, the site was bristling with pieces of wall and
+      blocks of stonework, rising ten or fifteen feet above the low level
+      clearances. As the excavations progressed, there was an incessant need of
+      planning and recording all the constructions. Professor Petrie always went
+      about with a large dinner-knife and a trowel in his pocket, and spent much
+      time in cutting innumerable sections and tracing out the lines of the
+      bricks. The top and base level of each piece of wall had to be marked on
+      it; and the levels could then be measured off to fixed points.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An outline of some of the principal buildings is given, to show the
+      general nature of the site of the temple of Abydos. This plan is not
+      intended to show all periods, nor the whole work of any one age; but only
+      a selection which will avoid confusion. The great outer wall on the plan
+      was probably first built by Usirtasen I.; the bricks of the oldest parts
+      of it are the same size as bricks of his foundation deposits, and it rests
+      upon town ruins of the Old Kingdom. But this wall has been so often broken
+      and repaired that a complete study of it would be a heavy task; some parts
+      rest on nineteenth dynasty building, and even Roman patchwork is seen. Its
+      general character is shown with alternating portions, the first set
+      consisting of towers of brickwork built in concave foundations, and then
+      connecting walls between; formed in straight courses. The purpose of this
+      construction has long been a puzzle. The alternate concave and straight
+      courses are the natural result of building isolated masses, on a concave
+      bed like all Egyptian houses, and then connecting them by intermediate
+      walls. The hard face across the wall, and the joint to prevent the spread
+      of scaling, are the essential advantages of this construction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The corner marked Kom-de-Sultan is the enclosure which was emptied out by
+      Mariette &lsquo;s diggers, because of the abundance of burials with steles of
+      the twelfth to eighteenth dynasties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0041" id="linkCimage-0041">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:47%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/395.jpg" alt="395.jpg Wall of Usirtasen I. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      They have removed all the earth to far below the base of the walls, thus
+      digging in most parts right through the town of the Old Kingdom, which
+      stood here before the great walls were built. The inner two sides of this
+      enclosed corner are later than the outer wall; the bricks are larger than
+      those of Usirtasen, and the base of the wall is higher than his. The
+      causeway line indicated through the site by a dotted line from the east to
+      the west gate is a main feature; but it is later than the sixth dynasty,
+      as the wall of that age cuts it, and it was cut in two by later buildings
+      of the twentieth dynasty. It seems then to begin with Usirtasen, whose
+      gateways it runs through; and to have been kept up by Thûtmosis III., who
+      built a wall with granite pylon for it, and also by Ramses II., who built
+      a great portal colonnade of limestone for the causeway to pass through on
+      entering the cemetery outside the west wall of this plan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the north of the causeway are seen the tombs of the first dynasty. One
+      more, No. 27, was found beneath the wall of Thûtmosis; it was of the same
+      character as the larger of the previous tombs. All of these are far below
+      any of the buildings shown on this outline plan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the two long walls, marked vi., the inner is older, but was re-used by
+      Papi. It is probably the temenos of the third dynasty. The outer wall is
+      the temenos of the sixth dynasty, the west side of which is yet unknown,
+      and has probably been all destroyed. The temple of Papi is shown in the
+      middle with the north-west and south sides of the thin boundary wall which
+      enclosed it. The thick wall which lies outside of that is the great wall
+      of the eighteenth dynasty, with the granite pylon of Thûtmosis III. It
+      seems to have followed the line of the sixth dynasty wall on the north.
+      The outline marked xix. shows a high level platform of stone, which was
+      probably for the basement of buildings of Ramses II.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Within the area of these temples was discovered quite a number of
+      historical relics. None is more interesting, perhaps, than the ivory
+      statuette of the first dynasty king. This anonymous ruler is figured as
+      wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, and a thick embroidered robe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the nature of the pattern and the stiff edge represented, it looks as
+      if this robe were quilted with embroidery; no such dress is known on any
+      Egyptian figure yet found. The work belongs to an unconventional school,
+      before the rise of the fixed traditions; it might have been carved in any
+      age and country where good natural work was done. In its unshrinking
+      figuring of age and weakness with a subtle character, it shows a power of
+      dealing with individuality which stands apart from all the later work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0042" id="linkCimage-0042">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:24%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/397.jpg"
+       alt="397.jpg Ivory Statuette of First Dynasty King " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0043" id="linkCimage-0043">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:26%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/398.jpg"
+       alt="398.jpg Ivory Statuette of Khufvi. " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Of greater interest, however, is the ivory statuette of Khûfûi, which is
+      the first figure of that monarch that has come to light. The king is
+      seated upon his throne, and the inscription upon the front of it leaves no
+      doubt as to the identity of the figure. The work is of extraordinary
+      delicacy and finish; for even when magnified it does not suggest any
+      imperfection or clumsiness, but might have belonged to a life-sized
+      statue. The proportion of the head is slightly exaggerated; as, indeed, is
+      always the case in minute work; but the character and expression are as
+      well handled as they might be on any other scale, and are full of power
+      and vigour. The idea which it conveys to us of the personality of Khûfûi
+      agrees with his historical position. We see the energy, the commanding
+      air, the indomitable will, and the firm ability of the man who stamped for
+      ever the character of the Egyptian monarchy and outdid all time in the
+      scale of his works. No other Egyptian king that we know resembled this
+      head; and it stands apart in portraiture, though perhaps it may be
+      compared with the energetic face of Justinian, the great builder and
+      organiser.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two ivory lions were also found in one of the private tombs around that of
+      Zer. It is evident that these lions were used as playing pieces, probably
+      for the well-known pre-historic game of Four Lions and a Hare, for the
+      bases of the lions are much worn, as if by sliding about upon a smooth
+      surface, and the pelt of the lion, as originally carved, is also worn off
+      as if by continued handling. The lion shown in the illustration is of a
+      later style than those of Zer or of Mena. Near the place where this was
+      found were a few others. One of them, apparently a lioness, is depicted
+      with a collar, indicating that the animal had been tamed, and yet another
+      had inserted within the head an eye accurately cut in chalcedony. Another
+      valuable object unearthed at Abydos was the sceptre of King Khase-khemui.
+      This consisted of a series of cylinders of sard embellished at every
+      fourth cylinder with double bands of thick gold, and completed at the
+      thinner end with a plain cap of gold, copper rod, now corroded, binding
+      the whole together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0044" id="linkCimage-0044">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:34%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/399.jpg" alt="399.jpg Carved Ivory Lion " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      During the reign of King Zer the ivory arrow tip began to be commonly
+      used; hundreds were gathered from his tomb, and the variety of forms is
+      greater than in any other reign. Besides the plain circular points, many
+      of them have reddened tips; there are also examples of quadrangular barbed
+      tips, and others are pentagonal, square, or oval. Only the plain circular
+      tips appear in succeeding reigns down to the reign of Mersekha, except a
+      single example of the oval forms under Den.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some flint arrow-heads were also found around the tomb of Zer, mostly of
+      the same type as those found in the tomb of Mena. Two, however, of these
+      arrow-heads, Numbers 13 and 14, are of a form entirely unknown as yet in
+      any other age or country. The extreme top of the head is of a chisel form,
+      and this passes below into the more familiar pointed form. The inference
+      here is almost inevitable, and it seems as if the arrow-heads had been
+      made in this peculiar way with a view to using the arrow a second time
+      after the tip was broken in attacking an animal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0045" id="linkCimage-0045">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/400.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="400.jpg Ancient Egyptian Arrows " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Another curious object dating from this reign and classed among the arrows
+      is a small portion of flint set perpendicularly into the end of a piece of
+      wood. This, in the opinion of Professor Giglioli, is not an arrow at all,
+      but a tattooing instrument. If this explanation be correct, then this
+      instrument is an extremely interesting find, for the fact has been
+      recently brought to light that tattooing was in vogue in prehistoric
+      times, and there is, moreover, at Cairo, the mummy of a priestess of the
+      twelfth dynasty having the skin decorated in this manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the domestic articles is an admirable design of pair of tweezers,
+      made with a wide hinge and stiff points. Of analogous interest are two
+      copper fish-hooks, which, however, have no barbs. Needles also, which we
+      know were used in prehistoric days, appear in the relics of the tomb of
+      Zer and of subsequent rulers. Of the reign of Zer are also found copper
+      harpoons cut with a second fang, similar forms being found among the
+      remains of Mersekha and of Khasekhemui. In the centre of the illustration
+      is seen the outline of a chisel of the time of Zer, very similar to those
+      used in the early prehistoric ages. The same continuity from prehistoric
+      to first dynasty times is shown in the shape of the copper pins dating
+      from Zer, Den, Mersekha, and Qa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0046" id="linkCimage-0046">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/401.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="401.jpg Miscellaneous Copper Objects " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0047" id="linkCimage-0047">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:25%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/402.jpg"
+       alt="402a.jpg Ivory Comb, B. C. 4800 " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      At various times quite a considerable number of articles relating to
+      intimate daily life has been discovered. An exceedingly fortunate find was
+      that of an ivory comb of crude but careful workmanship, and which, even
+      after the lapse of sixty-seven centuries, has only lost three of its
+      teeth. This comb, according to the inscription on it, belonged to
+      Bener-ab, a distinguished lady, whose tomb has been already mentioned, and
+      who was either the wife or the daughter of King Mena of the first dynasty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the class of domestic objects is the primitive but doubtless quite
+      effective corn-grinder shown in the illustration. This was found in an
+      undisturbed tomb in the Osiris temenos, where also was a strangely shaped
+      three-sided pottery bowl, similar in shape to a stone bowl of the same
+      period, but otherwise unknown in antiquity. This three-sided bowl may be
+      regarded as a freak of the workman rather than as having any particular
+      value along the line of evolution of pottery forms; and it is interesting
+      to note that bowls of this form have been quite recently made by the
+      modern English potters in South Devonshire, as the result of the inventive
+      fancy of a village workman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the course of the excavations at Abydos many thousands of fragments
+      of pottery were collected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those that appeared to be of historic value were sorted and classified,
+      and, as a result of minute and extended labours, it is now possible for
+      the reader to see at a glance the principal types of Egyptian pottery from
+      prehistoric times, and to view their relationship as a whole. The diagram
+      exhibits an unbroken series of pottery forms from s.d. 76 to B.C. 4400.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0048" id="linkCimage-0048">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/402b.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="402b.jpg Corn-grinder and Three-sided Bowl " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The forms in the first column are those classified according to the
+      chronological notation devised by Professor Petrie, enabling a &ldquo;sequence
+      date&rdquo; (s. d.) to be assigned to an object which cannot otherwise be dated.
+      In the second column are forms found in the town of Abydos, and in the
+      last column are those unearthed in the tombs. Most of the large jars bear
+      marks, which were scratched in the moist clay before being baked; some few
+      were marked after the baking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0049" id="linkCimage-0049">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/403.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="403.jpg Types of Prehistoric and First Dynasty Pottery " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Some of the marks are unquestionably hieroglyphs; others are probably
+      connected with the signs used by the earlier prehistoric people; and many
+      can scarcely be determined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0050" id="linkCimage-0050">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:39%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/404a.jpg" alt="404a.jpg Pottery Marks " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      A typical instance of these pottery marks is shown in the illustration.
+      These signs appear to be distinctly of the time of Mer-sekha, and the
+      fortified enclosure around the name may refer to the tomb as the eternal
+      fortress of the king. These marks can be roughly classified into types
+      according to the skill with which they were drawn. The first example
+      illustrates the more careful workmanship, and the others show more
+      degraded forms, in which the outline of the hawk and the signs in the
+      cartouche become gradually more debased. It is tolerably certain that what
+      are known as the Mediterranean alphabets were derived from a selection of
+      the signs used in these pottery marks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An undisturbed tomb was found by accident in the Osiris temenos. The soil
+      was so wet that the bones were mostly dissolved; and only fragments of the
+      skull, crushed under an inverted slate bowl, were preserved. The head had
+      been laid upon a sandstone corn-grinder. Around the sides of the tomb were
+      over two dozen jars of pottery, most of them large. And near the body were
+      sixteen stone vases and bowls. Some of the forms, such as are shown in the
+      illustration, Nos. 3, 7, 8, are new to us. A strange three-sided pottery
+      bowl was also found here, but since there is no museum in England where
+      such a complete tomb can be placed, it was sent to Philadelphia, in order
+      that the whole series should be arranged as originally found.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0051" id="linkCimage-0051">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:32%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/404b.jpg"
+       alt="404b.jpg Pottery Forms from Abydos " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The sealings, the general description of which has been already given,
+      have come to light in such considerable quantities during the past few
+      years that their study became a special branch of Egyptology. As to the
+      earliest sealings, it was not until the time of Den that a broad
+      uniformity of style was established. The seals of the second dynasty are
+      generally of a smaller style and more elaborately worked than those of the
+      first dynasty. It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the later
+      seals were made in stone or metal rather than in wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The illustration given of sealing No. 128, of the Egypt Exploration Fund
+      collection, shows a very fair type of the figuring of men and animals at
+      the time of the first dynasty as a survival of the prehistoric manner of
+      engraving. Here, then, at the very dawn of history, we find a spirited
+      depiction of the human form, for, rude though it is, there can be no doubt
+      but that it is a representation of the human figure, and stiff and
+      ungainly though the action of the drawing be, there can be no doubt as to
+      the progressive movement intended by the artist. On a sealing, No. 116, is
+      seen the leopard with the bent bars on his back. The shrine upon the same
+      seal is of the general form, and is like the early huts with reed sides,
+      and an interwoven palm-rib roof. This is a specimen of an intermediate
+      manner of workmanship. The most advanced stage of art in the sealings of
+      the first dynasty, is No. 108. This is the royal seal of King Zer, B.C.
+      4700, showing him seated and wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt.
+      By his side are the royal staff and his cartouches. It was workmanship of
+      this character which survived in Egypt almost as late as Roman times; that
+      is to say, the same style engraving was current in the Valley of the Nile
+      for forty-six centuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A particularly interesting sealing is a representation of two jars with
+      the flat seals across their tops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0052" id="linkCimage-0052">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/405.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="405.jpg Three Types of Sealings " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      These jars, moreover, are depicted as bound around with a network of rope
+      in a manner which corresponds with some fragments of rope found around
+      some jars of this character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0053" id="linkCimage-0053">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figleft" style="width:35%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/406.jpg"
+       alt="406.jpg a Sealing Showing Jars " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0054" id="linkCimage-0054">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="figright" style="width:28%;">
+      <img width="100%" src="images/407.jpg"
+       alt="407.jpg Accounts on Pottery, B.C. 4600 " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      A small fragment of pottery originally forming the base of a brown
+      earthenware dish had inscribed upon it some accounts, and is the oldest of
+      such business records yet found in Egypt. The exact import of the figures
+      is not yet entirely intelligible, but they seem to refer to quantities of
+      things rather than to individuals, as the numbers, although mostly twenty,
+      are sometimes one hundred and two hundred. This interesting fragment was
+      found at the tomb of Zet, and thus establishes the use of arithmetic
+      before 4600 B.C.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The expedition supported by Mrs. Hearst, in the name of the University of
+      California, has done some useful work at El-Ahaiwah, opposite Menshiyeh.
+      The main cemetery at this place is an archaic one, containing about a
+      thousand graves or more, of which about seven hundred had already been
+      plundered. Between these plundered graves, about 250 were found untouched
+      in modern times. The graves yielded a good collection of archaic pottery,
+      pearl and ivory bracelets, hairpins, carnelian, garnet, gold, blue glaze
+      and other beads, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About this cemetery was a cemetery of the late New Empire, containing a
+      number of vaulted tombs built of unburned brick. These yielded a large
+      number of necklaces, and several fine pieces of faïence and ivory, and
+      other objects. A second cemetery, farther north, contained a few late
+      archaic graves and about fifteen large tombs, usually with one main
+      chamber and two small chambers at each end. These tombs were of two types
+      (1) roofed over with wood, without a stairway, (2) roofed over with a
+      corbelled vault and entered from the west by a stairway. The burials in
+      these tombs are in the archaic position, head to south. Dissected, or
+      secondary, burials occur in these cemeteries, but only rarely. Only one
+      indisputable case was found, as shown in the illustration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkCimage-0055" id="linkCimage-0055">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/408.jpg" width="100%"
+       alt="408.jpg Unique Instance of a Dissected Burial " />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It would require several volumes adequately to deal with the results of
+      the excavations of the present century. Further discoveries, all throwing
+      new light upon the life of ancient Egypt, are being made each season, and
+      the number of enthusiastic workers gathered from every nation constantly
+      increases. Notwithstanding the heroic and splendid work of past
+      investigators, for many years to come the valley of the Nile promises to
+      yield important results, not only in actual field work, but also in the
+      close study and better classification of the thousands of objects that are
+      continually being brought to light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Six thousand years of history have been unrolled; tomb and tablet, shard
+      and papyrus have told their story, and the vista stretches back to the
+      dawn of human history in that inexhaustible valley watered by the
+      perennial overflow of the grandest river in the world. But there is much
+      still to be accomplished by the enthusiastic spirit, the keen and
+      selective mind, in the study of this ancient land, the cradle and the
+      grave of nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> THE END. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The
+Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12), by S. Rappoport
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 17332-h.htm or 17332-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/3/17332/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase &ldquo;Project
+Gutenberg&rdquo;), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (&ldquo;the Foundation&rdquo;
+ or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; appears, or with which the phrase &ldquo;Project
+Gutenberg&rdquo; is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+&ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original &ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, &ldquo;Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.&rdquo;
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+&ldquo;Defects,&rdquo; such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the &ldquo;Right
+of Replacement or Refund&rdquo; described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you &lsquo;AS-IS&rsquo; WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm&rsquo;s
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation&rsquo;s EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state&rsquo;s laws.
+
+The Foundation&rsquo;s principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation&rsquo;s web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/17332-h/images/001.jpg b/17332-h/images/001.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca47537
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/001.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/002.jpg b/17332-h/images/002.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..35b7539
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/002.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/003.jpg b/17332-h/images/003.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d36113
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/003.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/007.jpg b/17332-h/images/007.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..57020cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/007.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/013.jpg b/17332-h/images/013.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..afb9f88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/013.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/015.jpg b/17332-h/images/015.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4206a25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/015.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/019.jpg b/17332-h/images/019.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..44d535b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/019.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/025.jpg b/17332-h/images/025.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e079117
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/025.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/027.jpg b/17332-h/images/027.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8ed77d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/027.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/029.jpg b/17332-h/images/029.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..442721f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/029.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/039.jpg b/17332-h/images/039.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fa100e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/039.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/043.jpg b/17332-h/images/043.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b472338
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/043.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/049.jpg b/17332-h/images/049.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1de4b24
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/049.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/055.jpg b/17332-h/images/055.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a6af593
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/055.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/059.jpg b/17332-h/images/059.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3d61632
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/059.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/063.jpg b/17332-h/images/063.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..74a1b43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/063.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/065.jpg b/17332-h/images/065.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9be746f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/065.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/067.jpg b/17332-h/images/067.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cae9d7e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/067.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/069.jpg b/17332-h/images/069.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..09b2d98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/069.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/071.jpg b/17332-h/images/071.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8289486
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/071.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/073.jpg b/17332-h/images/073.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..676746f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/073.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/076.jpg b/17332-h/images/076.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ddddd72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/076.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/077.jpg b/17332-h/images/077.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3be57bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/077.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/080.jpg b/17332-h/images/080.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b23df95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/080.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/080b.jpg b/17332-h/images/080b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..043307f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/080b.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/081.jpg b/17332-h/images/081.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..00833a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/081.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/083.jpg b/17332-h/images/083.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a53f77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/083.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/085.jpg b/17332-h/images/085.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1948758
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/085.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/091.jpg b/17332-h/images/091.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5997109
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/091.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/097.jpg b/17332-h/images/097.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b04b08f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/097.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/101.jpg b/17332-h/images/101.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9fb52c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/101.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/107.jpg b/17332-h/images/107.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2c46b09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/107.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/112.jpg b/17332-h/images/112.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e604c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/112.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/114b.jpg b/17332-h/images/114b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..87548d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/114b.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/119.jpg b/17332-h/images/119.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6ef80a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/119.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/124.jpg b/17332-h/images/124.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8292179
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/124.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/130.jpg b/17332-h/images/130.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..142a870
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/130.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/137.jpg b/17332-h/images/137.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e506f67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/137.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/142.jpg b/17332-h/images/142.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab6bb2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/142.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/143.jpg b/17332-h/images/143.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c7c7d5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/143.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/151.jpg b/17332-h/images/151.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..33be581
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/151.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/157.jpg b/17332-h/images/157.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e05b18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/157.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/161.jpg b/17332-h/images/161.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25ded2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/161.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/165.jpg b/17332-h/images/165.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f75054
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/165.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/169.jpg b/17332-h/images/169.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dba2068
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/169.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/173.jpg b/17332-h/images/173.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..826c8c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/173.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/179.jpg b/17332-h/images/179.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2af5a84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/179.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/185.jpg b/17332-h/images/185.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bfc02dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/185.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/187.jpg b/17332-h/images/187.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e755274
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/187.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/190.jpg b/17332-h/images/190.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d1aeab9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/190.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/191.jpg b/17332-h/images/191.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..004f5f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/191.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/195.jpg b/17332-h/images/195.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a8a0ae6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/195.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/201.jpg b/17332-h/images/201.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5656318
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/201.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/204.jpg b/17332-h/images/204.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9732a4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/204.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/207.jpg b/17332-h/images/207.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..88bdd51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/207.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/210.jpg b/17332-h/images/210.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ecbbc8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/210.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/218.jpg b/17332-h/images/218.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e8153b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/218.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/223.jpg b/17332-h/images/223.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7d6d790
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/223.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/227.jpg b/17332-h/images/227.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..798e3bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/227.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/232.jpg b/17332-h/images/232.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0bbe4c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/232.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/235.jpg b/17332-h/images/235.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f159aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/235.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/237.jpg b/17332-h/images/237.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4868192
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/237.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/240b.jpg b/17332-h/images/240b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4fc6ed3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/240b.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/241.jpg b/17332-h/images/241.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1a18893
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/241.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/245.jpg b/17332-h/images/245.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8aac1e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/245.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/247.jpg b/17332-h/images/247.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c498253
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/247.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/251.jpg b/17332-h/images/251.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2780f9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/251.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/255.jpg b/17332-h/images/255.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9ad411
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/255.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/259.jpg b/17332-h/images/259.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8569b3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/259.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/263.jpg b/17332-h/images/263.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cbdb67f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/263.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/269.jpg b/17332-h/images/269.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7bde055
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/269.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/277.jpg b/17332-h/images/277.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..786194c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/277.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/283.jpg b/17332-h/images/283.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..84ece66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/283.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/291.jpg b/17332-h/images/291.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..656c673
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/291.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/291b.jpg b/17332-h/images/291b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec65a16
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/291b.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/296.jpg b/17332-h/images/296.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f1b3dd2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/296.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/298.jpg b/17332-h/images/298.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..48f4cee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/298.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/299.jpg b/17332-h/images/299.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e48156
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/299.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/301.jpg b/17332-h/images/301.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..285a859
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/301.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/302a.jpg b/17332-h/images/302a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..669be34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/302a.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/302b.jpg b/17332-h/images/302b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..832eb14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/302b.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/303.jpg b/17332-h/images/303.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f513ab8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/303.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/309.jpg b/17332-h/images/309.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c0db533
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/309.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/318.jpg b/17332-h/images/318.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0910dbf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/318.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/318b.jpg b/17332-h/images/318b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2acabf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/318b.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/319.jpg b/17332-h/images/319.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b9e550
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/319.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/321.jpg b/17332-h/images/321.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95c1d56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/321.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/322.jpg b/17332-h/images/322.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b04a8f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/322.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/324.jpg b/17332-h/images/324.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..89fe41e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/324.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/336.jpg b/17332-h/images/336.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7224dc5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/336.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/347.jpg b/17332-h/images/347.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9cd6705
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/347.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/351.jpg b/17332-h/images/351.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2596833
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/351.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/357.jpg b/17332-h/images/357.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d1d4a72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/357.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/361.jpg b/17332-h/images/361.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..83bfc9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/361.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/362.jpg b/17332-h/images/362.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b750d6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/362.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/363a.jpg b/17332-h/images/363a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d0051b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/363a.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/363b.jpg b/17332-h/images/363b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab02977
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/363b.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/364.jpg b/17332-h/images/364.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b777989
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/364.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/366.jpg b/17332-h/images/366.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d271267
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/366.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/368.jpg b/17332-h/images/368.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b06698c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/368.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/372.jpg b/17332-h/images/372.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37daaa7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/372.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/377.jpg b/17332-h/images/377.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94b1640
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/377.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/379.jpg b/17332-h/images/379.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a50ba84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/379.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/380.jpg b/17332-h/images/380.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c147530
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/380.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/381.jpg b/17332-h/images/381.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..21322fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/381.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/382.jpg b/17332-h/images/382.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2f9cd7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/382.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/384.jpg b/17332-h/images/384.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..510ba77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/384.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/385.jpg b/17332-h/images/385.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5866a69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/385.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/386.jpg b/17332-h/images/386.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7844f26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/386.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/389.jpg b/17332-h/images/389.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de3e6f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/389.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/391.jpg b/17332-h/images/391.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..40a3c73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/391.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/393.jpg b/17332-h/images/393.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f921c92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/393.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/395.jpg b/17332-h/images/395.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a29fd9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/395.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/397.jpg b/17332-h/images/397.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..398604a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/397.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/398.jpg b/17332-h/images/398.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9a10615
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/398.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/399.jpg b/17332-h/images/399.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f5ad8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/399.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/400.jpg b/17332-h/images/400.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..10fbfc5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/400.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/401.jpg b/17332-h/images/401.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d692f76
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/401.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/402.jpg b/17332-h/images/402.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1928605
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/402.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/402b.jpg b/17332-h/images/402b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f038ccf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/402b.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/403.jpg b/17332-h/images/403.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e4cec8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/403.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/404a.jpg b/17332-h/images/404a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..505109d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/404a.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/404b.jpg b/17332-h/images/404b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6b7d3d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/404b.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/405.jpg b/17332-h/images/405.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bad58f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/405.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/406.jpg b/17332-h/images/406.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8cec4e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/406.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/407.jpg b/17332-h/images/407.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7d235e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/407.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/408.jpg b/17332-h/images/408.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2c049a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/408.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/cover.jpg b/17332-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..013bc1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/frontispiece.jpg b/17332-h/images/frontispiece.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aace60c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/frontispiece.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/spines.jpg b/17332-h/images/spines.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee35490
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/spines.jpg
diff --git a/17332-h/images/titlepage.jpg b/17332-h/images/titlepage.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60c3b12
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332-h/images/titlepage.jpg
diff --git a/17332.txt b/17332.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5323c43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9063 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The
+Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12), by S. Rappoport
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12)
+
+Author: S. Rappoport
+
+Release Date: December 17, 2005 [EBook #17332]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF EGYPT
+
+From 330 B.C. to the Present Time
+
+
+By S. RAPPOPORT, Doctor of Philosophy, Basel; Member of the Ecole
+Langues Orientales, Paris; Russian, German, French Orientalist and
+Philologist
+
+VOL. XII.
+
+Containing over Twelve Hundred Colored Plates and Illustrations
+
+THE GROLIER SOCIETY
+
+PUBLISHERS, LONDON
+
+
+[Illustration: Spines]
+
+[Illustration: Cover]
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece] COLLECTION OF VASES, MODELLED AND PAINTED
+IN THE GRAND TEMPLE PHILAE ISLAND.
+
+
+[Illustration: 001.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+[Illustration: 002.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+_MODERN EGYPT_
+
+
+_EGYPT DURING THE CRUSADES--RISE OF THE OTTOMAN POWER--NAPOLEON
+IN EGYPT--THE RULE OP THE KHEDIVES--DISCOVERING THE SOURCE OF THE
+NILE--ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY._
+
+
+_Spread of Muhammedanism--Spirit of the Crusades--The Fati-mite
+Caliphs--Saladin's brilliant reign--Capture of Damietta--Conquests of
+Beybars--Mamluks in power--Wars with Cyprus--Turkish misrule--Napoleon
+invades Egypt--Battle of the Pyramids--Policy of conciliation--Nelson
+destroys the French fleet--Napoleon in Syria--Battle at Mount
+Carmel--Napoleon returns to France--Negotiations for surrender--Kleber
+assassinated--French army surrenders--Rise of Mehemet Ali-Massacre of
+the Mamluks--Egyptian army reorganized--Ibrahim Pasha in Greece--Battle
+of Navarino-Revolt against Turkey-Character of Mehemet Ali--Reforms
+under his Rule--Ismail Pasha made Khedive--Financial difficulties
+of Egypt--England and France assume control--Tewfik Pasha becomes
+Khedive--Revolt of Arabi Pasha--The Mahdist insurrection--Death of
+General Gordon--Kitchener's campaign against the Dervishes--Prosperity
+of Egypt under English control--Abbas Pasha becomes Khedive--Education,
+courts, and government of modern Egypt--The Nile; its valley, branches,
+and delta--Ancient irrigation systems--The Suez Canal, its inception and
+completion--The great dam at Aswan--Ancient search for the sources of
+the Nile--Modern discoveries in Central Africa--The Hieroglyphs--Origin
+of the alphabet--Egyptian literature--Mariettas discoveries--The
+German Egyptologists--Jeremiah verified--Maspero, Naville, and
+Petrie--Palaeolithic man--Egyptian record of Israel--Egypt Exploration
+Fund--The royal tombs at Abydos--Chronology of the early kings--Steles,
+pottery, and jewelry-The temples of Abydos--Seals, statuettes, and
+ceramics._
+
+
+[Illustration: 003.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--THE CRUSADERS IN EGYPT
+
+
+_The Ideal of the Crusader: Saladin's Campaign: Richard I. in Palestine:
+Siege of Damietta: St. Louis in Egypt: The Mamluks: Beybars' Policy._
+
+
+The traditional history of the Christian Church has generally maintained
+that the Crusades were due solely to religious influence and sprang from
+ideal and moral motives: those hundreds of thousands of warriors who
+went out to the East were religious enthusiasts, prompted by the pious
+longings of their hearts, and Peter the Hermit, it was claimed, had
+received a divine message to call Christendom to arms, to preach
+a Crusade against the unbelievers and take possession of the Holy
+Sepulchre. That such ideal reasons should be attributed to a war like
+the Crusades, of a wide and far-reaching influence on the political and
+intellectual development of mediaeval Europe, is not at all surprising.
+In the history of humanity there have been few wars in which the
+combatants on both sides were not convinced that they had drawn their
+swords for some noble purpose, for the cause of right and justice. That
+the motives prompting the vast display of arms witnessed during the
+Crusades, that the wanderings of those crowds to the East during two
+centuries, and the cruelties committed by the saintly warriors on their
+way to the Holy Sepulchre, should be attributed exclusively to ideal
+and religious sources is therefore quite natural. It is not to be
+denied that there was a religious factor in the Crusades; but that the
+religious motive was not the sole incentive has now been agreed upon
+by impartial historians; and in so far as the motives animating the
+Crusaders were religious motives, we are to look to powerful influences
+which gradually made themselves felt from without the ecclesiastical
+organisations. It was by no means a movement which the Church alone had
+called into being. On the contrary, only when the movement had grown
+ripe did Gregory VII. hasten to take steps to enable the Church to
+control it. The idea of a Crusade for the glory of religion had not
+sprung from the tenets of Christianity; it was given to mediaeval Europe
+by the Muhammedans.
+
+History can hardly boast of another example of so gigantic a conquest
+during so short a period as that gained by the first adherents of Islam.
+Like the fiery wind of the desert, they had broken from their retreats,
+animated by the promises of the Prophet, and spread the new doctrine far
+and wide. In 653 the scimitar of the Saracens enclosed an area as large
+as the Roman Empire under the Caesars. Barely forty years elapsed after
+the death of the Prophet when the armies of Islam reached the Atlantic.
+Okba, the wild and gallant leader, rode into the sea on the western
+shore of Africa, and, whilst the seething waves reached to the saddle
+of his camel, he exclaimed: "Allah, I call thee as witness that I should
+have carried the knowledge of Thy name still farther, if these waves
+threatening to swallow me would not have prevented me from doing so."
+Not long after this, the flag of the crescent was waving from the
+Pyrenees to the Chinese mountains. In 711 the Saracens under General
+Tarik crossed the straits between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic,
+and landed on the rock which has since been called after him, "the hill
+of Tarik," Jebel el-Tarik or Gibraltar. Spain was invaded and captured
+by the Moslems. For awhile it seemed as if on the other side of the
+Garonne the crescent would also supplant the cross, and only the victory
+of Charles Martel in 732 put a stop to the wave of Muhammedan conquest.
+
+Thus in a brief period Muhammedanism spread from the Nile Valley to the
+Mediterranean. Muhammed's trenchant argument was the sword. He gave a
+distinct command to his followers to convince the infidels of the
+Power of truth on the battle-field. "The sword is a surer argument than
+books," he said. Accordingly the Koran ordered war against unbelievers:
+"The sword is the key to heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the
+cause of Allah, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months
+of fasting and prayer; whoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven,
+and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied with the wings
+of angels and cherubim." Before the battle commenced, the commanders
+reminded the warriors of the beautiful celestial houris who awaited the
+heroes slain in battle at the gates of Paradise.
+
+The first efforts having been crowned with success, the Moslems soon
+became convinced of the fulfilment of the prophecy that Allah had given
+them the world and wished them to subdue all unbelievers. Under the
+Caliph Omar, the Arabs had become a religious-political community of
+warriors, whose mission it was to conquer and plunder all civilised and
+cultured lands and to unfurl the banner of the crescent. They believed
+that "Paradise is under the shadow of the sword." In this belief the
+followers of Muhammed engaged in battle without fear or anxiety, spurred
+to great deeds, reckless in the face of danger, happy to die and pass
+to the delights of Paradise. The "holy war" became an armed propaganda
+pleasing to Allah. It was, however, a form of propaganda quite unknown
+and amazing to Christendom. In the course of two centuries the crescent
+had supplanted the cross. Of what avail was the peaceful missionary's
+preaching if province after province and country after country were
+taken possession of by the new religion that forced its way by means of
+fire and sword?
+
+Was it not natural that Christian Europe should conceive the idea
+of doing for their religion what the Moslems did for Islam! and that,
+following the example of Moslems in their "holy war," Christians should
+emulate them in the Crusades?
+
+It must not be forgotten also that the Arabs, almost from the first
+appearance of Muhammedanism, were under the refining and elevating
+influences of art and science. While the rest of Europe was in the
+midnight of the Dark Ages, the Moorish universities of Spain were the
+beacon of the revival of learning. The Christian teacher was still
+manipulating the bones of the saints when the Arab physician was
+practising surgery. The monachal schools and monasteries in Italy,
+France, and Germany were still grappling with poor scholastic knowledge
+when Arab scholars were well advanced in the study of Aristotle and
+Plato. Stimulated by their acquaintance with the works of Ptolemy and
+Euclid, Galenus and Hippocrates, they extended their researches into the
+dominions of astronomy, mathematics, and medicine.
+
+[Illustration: 007.jpg ARABIC DECORATIVE PAINTING]
+
+The religious orders of the knights, a product of the Crusades, found
+their antitype in similar organisations of the Moslems, orders that had
+exactly the same tendencies and regulations. Such an order established
+for the spread of Islam and the protection of its followers was that of
+the Raabites or boundary-guards in the Pyrenean peninsula. These knights
+made a vow to carry, throughout their lives, arms in defence of the
+faith; they led an austere existence, were not allowed to fly in battle,
+but were compelled either to conquer or fall. Like the Templars or the
+Hospital Knights their whole endeavour was to gain universal dominion
+for their religion. The relation existing between the Moslems and
+the Christians before the Crusades was much closer than is generally
+imagined. Moslem soldiers often fought in the ranks of the Christian
+armies; and it was by no means rare to see a Christian ruler call
+upon Moslem warriors to assist him against his adversary. Pope Gregory
+rescued Rome from the hands of his imperial opponent, Henry of Germany,
+only with the aid of the Saracen soldiers.
+
+When, therefore, the influence of Muhammedanism began to assert itself
+throughout the south of Europe, it was natural that in a crude and
+stirring age, when strife was the dominant passion of the people, the
+idea of a holy war in the cause of faith was one in which Christian
+Europe was ready to take an example from the followers of Islam. The
+political, economical, and social state of affairs, the misery and
+suffering of the people, and even the hierarchy and the ascetic spirit
+of the time certainly made the minds of the people accessible to the
+idea of war; the spirit of unrest was pervasive and the time was ripe,
+but the influence of Islam was a prominent factor in giving to it an
+entirely religious aspect.
+
+But even in the means employed to incite the Christian warriors and
+the manner in which the Crusades were carried on, there is a great
+similarity between the Christian and the Muhammedan procedure. The
+Church, when espousing the cause of the Crusader, did exactly what
+Muhammed had done when he preached a holy war. The Church addressed
+itself to the weaknesses and passions of human nature. Fallen in
+battle, the Moslem, so he was told, would be admitted--be he victor
+or vanquished--to the joys of Paradise. The same prospect animated
+the Crusader and made him brave danger and die joyfully in defence of
+Christianity. "Let them kill the enemy or die. To submit to die for
+Christ, or to cause one of His enemies to die, is naught but glory,"
+said Saint Bernard. Eloquently, vividly, and in glowing colours were
+the riches that awaited the warriors in the far East described: immense
+spoil would be taken from the unbelievers. Preachers did not even shrink
+from extolling the beauty of the women in the lands to be conquered.
+This fact recalls Muhammed's promise to his believers that they would
+meet the ever-beautiful dark-eyed houris in the life after death. To the
+material, sensual allurements, the Church added spiritual blessings and
+eternal rewards, guaranteed to those who took the red cross. During the
+Crusades the Christians did their utmost to copy the cruelties of the
+Moslems. That contempt for human life, that entire absence of mercy and
+the sense of pity which is familiar in all countries where Islam has
+gained sway is characteristic also of the Crusades.
+
+Although the narrative of the Crusades belongs rather to the history of
+Europe than of any one country, it is so closely intertwined with the
+history of Egypt at this period that some digression is necessary. About
+twenty years after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Turks, in 1076, the
+Holy Sepulchre was visited by a hermit of the name of Peter, a native of
+Amiens, in the province of Picardy, France. His resentment and sympathy
+were excited by his own injuries and the oppression of the Christian
+name; he mingled his tears with those of the Patriarch, and earnestly
+inquired if no hope of relief from the Greek emperors of the East could
+be entertained. The Patriarch exposed the vices and weakness of the
+successors of Constantine. "I will rouse," exclaimed the hermit, "the
+martial nations of Europe in your cause;" and Europe was obedient to the
+call of the hermit. The astonished Patriarch dismissed him with epistles
+of credit and complaint; and no sooner did he land at Bari than Peter
+hastened to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff. Pope Urban II. received
+him as a prophet, applauded his glorious design, promised to support it
+in a general council, and encouraged him to proclaim the deliverance
+of the Holy Land. Invigorated by the approbation of the pontiff, this
+zealous missionary traversed with speed and success the provinces of
+Italy and France. He preached to innumerable crowds in the churches, the
+streets, and the highways: the hermit entered with equal confidence the
+palace and the cottage; and the people of all classes were impetuously
+moved by his call to repentance and arms.
+
+The first Crusade was headed by Godefroy de Bouillon, Duke of Lower
+Lorraine; Baldwin, his brother; Hugo the Great, brother of the King of
+France; Robert, Duke of Normandy, son of William the Conqueror; Raymond
+of St. Gilles, Duke of Toulouse; and Bohemond, Prince of Tarentum.
+Towards the end of 1097 A.D. the invading force invested Antioch, and,
+after a siege of nine months, took it by storm. Edessa was also captured
+by the Crusaders, and in the middle of the summer of 1098 they reached
+Jerusalem, then in the hands of the Fatimites.
+
+El-Mustali b'Illah Abu'l Kasim, son of Mustanssir, was then on the
+throne, but he was only a nominal ruler, for El-Afdhal, a son of
+El-Gemali, had the chief voice in the affairs of the kingdom. It was the
+army of Kasim that had captured Jerusalem. The city was besieged by the
+Crusaders, and it surrendered to them after forty days. Twice did new
+expeditions arrive from Egypt and attempt to retake the city, but with
+disastrous results, and further expeditions were impossible for some
+time, owing to the internal disorders in Egypt. Mustali died after
+a reign of about four years; and some historians record, as a truly
+remarkable circumstance, that he was a Sunnite by creed, although he
+represented a Shiite dynasty.
+
+The next ruler, El-Amir, was the five-year-old son of Mustali, and
+El-Afdhal conducted the government until he became of age to govern.
+His first act was to put El-Afdhal to death. Under El-Amir the internal
+condition of Egypt continued unsatisfactory, and the Crusaders, who had
+been very successful in capturing the towns of Syria, were only deterred
+from an advance on Egypt by the death of their leader, Baldwin. In
+a.h. 524, some of the surviving partisans of El-Afdhal, it is said,
+put El-Amir to death, and a son of El-Afdhal assumed the direction of
+affairs, and appointed El-Hafiz, a grandson of Mustanssir as caliph.
+Afdual's son, whose name was Abu Ali Ahmed, perished in a popular
+tumult. The new caliph had great trouble with his next three viziers,
+and at length abolished the office altogether. After reigning twenty
+years, he was succeeded by his licentious son, Dhafir, whose faults led
+to his death at the hand of his vizier, El-Abbas.
+
+For the ensuing six years the supreme power in Egypt was mainly the bone
+of contention between rival viziers, although El-Faiz, a boy of five,
+was nominally elected caliph on the death of Dhafir. El-Abbas was
+worsted by his rival, Tatae, and fled to Syria with a large sum of
+money; but he fell into the hands of the Crusaders, was returned to
+Tatae, and crucified.
+
+[Illustration: 013.jpg ENAMELLED GLASS CUP FROM ARABIA]
+
+The last of the Fatimite caliphs, El-Adid, in 555 a.h., was raised to
+the throne by Tatae, but his power was merely the shadow of sovereignty.
+Tatae's tyranny, however, became so odious that the caliph had him
+assassinated a year after his accession, but he concealed the fact that
+he had instigated the murder. The caliph appointed Tatae's son, El-Adil,
+as vizier in his stead. The governorship of Upper Egypt was at this time
+in the hands of the celebrated Shawir, whom El-Adil dispossessed, but
+in a test of battle, El-Adil was defeated and put to death. In his turn,
+Shawir yielded to the more powerful Ed-Durghan, and fled to Damascus.
+There he enlisted the aid of the Atabeg Sultan Nur ed-Din, who sent his
+army against Ed-Durghan, with the result that Shawir was reinstated in
+power in Egypt. He thereupon threw off his promised allegiance to Nur
+ed-Din, whose general, Shirkuh (who had led the Damascenes to Egypt),
+took up a strategic position. Shawir appealed for aid to the Crusaders,
+and with the help of Amaury, King of Jerusalem, Shawir besieged his
+friend Shirkuh. Nur ed-Din was successfully attacking the Crusaders
+elsewhere, and in the end a peace was negotiated, and the Damascenes
+left Egypt.
+
+Two years later, Nur ed-Din formulated a plan to punish the rebellious
+Shawir. Persecuted by Shirkuh, Nur ed-Din sent him with his army into
+Egypt. The Franks now joined with Shawir to defend the country, hoping
+thereby to baffle the schemes of Nur ed-Din. The Christian army was
+amazed at all the splendour of the caliph's palace at Cairo. Shawir
+retreated to entice the invaders on, who, advancing beyond their base,
+were soon reduced to straits. Shirkuh then tried to come to terms with
+Shawir against the Christians as a common foe, but without success.
+He next thought of retreating, without fighting, with all his Egyptian
+plunder. Persuaded at length to fight, he defeated the Franks and
+finally came to terms with Shawir, whereby the Franco-Egyptian alliance
+came to an end, and he then left Egypt on receiving an indemnity, Shawir
+still remaining its ruler.
+
+[Illustration: 015.jpg GATE OF EL FUTUH AT CAIRO]
+
+The peace, however, did not last long, and Nur ed-Din sent Shirkuh again
+with many Frankish free-lancers against the ill-fated country. On the
+approach of the army towards Cairo, the vizier set fire to the ancient
+city of Fostat, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the
+invaders, and it burned continually for fifty days. El-Adid now sought
+aid of Nur ed-Din, who, actuated by zeal against the Franks, and by
+desire of conquest, once more despatched Shirkuh. In the meantime
+negotiations had been opened with Amaury to raise the siege of Cairo on
+payment of an enormous sum of money. But, before these conditions
+had been fulfilled, the approach of the Syrian army induced Amaury
+to retreat in haste. Shirkuh and Saladin entered the capital in
+great state, and were received with honour by the caliph, and
+with obsequiousness by Shawir, who was contriving a plot which was
+fortunately discovered, and for which he paid with his life. Shirkuh
+was then appointed vizier by El-Adid, but, dying very shortly, he was
+succeeded in that dignity by his nephew Saladin (A.D. 1169).
+
+Saladin inaugurated his reign with a series of brilliant successes.
+Egypt once again took an important place among the nations, and by the
+wars of Saladin it became the nucleus of a great empire. Military glory
+was never the sole aim of Saladin and his successors. They continued
+to extend to letters and the arts their willing patronage, and the
+beneficial effects of this were felt upon the civilisation of the
+country. Though ruler of Egypt, Saladin gained his greatest renown
+by his campaigns against the Crusaders in Syria. The inability of Nur
+ed-Din's son, El-Malik es-Salih Ismail, to govern the Syrian dominions
+became an excuse for Saladin's occupation of Syria as guardian of the
+young prince, and, once having assumed this function, he remained in
+fact the master of Syria. He continued to consolidate his power in these
+parts until the Crusaders, under Philip, Count of Flanders, laid siege
+to Antioch. Saladin now went out to meet them with the Egyptian army,
+and fought the fierce battle of Ascalon, which proved to be disastrous
+to himself, his army being totally defeated and his life endangered.
+After this, however, he was fortunate enough to gain certain minor
+advantages, and continued to hold his own until a famine broke out in
+Palestine which compelled him to come to terms with the Crusaders, and
+two years later a truce was concluded with the King of Jerusalem, and
+Saladin returned to Egypt.
+
+In the year 576 a.h., he again entered Syria and made war on
+Kilidj-Arslan, the Seljukide Sultan of Anatolia, and on Leon, King of
+Armenia, both of whom he forced to come to terms. Soon after his return,
+Saladin again left Egypt to prosecute a war with the Crusaders, since it
+was plain that neither side was desirous of remaining at peace. Through
+an incident which had just occurred, the wrath of the Crusaders had been
+kindled. A vessel bearing fifteen hundred pilgrims had been wrecked
+near Damietta, and its passengers captured. When the King of Jerusalem
+remonstrated, Saladin replied by complaining of the constant inroads
+made by Renaud de Chatillon. This restless warrior undertook an
+expedition against Eyleh, and for this purpose constructed boats at
+Kerak and conveyed them on camels to the sea. But this flotilla was
+repulsed, and the siege was raised by a fleet sent thither by El-Adil,
+the brother of Saladin, and his viceroy. A second expedition against
+Eyleh was still more unfortunate to the Franks, who were defeated and
+taken prisoners. On this occasion the captives were slain in the valley
+of Mina. Saladin then threatened Kerak, encamped at Tiberias, and
+ravaged the territory of the Franks. He next made a futile attempt to
+take Beirut. He was more successful in a campaign against Mesopotamia,
+which he reduced to submission, with the exception of Mosul. While
+absent here, the Crusaders did little except undertake several forays,
+and Saladin at length returned towards Palestine, winning many victories
+and conquering Aleppo on the way. He next ravaged Samaria, and at last
+received the fealty of the lord of Mosul, though he did not succeed in
+actually conquering the city.
+
+In the year 1186 war broke out again between Saladin and the Christian
+hosts. The sultan had respected a truce which he had made with
+Baldwin the Leper, King of Jerusalem, but the restless Renaud, who had
+previously attacked Eyleh, had broken through its stipulations. His
+plunder of a rich caravan enraged Saladin, who forthwith sent out orders
+to all his vassals and lieutenants to prepare for a Holy War. In the
+year 1187 he marched from Damascus to Kerak, where he laid close siege
+to Renaud. At the same time a large body of cavalry was sent on
+towards Nazareth under his son El-Afdhal. They were met by 730 Knights
+Hospitallers and Templars, aided by a few hundred foot-soldiers.
+Inspired by the heroic Jacques de Maille, marshal of the Temple,
+they defied the large Saracen army. In the conflict which ensued, the
+Crusaders immortalised themselves by fighting until only three of their
+number were left alive, who, after the conflict was over, managed to
+escape.
+
+Soon after this, Saladin himself approached with a great army of eighty
+thousand men, and the Christians with all their forces hastened to meet
+him upon the shores of Lake Tiberias. The result of this battle proved
+to be the most disastrous defeat which the Christians had yet suffered.
+They were weakened by thirst, and on the second day of the conflict a
+part of their troops fled. But the knights nevertheless continued to
+make a heroic defence until they were overwhelmed by numbers and forced
+to flee to the hills of Hittun. A great number of Crusaders fell in
+this conflict, and Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, and his brother,
+Renaud de Chatillon, were among the prisoners of war. The number of
+those taken was very great, and Saladin left an indelible stain upon
+a reign otherwise renowned for mercy and humanity by allowing the
+prisoners to be massacred. Tiberias, Acre, Nabulus, Jericho, Ramleh,
+Caesarea, Arsur, Jaffa, Beirut, and many other places now fell into the
+hands of the conqueror.
+
+[Illustration: 019.jpg ARAB DRINKING-VESSELS]
+
+Tyre successfully resisted Saladin's attacks. Ascalon surrendered on
+favourable conditions, and, to crown all, Jerusalem itself fell a prey
+to his irresistible arms. The great clemency of Saladin is chronicled
+on this occasion by Christian historians, but the same was an offence to
+many of the Moslems and is but little referred to by their historians.
+
+Tyre was now again besieged and was on the point of capture when the
+besieged were relieved by the arrival of Conrad, son of the Marquis
+of Monferrat. The defence was now fought with such vigour that Saladin
+abandoned it and made an attack upon Tripoli, but with no better
+success, although he succeeded in forcing Bohemond, Prince of Antioch,
+and ruler of Tripoli, to submit on terms favourable to himself. After
+this, Saladin took part in the defence of the ever-memorable siege of
+Acre, which called forth deeds of gallantry and heroism on both sides,
+and which lasted for two years, during which it roused the interest
+of the whole of the Christian world. The invading army were in time
+reinforced by the redoubtable Richard Coeur de Lion, King of England,
+and Philip II. of France, and, breaking down all opposition, they
+captured the city, and floated upon its walls the banners of the cross
+in the year 1191 A.D. Unfortunately for the good name of the Christians,
+an act of ferocious barbarity marred the lustre of their triumph, for
+2,700 Moslems were cut down in cold blood in consequence of the failure
+of Saladin to fulfil the terms of the capitulation; and the palliative
+plea that the massacre was perpetrated in the heat of the assault can
+scarcely be urged in extenuation of this enormity. While many historians
+have laid the blame on King Richard, the historian Michaud believes
+it rather to have been decided on in a council of the chiefs of the
+Crusade.
+
+After a period of rest and debauchery, the army of the Crusaders, led on
+by King Richard, began to march towards Jerusalem. Saladin harassed his
+advance and rendered the strongholds on the way defenceless and ravaged
+the whole country. Richard was nevertheless ever victorious. His great
+personal bravery struck terror into the Moslems, and he won an important
+victory over them at Arsur. Dissensions now broke out among chiefs of
+the Crusaders, and Richard himself proved to be a very uncertain
+leader in regard to the strategy of the campaign. So serious were
+these drawbacks that the ultimate aim of the enterprise was thereby
+frustrated, and the Crusaders never attained to their great object,
+which was the re-conquest of Jerusalem. At the time when the Christian
+armies were in possession of all the cities along the coast, from Jaffa
+to Tyre, and the hosts of Saladin were seriously disorganised, a treaty
+was concluded and King Richard sailed back on the return journey to
+England. The glory acquired by Saladin, and the famous campaigns of
+Richard Cour de Lion, have rendered the Third Crusade the most memorable
+in history, and the exploits of the heroes on both sides shed a lustre
+on the arms of both Moslems and Christians.
+
+Saladin died about a year after the conclusion of this peace, at
+Damascus, A.D. 1193, at the age of fifty-seven. With less rashness and
+bravery than Richard, Saladin possessed a firmer character and one far
+better calculated to carry on a religious war. He paid more attention to
+the results of his enterprises; more master of himself, he was more
+fit to command others. When mounting the throne of the Atabegs, Saladin
+obeyed rather his destiny than his inclinations; but, when once firmly
+seated, he was governed by only two passions,--that of reigning and
+that of securing the triumph of the Koran. On all other subjects he
+was moderate, and when a kingdom or the glory of the Prophet was not
+in question, the son of Ayyub was admired as the most just and mild of
+Muhammedans. The stern devotion and ardent fanaticism that made him take
+up arms against the Christians only rendered him cruel and barbarous
+in one single instance. He displayed the virtues of peace amidst the
+horrors of war. "From the bosom of the camps," says an Oriental poet,
+"he covered the nations with the wings of his justice, and poured upon
+his cities the plenteous showers of his liberality." During his reign
+many remarkable public works were executed. The Muhammedans, always
+governed by fear, were astonished that a sovereign could inspire them
+with so much love, and followed him with joy to battle. His generosity,
+his clemency, and particularly his respect for an oath, were often the
+subjects of admiration to the Christians, whom he rendered so miserable
+by his victories, and of whose power in Asia he had completed the
+overthrow. Previous to his death, Saladm had divided the kingdom
+between his three sons; El-Afdhal received Damascus, Southern Syria,
+and Palestine, with the title of sultan; El-Aziz obtained the kingdom of
+Egypt, and Ez Zahir the princedom of Aleppo.
+
+El-Aziz undertook a campaign against Syria, but was defeated and obliged
+to retreat to Cairo on account of a mutiny among his troops. El-Afdhal
+pursued him, and had already pressed forward as far as Bilbeis, when
+El-Adil, who had hitherto espoused his cause, fearing that he might
+become too powerful, forced him to conclude a peace. The only advantage
+he obtained was that he regained possession of Jerusalem and the
+southern part of Syria. Soon after, El-Adil prevailed upon his nephew
+Aziz, with whom he stood on friendly terms, to renew the war and to
+take Damascus; El-Afdhal was betrayed, and only Sarchod was left to him,
+whereas El-Adil occupied Damascus and forced Aziz to return to Egypt
+again (June, 1196). After Aziz's death, in November, 1198, El-Afdhal was
+summoned by some of the emirs to act as regent in Egypt. Others called
+upon El-Adil to adopt the same course. El-Afdhal, however, became master
+of Egypt, and besieged Damascus, reinforced by his brother Zahir, who
+feared his uncle's ambition no less than himself. The agreement between
+the brothers, however, did not last long; their armies separated, and
+El-Afdhal was obliged to raise the siege and retreat to Egypt. He was
+pursued by his uncle, and forced, after several skirmishes, to surrender
+the capital and content himself once more with Sarchod and one or two
+towns on the Euphrates (February, 1200). El-Adil ruled for a short time
+in the name of El-Aziz's son; he soon came forward as sultan, forced
+Zahir to recognise him as his suzerain, and appointed his son El-Muzzain
+as governor of Damascus; the towns which belonged to him in Mesopotamia
+were distributed among his other sons, and he thus became, to a certain
+extent, the overlord of all the lands conquered by Saladin. His son,
+El-Ashraf, later became lord of Chelat in Armenia, and his descendant,
+Masud, Kamil's son, obtained possession of happy Arabia; so that the
+name Malik Adil was pronounced in all the Moslem chancels from the
+borders of Georgia to the Gulf of Aden.
+
+[Illustration: 025.jpg VASE IN THE ABBOTT COLLECTION, NEW YORK]
+
+El-Adil was so much engaged with wars against the Moslem princes,--the
+princes of Nissibis and Mardin,--and also with repulsing El-Afdhal, who
+wished to recover his lost kingdom, that he was unable to proceed with
+any force against the Crusaders; he took unwilling measures against them
+when they actually broke the peace, and was always ready to conclude
+a new treaty. He took Jaffa by storm when the pilgrims, armed by Henry
+VI., came to Palestine and interfered with the Moslem devotions, and
+when the chancellor Conrad thereupon seized Sidon and Beirut, El-Adil
+contented himself with laying waste the former town and hindering
+the capture of the fortress Joron; Beirut he allowed to fall into
+the enemy's hands. Still later he permitted several attacks of the
+Christians--such as the devastation of the town Fuah, situated on the
+Rosetta arm of the Nile--to pass unnoticed, and even bought peace at
+the expense of the districts of Ramleh and Lydda, which had formerly
+belonged to him. It was not until the year 1206 that he acted upon the
+offensive against the regent, John of Ibelin, and even then he contented
+himself with slight advantages and concluded a new truce for thirty
+years.
+
+Shortly before his death, El-Adil, like his brother Saladin, narrowly
+escaped losing all his glory and the fruits of so many victories. Pope
+Honorius III. had successfully aroused the zeal of the Western
+nations for a new Crusade. Numerous well-armed and warlike-minded
+pilgrims--among whom were King Andreas of Hungary and Duke Leopold of
+Austria--landed at Acre in 1217, and King John of Jerusalem led them
+against the Moslems. El-Adil hastened from Egypt to the scene of action,
+but was forced to retreat to Damascus and to give up the whole of the
+southern district, with the exception of the well-fortified holy town,
+to be plundered by the Christians. In the following spring, whilst
+El-Adil was in Syria, a Christian fleet sailed to Damietta, and besieged
+the town. The attacking forces were composed of Germans and Hungarians,
+who had embarked at Spalato on the Adriatic for St. Jean d'Acre, where
+they spent a year in unfortunate expeditions and quarrels with the
+Christians of Syria. They were joined by a fleet of three hundred boats
+furnished by North Germans and Frisians, who, leaving the banks of
+the Rhine, had journeyed there by way of the Straits of Gibraltar,
+prolonging the journey by a year's fighting in Portugal.
+
+The Christians then in Palestine had persuaded the Crusaders to begin
+with an attack on Egypt, and they had therefore chosen to land at
+Damietta. This was a large commercial town to the east of one of the
+arms of the Nile, which was defended by three walls and a large tower
+built on an island in the middle of the Nile, from which started the
+chains that barred the river.
+
+The Frisian sailors constructed a castle of wood, which was placed
+between the masts of two ships, and from which the Crusaders were able
+to leap to the tower, and thus they were able to blockade and starve
+the town. The siege was long, and an epidemic breaking out among the
+besiegers carried off a sixth of their number. The sultan tried to
+succour the besieged by floating down the stream corpses of camels,
+which were stuffed with provisions, but the Christians captured them. He
+then offered to give the Crusaders, on condition they would depart,
+the True Cross and all he possessed of the kingdom of Jerusalem; but
+Pelagius, the papal legate,--a Spanish monk who had himself named
+commander-in-chief,--rejected the offer.
+
+El-Adil was so stunned by the news of the success of the Christians
+that he died a few days after (August, 1218). El-Kamil, however, was not
+discouraged; he not only defended Damietta, but also harassed the enemy
+in their own camp by means of hordes of Bedouins. Not until he was
+forced, by a conspiracy of his troops in favour of his brother El-Faiz,
+to fly to Cairo, did the Christians succeed in getting across the Nile
+and completely surrounding Damietta. Order was soon restored in
+Egypt, owing to the arrival of Prince Muzzain, who had taken over the
+government of Damascus on the death of his father. The rebels were
+chastised, and both brothers proceeded towards Damietta: they could not
+succeed, however, in raising the siege, and the garrison diminished
+daily through hunger, sickness, and constant attacks, and the fortress
+soon fell into the hands of the Crusaders, almost without a blow
+(November 5, 1219). The Crusaders pillaged the town, taking from it four
+hundred thousand gold pieces. The Italians also settled there, and
+made it the seat of their commerce with Egypt. This conquest caused
+excitement in Europe, and the Pope called Pelagius "the second Joshua."
+
+[Illustration: 027.jpg PUBLIC FOUNTAIN, CAIRO.]
+
+If the Franks had been more at peace among themselves, they might
+easily have pushed forward to Cairo after the fall of Damietta. But the
+greatest discontent prevailed between the papal legate, Pelagius, and
+King John of Brienne, so that the latter soon after left Egypt, while
+Pelagius was forced to wait for reinforcements before he could get away
+from Damietta.
+
+El-Kamil, meanwhile, reinforced his army with the help of the friendly
+Syrian princes, and, by destroying the channels and dams of the Nile
+canals, so endangered the Christian camp that they were soon forced
+to sue for peace, and offered to quit Damietta on the condition of an
+unmolested retreat. El-Kamil, equally anxious for peace, accepted these
+conditions (August, 1221). Scarcely had the AEyubites thus warded off:
+the threatening danger when they proceeded to fall out among themselves.
+
+After the death of El-Kamil, who in the end was generally regarded as
+overlord, a new war broke out, in March, 1238, between his son El-Adil
+II., who was reigning in Egypt, and his brother Ayyub, who occupied
+Damascus. Ayyub conquered Egypt, but, in his absence, his uncle Ismail,
+Prince of Balbek, seized upon Damascus and made a league with the Franks
+in Palestine and several of the Syrian princes. Through this unnatural
+league, Ismail, however, estranged not only the Moslem inhabitants of
+Syria, but also his own army. Part of the army deserted in consequence
+to Ayyub, who was thus enabled easily to subdue the allied army (1240).
+Another coalition was formed against him a few years later, and this
+time Da'ud of Kerak was one of the allies. Ayyub sent a strong army of
+Egyptians, negroes, and Mamluks under the future sultan, Beybars,
+to Syria. The Syrian troops fought unwillingly against their
+fellow-believers in the opposite ranks, and the wild Chariz-mites,
+who had also joined the ranks, inspired them with terror, so that they
+deserted the field of battle in the neighbourhood of Gaza (October,
+1244). The Christians, left to themselves, were not in a position to
+resist the enemy's attacks; and the Egyptians made themselves masters
+of Jerusalem and Hebron, and in the following year obtained Damascus,
+Balbek, Ascalon, and Tiberias. In 1248 Ayyub came again into Syria, in
+order to chastise El-Malik en-Nasir, Prince of Aleppo, who had seized
+upon Hemessa when he heard of the coming Crusaders under Saint Louis.
+To this end he made peace with the natives of Aleppo, and returned to
+Jerusalem in order to make the necessary preparations for defence. The
+pilgrims, however, succeeded in landing, for Emir Fakhr ed-Din, the
+Egyptian commander, had taken to flight after a short skirmish, and the
+fortress was allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy (June, 1249).
+Ayyub now established a firm footing in the town of Cairo--which his
+father had founded--in a district intersected by canals, and harassed
+the Christian camp with his light cavalry. Louis was expecting
+reinforcements, but they did not arrive until the inundations of the
+Nile made any advance into the interior almost impossible. At last, on
+the 21st of December, the Christian army arrived at the canal of
+Ashmum Tanah, which alone separated them from the town of Mansuria.
+The Egyptians were now commanded by Emir Fakhr ed-Din. Ayyub had died
+a month before, but his wife, Shejret ed-Durr, kept his death a secret
+until his son Turan Shah should arrive from Mesopotamia. Fakhr ed-Din
+did everything in his power to retrieve his former error. He attacked
+the Christians when they were engaged in building a dam across
+the canal, hindering their work on the southern bank with his
+throwing-machines, destroying their towers with Greek fire; and when, in
+spite of all discouragements, their toilsome work was nearly finished,
+he rendered it useless by digging out a new basin, into which he
+conducted the water of the Ashmum canal.
+
+On the 8th of February, 1250, the French crossed the canal, but, instead
+of collecting there, as the king had commanded, so as to attack the
+enemy _en masse_, several troops pressed forward against the Egyptians,
+and many, including the Count of Artois, the king's brother, were killed
+by the valiant enemy under Beybars. The battle remained long undecided,
+for the Egyptians had barricaded Cairo so well that it could only be
+stormed at the cost of many lives, and after the capture the army needed
+rest. The Egyptians took advantage of this delay to bring a fleet up
+in the rear of the Egyptian ships, which, in combination with the fleet
+stationed near Mansuria, attacked and completely destroyed them. As soon
+as they were masters of the Nile, the Egyptians landed troops below the
+Christian camp, which was thus completely cut off from Damietta, and
+soon suffered the greatest hardships from lack of provisions. Under
+these circumstances, Louis opened negotiations with Turan Shah, and
+when these proved fruitless, nothing remained for him but to return to
+Damietta. Although they began their retreat by night, they did not thus
+escape the vigilance of the Egyptians. The fugitives were overtaken on
+the following morning, and so shut in by the enemy that resistance was
+impossible. A large portion of the army was cut to pieces, in spite of
+their surrender; the rest, together with the king and his brother, were
+taken prisoners and brought in triumph to Cairo. Turan Shah treated the
+king with consideration and hastened to conclude peace with the Bahritic
+Mamluks,--so called because they had been brought up on the Nile (Bahr),
+on the island Rhodha,--as soon as the ransom money of his prisoners
+was assured. The Bahrites grumbled at this peace because it left the
+Christians in Palestine in possession of their towns, and they forthwith
+murdered Turan Shah, with the help of Shejret ed-Durr, whom he had
+maltreated (May 2, 1250).
+
+After Turan Shah's death, his mother was proclaimed sultana, and the
+Mamluk Aibek became general of the army. Later, when the caliph of
+Baghdad revolted against the rule of a woman, Aibek assumed the title
+of sultan and married Shejret ed-Durr. He ruled again after some time
+in the name of a young descendant of Kamil, so as to be able to fight
+against the Ayyubids in Syria, who, with En-Nasir at their head, had
+taken possession of Damascus, with an appearance of right. A battle took
+place between Aibek and the Syrians (February, 1251), which was decided
+in favour of Aibek in consequence of the treachery of the Turks under
+Nasir. Aibek again assumed the title of sultan after the victory, but
+was soon after to be murdered by the Mamluks, who were unwilling to be
+subject to any control. He anticipated their plot, however, and slew
+their leader, the Emir Aktai, putting his followers to flight. He then
+demanded the diploma of investiture and the insignia of his office
+from the caliph, and also pressed the Prince of Mosul to grant him his
+daughter in marriage. His own wife, unable to endure such perfidy, had
+him murdered in his bath (April 10, 1257).
+
+[Illustration: 032b]
+
+When Beybars first ascended the throne, he assumed the name of Sultan
+Kahir (the over-ruler), but afterwards, when he was informed that this
+name had always brought misfortune to its bearer, he changed it to that
+of Sultan Zahir (the Glorious).
+
+Now that he was absolute master of Syria and Egypt, Beybars tried to
+obliterate the remembrance of the misdeeds he had formerly been guilty
+of by means of undertakings for the general good and for the furtherance
+of religion. He had the mosques repaired, founded pious institutions,
+designed new aqueducts, fortified Alexandria, had all the fortresses
+repaired and provisioned which the Mongols had razed to the ground, had
+a large number of great and small war-ships built, and established a
+regular post between Cairo and Damascus. In order to obtain a semblance
+of legitimacy, since he was but a usurper, Beybars recognised a nominal
+descendant of the house of Abbas as caliph, who, in the proper course
+of things, ought to invest him with the dominions of Syria and Egypt.
+Beybars bade his governors receive this descendant of the house of the
+Prophet with all suitable marks of honour, and invited him to come to
+Egypt. When he approached the capital, the sultan himself went out to
+meet him, followed by the vizier, the chief cadi, and the chief emirs
+and notabilities of the town. Even the Jews and Christians had to take
+part in the procession, carrying respectively the Tora and the Gospel.
+The caliph made his entrance into Cairo with the greatest pomp, rode
+through the town amidst the shouts of the multitude, and proceeded to
+the citadel, where Beybars had appointed him a magnificent dwelling.
+Some days afterwards the caliph had a reception of the chief cadi, the
+most celebrated theologians and lawyers of Egypt, and many notables of
+the capital. The Arabs who formed his escort and an eunuch from Baghdad
+testified to the identity of the caliph's person, the chief cadi
+recognised their assertion as valid, and was the first to do homage to
+him as caliph. Thereupon the sultan arose, took the oath of allegiance
+to him and swore to uphold both the written laws of the Koran and
+those of tradition; to advance the good and hinder the evil, to fight
+zealously for the protection of the faith only, to impose lawful taxes,
+and to apply the taxes only to lawful purposes. After the sultan had
+finished, homage was done by the sheiks, the emirs, and the other chief
+officers of the kingdom. The caliph invested the sultan with power over
+all the kingdoms subject to Islam, as well as over all future conquests,
+whereupon the people of all classes were admitted to do homage likewise.
+Then command was sent out to all the distant princes and governors to do
+homage to the caliph, who has assumed the name of El-Mustanssir, and to
+place his name beside that of the sultan in their prayers and also on
+their coins.
+
+Beybars' treatment of his viziers, governors, and other important emirs,
+one or other of whom he either imprisoned or executed on every possible
+occasion, was merciless, but he proceeded even more shamelessly against
+Malik Mughith, Prince of Kerak and Shaubek, whom he feared so much as
+one of the bravest descendants of the house of Ayyub that he stamped
+himself publicly as a perjured assassin, in order to get him out of
+the way. Beybars had at first, without any declaration of war, in fact,
+without any notification of it in Egypt, suddenly sent a detachment of
+troops under the leadership of Emir Bedr ed-Din Aidimri, which took the
+fortress Shaubek by surprise, and placed the Emir Saif ed-Din Bilban
+el-Mukhtasi in it as governor. In the next year, in order to win over
+Mughith, he liberated his son Aziz, whom Kotuz had captured at Damascus
+and imprisoned at Cairo; he also assured Mughith of his friendly
+intentions towards him and repeatedly urged him to arrange a meeting.
+El-Malik el-Mughith did not trust Beybars, and invented all kinds of
+reasons not to accept his invitations. Beybars resolved at last to calm
+the fears of his intended victim by means of a written oath. The fears
+of Mughith, however, were not allayed, and he hesitated to fall in with
+the wish of the sultan and to appear at his court. The following year,
+when the sultan came to Syria and again urged a meeting, he was at a
+loss for an excuse, and was forced either to acknowledge his mistrust
+or risk everything. He sent his mother first to Gaza, where she was
+received with the greatest friendliness by the sultan, and sent back
+laden with costly presents; on her return to Kerak, corrupted by the
+hospitality and generosity of the sultan, she persuaded her son to wait
+on him, as did also his ambassador Alamjad with equal zeal. Finally he
+set out from Kerak--when he had made his troops do homage to his son
+El-Malik el-Aziz--on a visit to the sultan, who wras then in Tur. The
+sultan rode out to meet him as far as Beisan. Malik Mughith wished to
+dismount when he perceived the sultan, but he would not permit this, and
+rode beside Mughith till he reached his own tent. Here he was separated
+from his followers, thrown into chains, and brought into the citadel
+of Cairo (a.h. 660). In order to palliate this crime, the sultan made
+public the correspondence of the Prince of Kerak with the Mongols, which
+it was thought would stamp the former as a traitor to Islam. The judges
+whom he brought with him, and amongst whom we find the celebrated
+historian Ibn Khallikan, who was then chief judge of Damascus, declared
+him guilty, but we only have historical proof of the sending of his son
+into Hulagu's camp to beg that his province might be spared, at a time
+when all the princes of Syria, seized with panic, threw themselves at
+the feet of the Mongolian general. Be that as it may, he none the less
+committed a piece of treachery, since he had sworn not to call him to
+account for his former crimes. Beybars hoped, now that he had disposed
+of Malik Mughith, that the fortress Kerak would immediately surrender to
+his emissary, Emir Bedr ed-Din Beisari, but the governor of the fortress
+feared to trust the promises of a perjurer and offered resistance.
+Beybars therefore set out for Syria with all the necessary siege
+apparatus, constructed by the best engineers of Egypt and Syria. The
+garrison saw the impossibility of a long resistance and capitulated.
+
+The son of Malik Mughith, El-Malik el-Aziz, a boy of twelve, was
+honoured as prince and taken to Egypt, as also Mughith's family. His
+emirs and officials were treated with consideration, but the prince was
+later thrown into prison. Nothing certain is known with regard to the
+death of Mughith. According to some reports, because he offended the
+wife of Beybars, when as a wandering Mamluk he once was staying with
+him, he was delivered over to the sultan's wives and was put to death by
+them; another account says that he died of hunger in prison.
+
+After the conquest of Shekif, the sultan made an attack on the province
+of Tripoli because Prince Bok-mond, Governor of Antioch and Tripoli,
+was his bitterest enemy and the truest ally of the Mongolians, and had,
+moreover, at the time of Hulagu's attack on Syria, made himself master
+of several places which till then had belonged to the Mussulmans. The
+whole land was wasted, all the houses destroyed, all Christians who fell
+into the hands of the troops were murdered, and several strongholds in
+the mountains conquered. Laden with rich booty, the Moslem army set out
+for Hemessa. From here Beybars proceeded towards Hamah and divided the
+army into three divisions; one division, under the Emir Bedr ed-Din
+Khaznadar (treasurer), was to take the direction of Suwaidiya, the port
+of Antioch; the second, under Emir Izz ed-Din Ighan, struck the route
+towards Der-besak; the third, which he led himself, proceeded in a
+straight line over Apamaa and Schoghr towards Antioch, which was the
+meeting-place for the two other emirs, and would so be shut in from the
+north, the west, and the south. On the 16th May the sultan found himself
+in front of the town, which contained a population of over one hundred
+thousand. Fighting soon ensued between the outposts of the sultan and
+the constable who advanced against him at the head of the militia. The
+latter was defeated, and the constable himself taken prisoner. On the 3d
+of Ramadhan the whole army had united and preparations were made for
+the siege. Meanwhile the sultan had already attempted to persuade the
+imprisoned constable to return to the town and enduce them to surrender,
+and to leave his own son behind as a hostage. But when several days had
+passed in fruitless discussions, at last the sultan gave the word for
+the attack. In spite of the resistance of the Christians, the walls
+were scaled on the same day, and the garrison retired thereupon into the
+citadel; the inhabitants were massacred or taken prisoner and all the
+houses plundered. No one could escape, for Beybars had blocked all the
+entrances. On the next day the garrison, women and children included,
+which numbered eight thousand, surrendered on account of lack of water
+and meal. The chiefs apparently made their escape during the confusion
+and fled into the mountains. The garrison only saved their lives by
+surrendering. Beybars had them chained and distributed as slaves amongst
+his troops; he then had the other prisoners and the rest of the booty
+brought together, and proceeded with the lawful distribution. When
+everything had been settled, the citadel was set on fire, but the
+conflagration was so great that the whole town was consumed.
+
+Beybars died soon after his return from Asia Minor (July 1, 1277).
+According to some reports his death was occasioned by a violent fever;
+other accounts say that he died in consequence of a poison which he had
+prepared for an Ayyubid and which he accidentally took himself. He had
+designated the eldest of his sons as his successor, under the name
+of El-Malik es-Said, and in order to give him a strong support he had
+married him to the daughter of the Emir Kilawun, one of his best and
+most influential generals. In spite of all this, however, es-Said was
+not able to maintain himself on the throne for any length of time.
+
+Kilawun conspired against his master, and was soon able to ascend the
+throne under the title of El-Malik el-Mansur. His fame as a warrior was
+already established, and he added to his successes during his ten
+years' reign. His first task was to quell disturbances in Syria, and he
+despatched an army thither and captured Damascus. In the year 680 of
+the Hegira he took the field in person against a large force of Tatars,
+defeated them, and raised the siege of Rahabah. Eight years later he
+laid siege to Tripoli, then rich and flourishing after two centuries of
+Christian occupation, and the town was taken and its inhabitants killed.
+Other expeditions were undertaken against Nubia, but the Nubians, after
+they had been twice defeated, appear to have re-established themselves.
+
+[Illustration: 038.jpg COURT IN THE MORISTAN OF THE KILAWUN]
+
+The fortress of Acre was at this time the only important stronghold
+still retained by the Christians, and for its conquest Kilawun was
+making preparations when he died, on the 10th of November, 1290.
+Kilawun, says the modern historian Weil, has been unduly praised by
+historians, most of whom lived in the reign of his son. He was certainly
+not so bloodthirsty as Beybars, and he also oppressed his subjects less.
+He, too, cared more for the increase and establishment of his kingdom
+than for justice and good faith. He held no agreement sacred, if he
+could get any advantage by breaking it, as was shown by his behaviour
+towards the Crusaders and the descendants of Beybars. The most beautiful
+monument which he left behind him was a huge building outside Cairo,
+which included a hospital, a school, and his own tomb. The hospital was
+so large that every disease had a special room allotted to it; there
+were also apartments for women, and large storerooms for provisions and
+medical requirements, and a large auditorium in which the head doctor
+delivered his lectures on medicine. The expenses were so great--for
+even people of wealth were taken without compensation--that special
+administrators were appointed to oversee and keep an account of the
+necessary outlay. Besides these officers, several stewards and overseers
+were appointed to control the revenues devoted to the hospital by
+different institutions. Under the dome of the tomb the Koran and
+traditional charters were taught, and both teachers and scholars
+received their payment from the state. A large adjacent hall contained
+a library of many works on the Koran, tradition, language, medicine,
+practical theology, jurisprudence, and literature, and was kept in good
+condition by a special librarian and six officials. The school building
+contained four audience-halls for the teachers of the Islamite schools,
+and in addition to these a school for children, into which sixty poor
+orphans were received without any charge and provided with board,
+lodging, and clothes.
+
+Khalil, the son of Kilawun, who succeeded him, with the title of
+El-Malik el-Ashraf, was able to begin operations in the spring of 1291
+against Acre, and on the 18th of May, after an obstinate resistance, the
+town was taken by storm. Those who could not escape by water were either
+cut down or taken prisoner; the town was plundered, then burnt, and the
+fortifications razed to the ground.
+
+[Illustration: 043.jpg WINDOW IN THE MAUSOLEUM OF KILAWUN]
+
+After the fall of Acre, towns such as Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and others,
+which were still in the hands of the Christians, offered no resistance,
+and were either deserted by their inhabitants or given up to the enemy.
+El-Ashraf, now that he had cleared Syria of the Crusaders, turned his
+arms against the Mongols and their vassals. He began with the storming
+of Kalat er-rum, a fortress on the Upper Euphrates in the neighbourhood
+of Bireh, the possession of which was important both for the defence of
+Northern Syria and for attacks on Armenia and Asia Minor. In spite of
+many pompous declarations that this was only the beginning of greater
+conquests in Asia Minor and Irak, he retired as soon as the Ilkhan
+Kaikhatu sent a strong detachment of troops against him. Later on he
+threatened the Prince of Armenia-Minor with war, and obliged him to hand
+over certain border towns. He also exchanged some threatening letters
+with Kaikhatu. But neither reigned long enough to make these threats
+good, for Kaikhatu was soon after dethroned by Baidu, and Baidu in
+his turn by Gazan (1295), after many civil wars which had continually
+hindered him from carrying on a foreign war. El-Ashraf was murdered in
+1294, whilst hunting, by the regent Baidara, whom he had threatend to
+turn out of his office. Kara Sonkor, Lajin, El-Mansuri, and some of the
+other emirs had conspired with Baidara in the hope that, when once the
+deed was accomplished, all the chiefs in the kingdom would applaud their
+action, since El-Ashraf had slain and imprisoned many influential emirs,
+and was generally denounced as an irreligious man, who transgressed
+not only against the laws of Islam, but also against those of nature.
+Baidara, however, immediately proceeded to mount the throne, and a
+strong party, with the Emir Ketboga at its head, was formed against him.
+Ketboga called upon El-Ashraf's Mamluks to take vengeance, pursued the
+rebels, and killed Baidara. He then returned to Cairo, and, after long
+negotiations with the governor of the capital, Muhammed, a younger
+brother of El-Ashraf, was proclaimed sultan, with the title of El-Malik
+en-Nasir.
+
+Muhammed en-Nasir occupies such an important place in the history of
+these times that the other Moslem princes may easily be grouped around
+him. He was only nine years old when he was summoned to be ruler of the
+kingdom of the Mamluks. Naturally he was the sultan only in name, and
+the real power lay in the hands of Ketboga and Vizier Shujai. These two
+lived in perfect harmony so long as they were merely occupied with
+the pursuit of their rivals,--not only the friends and followers of
+El-Ashraf's murderer, but also the innocent ex-vizier of El-Ashraf,
+because he had treated them with contempt and was in possession of
+riches for which they were greedy. He shared the fate of the king's
+assassins, for, in spite of the intercession of the ladies of the royal
+harem, he ended his life on the gallows. But as soon as the two rulers
+had got rid of their enemies and appeased their own avarice, their
+peaceful union was at an end, for each wished to have complete control
+over the sultan. Shujai had the Mamluks of the late sultan on his side;
+while Ketboga, who was a Mongol by birth, had with him all the Mongols
+and Kurds who had settled in the kingdom during Beybars' reign. A Mongol
+warned Ketboga against Shujai, who had made all necessary preparations
+to throw his rival into prison, and he immediately was attacked by
+Ketboga and defeated after several attempts.
+
+Ketboga's ambition was not yet fulfilled, although he was now supreme
+ruler. He first demanded homage as regent; as he met with no opposition,
+he conceived the idea of setting the sultan, Nasir, aside; and he hoped
+to carry out his plan with the assistance of Lajin and Kara Sonkor,
+El-Ashraf's murderers, and their numerous following. He had the pardon
+of these two emirs proclaimed, whereupon they left their hiding-places
+and joined Ketboga, for it was to their interest also that the sultan
+should be put out of the way. This _coup d'etat_ was a complete success
+(December, 1294), but in spite of these plans, Ketboga's reign was both
+unfortunate and brief. The old emirs were vexed with him because he
+raised his own Mamluks to the highest posts of honour, and the clergy
+were displeased because he received favourably a number of Mongols,
+although they were heathens. The people blamed him for the severe famine
+which visited Egypt and Syria and which was followed by a terrible
+pestilence. Several emirs, with Lajin again at their head, conspired
+against him, and forced their way into his tent while he was on the way
+to Syria; overpowering the guard, they attempted to get possession of
+his person. He managed to escape, however, and so saved his life and
+liberty, but Lajin obtained possession of the throne, with the agreement
+of the other emirs. In spite of his advantages, both as man and as pious
+Moslem, and in spite of his brilliant victories over the princes of
+Armenia, Lajin was murdered, together with his successor, and Nasir, who
+was then living in Kerak, was recalled as sultan (January, 1299).
+
+Nasir was still too young to reign alone; he had to let himself be
+ruled by the emirs who had already assumed a kind of regency before his
+return. At the head of these emirs stood Sellar and Beybars Jashingir.
+Distrust and uneasiness existed between these two, one of whom was
+regent and the other prefect of the palace, for each wanted to assume
+the chief power; but soon their private intrigues were put into the
+background by a common danger. The Ilkhan Gazan was actively preparing
+for war against the Mamluk kingdom because the Governor of Aleppo
+had fallen upon Mardin, a town belonging to the Mongols, and brutally
+maltreated the inhabitants; also because the refugees from Egypt and
+Syria assured him that the moment was favourable for extending his
+dominion over these lands.
+
+The internal history of Egypt at this period offers nothing but tedious
+strifes between different emirs, and specially between the two most
+powerful, Beybars and Sellar, who would have often brought it to open
+warfare had not their friends and followers intervened. They agreed,
+however, on one point, namely, to keep the sultan as long as possible
+from taking over the reins of government, and to keep him as secluded
+as possible in order to deprive him of all influence. Whilst Sellar
+was wasting immense sums, the sultan was in fact almost starving. When
+Sellar went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, he paid the debts of all the
+Moslems who had retired to this town; he further distributed ten
+thousand malters of fruit amongst the poor people in the town, and so
+much money and provisions that they were able to live on it for a whole
+year. He also treated the inhabitants of Medina and Jiddah in an equally
+generous way. The sultan, who was hunting in Lower Egypt, at the
+same time tried in vain to obtain a small loan from the Alexandrian
+merchants, to buy a present for his wife. Finally, his vizier, who had
+granted him two thousand dinars ($5,060), was accused on Sellar's return
+of embezzling the public money, was led round the town on a donkey, and
+beaten and tortured so long that he succumbed under his torments.
+
+In the year 1307, when Nasir was twenty-three years old, though still
+treated as a child, he attempted, with the help of the Emir Bektimur,
+who commanded the Mamluks in the palace, to seize the persons of his
+oppressors. The plan failed, for they had their spies everywhere, and
+the only result was that the sultan's faithful servants were banished to
+Syria, and the sultan himself was more oppressed than ever. It was two
+years before he succeeded in deceiving his tyrants. He expressed the
+wish to make a pilgrimage to Mecca; this was granted, as the emirs saw
+nothing dangerous in it, and, moreover, as a religious duty, it could
+not be resisted. As soon as he reached the fortress Kerak, with the
+help of those soldiers in his escort who were devoted to his cause,
+and having deceived the governor by means of false letters, he obtained
+possession of the fortress, and immediately declared his independence of
+the guardianship of Sellar and Beybars. Sellar and Beybars, on hearing
+this, immediately summoned the sultan to return to Cairo; but, even
+before they received his answer, they realised that their rule was over,
+and that either they must quit the field, or Nasir must be dethroned.
+After long consideration amongst themselves, they proceeded to the
+choice of another sultan, and the choice fell on Beybars (April, 1309).
+Beybars accepted the proffered throne on the condition that Sellar also
+retained his place. He confirmed the other emirs also in their offices,
+hoping thereby to gain their support.
+
+[Illustration: 049.jpg INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE, KILAWUN]
+
+The change of government met with no resistance in Egypt, where the
+majority of the emirs had long been dependent on Beybars and Sellar.
+In Syria, on the other hand, the emirs acting as governors refused to
+acknowledge Beybars, partly from devotion to Nasir's race, and partly
+because the choice had been made without their consent. Only Akush,
+Governor of Damascus, who was an old friend of Beybars, and like him a
+Circassian, took the oath of allegiance. The governors of Aleppo, Hamah,
+and Tripoli, together with the governors of Safed and Jerusalem, called
+upon Nasir to join them, and, with the help of his other followers,
+to reconquer Egypt. The cunning sultan, who saw that the time for open
+resistance had not yet arrived, since Egypt was as yet too unanimous,
+and Damascus also had joined the enemy, advised them to deceive Beybars
+and to take the oath of allegiance, which they could break later, as
+having been obtained by force. He himself feigned to submit to the new
+government, and even had the prayers carried on from the chancel in
+Beybars' name. Beybars was deceived, although he knew with certainty
+that Nasir carried on a lively intercourse with the discontented
+emirs. He relied chiefly on Akush, who kept a strict watch over Nasir's
+movements. The spies of Akush, however, were open to corruption, and
+they failed later to take steps to render Nasir harmless at the right
+moment. Beybars believed Nasir to be still in Kerak, when he was well
+on the way to Damascus; and when he finally received news of this, the
+rebellion had already gone so far that some of the troops who had been
+sent out against the sultan had already deserted to his side. The only
+possible way of allaying the storm was for Beybars to put himself at the
+head of his troops, and, joining forces with Akush, to offer battle
+to Nasir. The necessary courage and resolution failed him. Instead of
+having recourse to the sword, he applied to the caliph, who declared
+Nasir an exile, and summoned all believers to listen to the Sultan
+Beybars--whom he had consecrated--and to take part in the war against
+the rebel, Nasir. But the summons of the caliph, which was read in all
+the chancels, had not the slightest effect. The belief in the caliph had
+long disappeared, except in so far as he was considered a tool of the
+sultan on whom he depended. Even Beybars' party mocked the caliph's
+declaration, and wherever it was read manifestations were made in favour
+of the exile. Beybars, also, was now deserted by Sellar, and he at
+length was obliged to resign. Beybars was then seized and throttled by
+Nasir, and Sellar was starved to death.
+
+Nasir, who now came to the throne, had grown suspicious and treacherous
+on account of the many hardships and betrayals endured by him during
+his youth. He was, however, favourable to the Christians, and to such an
+extent that he received anonymous letters reproaching him for allowing
+Moslems to be oppressed by Christian officials. He found them to be
+experienced in financial matters, for, in spite of all decrees, they
+had never ceased to hold secretaryships in different states: they were,
+moreover, more unscrupulous than born Muhammedans, who always had
+more respect for law, custom, and public opinion. Certainly the sultan
+considered the ministers in whom he placed great confidence less
+dangerous if they were wow-Moslems, since he was their only support,
+whereas comrades in religion could always find plenty of support and
+might easily betray him.
+
+Nasir died on the 6th of June, 1341, at about fifty-eight years of age,
+after a reign of forty-three years. His rule, which did not actually
+begin until he mounted the throne for the third time, lasted thirty-two
+years. During this period he was absolute ruler in the strongest sense
+of the word; every important affair was decided by him alone. The emirs
+had to refer all matters to him, and were a constant source of suspicion
+and oversight. They might not speak to each other in his presence,
+nor visit each other without his consent. The mildest punishment for
+breaking such decrees was banishment to Syria. Nasir inspired them with
+fear rather than with love and respect, and, as soon as it was known
+that his illness was incurable, no one paid any further attention to
+him. He died as a pious Moslem and repentant sinner in the presence
+of some of his servants. His burial, which took place by night, was
+attended by a few emirs, and only one wax candle and one lamp were
+carried before the bier. As one of his biographers justly remarks, the
+rich sultan, whose dominion had extended from the borders of Abyssinia
+to Asia Minor and up the Euphrates as far as Tunis, and the father of
+a large family, ended his life like a stranger, was buried like a poor
+man, and brought to his grave like a man without wife or child. Nasir
+was the last sultan who ruled over the Bahritic Mamluk kingdom with a
+firm hand. After his death we read of one insurrection after another,
+and the sultans were either deposed or became mere slaves of the emirs.
+Abu Bekr, whom Nasir had appointed his successor, did not hold his own
+for quite two months, because he maltreated the discontented emirs
+and put his favourites in their places. An insurrection, with the Emir
+Kausun at its head, was formed against him; he was dethroned and his
+six-year-old brother Kujuk was proclaimed sultan in his stead. The
+dethroned sultan was banished to Upper Egypt, whither his elder brother
+Ahmed should have been brought; Ahmed, however, refused to leave his
+fortress of Kerak, and, finding support among the Syrian emirs, he
+conspired against Kausun, who was at this moment threatened also with an
+insurrection in Cairo. After several bloody battles, Kausun was forced
+to yield, and Ahmed was proclaimed sultan (January, 1342). Ahmed,
+however, preferred a quiet, peaceful life to the dangerous post
+of sultan, and not until he had received the most solemn oaths of
+allegiance did he proceed to his capital, where he arrived quite
+unexpectedly, so that no festivities had been prepared. After some time,
+he had all the Syrian emirs arrested by his Mam-luks, because they tried
+to usurp his powers; he then appointed a regent, and himself returned to
+Kerak, taking with him everything he had found in the sultan's palace,
+and there he remained in spite of the entreaties of the faithful emirs,
+and lived simply for his own pleasure.
+
+The natural consequence of all this was Ahmed's deposition in June,
+1342. His brother Ismail, a good-hearted youth of seventeen years, sent
+troops to Kerak to demand an oath of allegiance from Ahmed, but
+they could effect nothing, as the fortress was well fortified and
+provisioned, and, moreover, many of the emirs, both in Syria and Egypt,
+were still in league with Ahmed. Not until fresh troops had been sent,
+and Ahmed himself betrayed, did they succeed in taking the fortress;
+and Ahmed was put to death in 1344. Ahmed's death made such a deep
+impression upon the weak sultan that he fell into a fit of depression
+which gradually increased until he died in August of the following year.
+
+[Illustration: 055.jpg FRIEZE IN MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASAN]
+
+His brother and successor, Shaban, was an utter profligate, cruel,
+faithless, avaricious, immoral, and pleasure-loving. Gladiators
+played an important part at his court, and he often took part in their
+contests. Horse-racing, cock-fights, and such like amusements occupied
+him much more than state affairs, and the whole court followed his
+example. As long as Shaban did not offend the emirs, he was at liberty
+to commit any atrocities he pleased, but, as soon as he seized their
+riches and imprisoned and tortured them, his downfall was certain.
+Ilbogha, Governor of Damascus, supported by the other Syrian emirs,
+sent him a list of his crimes and summoned him to abdicate. Meanwhile an
+insurrection had broken out in Cairo, and, although Shaban expressed
+his willingness to abdicate, he was murdered by the rebels in September,
+1346. His brother Haji met with a similar fate after a reign of fifteen
+months, though some accounts affirm that he was not murdered but only
+exiled.
+
+Haji was succeeded by his brother Hasan, who was still a minor; the
+emirs who ruled in his name competed for the highest posts until
+Baibagharus and his brother Menjik carried off the victory. These two
+ruled supreme for a time. The so-called "black death" was ravaging
+Egypt; many families were decimated, and their riches fell to the state.
+The disease, which differed from the ordinary pest in the blood-spitting
+and internal heat, raged in Europe and Asia, and spread the greatest
+consternation even amongst the Moslems, who generally regarded disease
+with a certain amount of indifference, as being a divine decree.
+According to Arabic sources, the black death had broken out in China and
+from there had spread over the Tatar-land of Kipjak; from here it took
+its course towards Constantinople, Asia Minor, and Syria on the one
+hand, and towards Greece, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany on the
+other, and was probably brought to Egypt from Syria. Not only men,
+but beasts and even plants were attacked. The ravages were nowhere
+so fearful as in Egypt; in the capital alone in a few days as many
+as fifteen or twenty thousand people were stricken. As the disease
+continued to rage for two years, there was soon a lack of men to plough
+the fields and carry on the necessary trades; and to increase the
+general distress, incursions were made by the tribes of Turcomans
+and Bedouins, who plundered the towns and villages. Scarcely had this
+desperate state of affairs begun to improve when court intrigues sprang
+up afresh, and only ended with the deposition of the sultan in August,
+1351. He was recalled after three years, during which his brother had
+reigned, and he was subsequently deposed and put to death in March,
+1361. Finally the descendants of Nasir, instead of his sons, began to
+rule. First came Muhammed Ibn Haji, who, as soon as he began to show
+signs of independence, was declared to be of unsound mind by his chief
+emir, Ilbogha; then Shaban, the son of Husain (May, 1363), who was
+strangled in March, 1377; and finally Husain's eight-year-old son Ali.
+After repeated contests, Berkuk and Berekeh, two Circassian slaves,
+placed themselves at the head of the government. Berkuk, however, wished
+to be absolute, and soon put his co-regent out of the way (1389). He
+contented himself at first with being simply regent, and, even when Ali
+died, he declared his six-year-old brother Haji, sultan. The following
+year, when he discovered a conspiracy of the Mamluks against him, and
+when many of the older emirs were dead, he declared that it was for the
+good of the state that no longer a child, but a man capable of directing
+internal affairs and leading an army against the enemy, should take over
+the government. The assembly, whom he had bribed beforehand, supported
+him, and he was appointed sultan in November, 1382.
+
+The external history of Egypt during this time is but scanty. She
+suffered several defeats at the hands of the Turcomans in the north of
+Syria, lost her supremacy in Mecca through the influence of the princes
+of South Arabia, and both Alexandria and several other coast towns were
+attacked and plundered by European fleets. This last event occurred
+in Shaban's reign in 1365. Peter of Lusignan, King of Cyprus, had, in
+league with the Genoese, the Venetians, and Knights of Rhodes, placed
+himself at the head of a new Crusade, and since his expedition was a
+secret even in Europe,--for he was thought to be advancing against the
+Turks,--it was easy for him to take the Egyptians by surprise, and all
+the more so because the Governor of Alexandria happened to be absent at
+the time. The militia tried in vain to prevent their landing, and the
+small garrison held out for but a short time, so that the prosperous and
+wealthy town was completely sacked and many prisoners were taken before
+the troops arrived from Cairo.
+
+[Illustration: 059.jpg INSIDE THE MOSQUE OF HASSAN]
+
+The Christians living in Egypt suffered from this attack of the King of
+Cyprus. They had to find ransom money for the Moslem prisoners and to
+provide means for fitting out a new fleet. All negotiations with Cyprus,
+Genoa, and Venice were immediately broken off. This event, however, had
+the effect of reconciling the Italian traders again with Egypt, and an
+embassy came both from Genoa and Venice, expressing regret at what had
+happened, with the assurance that the government had had no hint of the
+intentions of the King of Cyprus. Genoa also sent back sixty prisoners
+who had fallen to them as their share of the Alexandrian booty. As
+Egypt's trade would also be at a standstill if they had no further
+negotiations with the Franks, who imported wood, metal, arms, oil,
+coral, wool, manufacturing and crystal wares in exchange for spices,
+cotton, and sugar, the former trade relations were re-established. The
+war with Cyprus continued, however; Alexandria was again threatened
+and Tripoli was surprised by the Cyprian fleet, whereupon a number of
+European merchants in Egypt were arrested. In the year 1370, after the
+death of Peter of Lusignan, peace and an exchange of prisoners were
+finally brought about. After this peace the Egyptians were able to
+concentrate their whole force against Leo VI., Prince of Smaller
+Armenia, who was brought as a prisoner to Cairo; and with him the
+supremacy of the Christians in this land was at an end: henceforth Egypt
+was ruled by Egyptian governors.
+
+Faraj, Berkuk's son and successor, had to suffer for his father's
+political mistakes. He had scarcely ascended the throne when the
+Ottomans seized Derenda, Albustan, and Malatia. Preparations for war
+were made, but given up again when it was seen that Bayazid could not
+advance any farther south. Faraj was only thirteen years old, and all
+the old intrigues amongst the emirs broke out again. In Cairo they
+fought in the streets for the post of regent; anarchy and confusion
+reigned in the Egyptian provinces, and the Syrians wished to revolt
+against the sultan. When at last peace was re-established in Egypt, and
+Syria was reduced, the latter country was again attacked by the hordes
+of Tamerlane.
+
+Tamerlane conquered the two important cities of Aleppo and Hemessa, and
+Faraj's forces returned to Egypt. When the sultan's ally, Bayazid, was
+defeated, Faraj concluded a peace with Tamerlane, at the price of
+the surrender of certain lands. In 1405 Tamerlane died, and Faraj was
+collecting troops for the purpose of recovering Syria when domestic
+troubles caused him to flee from Egypt, his own brother Abd el-Aziz
+heading the insurrection. In the belief that Faraj was dead, Aziz was
+proclaimed his successor, but three months later Faraj was restored,
+and it was not until 1412 that he was charged with illegal practices and
+beheaded, his body being left unburied like that of a common malefactor.
+The fact that criminal proceedings were brought against the sultan is
+evidence of a great advance in the spirit of civilisation, but the
+event must be regarded more as a proof of its possibility than as a
+demonstration of its establishment.
+
+[Illustration: 063.jpg MOSQUE OF BERKUK]
+
+The Caliph El-Mustain was then proclaimed sultan, but after some months
+he was dethroned and his former prime minister, Sheikh Mahmudi, took
+over the reins of government (November, 1412). Although Sheikh had
+obtained the throne of Egypt so easily, he experienced great difficulty
+in obtaining the recognition of the emirs. Newruz, Governor of Damascus,
+in league with the other governors, made a determined resistance, and
+he was obliged to send a strong army into Syria to put down the rebels.
+Newruz, after suffering one defeat, threw himself into the citadel of
+Damascus and capitulated, when Sheikh had sworn to keep the terms of
+the capitulation. Newruz's ambassadors, however, had not a sufficient
+knowledge of Arabic to perceive that the oath was not binding, and
+when Newruz, trusting to this oath, appeared before Sheikh, he was
+immediately thrown into chains, and afterwards murdered in prison
+because the cadis declared the oath was not binding. In the next year
+(1415) Sheikh was obliged to make another expedition against Syria to
+re-conquer some of the places of which the smaller princes had taken
+possession during the civil war. One of these princes was the Prince
+Muhammed of Karaman, who had taken the town of Tarsus. Sheikh was
+summoned by Muhammed's own brother to overcome him, which he easily
+succeeded in doing. Many other princes were forced to submit, and
+finally the town of Malatia, which the Turcoman Husain had stormed, was
+recaptured. The war against Husain and the Prince of Karaman was to have
+been continued, but Sheikh was forced to return home, owing to a wound
+in his foot. As soon as certain misunderstandings between Sheikh and
+Kara Yusuf had been cleared up, another army was despatched into Asia
+Minor, for Tarsus had been recaptured by the Prince of Karaman, who had
+driven out the Prince of Albustan, whom Sheikh had installed. Ibrahim,
+the sultan's son, took command of this army, and occupied Caasarea,
+Nigdeh, and Kara-man. Whilst he was occupied in the interior of Asia
+Minor, the Governor of Damascus had defeated Mustapha, son of the Prince
+of Karaman, and the Prince Ibrahim of Ramadhan, near Adana, which latter
+town, as well as Tarsus, he had re-conquered.
+
+The Prince of Karaman, who now advanced against Caasarea, suffered a
+total defeat. Mustapha remained on the field of battle, but his father
+was taken prisoner and sent to Cairo, where he lingered in confinement
+until after the death of the sultan.
+
+[Illustration: 065.jpg THE TOMB OF BERKUK]
+
+Once again was Syria threatened by Kara Yusuf, but he was soon forced
+to return to Irak by the conspiracy of his own son, Shah Muhammed, who
+lived in Baghdad. As soon as this insurrection was put down, Kara
+Yusuf was obliged to give his whole attention to Shah Roch, the son of
+Tamerlane, who had raised himself to the highest power in Persia, and
+was now attempting to re-conquer the province of Aderbaijan. Kara Yusuf
+placed himself at the head of an army to protect this province,
+but suddenly died (November, 1420) on the way to Sultania, and his
+possessions were divided among his four sons, Shah Muhammed, Iskander,
+Ispahan, and Jihan Shah, who all, just as the descendants of Tamerlane
+had done, immediately began to quarrel among themselves.
+
+The sultan was already very ill when the news of Kara Yusufs death
+reached him. The death of Ibrahim, his son, whom he had caused to be
+poisoned, on his return from Asia Minor, weighed heavily upon him
+and hastened his death, which took place on January 13, 1421. He
+left immense riches behind him, but could not obtain a proper burial;
+everything was at once seized by the emirs, who did not trouble
+themselves in the least about his corpse. He had been by no means a good
+sultan; he had brought much misery upon the people, and had oppressed
+the emirs. But in spite of all he had many admirers who overlooked his
+misdeeds and cruelty, because he was a pious Moslem; that is, he did
+not openly transgress against the decrees of Islam, favoured the
+theologians, and distinguished himself as an orator and poet; he also
+founded a splendid mosque, a hospital, and a school for theology. His
+whole life abounds in contrasts. After he had broken his oath to Newruz,
+he spent several days in a cloister to make atonement for this crime,
+and was present at all the religious ceremonies and dances. Although he
+shed streams of blood to satisfy his avarice, he wore a woollen garment,
+and bade the preachers, when they mentioned his name after that of
+Muhammed, to descend a step on the staircase of the chancel. Under a
+religious sultan of this stamp, the position of the non-Muhammedans was
+by no means an enviable one. The Jews and Christians had to pay enormous
+taxes and the old decrees against them were renewed. Not only were they
+forced to wear special colours, but the length of their sleeves and
+head-bands was also decreed, and even the women were obliged to wear a
+distinctive costume.
+
+[Illustration: 067.jpg A TITLE-PAGE OF THE KORAN OF THE TIME OF SHABAN]
+
+Sheikh appointed his son Ahmed, one year old, as his successor, and
+named the emirs who were to act as regents until he became of age.
+Tatar, the most cunning and unscrupulous of these emirs, soon succeeded
+in obtaining the supreme power and demanded homage as sultan (August
+29, 1421); but he soon fell ill and died after a reign of about three
+months. He, too, appointed a young son as his successor and named the
+regents, but Bursbai also soon grasped the supreme power and ascended
+the throne in 1422. He had of course many insurrections to quell, but
+was not obliged to leave Egypt. As soon as peace was restored in Syria,
+Bursbai turned his attention to the European pirates, who had long been
+harassing the coasts of Syria and Egypt. They were partly Cypriots and
+partly Catalonians and Genoese, who started from Cyprus and landed their
+booty on this island. Bursbai resolved first to conquer this island.
+He despatched several ships with this object in view; they landed at
+Limasol, and, having burnt the ships in the harbour and plundered the
+town, they returned home. The favourable result of this expedition much
+encouraged the sultan, and in the following year he sent out a large
+fleet from Alexandria which landed in Famagosta. This town soon
+surrendered and the troops proceeded to plunder the neighbouring places,
+and defeated all the troops which Prince Henry of Lusignan sent out
+against them. When they had advanced as far as Limasol, the Egyptian
+commander, hearing that Janos, the King of Cyprus, was advancing with
+a large army against him, determined to return to Egypt to bring his
+enormous booty into safety. In July, 1426, a strong Egyptian fleet set
+out for the third time, landed east of Limasol, and took this fortress
+after a few days' fighting. The Moslem army was, however, forced to
+retreat. But the Cypriots scattered instead of pursuing the enemy, and
+the Mamluks, seeing this, renewed their attack, slew many Christians
+and took the king prisoner. The capital, Nicosia, then capitulated,
+whereupon the Egyptian troops returned to Egypt with the captive king
+and were received with great jubilation. The King of Cyprus, after
+submitting to the greatest humiliations, was asked what ransom he could
+pay. He replied that he possessed nothing but his life, and stuck to
+this answer, although threatened with death. Meanwhile, Venetian and
+other European merchants negotiated for the ransom money, and the
+sultan finally contented himself with two hundred thousand dinars (about
+$500,000). Janos, however, was not set at liberty, but sent to Cyprus
+as the sultan's vassal. After the death of Janos in 1432, his son, John
+II., still continued to pay tribute to Egypt, and when he died (1458)
+and his daughter Charlotte became Queen of Cyprus, James II., the
+natural son of John II., fled to Egypt and found a friendly reception at
+the sultan's court.
+
+[Illustration: 069.jpg PRAYER-NICHE IN THE MOSQUE OF THE SULTAN MAHMUDI]
+
+The sultan then ruling was Inal, and he promised to re-install James as
+King of Cyprus. Meanwhile messengers arrived from the queen, offering a
+higher tribute, and Inal allowed himself to be persuaded by his emirs
+to acknowledge Charlotte as queen, and to hand James over to
+her ambassadors. But as soon as the ambassadors had left the
+audience-chamber, a tumult arose; the people declared that the sultan
+had only the advantage of the Franks--especially of Prince Louis of
+Savoy--in view, and they soon took such a threatening attitude that
+Inal was forced to declare himself for James again and renew his former
+preparations. In August, 1460, an Egyptian fleet bore James to Cyprus,
+and with the help of the Egyptian troops he soon obtained the island,
+with the exception of the fortress Cerines, which Queen Charlotte still
+had in her power. The majority of the Egyptian troops now returned to
+Egypt, and only some hundred men remained with James. Later, when the
+Genoese declared themselves on the side of Charlotte, fresh troops had
+to be sent out from Egypt, but, as soon as James had taken Famagosta and
+had no further need of them, he dismissed them (1464).
+
+Bursbai despised no means by which he might enrich himself; he
+appropriated the greater part of the inheritance of the Jews and
+Christians; he even taxed poor pilgrims, in spite of the fact that he
+was a pious Moslem, prayed much, fasted, and read the Koran. He turned
+Mecca into a money-market. At the very moment when pious pilgrims
+were praying for the forgiveness of their sins, one of his heralds was
+proclaiming: "Whoever buys wares and does not pay toll for them in Egypt
+has forfeited his life." That is to say, all wares bought in Mecca or
+Jiddah had to go out of their way to Egypt in order to be laid under
+toll in this land.
+
+[Illustration: 071.jpg ORNAMENTAL PAGE FROM A KORAN OF THE FOURTEENTH
+CENTURY]
+
+In appointing his son Yusuf to the consulship, Bursbai counted on the
+devotedness of his Mamluks, and the Emir Jakmak, whom he appointed as
+his chief adviser, and, in fact, Yusuf's coronation, in June, 1438, met
+with no resistance. After three months, however, Jakmak, feeling
+himself secure, quietly assumed the sultan's place; at first he had much
+resistance to put down, but soon his prudence and resolution established
+him safely in spite of all opposition. As soon as the rebels in the
+interior had been dealt with, Yusuf, as a good Muhammedan, wished to
+attack the Christians, and chose the island of Rhodes as the scene of
+the Holy War, hoping to obtain this island as easily as Bursbai had
+obtained the island of Cyprus. But the Order of St. John, to whom this
+island belonged, had its spies in Egypt, so that the sultan's intentions
+were discovered and preparations for defence were made. The only
+result of the sultan's repeated expeditions was the devastation of some
+unimportant coast towns; all attempts on the capital failed, so that
+the siege was soon raised and peace concluded with the chief master of
+Rhodes (1444).
+
+Jakmak's relations with the foreign chiefs were most friendly. He
+constantly exchanged letters and gifts with both Sultan Murad and Shah
+Roch. The sons of Kara Yelek and the princes of the houses of Ramadhan
+and Dudgadir submitted to him; also Jihangir, Kara Yelek's grandson and
+Governor of Amid, tried to secure his friendship, as did the latter's
+deadly enemy, Jihan Shah, the son of Kara Yusuf.
+
+[Illustration: 073.jpg MOSQUE OF KAIT BEY, CAIRO]
+
+Jakmak's rule was mild compared with that of Bursbai, and we hear less
+of extraordinary taxes, extortions, executions, and violence of the
+Mamluks. Although he was beloved by the people and priests on account
+of his piety, he could not secure the succession of his son Osman, in
+favour of whom he abdicated fourteen days before his death (February,
+1453). Osman remained only a month and a half on the throne; he made
+himself odious to the emirs who did not belong to his Mamluks. The
+Mamluks of his predecessors conspired against him, and at their head
+stood his own Atabeg, the Emir Inal, a former Mamluk of Berkuk.
+Osman was warned, but he only mocked those who recommended him to
+watchfulness, since he believed his position to be unassailable. He
+had forgotten that his father was a usurper, who, although himself a
+perjurer, hoped to bind others by means of oaths. His eyes were not
+opened until he had lost all means of defence. He managed to hold out
+for seven days, after which the citadel was captured by the rebels, and
+he was forced to abdicate on the 19th of March. Inal became, even more
+than his predecessors had been, a slave to those Mamluks to whom he owed
+his kingdom. They committed the greatest atrocities and threatened
+the sultan himself when he tried to hold them in check. They plundered
+corpses on their way to the grave, and attacked the mosques during the
+hours of service in order to rob the pilgrims.
+
+They were so hated and feared that, when many of them were carried off
+by the plague, their deaths were recorded by a contemporary historian as
+a benefit to all classes of society.
+
+In the hour of his death (26th February, 1461), Inal appointed his son
+Ahmed as his successor, but the latter was no more able to maintain
+himself on the throne than his predecessors had been, in spite of his
+numerous good qualities. He was forced to submit in the strife with his
+emirs, and on the 28th of June, 1461, after a reign of four months and
+three days, he was dethroned, and the Emir Khosh Kadem, a former slave
+of the Sultan Sheikh, of Greek descent, was proclaimed in his stead.
+Khosh Kadem reigned for seven years with equity and benignity, and under
+one of his immediate successors, El-Ashraf Kait Bey, a struggle was
+begun with the Ottoman Turks. On the death of Muhammed II., dissensions
+had arisen between Bayazid II. and Jem. Jem, being defeated by Bayazid,
+retired to Egypt, which led to the invasion and conquest of Syria,
+hitherto held by the Sultan of Egypt. On surrendering Tarsus and Adana
+to Bayazid, Kait Bey was suffered to end his days in peace in A.D. 1495.
+After many dissensions, the brave and learned El-Ghuri ascended the
+throne, and Selim I., the Turkish sultan, soon found a pretext for an
+attack upon the Mamluk power. A long and sanguinary battle was fought
+near Aleppo, in which El-Ghuri was finally defeated through treachery.
+He was trampled to death by his own cavalry in their attempt to escape
+from the pursuing Ottomans. With his death, in A.D. 1516, Egypt lost her
+independence. Tuman Bey, a nephew of the deceased, fiercely contested
+the advance of the Ottomans, but was defeated and treacherously killed
+by the Turks.
+
+[Illustration: 076.jpg WADI FEIRAN, IN THE SINAI PENINSULA]
+
+A long period of Turkish misrule now opened for the ill-fated country,
+though some semblance of conciliation was attempted by Selim's
+appointment of twenty-four Mamluk beys as subordinate rulers over
+twenty-four military provinces of Egypt. These beys were under the
+control of a Turkish pasha, whose council was formed of seven Turkish
+chiefs, while one of the Mamluk beys held the post of Sheikh el-Beled or
+Governor of the Metropolis.
+
+[Illustration: 077.jpg MAUSOLEUM OF EL-GHURI]
+
+For nearly two centuries the Turkish pashas were generally obeyed in
+Egypt, although there were frequent intrigues and quarrels on the part
+of competing Mamluk beys to secure possession of the coveted post
+of Sheikh el-Beled. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century the
+authority of the Turkish pashas had become merely nominal, while that
+of the beys had increased to such an extent that the government of Egypt
+became a military oligarchy. The weakness of the Turks left the way open
+for the rise of any adventurer of ability and ambition who might aspire
+to lead the Mamluks to overthrow the sovereignty of the Porte.
+
+In the year 1768 the celebrated Ali Bey headed a revolt against the
+Turks, which he maintained for several years with complete success. A
+period of good but vigorous government lasted Curing the years in which
+he successfully resisted the Ottoman power. Ali's generals also gained
+for him considerable influence beyond the borders of Egypt. Muhammed Abu
+Dhahab was sent by him to Arabia and entered the sacred city of Mecca,
+where the sherif was deposed. Ali also despatched an expedition to the
+eastern shores of the Red Sea, and Muhammed Bey, after his successes in
+Arabia, invaded Syria and wrested that province from the power of the
+sultan. The victorious soldier, however, now plotted against his master
+and took the lead in a military revolt. As a result of this, Ali Bey
+fell into an ambuscade set by his own rebellious subjects, and died from
+poisoning m 1786. Thus terminated the career of the famous Mamluk, a man
+whose energy, talents, and ambition bear a strong resemblance to those
+of the later Mehe-met Ali.
+
+Muhammed Bey, the Mamluk who had revolted against Ali Bey, now tendered
+his allegiance to the Porte. To the title of Governor of the Metropolis
+was also added that of Pasha of Egypt. He subdued Syria, and died during
+the pillage of Acre.
+
+[Illustration: 080b.jpg Bonaparte in Egypt]
+
+     From painting by M. Orange
+
+After his death violent dissensions again broke out. The Porte supported
+Ismail Bey, who retained the post of Governor of the Metropolis (Sheikh
+el-Beled) until the terrible plague of 1790, in which he perished.
+
+His former rivals, Ibrahim and Murad, now returned; and eight years
+later were still in the leadership when the news was brought to Egypt
+that a fleet carrying thirty thousand men, under Bonaparte, had arrived
+at Alexandria on an expedition of conquest.
+
+[Illustration: 080.jpg]
+
+
+[Illustration: 081.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--THE FRENCH IN EGYPT
+
+
+_Napoleon's campaign: Battles of the Pyramids and of Abukir: Siege of
+Acre: Kleber's administration: The evacuation of Egypt._
+
+
+At the close of the eighteenth century Egypt's destiny passed into the
+hands of the French. Napoleon's descent upon Egypt was part of his
+vast strategic plan for the overthrow of Great Britain. He first of all
+notified the Directory of this design in September, 1797, in a letter
+sent from Italy. Late in the same year and during 1798 vast preparations
+had been in progress for the invasion of England. Napoleon then visited
+all the seaports in the north of France and Holland, and found that a
+direct invasion of England was a practical impossibility because the
+British held command over the sea. The suggested invasion of Egypt was
+now seriously considered. By the conquest of Egypt, it was contended,
+England would be cut off from the possession of India, and France,
+through Egypt, would dominate the trade to the Orient. From Egypt
+Napoleon could gather an army of Orientals and conquer the whole of the
+East, including India itself. On his return, England would prove to be
+too exhausted to withstand the French army at home and would fall a
+prey to the ambitions of the First Consul. The Directory assented to
+Bonaparte's plans the more readily because they were anxious to keep
+so popular a leader, the idol of the army, at a great distance from the
+centre of government. While the preparations were in process, no one
+in England knew of this undertaking. The French fleet lay in various
+squadrons in ports of Italy, from which thirty thousand men were
+embarked.
+
+Bonaparte arrived at Toulon on May 9, 1798. His presence rejoiced the
+army, which had begun to murmur and to fear that he would not be at the
+head of the expedition. It was the old army of Italy, rich and covered
+with glory, and hence had much less zeal for making war; it required all
+the enthusiasm with which the general inspired his soldiers to induce
+them to embark and proceed to an unknown destination. On seeing him at
+Toulon, they were inflamed with ardour. Bonaparte, without acquainting
+them with their destination, exhorted the soldiers, telling them that
+they had great destinies to fulfil, and that "the genius of liberty,
+which had made the republic from her birth the arbitress of Europe,
+decreed that she should be so to the most remote seas and nations."
+
+[Illustration: 083 BEDOUINS IN THE DESERT]
+
+The squadron of Admiral Brueys consisted of thirteen sail of the line,
+and carried about forty thousand men of all arms and ten thousand
+seamen. It had water for one month and provisions for two. It sailed on
+the 19th of May, amid the thunders of the cannons and the cheers of the
+whole army. Violent gales did some damage to a frigate on leaving the
+port, and Nelson, who was cruising with three sail of the line in search
+of the French fleet, suffered so severely from the same gales that he
+was obliged to bear up for the islands of St. Pierre to refit. He was
+thus kept at a distance from the French fleet, and did not see it pass.
+It steered first towards Genoa to join the convoy collected in that
+port, under the command of General Baraguay d'Hilliers. It then sailed
+for Corsica, to call for the convoy at Ajaccio commanded by Vaubois, and
+afterwards proceeded to the sea of Sicily to join the division of Civita
+Vecchia, under the command of Desaix.
+
+Bonaparte's intention was to stop at Malta, and there to make by the
+way a bold attempt, the success of which he had long since prepared by
+secret intrigues. He meant to take possession of that island, which,
+commanding the navigation of the Mediterranean, became important to
+Egypt and could not fail soon to fall into the hands of the English,
+unless they were anticipated.
+
+Bonaparte made great efforts to join the division from Civita Vecchia;
+but this he could not accomplish until he was off Malta. The five
+hundred French sail came in sight of the island on June 9th, twenty-two
+days after leaving Toulon. This sight filled the city of Malta with
+consternation. The following day (June 10th) the French troops landed
+on the island, and completely invested Valetta, which contained a
+population of nearly thirty thousand souls, and was even then one of
+the strongest fortresses in Europe. The inhabitants were dismayed and
+clamoured for surrender, and the grand master, who possessed little
+energy, and recollected the generosity of the conqueror of Rivoli at
+Mantua, hoping to save his interest from shipwreck, released one of
+the French knights, whom he had thrown into prison when they refused to
+fight against their countrymen, and sent him to Bonaparte to negotiate.
+A treaty was soon concluded, by which the Knights of Malta gave up to
+France the sovereignty of Malta and the dependent islands. Thus France
+gained possession of the best harbour in the Mediterranean, and one of
+the strongest in the world. It required the ascendency of Bonaparte to
+obtain it without fighting; and it necessitated also the risk of losing
+some precious days, with the English in pursuit of him.
+
+The French fleet weighed anchor on the 19th of June, after a stay of
+ten days. The essential point now was not to fall in with the English.
+Nelson, having refitted at the islands of St. Pierre, had returned on
+June 1st to Toulon, but the French squadron had been gone twelve days.
+He had run from Toulon to the roads of Taglia-mon, and from the roads
+of Tagliamon to Naples, where he had arrived on June 20th, at the very
+moment when Bonaparte was leaving Malta. Learning that the French had
+been seen off Malta, he followed, determined to attack them, if he
+could overtake them. At one moment, the English squadron was only a few
+leagues distant from the immense French convoy, and neither party was
+aware of it. Nelson, supposing that the French were bound for Egypt,
+made sail for Alexandria, and arrived there before them; at not finding
+them, he flew to the Dardanelles to seek them there. By a singular fate,
+it was not till two days afterwards that the French expedition came in
+sight of Alexandria, on the 1st of July, which was very nearly six weeks
+since it sailed from Toulon. Bonaparte immediately sent on shore for the
+French consul. He learned that the English had made their appearance
+two days before, and, supposing them to be not far off, he resolved that
+very moment to attempt a landing. It was impossible to enter the harbour
+of Alexandria, for the place appeared disposed to defend itself;
+it became necessary, therefore, to land at some distance on the
+neighbouring coast, at an inlet called the Creek of the Marabou. The
+wind blew violently and the sea broke with fury over the reefs on the
+shore. It was near the close of the day, but Bonaparte gave the signal
+and resolved to go on shore immediately. He was the first to disembark,
+and, with great difficulty, four or five thousand men were landed in
+the course of the evening and the following night. Bonaparte resolved
+to march forthwith for Alexandria, in order to surprise the place and
+to prevent the Turks from making preparations for defence. The troops
+instantly commenced their march. Not a horse was yet landed: the staff
+of Bonaparte, and Caffarelli himself, notwithstanding his wooden leg,
+had to walk four or five leagues over the sands, and came at daybreak
+within sight of Alexandria.
+
+That ancient city no longer possessed its magnificent edifices, its
+innumerable houses, and its immense population. Three-fourths of it was
+in ruins. The Turks, the wealthy Egyptians, the European merchants dwelt
+in the modern town, which was the only part preserved. A few Arabs lived
+among the ruins of the ancient city: an old wall, flanked by towers,
+enclosed the new and the old town, and all around extended those sands
+which in Egypt are sure to advance wherever civilisation recedes. The
+four thousand French led by Bonaparte arrived there at daybreak. Upon
+this sandy beach they met with Arabs only, who, after firing a few
+musket-shots, fled to the desert. Napoleon divided his men into three
+columns. Bon, with the first column, marched on the right towards the
+Rosetta gate; Kleber, with the second, marched in the centre towards the
+gate of the Catacombs.
+
+The Arabs and the Turks, excellent soldiers behind a wall, kept up a
+steady fire, but the French mounted with ladders and got over the old
+wall. Kleber was the first who fell, seriously wounded on the forehead.
+The Arabs were driven from ruin to ruin, as far as the new town, and
+the combat seemed likely to be continued from street to street, and
+to become sanguinary, when a Turkish captain served as a mediator for
+negotiating an arrangement. Bonaparte declared that he had not come to
+ravage the country, or to wrest it from its ruler, but merely to deliver
+it from the domination of the Mamluks, and to revenge the outrages which
+they had committed against France. He promised that the authorities of
+the country should be upheld; that the ceremonies of religion should
+continue to be performed as before; that property should be respected.
+On these conditions, the resistance ceased, and the French were masters
+of Alexandria. Meanwhile, the remainder of the army had landed. It
+was immediately necessary to decide where to place the squadron
+safely--whether in the harbour or in one of the neighbouring roads;--to
+form at Alexandria an administration adapted to the manners of the
+country; and also to devise a plan of invasion in order to gain
+possession of Egypt.
+
+At this period the population of Egypt was, like the towns that covered
+it, a mixture of the wrecks of several nations,--Kopts, the survivors of
+the ancient inhabitants of the land; Arabs, who conquered Egypt from
+the Kopts; and Turks, the conquerors of the Arabs. On the arrival of
+the French, the Kopts amounted at most to two hundred thousand:
+poor, despised, brutalised, they had devoted themselves, like all the
+proscribed classes, to the most ignoble occupations. The Arabs formed
+almost the entire mass of the population. Their condition was infinitely
+varied: some were of high birth, carrying back their pedigree to
+Muhammed himself; and some were landed proprietors, possessing traces
+of Arabian knowledge, and combining with nobility the functions of the
+priesthood and the magistracy, who, under the title of sheikhs, were the
+real aristocracy of Egypt.
+
+[Illustration: 091.jpg THE PROPHET MUHAMMED]
+
+     The original of the illustration (upon the opposite page) is
+     to be seen in a finely illuminated MS. of the ninth century,
+     A. D., preserved in the India Office, London. The picture is
+     of peculiar interest, being the only known portrait of
+     Muhammed, who is evidently represented as receiving the
+     divine command to propagate Muhammedanism.
+
+In the divans, they represented the country, when its tyrants wished
+to address themselves to it; in the mosques, they formed a kind of
+university, in which they taught the religion and the morality of the
+Koran, and a little philosophy and jurisprudence. The great mosque of
+Jemil-Azar constituted the foremost learned and religious body in the
+East. Next to these grandees came the smaller landholders, composing the
+second and more numerous class of the Arabs; then the great mass of the
+inhabitants, who had sunk into the state of absolute helots. These last
+were hired peasants or fellahs who cultivated the land, and lived in
+abject poverty. There was also a class of Arabs, namely, the Bedouins
+or rovers, who would never attach themselves to the soil, but were the
+children of the desert. These wandering Arabs, divided into tribes
+on both sides of the valley, numbered nearly one hundred and twenty
+thousand, and could furnish from twenty to twenty-five thousand horse.
+They were brave, but fit only to harass the enemy, not to fight him. The
+third and last race was that of the Turks; but it was not more numerous
+than the Kopts, amounting to about two hundred thousand souls at most,
+and was divided into Turks and Mamluks. The Turks were nearly all
+enrolled in the list of janizaries; but it is well known that they
+frequently had their names inscribed in those lists, that they might
+enjoy the privileges of janizaries, and that a very small number of them
+were really in the service. Very few of them composed the military force
+of the pasha. This pasha, sent from Constantinople, was the sultan's
+representative in Egypt; but, escorted by only a few janizaries, he
+found his authority invalidated by the very precautions which Sultan
+Selim had formerly taken to preserve it. That sultan, judging that
+Egypt was likely from its remoteness to throw off the dominion of
+Constantinople, and that a clever and ambitious pasha might create there
+an independent empire, had, as we have seen, devised a plan to frustrate
+such a motive, should it exist, by instituting a Mamluk soldiery; but it
+was the Mamluks, and not the pasha, who rendered themselves independent
+of Constantinople and the masters of Egypt.
+
+Egypt was at this time an absolute feudality, like that of Europe in
+the Middle Ages. It exhibited at once a conquered people, a conquering
+soldiery in rebellion against its sovereign, and, lastly, an ancient
+degenerate class, who served and were in the pay of the strongest.
+
+Two beys, superior to the rest, ruled Egypt: the one, Ibrahim Bey,
+wealthy, crafty, and powerful; the other, Murad Bey, intrepid,
+valiant, and full of ardour. They had agreed upon a sort of division
+of authority, by which Ibrahim Bey had the civil, and Murad Bey the
+military, power. It was the business of the latter to fight; he excelled
+in it, and he possessed the affection of the Mam-luks, who were all
+eager to follow him.
+
+Bonaparte immediately perceived the line of policy which he had to
+pursue in Egypt. He must, in the first place, wrest that country from
+its real masters, the Mam-luks; it was necessary for him to fight them,
+and to destroy them by arms and by policy. He had, moreover, strong
+reasons to urge against them; for they had never ceased to ill-treat the
+French. As for the Porte, it was requisite that he should not appear to
+attack its sovereignty, but affect, on the contrary, to respect it.
+In the state to which it was reduced, that sovereignty was not to be
+dreaded, and he could treat with the Porte, either for the cession of
+Egypt, by granting certain advantages elsewhere, or for a partition of
+authority, in which there would be nothing detrimental; for the French,
+in leaving the pasha at Cairo, and transferring to themselves the power
+of the Mamluks, would not occasion much regret. As for the inhabitants,
+in order to make sure of their attachment, it would be requisite to win
+over the Arab population. By respecting the sheikhs, by flattering their
+old pride, by increasing their power, by encouraging their secret desire
+for the re-establishment of their ancient glories, Bonaparte reckoned
+upon ruling the land, and attaching it entirely to him. By afterwards
+sparing persons and property, among a people accustomed to consider
+conquest as conferring a right to murder, pillage, and devastate, he
+would create a sentiment that would be most advantageous to the French
+army. If, furthermore, the French were to respect women and the Prophet,
+the conquest of hearts would be as firmly secured as that of the soil.
+
+Napoleon conducted himself agreeably to these conclusions, which
+were equally just and profound. He immediately made his plans for
+establishing the French authority at Alexandria, and for quitting the
+Delta and gaining possession of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. It was
+the month of July; the Nile was about to inundate the country. He was
+anxious to reach Cairo before the inundation, and to employ the time
+during which it should last in establishing himself there. He ordered
+everything at Alexandria to be left in the same state as formerly; that
+the religious exercises should be continued; and that justice should be
+administered as before by the cadis. His intention was merely to possess
+himself of the rights of the Mamluks, and to appoint a commissioner to
+levy the accustomed imposts. He caused a divan, or municipal council,
+composed of the sheikhs and principal persons of Alexandria, to be
+formed, in order to consult them on all the measures which the French
+authority would have to take. He left three thousand men in garrison in
+Alexandria, and gave the command of it to Kleber, whose wound was liable
+to keep him in a state of inactivity for a month or two. He directed a
+young Frenchman of extraordinary merit, and who gave promise of becoming
+a great engineer, to put Alexandria in a state of defence, and to
+construct there all the necessary works. This was Colonel Cretin,
+who, in a short time, and at a small expense, executed superb works at
+Alexandria. Bonaparte then ordered the fleet to be put in a place of
+security. It was a question whether the large ships could enter the port
+of Alexandria. A commission of naval officers was appointed to sound the
+harbour and make a report. Meanwhile, the fleet was anchored in the road
+of Abukir, and Bonaparte ordered Brueys to see to it that this question
+should be speedily decided, and to proceed to Corfu if it should be
+ascertained that the ships could not enter the harbour of Alexandria.
+
+After he had attended to all these matters, he made preparations for
+marching. A considerable flotilla, laden with provisions, artillery,
+ammunition, and baggage, was to run along the coast to the Rosetta
+mouth, enter the Nile, and ascend the river at the same time as the
+French army. He then set out with the main body of the army, which,
+after leaving the two garrisons in Malta and Alexandria, was about
+thirty thousand strong. He had ordered his flotilla to proceed as high
+as Ramanieh, on the banks of the Nile. There he purposed to join it, and
+to proceed up the Nile parallel with it, in order to quit the Delta and
+to reach Upper Egypt, or Bahireh. There were two roads from Alexandria
+to Ramanieh; one through an inhabited country, along the sea-coast and
+the Nile, and the other shorter and as the bird flies, but across the
+desert of Damanhour. Bonaparte, without hesitation, chose the shorter.
+It was of consequence that he should reach Cairo as speedily as
+possible. De-saix marched with the advanced guard, and the main body
+followed at a distance of a few leagues. They started on the 6th of
+July. When the soldiers found themselves amidst this boundless plain,
+with a shifting sand beneath their feet, a scorching sun over their
+heads, without water, without shade, with nothing for the eye to rest
+upon but rare clumps of palm-trees, seeing no living creatures but small
+troops of Arab horsemen, who appeared and disappeared at the horizon,
+and sometimes concealed themselves behind sand-hills to murder the
+laggards, they were profoundly dejected. They found all the wells, which
+at intervals border the road through the desert, destroyed by the Arabs.
+There were left only a few drops of brackish water, wholly insufficient
+for quenching their thirst.
+
+[Illustration: 097.jpg STREET DOGS]
+
+They had been informed that they should find refreshments at Damanhour,
+but they met with nothing there but miserable huts, and could procure
+neither bread nor wine; only lentils in great abundance, and a little
+water. They were obliged to proceed again into the desert. Bonaparte saw
+the brave Lannes and Murat take off their hats, dash them on the sand,
+and trample them under foot. He, however, overawed all: his presence
+imposed silence, and sometimes restored cheerfulness. The soldiers would
+not impute their sufferings to him, but grew angry with those who took
+pleasure in observing the country. On seeing the men of science stop to
+examine the slightest ruins, they said they should not have been there
+but for them, and revenged themselves with witticisms after their
+fashion. Caffarelli, in particular, brave as a grenadier, and
+inquisitive as a scholar, was considered by them as the man who had
+deceived the general and drawn him into this distant country. As he had
+lost a leg on the Rhine, they said, "He, for his part, laughs at this:
+he has one foot in France." At last, after severe hardships, endured at
+first with impatience, and afterwards with gaiety and fortitude, they
+reached the Nile on the 10th of July, after a march of four days. At
+the sight of the Nile and of the water so much longed for, the soldiers
+flung themselves into it, and, bathing in its waves, forgot their
+fatigues. Desaix' division, which from the advance-guard had become the
+rear-guard, saw two or three hundred Mamluks galloping before it, whom
+they dispersed by a few volleys of grape. These were the first that had
+been seen, which warned the French that they would speedily fall in with
+the hostile army. The brave Murad Bey, having received the intelligence
+of the arrival of Bonaparte, was actually collecting his forces around
+Cairo. Until they should have assembled, he was hovering with a thousand
+horse about the army, in order to watch its march.
+
+The army waited at Ramanieh for the arrival of the flotilla. It rested
+till July 13th, and set out on the same day for Chebreiss. Murad Bey was
+waiting there with his Mamluks. The flotilla, which had set out
+first and preceded the army, found itself engaged before it could be
+supported. Murad Bey had a flotilla also, and from the shore he joined
+his fire to that of his light Egyptian vessels. The French flotilla had
+to sustain a very severe combat. Perree, a naval officer who commanded
+it, displayed extraordinary courage; he was supported by the cavalry,
+who had come dismounted to Egypt, and who, until they could equip
+themselves at the expense of the Mamluks, had taken their passage
+by water. Two gunboats were retaken from the enemy, and Perree was
+repulsed.
+
+At that moment the army came up; it was composed of five divisions, and
+had not yet been in action with its singular enemies. To swiftness and
+the charge of horse, and to sabre-cuts, it would be necessary to
+oppose the immobility of the foot-soldier, his long bayonet, and masses
+presenting a front on every side. Bonaparte formed his five divisions
+into five squares, in the centre of which were placed the baggage and
+the staff. The artillery was at the angles. The five divisions flanked
+one another. Murad Bey flung upon these living citadels a thousand or
+twelve hundred intrepid horse; who, bearing down with loud shouts and
+at full gallop, discharging their pistols, and then drawing their
+formidable sabres, threw themselves upon the front of the squares.
+Encountering everywhere a hedge of bayonets and a tremendous fire, they
+hovered about the French ranks, Fell before them, or scampered off in
+the plain at the utmost speed of their horses. Murad Bey, after losing
+a few of his bravest men, retired for the purpose of proceeding to the
+point of the Delta, and awaiting them near Cairo at the head of all his
+forces.
+
+This action was sufficient to familiarise the army with this new kind of
+enemy, and to suggest to Bonaparte the kind of tactics which he ought to
+employ with them. He pursued his march towards Cairo, and the flotilla
+ascended the Nile abreast of the army. It marched without intermission
+during the following days, and, although the soldiers had fresh
+hardships to endure, they kept close to the Nile, and could bathe every
+night in its waters.
+
+The army now approached Cairo, where the decisive battle was to be
+fought. Murad Bey had collected here the greater part of his Mamluks,
+nearly ten thousand in number, and they were attended by double the
+number of fellahs, to whom arms were given, and who were obliged to
+fight behind the intrenchments. He had also assembled some thousands
+of janizaries, or spahis, dependent on the pasha, who, notwithstanding
+Bonaparte's letter of conciliation, had suffered himself to be persuaded
+to join his oppressors. Murad Bey had made preparations for defence
+on the banks of the Nile. The great capital, Cairo, is situated on the
+right bank of the river, and on the opposite bank Murad Bey had pitched
+his tent, in a long plain extending from the river to the pyramids of
+Gizeh.
+
+On the 21st of July, the French army set itself in motion before
+daybreak. As they approached, they saw the minarets of Cairo shooting
+up; they saw the pyramids increase in height; they saw the swarming
+multitude which guarded Embabeh; they saw the glistening arms of ten
+thousand horsemen resplendent with gold and steel, and forming an
+immense line.
+
+[Illustration: GATHERING DATES]
+
+The face of Bonaparte beamed with enthusiasm. He began to gallop before
+the ranks of the soldiers, and, pointing to the pyramids, he exclaimed,
+"Consider, that from the summit of those pyramids forty centuries have
+their eyes fixed upon you."
+
+In the battle of the Pyramids, as it was called, the enemy's force
+of sixty thousand men was almost completely annihilated. The Mamluks,
+bewildered by European tactics, impaled themselves upon the bayonets
+of the French squares. Fifteen thousand men of all arms fell upon the
+field. The battle had cost the French scarcely a hundred killed and
+wounded; for, if defeat is terrible for broken squares, the loss is
+insignificant for victorious squares. The Mamluks had lost their
+best horsemen by fire or water: their forces were dispersed, and the
+possession of Cairo secured. The capital was in extraordinary agitation.
+It contained more than three hundred thousand inhabitants, many of whom
+were indulging in all sorts of excesses, and intending to profit by the
+tumult to pillage the rich palaces of the beys.
+
+The French flotilla, however, had not yet ascended the Nile, and there
+was no means of crossing to take possession of Cairo. Some French
+traders who happened to be there were sent to Bonaparte by the sheikhs
+to arrange concerning the occupation of the city. He procured a few
+light boats, or djerms, and sent across the river a detachment of
+troops, which at once restored tranquillity, and secured persons and
+property from the fury of the populace.
+
+Bonaparte established his headquarters at Gizeh, on the banks of the
+Nile, where Murad Bey had an imposing residence. A considerable store
+of provisions was found both at Gizeh and at Embabeh, and the soldiers
+could make amends for their long privations. No sooner had he settled
+in Cairo than he hastened to pursue the same policy which he had already
+adopted at Alexandria, and by which he hoped to gain the country.
+The essential point was to obtain from the sheikhs of the mosque of
+Jemil-Azar a declaration in favour of the French. It corresponded to
+a papal bull among Christians. On this occasion Bonaparte exerted his
+utmost address, and was completely successful. The great sheikhs issued
+the desired declaration, and exhorted the Egyptians to submit to the
+envoy of God, who reverenced the Prophet, and who had come to deliver
+his children from the tyranny of the Mamluks. Bonaparte established a
+divan at Cairo, as he had done at Alexandria, composed of the principal
+sheikhs, and the most distinguished inhabitants. This divan, or
+municipal council, was intended to serve him in gaining the minds of the
+Egyptians, by consulting it, and learning from it all the details of the
+internal administration. It was agreed that similar assemblies should
+be established in all the provinces, and that these subordinate divans
+should send deputies to the divan of Cairo, which would thus be the
+great national divan.
+
+Bonaparte resolved to leave the administration of justice to the cadis.
+In execution of his scheme of succeeding to the rights of the Mamluks,
+he seized their property, and caused the taxes previously imposed to
+continue to be levied for the benefit of the French army. For this
+purpose it was requisite that he should have the Kopts at his disposal.
+He omitted nothing to attach them to him, holding out hopes to them of
+an amelioration of their condition. He sent generals with detachments
+down the Nile to complete the occupation of the Delta, which the army
+had merely traversed, and sent others towards the Upper Nile, to take
+possession of Middle Egypt. Desaix was placed with a division at the
+entrance of Upper Egypt, which he was to conquer from Murad Bey, as
+soon as the waters of the Nile should subside in the autumn. Each of
+the generals, furnished with detailed instructions, was to repeat in
+the country what had been done at Alexandria and at Cairo. They were to
+court the sheikhs, to win the Kopts, and to establish the levy of the
+taxes in order to supply the wants of the army. Bonaparte was also
+attentive to keep up the relations with the neighbouring countries,
+in order to uphold and to appropriate to himself the rich commerce of
+Egypt. He appointed the Emir Hadgi, an officer annually chosen at Cairo,
+to protect the great caravan from Mecca. He wrote to all the French
+consuls on the coast of Barbary to inform the beys that the Emir Hadgi
+was appointed, and that the caravans might set out. At his desire the
+sheikhs wrote to the sherif of Mecca, to acquaint him that the pilgrims
+would be protected, and that the caravans would find safety and
+protection. The pasha of Cairo had followed Ibraham Bey to Belbeys.
+Bonaparte wrote to him, as well as to the several pashas of St. Jean
+d'Acre and Damascus, to assure them of the good disposition of the
+French towards the Sublime Porte. The Arabs were struck by the character
+of the young conqueror. They could not comprehend how it was that the
+mortal who wielded the thunderbolt should be so merciful. They called
+him the worthy son of the Prophet, the favourite of the great Allah, and
+sang in the great mosque a litany in his praise.
+
+Napoleon, in carrying out his policy of conciliating the natives, was
+present at the Nile festival, which is one of the greatest in Egypt.
+It was on the 18th of August that this festival was held. Bonaparte
+had ordered the whole army to be under arms, and had drawn it up on the
+banks of the canal. An immense concourse of people had assembled, who
+beheld with joy the brave man of the West attending their festivals.
+
+It was by such means that the young general, as profound a politician as
+he was a great captain, contrived to ingratiate himself with the people.
+While he flattered their prejudices for the moment, he laboured
+to diffuse among them the light of science by the creation of the
+celebrated Institute of Egypt. He collected the men of science and the
+artists whom he had brought with him, and, associating with them some of
+the best educated of his officers, established the institute, to which
+he appropriated a revenue and one of the most spacious palaces in Cairo.
+
+The conquest of the provinces of Lower and Middle Egypt had been
+effected without difficulty, and had cost only a few skirmishes with the
+Arabs. A forced march upon Belbeys had been sufficient to drive Ibrahim
+Bey into Syria, where Desaix awaited the autumn for wresting Upper Egypt
+from Murad Bey, who had retired thither with the wrecks of his army.
+
+Fortune was, meanwhile, preparing for Bonaparte the most terrible of all
+reverses. On leaving Alexandria, he had earnestly recommended to Admiral
+Brueys to secure his squadron from the English, either by taking it into
+the harbour of Alexandria, or by proceeding with it to Corfu; and he had
+particularly enjoined him not to leave it in the road of Abukir, for it
+was much better to fall in with an enemy when under sail than to receive
+him at anchor. A warm discussion had arisen on the question whether
+the ships of 80 and 120 guns could be carried into the harbour of
+Alexandria. As to the smaller ships, there was no doubt; but the larger
+would require lightening so much as to enable them to draw three feet
+less water. For this purpose it would be necessary to take out their
+guns, or to construct floats. On such conditions, Admiral Brueys
+resolved not to take his squadron into the harbour. The time which he
+spent, either in sounding the channels to the harbour, or in waiting for
+news from Cairo, caused his own destruction.
+
+Admiral Brueys was moored in the road of Abukir. This road is a very
+regular semicircle, and his thirteen ships formed a line parallel to
+the shore, and so disposed that he believed no British ship could pass
+between him and the shore, if an attack were made.
+
+Nelson, after visiting the Archipelago, and returning to the Adriatic,
+Naples, and Sicily, had at length obtained the certain knowledge of
+the landing of the French at Alexandria. He immediately steered in that
+direction in order to seek and put to flight their squadron. He sent a
+frigate to look out for it, and to reconnoitre its position. The English
+frigate, having made her observations, rejoined Nelson, who, being
+informed of all the particulars, immediately stood in for Abukir, and
+arrived there August 1, 1798, at about six o'clock in the evening.
+Admiral Brueys was at dinner. He immediately ordered the signal for
+battle to be given; but so unprepared was the squadron to receive the
+enemy, that the hammocks were not stowed away on board any of the ships,
+and part of the crews were on shore. The admiral despatched officers to
+send the seamen on board, and to demand part of those who were in the
+transports. He had no conception that Nelson would dare to attack him
+the same evening, and conceived that he should have time to receive the
+reinforcements for which he had applied.
+
+Nelson resolved to attack immediately, and to push in between the French
+ships and the shore at all hazards. "Before this time to-morrow" said
+he, "I shall have gained a peerage or Westminster Abbey."
+
+The number of vessels was equal on both sides, namely, thirteen ships
+of war. The engagement lasted upwards of fifteen hours. All the crews
+performed prodigies of valour. The brave Captain Du Petit-Thouars had
+two of his limbs shot off. He ordered snuff to be brought him,
+and remained on his quarter-deck, and, like Brueys, waited till a
+cannon-ball despatched him. The entire French squadron, excepting the
+two ships and two frigates carried off by Villeneuve, was destroyed.
+Nelson had suffered so severely that he could not pursue the fugitives.
+Such was the famous battle of Abukir, the most disastrous that
+the French had ever sustained, and involved the most far-reaching
+consequences. The fleet which had carried the French to Egypt, which
+might have served to succour or to recruit them, which was to
+second their movements on the coast of Syria,--had there been any to
+execute,--which was to overawe the Porte, to force it to put up with
+false reasoning, and to oblige it to wink at the invasion of Egypt,
+which finally, in case of reverses, was to convey the French back to
+their country,--that fleet was destroyed. The French ships were burned.
+The news of this disaster spread rapidly in Egypt, and for a moment
+filled the army with despair. Bonaparte received the tidings with
+imperturbable composure. "Well," he said, "we must die in this country,
+or get out of it as great as the ancients." He wrote to Kleber: "This
+will oblige us to do greater things than we intended. We must hold
+ourselves in readiness." The great soul of Kleber was worthy of
+this language: "Yes," replied Kleber, "we must do great things. I am
+preparing my faculties." The courage of these men supported the army,
+and restored its confidence.
+
+Bonaparte strove to divert the thoughts of the soldiers by various
+expeditions, and soon made them forget this disaster. On the festival of
+the foundation of the republic, he endeavoured to give a new stimulus to
+their imagination; he engraved on Pompey's Pillar the names of the first
+forty soldiers slain in Egypt. They were the forty who had fallen in
+the attack on Alexandria; and the names of these men, sprung from the
+villages of France, were thus associated with the immortality of Pompey
+and Alexander.
+
+Bonaparte, after the battle of the Pyramids, found himself master of
+Egypt. He began to establish himself there, and sent his generals into
+the provinces to complete their conquest. Desaix, placed at the entrance
+of Upper Egypt with a division of about three thousand men, was directed
+to reduce the remnants of Murad Bey's force in that province. It was in
+the preceding year (October, 1798), at the moment when the inundation
+was over, that Desaix had commenced his expedition. The enemy had
+retired before him, and did not wait for him till he reached Sediman;
+there, on October 7th, Desaix fought a sanguinary battle with the
+desperate remainder of Murad Bey's forces. Two thousand French had to
+combat with four thousand Mamluks and eight thousand fellahs, intrenched
+in the village of Sediman. The battle was conducted in the same manner
+as that of the Pyramids, and like all those fought in Egypt. The fellahs
+were behind the walls of the village, and the horse in the plain. The
+field of battle was thickly strewn with slain. The French lost three
+hundred men. Desaix continued his march during the whole winter, and,
+after a series of actions, reduced Upper Egypt as far as the cataracts.
+He made himself equally feared for his bravery and beloved for his
+clemency. In Cairo, Bonaparte had been named Sultan Kebir, the Fire
+Sultan. In Upper Egypt, Desaix was called the "Just Sultan."
+
+Bonaparte had meanwhile marched to Belbeys, to drive Ibrahim Bey into
+Syria, and he had collected by the way the wrecks of the caravan of
+Mecca, plundered by the Arabs. Returning to Cairo, he continued to
+establish there an entirely French administration. Thus passed the
+winter between 1798 and 1799 in the expectation of important events.
+During this interval, Bonaparte received intelligence of the declaration
+of war by the Porte, and of the preparations which it was making against
+him with the aid of the English. Two armies were being formed, one at
+Rhodes, the other in Syria. These two armies were to act simultaneously
+in the spring of 1799, the one by landing at Abukir near Alexandria, the
+other by crossing the desert which separates Syria from Egypt. Bonaparte
+was instantly aware of his position, and determined, as was his custom,
+to disconcert the enemy and to forestall any offensive movement by a
+sudden attack. He could not cross the desert which parts Egypt from
+Syria in summer, and he resolved to avail himself of the winter for
+destroying the assemblages of troops forming at Acre, at Damascus,
+and in the principal towns. Djezzar, the celebrated pasha of Acre, was
+appointed seraskier of the army collected in Syria. Abd Allah Pasha of
+Damascus commanded its advanced-guard, and had proceeded as far as the
+fort of El Arish, which is the key to Egypt on the side next to Syria.
+Bonaparte resolved to act immediately. He was in communication with the
+tribes of the Lebanon. The Druses, Christian tribes, the Mutualis, and
+schismatic Muhammedans offered him assistance, and ardently wished for
+his coming. By a sudden assault on Jaffa, Acre, and some other badly
+fortified places, he might in a short time gain possession of Syria,
+add this fine conquest to that of Egypt, make himself master of
+the Euphrates, as he was of the Nile, and thus command all the
+communications with India.
+
+[Illustration: 112.jpg A FOUNTAIN AT CAIRO]
+
+Bonaparte commenced his march very early in February at the head of
+Kleber's, Regnier's, Lannes's, Bon's, and Murat's divisions, about
+thirteen thousand strong. He arrived before the fort El Arish on
+February 15th, and, after a slight resistance, the garrison surrendered
+themselves prisoners, to the number of thirteen hundred men. Ibrahim
+Bey, having attempted to relieve it, was put to flight, and, after a
+severe march across the desert, they reached Gaza. They took that place
+in the sight of Djezzar Pasha, and found there, as in the fort of El
+Arish, a great quantity of ammunition and provisions. From Gaza the army
+proceeded to Jaffa (the ancient Joppa), where it arrived on March 3rd.
+This place was surrounded by a massive wall, flanked by towers, and it
+contained a garrison of four thousand men. Bonaparte caused a breach
+to be battered in the wall, and then summoned the commandant, who only
+answered by cutting off the head of the messenger. The assault was made,
+and the place stormed with extraordinary intrepidity, and given up
+for thirty hours to pillage and massacre. Here, too, was found a
+considerable quantity of artillery and supplies of all kinds. There
+were some thousands of prisoners, whom the general could not despatch to
+Egypt, because he had not the ordinary means for escorting them, and he
+would not send them back to the enemy to swell their ranks. Bonaparte
+decided on a terrible measure, the most cruel act of his life.
+Transported into a barbarous country, he had adopted its manners, and he
+ordered all the prisoners to be put to death. The army consummated with
+obedience, but with a sort of horror, the execution that was commanded.
+
+Bonaparte then advanced upon St. Jean d'Acre, the ancient Ptolemais,
+situated at the foot of Mount Carmel. It was the only place that could
+now stop him. If he could make himself master of this fortress, Syria
+would be his. But the ferocious Djezzar had shut himself up there, with
+all his wealth and a strong garrison, and he also reckoned upon support
+from Sir Sidney Smith, then cruising off that coast, who supplied him
+with engineers, artillerymen, and ammunition. It was probable, moreover,
+that he would be soon relieved by the Turkish army collected in Syria,
+which was advancing from Damascus to cross the Jordan. Bonaparte
+hastened to attack the place, in hopes of taking it, as he had done
+Jaffa, before it was reinforced with fresh troops, and before the
+English had time to improve its defences. The trenches were immediately
+opened. The siege artillery sent by sea from Alexandria had been
+intercepted by Sir Sidney Smith, who captured seven vessels out of the
+nine. A breach was effected, and dispositions were made for the assault,
+but the men were stopped by a counterscarp and a ditch. They immediately
+set about mining. The operation was carried on under the fire of all
+the ramparts, and of the fine artillery which Sir Sidney Smith had taken
+from the French. The mine was exploded on April 17th, and blew up only
+a portion of the counterscarp. Unluckily for the French, the place had
+received a reinforcement of several thousand men, a great number of
+gunners trained after the European fashion, and immense supplies. It was
+a siege on a large scale to be carried on with thirteen thousand men,
+almost entirely destitute of artillery. It was necessary to open a new
+mine to blow up the entire counterscarp, and to commence another covered
+way.
+
+Bonaparte now ordered Kleber's division to oppose the passage of the
+Jordan by the army coming from Damascus. The enemy was commanded by Abd
+Allah Pasha of Damascus, and numbered about twenty-five thousand men
+and twelve thousand horse. A desperate battle was fought in the plain of
+Fouli, and for six hours Kleber, with scarcely three thousand infantry
+in square, resisted the utmost fury of the Turkish cavalry. Bonaparte,
+who had been making a rapid march to join Kleber, suddenly made his
+appearance on the field of battle. A tremendous fire, discharged
+instantaneously from the three points of this triangle, assailed the
+Mamluks who were in the midst, drove them in confusion upon one another,
+and made them flee in disorder in all directions. Kleber's division,
+fired with fresh ardour at this sight, rushed upon the village of Eouli,
+stormed it at the point of the bayonet, and made a great carnage among
+the enemy. In a moment the whole multitude was gone, and the plain was
+left covered with dead. During this interval the besiegers had never
+ceased mining and countermining about the walls of St. Jean d'Acre. The
+siege of Acre lasted for sixty-five days. Bonaparte made eight desperate
+but ineffectual assaults upon the city, which were repulsed by eleven
+furious sallies on the part of the besieged garrison. It was absolutely
+necessary to relinquish the enterprise. The strategic point in the East
+was lost.
+
+[Illustration: 116b.jpg Cairo--Eskibieh Quarter]
+
+For two months the army had been before Acre; it had sustained
+considerable losses, and it would have been imprudent to expose it to
+more. The plague was in Acre, and the army had caught the contagion at
+Jaffa. The season for landing troops approached, and the arrival of a
+Turkish army near the mouths of the Nile was expected. By persisting
+longer, Bonaparte was liable to weaken himself to such a degree as
+not to be able to repulse new enemies. The main point of his plan was
+effected, since he had rendered the enemy in that quarter incapable of
+acting. He now commenced his march to recross the desert.
+
+Bonaparte at length reached Egypt after an expedition of nearly
+three months. It was high time for him to return; for the spirit
+of insurrection had spread throughout the whole Delta. His presence
+produced everywhere submission and tranquillity. He gave orders for
+magnificent festivities at Cairo to celebrate his triumphs in Syria. He
+had to curb not only the inhabitants, but his own generals and the army
+itself. A deep discontent pervaded it. They had been for a whole year
+in Egypt. It was now the month of June, and they were still ignorant of
+what was passing in Europe, and of the disasters of France. They
+merely knew that the Continent was in confusion, and that a new war was
+inevitable. Bonaparte impatiently waited for further particulars, that
+he might decide what course to pursue, and return, in case of need, to
+the first theatre of his exploits. But he hoped first to destroy the
+second Turkish army assembled at Rhodes, the very speedy landing of
+which was announced.
+
+This army, put on board numerous transports and escorted by Sir Sidney
+Smith's squadron, appeared on July 11th in sight of Alexandria, and
+came to anchor in the road of Abukir, where the French squadron had been
+destroyed. The point chosen by the English for landing was the peninsula
+which commands the entrance to the road, and bears the same name. The
+Turks landed with great boldness, attacked the intrenchments sword
+in hand, carried them, and made themselves masters of the village of
+Abukir, putting to death the garrison. The village being taken, it was
+impossible for the fort to hold out, and it was obliged to surrender.
+Marmont, who commanded at Alexandria, left the city at the head of
+twelve hundred men to hasten to the assistance of the troops at Abukir.
+But, learning that the Turks had landed in considerable numbers, he did
+not dare to attempt to throw them into the sea by a bold attack, and
+returned to Alexandria, leaving them to establish themselves quietly in
+the peninsula of Abukir.
+
+[Illustration: 119.jpg CAIRO FROM THE LEFT BANK OF THE NILE]
+
+The Turks amounted to nearly eighteen thousand infantry. They had no
+cavalry, for they had not brought more than three hundred horses, but
+they expected the arrival of Murad Bey, who was to leave Upper Egypt,
+skirt the desert, cross the oases, and throw himself into Abukir with
+two or three thousand Mamluks.
+
+When Bonaparte was informed of the particulars of the landing, he
+immediately left Cairo, and made from that city to Alexandria one of
+those extraordinary marches of which he had given so many examples in
+Italy. He took with him the divisions of Lannes, Bon, and Murat. He had
+ordered Desaix to evacuate Upper Egypt, and Kleber and Regnier, who were
+in the Delta, to approach Abukir. He had chosen the point of Birket,
+midway between Alexandria and Abukir, at which to concentrate his
+forces, and to manouvre according to circumstances. He was afraid that
+an English army had landed with the Turks. The next day, the 7th, he was
+at the entrance of the peninsula.
+
+Bonaparte made his dispositions with his usual promptitude and decision.
+He ordered General D 'Estaing, with some battalions, to march to the
+hill on the left, where the one thousand Turks were posted; Lannes to
+march to that on the right, where the two thousand others were; and
+Murat, who was at the centre, to make the cavalry file on the rear of
+the two hills. D'Estaing marched to the hill on the left and boldly
+ascended it: Murat caused it to be turned by a squadron. The Turks, at
+sight of this, quitted their post, and fell in with the cavalry, which
+cut them to pieces, and drove them into the sea, into which they chose
+rather to throw themselves than to surrender. Precisely the same thing
+was done on the right. Lannes attacked the two thousand janizaries;
+Murat turned them, cut them in pieces, and drove them into the sea.
+D'Estaing and Lannes then moved towards the centre, formed by a village,
+and attacked it in front. The Turks there defended themselves bravely,
+reckoning upon assistance from the second line. A column did in fact
+advance from the camp of Abukir; but Murat, who had already filed upon
+the rear of the village, fell sword in hand upon this column, and drove
+it back into Abukir. D'Estaing's infantry and that of Lannes entered the
+village at the charge step, driving the Turks out of it, who were pushed
+in all directions, and who, obstinately refusing to surrender, had no
+retreat but the sea, in which they were drowned.
+
+From four to five thousand had already perished in this manner.
+The first line was carried: Bonaparte's object was accomplished. He
+immediately followed up his success with desperate fighting to complete
+his victory on the moment. The Turks, affrighted, fled on all sides, and
+a horrible carnage was made among them. They were pursued at the point
+of the bayonet and thrust into the sea. More than twelve thousand
+corpses were floating in the bay of Abukir, and two or three thousand
+more had perished by the fire or by the sword. The rest, shut up in the
+fort, had no rescue but the clemency of the conqueror. Such was that
+extraordinary battle in which a hostile army was entirely destroyed.
+Thus, either by the expedition to Syria, or by the battle of Abukir,
+Egypt was delivered, at least for a time, from the forces of the Porte.
+
+Having arrived in the summer before the inundation, Bonaparte had
+employed the first moments in gaining possession of Alexandria and the
+capital, which he had secured by the battle of the Pyramids. In the
+autumn, after the inundation, he had completed the conquest of the
+Delta, and consigned that of Upper Egypt to Desaix. In the winter he had
+undertaken the expedition to Syria, and destroyed Djezzar's Turkish army
+at Mount Tabor. He had now, in the second summer, just destroyed the
+second army of the Porte at Abukir. The time had thus been well spent;
+and, while Victory was forsaking in Europe the banners of France, she
+adhered to them in Africa and Asia. The tricolour waved triumphant over
+the Nile and the Jordan, and over the places which were the cradle of
+the Christian religion.
+
+Bonaparte was as yet ignorant of what was passing in France. None of the
+despatches from the Directory or from his brothers had reached him,
+and he was a prey to the keenest anxiety. With a view to obtaining some
+intelligence, he ordered brigs to cruise about, to stop all merchantmen,
+and to gain from them information of the occurrences in Europe. He
+sent to the Turkish fleet a flag of truce, which, under the pretext of
+negotiating an exchange of prisoners, was for the purpose of obtaining
+news. Sir Sidney Smith stopped this messenger, treated him exceedingly
+well, and, perceiving that Bonaparte was ignorant of the disasters of
+France, took a spiteful pleasure in sending him a packet of newspapers.
+The messenger returned and delivered the packet to Bonaparte. The latter
+spent the whole night in devouring the contents of those papers,
+and informing himself of what was passing in his own country. His
+determination was immediately taken, and he resolved to embark secretly
+for Europe, and on August 22nd, taking with him Berthier, Lannes, Murat,
+Andreossy, Marmont, Berthollet, and Monge, and escorted by some of his
+guides, he proceeded to a retired spot on the beach, where boats were
+awaiting them. They got into them and went on board the frigates, _La
+Muiron_ and _La Carrere_. They set sail immediately, that by daylight
+they might be out of sight of the English cruisers. Unfortunately
+it fell calm; fearful of being surprised, some were for returning to
+Alexandria, but Bonaparte resolved to proceed. "Be quiet," said he, "we
+shall pass in safety." Like Caesar, he reckoned upon his fortune. Menou,
+who alone had been initiated into the secret, made known in Alexandria
+the departure of General Bonaparte, and the appointment which he had
+made of General Kleber to succeed him. This intelligence caused a
+painful surprise throughout the army. The most opprobrious epithets
+were applied to this departure. They did not consider that irresistible
+impulse of patriotism and ambition, which, on the news of the disasters
+of the republic, had urged him to return to France. They perceived only
+the forlorn state in which he had left the unfortunate army, which had
+felt sufficient confidence in his genius to follow him.
+
+Kleber was not fond of General Bonaparte, and endured his ascendency
+with a sort of impatience, and now he was sorry that he had quitted the
+banks of the Rhine for the banks of the Nile. The chief command did
+not counterbalance the necessity of remaining in Egypt, for he took no
+pleasure in commanding.
+
+[Illustration: 124.jpg STATUE OF GENERAL KLEBER AT STRASBURG]
+
+Kleber, however, was the most popular of the generals among the
+soldiery. His name was hailed by them with entire confidence, and
+somewhat cheered them for the loss of the illustrious commander who had
+just left them. He returned to Cairo, assumed the command with a sort of
+ostentation, and took possession of the fine Arabian mansion which his
+predecessor had occupied in the Ezbekieh Place. But it was not long
+before the solicitudes of the chief command, which were insupportable
+to him, the new dangers with which the Turks and the English threatened
+Egypt, and the grief of exile, which was general, filled his soul with
+the most gloomy discouragement.
+
+Kleber, together with Poussielgue, the administrator of the army, at
+once prepared and addressed despatches to the Directory, placing the
+condition of the troops, the finances, and the number of the enemy in
+the most melancholy light. These despatches fell into the hands of the
+English, and the duplicate reports found their way into the hands of
+Bonaparte himself. Bonaparte had left instructions with Kleber to meet
+every possible contingency during his absence, even to the necessity of
+an evacuation of Egypt. "I am going to France," said he, "either as a
+private man or as a public man; I will get reinforcement sent to you.
+But if by next spring (he was writing in August, 1799) you have received
+no supplies, no instructions; if the plague has carried off more than
+fifteen hundred men, independently of losses by war; if a considerable
+force, which you should be incapable of resisting, presses you hard,
+negotiate with the vizier: consent even, if it must be so, to an
+evacuation; subject to one condition, that of referring to the French
+government; and meanwhile continue to occupy. You will thus have gained
+time, and it is impossible that, during the interval, you should not
+have received succour."
+
+The instructions were very sound; but the case foreseen was far from
+being realised at the time when Kleber determined to negotiate for the
+evacuation of Egypt. Murad Bey, disheartened, was a fugitive in Upper
+Egypt with a few Mamluks. Ibrahim Bey, who, under the government of
+the Mamluks, shared the sovereignty with him, was then in Lower Egypt
+towards the frontier of Syria.. He had four hundred horse. Djezzar
+Pasha was shut up in St. Jean d'Acre, and, so far from preparing a
+reinforcement of men for the army of the grand vizier, he viewed, on the
+contrary, with high displeasure, the approach of a fresh Turkish army,
+now that his pashalik was delivered from the French. As for the grand
+vizier, he was not yet across the Taurus. The English had their troops
+at Mahon, and were not at this moment aggressive. At Kleber's side was
+General Menou, who viewed everything under the most favourable colours,
+and believed the French to be invincible in Egypt, and regarded the
+expedition as the commencement of a near and momentous revolution in the
+commerce of the world. Kleber and Menou were both honest, upright men;
+but one wanted to leave Egypt, the other to stay in it; the clearest and
+most authentic returns conveyed to them totally contrary significations;
+misery and ruin to one, abundance and success to the other.
+
+In September, 1799, Desaix, having completed the conquest and
+subjugation of Upper Egypt, had left two movable columns for the pursuit
+of Murad Bey, to whom he had offered peace on condition of his becoming
+a vassal of France. He then returned to Cairo by the order of Kleber,
+who wished to make use of his name in those negotiations into which
+he was about to enter. During these proceedings, the army of the grand
+vizier, so long announced, was slowly advancing. Sir Sidney Smith, who
+convoyed with his squadron the Turkish troops destined to be transported
+by sea, had just arrived off Dami-etta with eight thousand janizaries,
+and on the first of November, 1799, the landing of the first division
+of four thousand janizaries was effected. At the first tidings of this
+disembarkation, Kleber had despatched Desaix with a column of three
+thousand men; but the latter, uselessly sent to Damietta, had found the
+victory won,--the Turkish division having been completely destroyed by
+General Verdier,--and the French filled with unbounded confidence.
+This brilliant achievement ought to have served to encourage Kleber;
+unfortunately, he was swayed at once by his own lack of confidence and
+that of the army. In this disposition of mind, Kleber had sent one
+of his officers to the vizier (who had entered Syria), to make new
+overtures of peace. General Bonaparte, with a view to embroiling the
+vizier with the English, had previously entertained the idea of setting
+on foot negotiations, which, on his part, were nothing more than a
+feint. His overtures had been received with great distrust and pride.
+Kleber 's advances met with a favourable reception, through the
+influence of Sir Sidney Smith, who was preparing to play a prominent
+part in the affairs of Egypt. This officer had largely contributed to
+prevent the success of the siege of St. Jean d'Acre; he was proud of it,
+and had devised a _ruse de guerre_ by taking advantage of a momentary
+weakness to wrest from the French their valuable conquest. With this
+view, he had disposed the grand vizier to listen to the overtures
+of Kleber. Kleber, on his part, despatched Desaix and Poussielgue as
+negotiators to Sir Sidney Smith; for, since the English were masters of
+the sea, he wished to induce them to take part in the negotiation,
+so that the return to France might be rendered possible. Sir Sidney
+manifested a disposition to enter into arrangements, acting as "Minister
+Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty," and attributing to himself
+a power which he had ceased to hold since the arrival of Lord Elgin
+as ambassador at Constantinople. Poussielgue was an advocate for
+evacuation; Desaix just the reverse. The conditions proposed by Kleber
+were unreasonable: not that they were an exorbitant equivalent for what
+was given up in giving up Egypt, but because they were not feasible.
+Sir Sidney made Kleber sensible of this. Officers treating for a mere
+suspension of arms could not include topics of vast extent in their
+negotiation, such as the demand for the possession of the Venetian
+Islands, and the annulment of the Triple Alliance. But it was urgently
+necessary to settle two points immediately: the departure of the wounded
+and of the scientific men attached to the expedition, for whom Desaix
+solicited safe-conduct; and secondly, a suspension of arms, for the army
+of the grand vizier, though marching slowly, would soon be in presence
+of the French. It had actually arrived before the fort of El Arish,
+the first French post on the frontiers of Syria, and had summoned it to
+surrender. The negotiations, in fact, had been going on for a fortnight
+on board _Le Tigre_, while floating at the pleasure of the winds off the
+coasts of Syria and Egypt: the parties had said all they had to say, and
+the negotiations could not be continued to any useful purpose without
+the concurrence of the grand vizier. Sir Sidney, availing himself of a
+favourable moment, pushed off in a boat which landed him on the coast,
+after incurring some danger, and ordered the captain of _Le Tigre_ to
+meet him in the port of Jaffa, where Poussielgue and Desaix were to be
+put ashore, if the conferences were to be transferred to the camp of the
+grand vizier.
+
+At the moment when the English commodore reached the camp, a horrible
+event had occurred at El Arish. The grand vizier had collected around
+him an army of seventy or eighty thousand fanatic Mussulmans. The
+Turks were joined by the Mamluks. Ibrahim Bey, who had some time before
+retired to Syria, and Murad Bey, who had descended by a long circuit
+from the cataracts to the environs of Suez, had become the auxiliaries
+of their former adversaries. The English had made for this army a sort
+of field-artillery, drawn by mules. The fort of El Arish, before which
+the Turks were at this moment, was, according to the declaration of
+General Bonaparte, one of the two keys of Egypt; Alexandria was the
+other.
+
+The Turkish advanced-guard having reached El Arish, Colonel Douglas,
+an English officer in the service of Turkey, summoned Cazals, the
+commandant, to surrender. The culpable sentiments which the officers had
+too much encouraged in the army then burst forth. The soldiers in the
+garrison at El Arish, vehemently longing, like their comrades, to leave
+Egypt, declared to the commandant that they would not fight, and that he
+must make up his mind to surrender the fort.
+
+[Illustration: 130.jpg A MODERN FANATIC]
+
+The gallant Cazals indignantly refused, and a struggle with the
+Turks ensued. During this contest, the recreants, who insisted on
+surrendering, threw ropes to the Turks; these ferocious enemies, once
+hoisted up into the fort, rushed, sword in hand, upon those who had
+given them admission into the fort, and slaughtered a great number
+of them. The others, brought back to reason, joined the rest of the
+garrison, and, defending themselves with desperate courage, were most of
+them killed. A small number obtained quarter, thanks to that humane and
+distinguished officer, Colonel Douglas.
+
+It was now the 30th of December: the letter written by Sir Sidney Smith
+to the grand vizier, to propose to him a suspension of arms, had not
+reached him in time to prevent the melancholy catastrophe at El Arish.
+Sir Sidney Smith was a man of generous feelings: this barbarous massacre
+of a French garrison horrified him, and, above all, it made him
+fearful of the rupture of the negotiations. He lost no time in sending
+explanations to Kleber, both in his own name and that of the grand
+vizier, and he added the formal assurance that all hostility should
+cease during the negotiations.
+
+Kleber, when informed of the massacre of El Arish, did not manifest as
+much indignation as he ought to have done; he was aware that, if he was
+too warm upon that subject, all the negotiations might be broken off.
+He was more urgent than ever for a suspension of arms; and, at the
+same time, by way of precaution, and to be nearer to the theatre of
+the conferences, he left Cairo, and transferred his headquarters to
+Salahieh, on the very border of the desert, two days' march from El
+Arish.
+
+In the meantime, Desaix and Poussielgue, detained by contrary winds,
+had not been able to land at Gaza till the 11th, and to reach El Arish
+before the 13th.
+
+The evacuation and its conditions soon became the sole subject of
+negotiation. After long discussions it was agreed that all hostility
+should cease for three months; that those three months should be
+employed by the vizier in collecting, in the ports of Rosetta, Abukir,
+and Alexandria, the vessels requisite for the conveyance of the French
+army; by General Kleber, in evacuating the Upper Nile, Cairo, and the
+contiguous provinces, and in concentrating his troops about the point of
+embarkation; that the French should depart with the honours of war;
+that they should cease to impose contributions; but that, in return,
+the French army should receive three thousand purses, equivalent at that
+time to three million francs, and representing the sum necessary for its
+subsistence during the evacuation and the passage. The forts of Katieh,
+Salahieh, and the Belbeys, forming the frontier of Egypt towards the
+desert of Syria, were to be given up ten days after the ratification;
+Cairo forty days after.
+
+The terms of the convention being arranged, there was nothing more to
+be done but sign it. Kleber, who had a vague feeling of his fault,
+determined, in order to cover it, to assemble a council of war, to which
+all the generals of the army were summoned. The council met on the 21st
+of January, 1800. The minutes of it still exist. Desaix, although deeply
+grieved, was swept along by the torrent of popular opinion, gave way
+to it himself, and affixed his signature on the 28th of January to the
+convention of El Arish.
+
+Meanwhile preparations were being made for departure; Sir Sidney Smith
+had returned to his ship. The vizier advanced and took possession,
+consecutively, of the entrenched positions of Katieh, Salahieh, and
+Belbeys, which Kleber, in haste to execute the convention, faithfully
+delivered up to him. Kleber returned to Cairo to make his preparations
+for departure, to call in the troops that were guarding Upper Egypt, to
+concentrate his army, and then to direct it upon Alexandria and Rosetta
+at the time stipulated for embarkation.
+
+While these events were occurring in Egypt, the English cabinet had
+received advice of the overtures made by General Kleber to the grand
+vizier and to Sir Sidney Smith. Believing that the French army was
+reduced to the last extremity, it lost no time in sending off an express
+order not to grant any capitulation unless they surrendered themselves
+prisoners of war. These orders, despatched from London on the 17th of
+December, reached Admiral Keith in the island of Minorca in the first
+days of January, 1800; and, on the 8th of the same month, the admiral
+hastened to forward to Sir Sidney Smith the instructions which he had
+just received from the government. He lost no time in writing to Kleber,
+to express his mortification, to apprise him honestly of what was
+passing, to advise him to suspend immediately the delivery of the
+Egyptian fortresses to the grand vizier, and to conjure him to wait
+for fresh orders from England before he took any definite resolutions.
+Unfortunately, when these advices from Sir Sidney arrived at Cairo, the
+French army had already executed in part the treaty of El Arish.
+
+Kleber instantly countermanded all the orders previously given to the
+army. He brought back from Lower Egypt to Cairo part of the troops that
+had already descended the Nile; he ordered his stores to be sent up
+again; he urged the division of Upper Egypt to make haste to rejoin him,
+and gave notice to the grand vizier to suspend his march towards Cairo,
+otherwise he should immediately commence hostilities. The grand vizier
+replied that the convention of El Arish was signed; that it must be
+executed; that, in consequence, he should advance towards the capital.
+At the same instant, an officer sent from Minorca with a letter from
+Lord Keith to Kleber, arrived at the headquarters. Kleber, fired with
+indignation at the demand for surrender, caused Lord Keith's letter
+to be inserted in the order of the day, adding to it these few words:
+"Soldiers, to such insults there is no other answer than victory.
+Prepare for action."
+
+Agents from Sir Sidney had hastened up to interpose between the French
+and the Turks, and to make fresh proposals of accommodation. Letters,
+they said, had just been written to London, and, when the convention of
+El Arish was known there, it would be ratified to a certainty; in this
+situation, it would not be right to suspend hostilities, and wait. To
+this the grand vizier and Kleber consented, but on conditions that were
+irreconcilable. The grand vizier insisted that Cairo should be given up
+to him; Kleber, on the contrary, that the vizier should fall back to the
+frontier. Under these conditions, fighting was the only resource.
+
+On the 20th of March, 1800, in the plain of Heliopolis, ten thousand
+soldiers, by superiority in discipline and courage, dispersed seventy
+or eighty thousand foes. Kleber gave orders for the pursuit on the
+following day. When he had ascertained with his own eyes that the
+Turkish army had disappeared, he resolved to return and reduce the towns
+of Lower Egypt, and Cairo in particular, to their duty.
+
+He arrived at Cairo on the 27th of March. Important events had occurred
+there since his departure. The population of that great city, which
+numbered nearly three hundred thousand inhabitants, fickle, inflammable,
+inclined to change, had followed the suggestions of Turkish emissaries,
+and fallen upon the French the moment they heard the cannon at
+Heliopolis. Pouring forth outside the walls during the battle, and
+seeing Nassif-Pasha and Ibrahim Bey, with some thousand horse and
+janizaries, they supposed them to be the conquerors. Taking good care
+not to undeceive the inhabitants, the Turks affirmed that the grand
+vizier had gained a complete victory, and that the French were
+exterminated. At these tidings, fifty thousand men had risen in Cairo,
+at Bulak, and at Gizeh, and Cairo became a scene of plunder, rapine, and
+murder.
+
+[Illustration: 137.jpg CITADEL OF CAIRO]
+
+During these transactions, General Friant arrived, detached from
+Belbeys, and lastly Kleber himself. Though conqueror of the grand
+vizier's army, Kleber had a serious difficulty to surmount to subdue an
+immense city, peopled by three hundred thousand inhabitants, partly in
+a state of revolt, occupied by twenty thousand Turks, and built in the
+Oriental style; that is to say, having narrow streets, divided into
+piles of masonry, which were real fortresses. These edifices, receiving
+light from within, and exhibiting without nothing but lofty walls, had
+terraces instead of roofs, from which the insurgents poured a downward
+and destructive fire. Add to this that the Turks were masters of the
+whole city, excepting the citadel and the square of Ezbekieh, which,
+in a manner, they had blockaded by closing the streets that ran into it
+with embattled walls.
+
+In this situation, Kleber showed as much prudence as he had just
+shown energy in the field. He resolved to gain time, and to let the
+insurrection wear itself out. The insurgents could not fail at length
+to be undeceived respecting the general state of things in Egypt, and to
+learn that the French were everywhere victorious, and the vizier's army
+dispersed. Nassif-Pasha's Turks, Ibrahim Bey's Mamluks, and the Arab
+population of Cairo could not agree together long. For all these
+reasons, Kleber thought it advisable to temporise and to negotiate.
+
+While he was gaining time, he completed his treaty of alliance with
+Murad Bey. He granted to him the province of Sai'd, under the supremacy
+of France, on condition of paying a tribute equivalent to a considerable
+part of the imposts of that province. Murad Bey engaged, moreover, to
+fight for the French; and the French engaged, if they should ever quit
+the country, to facilitate for him the occupation of Egypt. Murad Bey
+faithfully adhered to the treaty which he had just signed, and began
+by driving from Upper Egypt a Turkish corps which had occupied it. The
+insurgents of Cairo obstinately refused to capitulate, and an attack by
+main force was, therefore, indispensable for completing the reduction of
+the city, during which several thousand Turks, Mamluks, and insurgents
+were killed, and four thousand houses were destroyed by fire. Thus
+terminated that sanguinary struggle, which had commenced with the battle
+of Heliopolis on the 20th of March, and which ended on the 25th of
+April with the departure of the last lieutenants of the vizier, after
+thirty-five days' fighting between twenty thousand French on one side,
+and, on the other, the whole force of the Ottoman empire, seconded by
+the revolt of the Egyptian towns.
+
+In the Delta all the towns had returned to a state of complete
+submission. Murad Bey had driven from Upper Egypt the Turkish detachment
+of Dervish Pasha. The vanquished everywhere trembled before the
+conqueror, and expected a terrible chastisement. Kleber, who was humane
+and wise, took good care not to repay cruelties with cruelties. The
+Egyptians were persuaded that they should be treated harshly; they
+conceived that the loss of life and property would atone for the crime
+of those who had risen in revolt. Kleber called them together, assumed
+at first a stern look, but afterwards pardoned them, merely imposing a
+contribution on the insurgent villages. Cairo paid ten million francs,
+a burden far from onerous for so large a city, and the inhabitants
+considered themselves as most fortunate to get off so easily. Eight
+millions more were imposed upon the rebel towns of Lower Egypt. The
+army, proud of its victories, confident in its strength, knowing that
+General Bonaparte was at the head of the government, ceased to doubt
+that it would soon receive reinforcements. Kleber had in the plain of
+Heliopolis made the noblest amends for his momentary faults.
+
+He entered upon a second conquest, showing clemency and humanity on
+all sides, and everywhere he laboured hard to encourage the arts and
+industries and agriculture. He assembled the administrators of the army,
+the persons best acquainted with the country, and turned his attention
+to the organisation of the finances of the colony. He restored the
+collection of the direct contributions to the Kopts, to whom it had
+formerly been entrusted, and imposed some new customs' duties and taxes
+on articles of consumption. He gave orders for the completion of the
+forts constructing around Cairo, and set men to work at those of Lesbeh,
+Damietta, Burlos, and Rosetta, situated on the sea-coast. He pressed
+forward the works of Alexandria, and imparted fresh activity to the
+scientific researches of the Institute of Egypt, and a valuable mass of
+information was embodied in the great French work, the "Description
+de l'Egypte." From the cataracts to the mouths of the Nile, everything
+assumed the aspect of a solid and durable establishment. Two months
+afterwards, the caravans of Syria, Arabia, and Darfur began to appear
+again at Cairo.
+
+But a deplorable event snatched away General Kleber in the midst of his
+exploits and of his judicious government. He was assassinated in the
+garden of his palace by a young man, a native of Aleppo, named Suleiman,
+who was a prey to extravagant fanaticism.
+
+With Kleber's death, Egypt was lost for France. Menou, who succeeded
+him, was very far beneath such a task. The English offered to make good
+the convention of El Arish, but Menou refused, and England prepared for
+an invasion, after attempting vainly to co-operate with the Turks.
+
+Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who had been appointed as British commissioner,
+landed with the English army alone at Abukir. After fierce skirmishing,
+the French and English met on the plains of Alexandria. In the frightful
+conflict which ensued, Sir Ralph Abercrombie was slain, but the battle
+ended with the retreat of the French. Damietta surrendered on April
+19th. The French were now divided, while Menou hesitated. General
+Hutchinson took the place of the deceased British commander. A great
+battle was fought at Cairo, which was won by the British, and the
+capital itself now fell into their hands. General Hutchinson then
+closed in upon Alexandria; and, after hard fighting, Menou at length
+surrendered. The French troops were allowed to return to France with all
+their belongings, except the artillery, August 27, 1801.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.--THE RULE OF MEHEMET ALI
+
+
+_Mehemet's rise to power: Massacre of the Mamluks: Invasion of the
+Morea: Battle of Navarino: Struggle with the Porte: Abbas Pasha,
+Muhammed Said, and Ismail Pasha: Ismail's lavish expenditure: Foreign
+bondholders and the Dual Control._
+
+
+From the beginning of the eighteenth century, the destiny of Egypt
+was the destiny of one man; he aided the political movements, and
+accelerated or retarded social activity; he swayed both commerce and
+agriculture, and organised the army to his liking; he was the heart and
+brain of this mysterious country. Under the watchful eyes of Europe,
+attentive for more than forty years, this Macedonian soldier became the
+personification of the nation under his authority, and, in the main, the
+history of the country may be summed up in the biography of Mehemet Ali.
+If we consider the events of his life, and the diverse roads by which
+he reached the apogee of his fortunes, reviewing the scenes, now sombre,
+now magnificent, of that remarkable fate, we obtain a complete picture
+of Egypt itself, seen from the most intimate, real, and striking point
+of view.
+
+According to the most authentic accounts, Mehemet Ali was born in 1768
+(a. h. 1182), at Cavala, a seaport in Turkey in Europe. He was yet
+very young when he lost his father, Ibrahim Agha, and soon after this
+misfortune, his uncle and sole remaining relative, Tussun-Agha, was
+beheaded by order of the Porte. Left an orphan, Mehemet Ali was adopted
+by the Tchorbadji of Praousta, an old friend of his father, who brought
+him up with his own son. The boy spent his early youth in the discharge
+of unimportant military duties, where, however, he frequently found
+opportunity to display his intelligence and courage. He was even able to
+render many services to his protector in the collecting of taxes, which
+was always a difficult matter in Turkey, and occasionally necessitated a
+regular military expedition.
+
+Anxious to reward Mehemet for all his services, and also doubtless
+desirous of a still closer connection, the aged Tchorbadji married him
+to his daughter. This was the beginning of the young man's success; he
+was then eighteen years old. Dealings with a French merchant of Cavala
+had inspired him with a taste for commerce, and, devoting himself to it,
+he speculated with much success, chiefly in tobacco, the richest product
+of his country.
+
+This period of his life was not without its influence upon Egypt, for we
+know how strenuously the pasha endeavoured to develop the commercial and
+manufacturing industries.
+
+The French invasion surprised him in the midst of these peaceful
+occupations. The Porte, having raised an army in Macedonia, ordered the
+Tchorbadji to furnish a contingent of three hundred men, who entrusted
+the command of this small force to his son Ali Agha, appointing Mehemet
+Ali, whose merit and courage he fully appreciated, as his lieutenant.
+The Macedonain recruits rejoined the forces of the pasha-captain, and
+landed with the grand vizier at Abukir, where was fought that battle
+which resulted in victory for France and the complete defeat of the
+sultan's army. Completely demoralised by this overthrow, Ali Agha left
+Mehemet Ali in command of his troops, and quitted the army.
+
+It is well to consider in a brief survey the state of the country at
+the moment when the incapacity of General Menou compelled the French to
+withdraw from Egypt. Arrayed against each other were the troops of the
+sultan, numbering four thousand Albanians and those forces sent from
+England under the command of Admiral Keith, on one side; and on the
+other were the Mamluks striving for supremacy; and it was a question
+whether this powerful force would once more rule Egypt as before the
+French invasion, or whether the country would again fall under the
+dominion of the Porte.
+
+There was occasion for anxiety among the Mamluks themselves; their
+two principal beys, Osman-Bardisi and Muhammed el-Elfi, instead of
+strengthening their forces by acting in concert, as Murad Bey and
+Ibrahim Bey had done before the French occupation, permitted their
+rivalry for power so completely to absorb them that it was finally the
+means of encompassing their ruin and that of their party.
+
+The first pasha invested with the viceroyalty of Egypt after the
+departure of the French troops was Muhammed Khusurf, who faithfully
+served the Porte. His government was able and zealous, but the
+measures he employed against his haughty antagonists lacked the lofty
+intelligence indispensable to so difficult a task. Muhammed Khusurf,
+whose rivalry with Mehemet Ali had for some years attracted European
+attention, found himself at last face to face with his future opponent.
+
+Mehemet Ali, by dint of hard work and the many important services
+rendered to his country, had passed through successive stages of
+promotion to the rank of serchime, which gave him the command of three
+or four thousand Albanians. Foreseeing his opportunity, he had employed
+himself in secretly strengthening his influence over his subordinates;
+he allied himself with the Mam-luks, opened the gates of Cairo to them,
+and, joining Osman-Bardisi, marched against Khusurf. He pursued the
+viceroy to Damietta, taking possession of the town, conducted his
+prisoner to Cairo, where he placed him in the custody of the aged
+Ibrahim Bey, the Nestor of the Mamluks (1803).
+
+At this moment, the second Mamluk bey, Muhammed el-Elfi, returned from
+England, whither he had accompanied the British to demand protection
+when they evacuated Alexandria in March of the same year, and landed
+at Abukir. This arrival filled Bardisi with the gravest anxiety, for
+Muhammed el-Elfi was his equal in station, and would share his power
+even if he did not deprive him of the position he had recently acquired
+through his own efforts. These fears were but too well founded. Whilst
+Bardisi was securing his position by warfare, el-Elfi had gained the
+protection of England, and, as its price, had pledged himself to much
+that would compromise the future of Egypt.
+
+Far from openly joining one or other of the rival parties, Mehemet Ali
+contented himself with fanning the flame of their rivalry. The rank
+of Albanian captain, which gave him the air of a subaltern, greatly
+facilitated the part he intended to play. He worked quietly and with
+unending perseverance. Flattering the ambitions of some, feeding
+the resentment of others, winning the weak-minded with soft words,
+overcoming the strong by his own strength; presiding over all the
+revolutions in Cairo, upholding the cause of the pashas when the Mamluks
+needed support, and, when the pasha had acquired a certain amount of
+power, uniting himself with the Mamluk against his allies of yesterday;
+above all, neglecting nothing which could secure him the support of the
+people, and making use for this end of the sheikhs and Oulemas, whom
+he conciliated, some by religious appearances, others by his apparent
+desire for the public good, he thus maintained his position during the
+numerous changes brought about by the respective parties.
+
+At length, in the beginning of March, 1805, as the people were beginning
+to weary of disturbances as violent as they were frequent, Mehemet Ali
+promised the sheikhs to restore peace and order if they would assure him
+their co-operation and influence. He then incited a revolt against the
+Oulemas, besieged Kourshyd Pasha in the citadel, made himself master of
+Cairo in the space of a few days, and finished his work by expelling
+the Mamluks. The Albanians and Oulemas, completely carried away by his
+valour and manouvres, proclaimed him pasha immediately. Always prudent,
+and anxious to establish his claims upon the favour of the Porte,
+Mehemet Ali feigned to refuse. After considerable hesitation, which
+gave way before some costly gifts, or possibly on consideration of the
+difficulties hitherto experienced in establishing the authority of the
+pashas, the Turkish government determined to confirm the choice of
+the Egyptian people. Mehemet Ali received, therefore, the firman of
+investiture on July 9,1805; but during the ensuing seven months he
+governed in Lower Egypt only, Alexandria still being under the authority
+of an officer delegated by the sultan. As for Upper Egypt, it had
+remained the appanage of the Mamluk beys, who had contrived to retain
+possession of the Said.
+
+Mehemet Ali had no sooner been proclaimed than Elfi, who had reorganised
+his party in Upper Egypt, did all in his power to overthrow the
+new pasha. He first offered to assist Kourshyd to regain his former
+position; he promised his allegiance to the Porte on condition of the
+dismissal of Mehemet Ali, and then turned his attention to England. He
+found difficulty in obtaining her concurrence by promising to give up
+the chief ports of Egypt. These negotiations, suspended the first time
+by M. Dro-vetti, the French consul at Alexandria, co-operating with the
+pasha, were again renewed some time after through the influence of
+the English ambassador, who, in the name of his country, demanded the
+re-establishment of the Mamluks, guaranteeing the fidelity of Elfi. The
+Porte at once sent a fleet to Egypt bearing a firman, appointing Mehemet
+Ali to the pashalic of Salonica. At this juncture, the viceroy, feeling
+sure of the support of the sheikhs, who had assisted him to his present
+position, only sought to temporise. He soon received the further
+support of the Mamluk beys of Bardisi's party, who forgot their personal
+grievances in the desire to be revenged upon the common foe; at the same
+time, twenty-five French Mamluks, urged thereto by M. Drovetti, deserted
+the ranks of Elfi's adherents and joined Mehemet Ali.
+
+The Pasha of Egypt possessed a zealous partisan in the French ambassador
+at Constantinople. The latter, perceiving that the secession of
+the Mamluks made the regaining of their former power an absolute
+impossibility, pleaded the cause of Mehemet Ali with the Porte, and
+obtained a firman re-establishing his viceroyalty, on condition of his
+payment of an annual tribute of about $1,000,000.
+
+The power of Mehemet Ali was beginning to be more firmly established,
+and the almost simultaneous deaths of Osman-Bardisi and Muhammed el-Elfi
+(November, 1806, and January, 1807) seemed to promise a peaceful future,
+when, on March 17th, the English, displeased at his reconciliation with
+the Porte, arrived in Egypt. Their forces numbered some seven or eight
+thousand men, and it was the intention to stir up the Mamluks and
+render them every assistance. A detachment of the English forces, led
+by General Fraser, took possession of Alexandria, which the English
+occupied for six months without being able to attempt any other
+enterprise. The remainder of the troops were cut to pieces at Rosetta by
+a small contingent of Albanians: thus ended the expedition. The viceroy,
+who at the beginning of the campaign had displayed really Oriental
+cruelty, and sent more than a thousand heads of English soldiers to
+Cairo to decorate Rumlieh, finished his operations by an act of European
+generosity, and delivered up his prisoners without demanding ransom. The
+plan of defence adopted by the pasha was the work of Drovetti, to whom,
+consequently, is due some of the glory of this rapid triumph.
+
+Mehemet Ali, having nothing further to fear from the English, who
+evacuated Egypt in September, 1807, began to give scope to his ambitious
+schemes, when the easily disturbed policy of the Porte saw fit to send
+the wily pasha against the Wahabis, who threatened to invade the Holy
+Places. Before obeying these injunctions, the viceroy deemed it wise,
+previous to engaging in a campaign so perilous, to ensure Egypt against
+the dangers with which, in the absence of the forces, she would be
+menaced.
+
+[Illustration: 151.jpg MOSQUE OF MEHEMIT ALI]
+
+But Egypt had no more powerful enemies than the Mamluks, who, since
+1808, had kept the country in a constant state of agitation. Mehemet Ali
+therefore determined to put an end to this civil war, root and branch,
+and to exterminate completely this formidable adversary. He did not
+hesitate in the choice of means. War would not have succeeded; murder,
+therefore, was the only alternative, and the viceroy adopted this
+horrible means of accomplishing his designs. He invited the entire
+Mam-luk corps to a banquet, which he proposed to give in the Citadel
+Palace in honour of the departure of Tussun Pasha for Mecca. This palace
+is built upon a rock, and is reached by perpendicular paths. On May 1st,
+the day fixed upon for the festivity, Mehemet Ali received his guests
+in great splendour and with a cordiality calculated to dispel any
+suspicions the Mamluks might have entertained. At the conclusion of
+the banquet, as they were returning home, they were fired upon in the
+narrow pass, where retreat and resistance were perfectly impossible.
+Thus, after having defeated the bravest troops in the world, they died
+obscurely, ingloriously, and unable to defend themselves. Hassan Bey,
+brother of the celebrated Elfi, spurred his horse to a gallop, rode over
+the parapets, and fell, bruised and bleeding, at the foot of the walls,
+where some Arabs saved him from certain death by aiding his flight. The
+few who escaped massacre took refuge in Syria or Dongola.
+
+Whilst this horrible drama was being enacted in Cairo, similar scenes
+were taking place in those provinces whose governors had received
+stringent commands to butcher every remaining Mamluk in Egypt. THUs
+nearly all perished, and that famous corps was destroyed for ever.
+
+Although Mehemet Ali had no doubt whatever as to the intentions which
+had prompted the Porte to organise the expedition against the Wahabis,
+he hastened to prepare for this lengthy war. Mehemet himself was in
+command of an army in the Hedjaz when Latif Pasha arrived, bearing a
+firman of investiture to the pashalic of Egypt. Luckily, Mehemet Ali on
+his departure had left behind him, as vekyl, a trustworthy man devoted
+to his interests, namely, Mehemet Bey. This faithful minister pretended
+to favour the claims of Latif Pasha, and then arrested him, and had him
+publicly executed.
+
+From this moment the real reign of Mehemet Ali begins. Possessed of a
+fertile country, he promptly began to consider the ways and means of
+improving the deplorable state of its finances, and to grasp all the
+resources which agriculture and commerce could yield for the realisation
+of his ambitious schemes. Nothing must be neglected in the government of
+a country for so many years the scene of incessant warfare; the labourer
+must be made to return to the field he had deserted during the time
+of trouble; political and civil order must be reestablished so as to
+reassure the inhabitants, and secure the resumption of long abandoned
+industries.
+
+The most important matter was to restrain the depredations of the
+Bedouins, and, to assure the obedience of these hitherto unsubdued
+tribes, he kept their sheikhs as hostages: at the same time he checked
+the delinquencies of the Kopts, in whose hands the government of the
+territories had been from time immemorial. A sure and certain peace thus
+having been ensured to the interior of the country, the pasha turned his
+attention to another enterprise, the accomplishment of which is always
+somewhat difficult after a lengthy crisis. He wished to encourage and
+regulate the payment of taxes without hindering the financial operations
+of private individuals. To this end, he re-established the custom of
+receiving tribute in kind, and to support the payment of this tribute he
+organised the export trade. A thousand vessels built at his own expense
+ploughed the waters of the Nile in all directions, and conveyed Egyptian
+produce to the shores of the Mediterranean, where huge warehouses stored
+the goods destined for foreign countries.
+
+Mehemet Ali preserved a continual intercourse with foreign merchants,
+and the country owed many fortunate innovations to these relations:
+agriculture was enriched by several productions hitherto unknown.
+A Frenchman, M. Jumel, introduced improvements in the production of
+cotton, whilst M. Drovetti, the pasha's tried friend, helped to further
+the establishment of manufactories by his advice and great experience of
+men and things. Before long, cotton mills were built, cloth factories, a
+sugar refinery, rum distillery, and saltpetre works erected. The foreign
+trade despatched as much as seven million _ardebs_ of cereals every
+year, and more than six hundred thousand bales of cotton. In return,
+European gold flowed into the treasury of this industrious pasha, and
+the revenues of Egypt, which hitherto had never exceeded $150,000,000,
+were more than doubled in 1816.
+
+The very slight success which Mehemet Ali had obtained when commanding
+the irregular forces during the expedition against the Wahabis decided
+him to put a long-cherished idea into execution, namely, to organise an
+army on European lines. Henceforth this became the sole occupation of
+the enterprising pasha and the exclusive goal of his perseverance.
+The Nizam-Jedyd was proclaimed in the month of July, 1815, and all the
+troops were ordered to model themselves after the pattern of the French
+army.
+
+This large undertaking, which in 1807 had cost Selim III. his life,
+proved almost as fatal to Mehemet Ali. A terrible insurrection broke
+out amongst the alien soldiers, who principally composed the army; the
+infuriated troops rose against the tyrant and the unbeliever, the palace
+was pillaged, and the pasha had scarcely time to seek the shelter of his
+citadel. His only means of saving his life and recovering his authority
+was solemnly to promise to abandon his plan. Mehemet Ali therefore
+deferred his military schemes and awaited the opportunity to test its
+success upon the natives, who would be far more easily managed than the
+excitable strangers, brought up as they were on the old traditions of
+the Okaz and the Mamluks. The war which still raged in Arabia gave
+him the means of ridding himself of the most indomitable men, whom he
+despatched to Hedjaz under the command of Ibrahim Pasha, his eldest son.
+
+Now came success to console Mehemet Ali for the failure of his
+reformatory plans. After a long series of disasters, Ibrahim succeeded,
+in the year 1818, in taking Abd Allah Ibn-Sonud, the chief of the
+Wahabis, prisoner. He sent him to the Great Pasha, a name often applied
+to Mehemet Ali in Egypt, at Cairo, bearing a portion of the jewels
+taken from the temple at Mecca. The unfortunate man was then taken
+to Constantinople, where his punishment bore testimony to the victory
+rather than the clemency of his conquerors.
+
+In reward for his services, the sultan sent Ibrahim a mantle of honour
+and named him Pasha of Egypt, which title conferred on him the highest
+rank among the viziers and pashas, and even placed him above his own
+father in the hierarchy of the dignitaries of the Turkish Empire. At the
+same time Mehemet Ali was raised to the dignity of khan, an attribute
+of the Ottomans, and the greatest distinction obtainable for a pasha,
+inasmuch as it was formerly exclusively reserved for the sovereigns of
+the Crimea.
+
+[Illustration: 157.jpg THE COTTON PLANT]
+
+After destroying Daryeh, the capital of Nedj, Mehemet Ali conceived
+the idea of extending his possessions in the interior of Africa, and
+of subduing the country of the negroes, where he hoped to find much
+treasure. He accordingly sent his son, Ishmail Pasha, with five thousand
+men, upon this expedition, which ended most disastrously with the murder
+of Ishmail and his guard by Melek Nemr, and the destruction of the
+remainder of his forces.
+
+In the year 1824, Sultan Mahmud, realising the impossibility of putting
+down the Greek insurrection by his own unaided forces, bent his pride
+sufficiently to ask help of his vassal Mehemet Ali. Mehemet was now in
+possession of a well-drilled army and a well-equipped fleet, which were
+placed at the service of the sultan, who promised him in return the
+sovereignty of Crete, the pashalic of Syria, and possibly the reversion
+of Morea for his son Ibrahim. The Greeks, deceived by their easy
+successes over the undisciplined Turkish hosts, failed to realise
+the greatness of the danger which threatened them. The Egyptian fleet
+managed, without serious opposition, to enter the Archipelago, and, in
+December, 1824, Ibrahim, to whom Mehemet Ali had entrusted the supreme
+command of the expedition, established his base in Crete, within
+striking distance of the Greek mainland. The following February he
+landed with four thousand regular infantry and five hundred cavalry at
+Modon, in the south of Morea.
+
+The Greeks were utterly unable to hold their own against the
+well-disciplined fellaheen of Ibrahim Bey, and, before the end of
+the year, the whole of the Peloponnesus, with the exception of a few
+strongholds, was at the mercy of the invader, and the report was spread
+that Ibrahim intended to deport the Greek population and re-people the
+country with Moslem negroes and Arabs.
+
+The only barrier opposed to the entire extinction of the Greek
+population was their single stronghold of Missolonghi, which was now
+besieged by Rashid Pasha and the Turks. If Ibrahim had joined his forces
+with the besieging army of the Turks, Missolonghi could hardly have
+resisted their combined attack, and the Greek race would have been in
+danger of suffering annihilation.
+
+Meanwhile the Great Powers of Europe were seriously concerned with
+this threatened destruction of the Greeks. England proposed a joint
+intervention in defence of Greece on the part of the Powers, but Russia
+desired to act alone. A huge army was gradually concentrated upon the
+Turkish frontier. The Greek leaders now offered to place Greece
+under British protection, and the Duke of Wellington was sent to St.
+Petersburg to arrange the terms of the proposed joint intervention. A
+protocol was signed at St. Petersburg April 4, 1826, whereby England
+and Russia pledged themselves to cooperate in preventing any further
+Turco-Egyptian agression. A more definite agreement was reached in
+September, aiming at the cutting off of Ibrahim in Morea by a united
+European fleet, thus forcing the Turks and Egyptians to terms. On July
+6,1827, a treaty was signed at London, between England, France, and
+Russia, which empowered the French and English admirals at Smyrna to
+part the combatants--by peaceful means if possible, and if not, by
+force.
+
+Admiral Codrington at once sailed to Nauplia. The Greeks were willing to
+accept an armistice, but the Turks scorned the offer. At about this
+time an Egyptian fleet of ninety-two vessels sailed from Alexandria and
+joined the Ottoman fleet in the bay of Navarino (September 7th). Five
+days later Admiral Codrington arrived and informed the Turkish admiral
+that any attempt to leave the bay would be resisted by force. French
+vessels had also arrived, and Ibrahim agreed not to leave the bay
+without consulting the sultan. A Greek flotilla having destroyed a
+Turkish flotilla, Ibrahim took this as a breach of the convention and
+sailed out to sea, but Codrington succeeded in turning him back. Ibrahim
+now received instructions from the Porte to the effect that he should
+defy the Powers. A new ultimatum was at once presented and the
+allied fleet of the European Powers entered the bay of Navarino. The
+Turco-Egyptian fleet was disposed at the bottom of the bay in the form
+of a crescent. Without further parleying, as the fleet of the English
+and their allies approached, the Turks and Egyptians began to fire, and
+a battle ensued, apparently without plan on either side: the conflict
+soon became general, and Admiral Codrington in the _Asia_ opened a
+broadside upon the Egyptian admiral, and quickly reduced his vessel to
+a wreck. Other vessels in rapid succession shared the same fate, and the
+conflict raged with great fury for four hours. When the smoke cleared
+off, the Turks and Egyptians had disappeared, and the bay was strewn
+with fragments of their ships.
+
+[Illustration: 161.jpg A DISTINGUISHED EGYPTIAN JEW]
+
+Admiral Codrington now made a demonstration before Alexandria, and
+Mehemet Ali gladly withdrew his forces from co-operating with such a
+dangerous ally as the sultan had proved himself to be. Before the French
+expedition, bound for the Morea, had arrived, all the Egyptian forces
+had been withdrawn from the Peloponnesus, and the French only arrived
+after the Anglo-Egyptian treaty had been signed August 9, 1828.
+
+Mehemet Ali's chief ambition had always been to enlarge the circle
+of regeneration in the East. In Morea he had failed through European
+intervention. He felt that his nearer neighbour, Syria, which he had
+long coveted, would be an easier conquest, and he made the punishment of
+Abdullah Pasha of Acre, against whom he had many grievances, his excuse
+to the Porte. In reality it was a case of attacking or being attacked.
+Through a firman of the Divan of Constantinople, which had been
+published officially to the European Powers, he knew that his secret
+relations with Mustapha Pasha of Scodra had become known. He knew also
+that letters had been intercepted in which he offered this pasha money,
+troops, and ammunition, while engaging himself to march on the capital
+of the empire, and that these letters were now in the hand of the Sultan
+Mahmud. He wras also informed that the Porte was preparing to send a
+formidable army to Egypt; and his sound instinct taught him what to do
+in this position.
+
+Ibrahim Pasha was appointed commander-in-chief of the invading army,
+which was composed of six regiments of infantry, four of cavalry,
+forty field-pieces, and many siege-pieces. Provisions, artillery, and
+ammunition were on board the men-of-war. Thousands of baggage camels and
+ambulances were being collected ready for departure when cholera broke
+out. Coming from India, after having touched along the coasts of the
+Persian Gulf, it had penetrated into the caravan to Mecca, where the
+heat and dearth of water had given it fresh intensity. It raged in the
+Holy Town, striking down twenty thousand victims, and touched at Jeddah
+and Zambo, where its effects were very dire. Passing through Suez, it
+decimated the population, and in August it reached Cairo and spread to
+Upper and Lower Egypt. The army did not escape the common scourge, and
+when about to invade Syria was overtaken by the epidemic. Five thousand
+out of ninety thousand perished. All preparations for the expedition
+were abandoned until a more temperate season improved the sanitary
+conditions.
+
+About the beginning of October, 1831, the viceroy gave orders to his son
+to prepare for departure, and on November 2d the troops started for
+El Arish, the general meeting-place of the army. Ibrahim Pasha went
+to Alexandria, whence he embarked with his staff and some troops
+for landing. Uniting at El Arish, the army marched on Gaza and took
+possession of that town, dispersing some soldiers of the Pasha of Acre.
+Thence it turned to Jaffa, where it met with no resistance, the Turkish
+garrison having already evacuated the town.
+
+At this time the army which had sailed from Alexandria was cruising
+about the port of Jaffa, and Ibrahim Pasha landed there and took over
+the command of the army, which advanced slowly on St. Jean d'Acre,
+seizing Caiffa to facilitate the anchoring of the fleet, which had
+landed provisions, artillery, and all kinds of ammunition. After six
+months' siege and ten hours' fighting, Ibrahim Pasha obtained possession
+of St. Jean d'Acre, under whose walls fell so many valiant crusaders,
+and which, since the repulse of Napoleon, had passed for all but
+impregnable. Abdullah Pasha evinced a desire to be taken to Egypt, and
+he landed at Alexandria, where he was warmly welcomed by the viceroy,
+who complimented him on his defence.
+
+Hostile in everything to Mehemet Ali, the Porte seized every opportunity
+of injuring him. When Sultan Mahmud learned of the victory of the
+viceroy's troops in Syria, he sent one of his first officers to enquire
+the reason of this invasion. The viceroy alleged grievances against the
+Pasha of Acre, to which his Highness replied that he alone had the right
+to punish his subjects.
+
+The eyes of Europe were now fixed upon the Levant, where a novel
+struggle was going on between vassal and suzerain. Authority and liberty
+were again opposing each other. The Powers watched the struggle with
+intense interest. The viceroy protested against bearing the cost of
+the war, and demanded the investiture of Syria. Mehemet Ali was then
+declared a rebel, and a firman was issued against him, in support of
+which excommunication an army of sixty thousand men advanced across Asia
+Minor to the Syrian boundaries, while a squadron of twenty-five sail
+stood in the Dardanelles ready to weigh anchor.
+
+[Illustration: 165.jpg MOSQUE OF MUAD AT CAIRO]
+
+The Porte forbade the ambassadors of the Powers to import ammunition
+into Egypt, for it feared that the viceroy might find a support whose
+strength it knew only too well. But the viceroy had no need of this,
+for his former connections with Europe had put him in a position of
+independence, whereas the Porte itself was obliged to fall back on this
+support. Russia, the one of the three Great Powers whose disposition
+it was to support the authority of the sultan, lent him twenty thousand
+bayonets, whilst Ibrahim Pasha made his advance to the gates of
+Constantinople.
+
+Immediately after the taking of St. Jean d'Acre Ibrahim Pasha, following
+up his successes, had turned towards Damascus, which town he entered
+without a blow being struck, the governor and the leading inhabitants
+having taken flight. The commander-in-chief established his headquarters
+under the walls of the conquered country, and then marched in three
+columns on Horns. The battle of Horns (July 8, 1832) demonstrated the
+vast superiority of the Egyptian troops. On both sides there were about
+thirty thousand regular soldiers, but the Egyptians were the better
+organised, the better disciplined, and the more practised in the arts of
+war. When it is remembered that at Horns the Turks lost two thousand men
+killed, and 2,500 taken prisoners, while the Egyptian casualties were
+only 102 killed and 162 wounded, one is not astonished at the enthusiasm
+with which Ibrahim Pasha wrote after the battle: "I do not hesitate to
+say that two or three hundred thousand of such troops would cause me no
+anxiety."
+
+It is not surprising that the beaten pashas were so struck with terror
+that in their flight they abandoned sixteen more pieces of artillery and
+all the ammunition they had managed to save from their defeat. They
+fled as if they could not put sufficient distance between themselves and
+their redoubtable enemy.
+
+This battle foretold the result of the Syrian campaign. The population
+of Syria seemed to call for the domination of the conqueror; the viceroy
+protested his submission to the Porte and his desire for peace, and
+meanwhile Ibrahim Pasha marched forward.
+
+The Porte counted on its fleet to guard the Dardanelles, but it needed
+an army and a commander to oppose Ibrahim Pasha, who again defeated the
+Turks at Oulon-Kislak. He then advanced towards the plains of Anatolia,
+where he met Rashid Pasha.
+
+It was now December, 1830, and the atmosphere was heavy with a thick
+fog. The armies opened fire on each other on December 21st, with the
+town of Koniah in the background. The grand vizier was at the head of
+close on sixty thousand men, while the Egyptian army only comprised
+thirty thousand, including the Bedouins. The fighting had continued for
+about six hours when Rashid Pasha was taken prisoner; the news of his
+capture spread along the Turkish lines and threw them into disorder,
+and the Egyptians remained masters of the field, with twenty pieces of
+mounted cannon and some baggage: the Turks had lost only five hundred
+men, while the Egyptian losses were but two hundred.
+
+The battle of Koniah was the last act in the Syrian drama. The sultan's
+throne was shaken, and its fall might involve great changes in the
+politics of the world. Ibrahim Pasha was only three days' journey from
+the Bosphorus, and the way was open to him, with no Turkish army to
+fight and the whole population in his favour. In Constantinople itself
+Mehemet Ali had a powerful party, and, if the West did not interfere,
+the Ottoman Empire was at an end. However, European diplomacy considered
+that, in spite of its weakness, it should still weigh in the balance of
+the nations.
+
+Trembling in the midst of his harem, Sultan Mahmud cried for help, and
+Russia, his nearest neighbour, heard the call. This was the Power that,
+either from sympathy or ambition, was the most inclined to come to his
+aid. The Emperor Nicholas had offered assistance in a letter brought
+to the sultan by the Russian General Mouravieff, and a Russian squadron
+appeared in the Bosphorus with eight thousand men for disembarkment. The
+Russians, however, agreed not to set foot on shore unless Mehemet
+Ali should refuse the conditions that were being proposed to him. The
+viceroy refused the conditions, which limited his possessions to
+the pashalics of Acre, Tripoli, and Seyd, and which seemed to him
+incompatible with the glory won by his arms.
+
+The sultan did not wish to give up Syria, but that province was no
+longer his. The sword of Ibrahim had severed the last bonds that
+fastened it to him, and he was obliged to yield it, as well as the
+district of Andama. On his side, the viceroy acknowledged himself a
+vassal of the Porte, and agreed to make an annual payment of the monies
+he received from the pashas of Syria. This peace was concluded on May
+14, 1833, and was called the peace of Kutayeh, after the place where
+Ibrahim signed it.
+
+It was impossible that the convention of Kutayeh should be more than an
+armistice. The pasha benefited by it too greatly not to desire further
+advantages, and the sultan had lost so much that he must needs make
+some attempt at recovery. Mahmud's annoyance was caused by the fact
+and nature of the dispossession rather than by its material extent. The
+descendant of the Os-manlis, ever implacable in his hatreds, who had
+allowed Syria, the cradle of his race, to be wrested from him, now
+awaited the hour of vengeance. Mehemet Ali knew himself to be strong
+enough to carry a sceptre ably, and he realised that there would be no
+need for his numerous pashalics to pass out of his family. Henceforth
+his mind was filled with thoughts of independence and the rights of
+succession.
+
+[Illustration: 169.jpg A MUHAMMEDAN PRAYING PRIEST]
+
+The viceroy and the sultan continued to strengthen their forces, and a
+conflict occurred near Nezib on June 24, 1839. The Egyptians completely
+routed their adversaries, despite the strenuous resistance of the
+Imperial Guard, who, when called upon to surrender, cried in the same
+words used at Waterloo, "Khasse sultanem mamatenda darrhi tuffenguini
+iere Koimas." ("The guards of the sultan surrender arms only to death").
+
+Greatly elated, Ibrahim flung himself into the arms of his companion in
+glory, Suleiman Pasha. His prediction was verified: "This time we will
+go to Constantinople, or they shall come to Cairo." They set out
+for Constantinople; but the viceroy was again generous. Through the
+mediation of Captain Caille, aide-de-camp to Marshal Soult, who, in the
+name of France, demanded a cessation of hostilities, Mehemet Ali desired
+his son not to proceed into Asia Minor; so the general halted before
+Aintab, the scene of his victories, as he had done on a former occasion
+before Kutayeh.
+
+Consumptive and exhausted with his excesses, Mahmud, whose virtue lay
+in his ardent love of reforms, died before his time, but this untimely
+demise at least spared him the knowledge of the Nezib disaster and the
+treason of his fleet, which passed into the hands of the viceroy. Hafiz
+Pasha, routed by Ibrahim, was arraigned on his return to Constantinople
+for leading the attack before receiving the official mandate; but the
+Turkish general produced an autograph of his defunct master. The sultan
+had been false to the last, and deceived both European ambassadors and
+the ministers of the empire, by means of mysterious correspondence,
+combined with his protestations for the maintenance of peace.
+
+It was while Mehemet Ali was organising the national guard of Egypt,
+and arranging the military training of the workmen employed in his many
+factories, that the unlucky treaty of July 15, 1840, which gave the
+whole of Syria to the Sublime Porte, was concluded. Four Western Powers
+had secretly met in London and agreed to deprive the sovereign of the
+Nile of his conquests, and fling him again at the foot of the throne,
+which he had treated as a plaything. Mehemet Ali haughtily protested
+against the desecration of his rights, and France, his faithful ally,
+with hand on sword-hilt, threatened to draw it against whosoever should
+touch Egypt. England and Austria covered the Syrian sea-coast with their
+sails and guns. Beyrut, Latakia, Tortosa, Tripoli, Saida, Tyre, St. Jean
+d'Acre were bombarded and fell. This formidable coalition despatched
+Lord Napier to Alexandria as negotiator. Mehemet Ali accepted the
+overtures, and a convention guaranteed to him, as Pasha of Egypt,
+rights of succession unknown to all other pashalics of the empire. The
+hatti-sherif of January 12, 1841, consolidated this privilege, with,
+however, certain restrictions which were regarded as inadmissible by
+France, the viceroy, and the cabinets. A new act of investiture, passed
+on June 1, 1841, confirmed the viceroy in the possession of Egypt,
+transmissible to his male heirs, and also in the government of Nubia.
+Mehemet Ali asked no more, France declared herself satisfied, and, to
+prove it, became once more a member of the European league by the treaty
+of July 15, 1841, which, without being directly connected with the
+European question, dealing as it did with the claims of Turkey upon
+the Dardanelles, implied, none the less, accordance upon the Eastern
+situation. As a token of reconciliation, the Ottoman Porte soon raised
+its former rival, Mehemet Ali, to the rank of sadrazam.
+
+The political history of Mehemet Ali was now at an end. All the results,
+good or bad, of his career, had reached fulfilment. As a vanquished
+conqueror he had been able to remain firm in the midst of catastrophe;
+his fatherly ideas and feelings had been his salvation. Had he been
+absolutely heroic, he would have considered it a duty, for his courage
+and his name's sake, to carry the struggle on to the bitter end, and to
+perish in the whirlpool he had raised. He showed that he desired to act
+thus, but in his children's interests he refrained, and this was, we
+believe, the only influence of importance which made him give way. It
+is true that there was not much difference between a throne crumbling to
+ruins, or one built thereon; such as it was, however, it seemed
+firmly secured to his children, and it was for them to strengthen the
+foundations. The pasha considered this a fitting reward for his labours;
+as for himself, he was over seventy years of age, and ready to lay down
+his burdens.
+
+[Illustration: 153.jpg EGYPTIAN HARMEM]
+
+A man without learning and surrounded by barbarian soldiers, Mehemet Ali
+appears before the world as nature made him. Dissimulation, diplomacy,
+and deceit, coupled with capability, great courage, genius, and much
+perseverance, brought him to the head of the government of Egypt. To
+gain his ends he flattered the powerful Ulemas who were the nation's
+representatives to the sultan, but, once having obtained his object, he
+dismissed them.
+
+Though a clever politician, he was a bad administrator. Being
+alternately blindly confident and extremely suspicious, he did not
+choose well the men he employed as his auxiliaries, and, being a Turk
+and a devout Mussulman, Mehemet Ali wished to give back to the Turks
+the power they had lost. He only took account of the results of any
+undertaking, without paying any attention to the difficulties surmounted
+in its execution, and this characteristic made him commit many
+injustices. It was his habit to treat men as levers, which he put aside
+when he had no further use for them. He was quick of apprehension, and
+of very superior intelligence, and his whole character was a mixture of
+generosity and meanness, of greatness and littleness.
+
+Mehemet Ali was an affable, an easy business man, and dominated by a
+desire to talk. He enjoyed relating the incidents of his past life, and,
+when not preoccupied by affairs of importance, his conversation was full
+of charm. The foreigners who visited him were always much impressed with
+his superiority, while his lively humour, his freedom, and that air of
+good nature he knew so well how to adopt, all captivated his visitors.
+The expression of his face was exceedingly mobile, and quickly
+communicated itself to the men who surrounded him, who were in constant
+observation of his moods, so that one could judge of the state of mind
+of the viceroy by the calm or disturbed appearance of his servants.
+
+When Mehemet Ali was anxious, his look became fierce, his forehead
+wrinkled, and his eyes shone with anger, while his speech was broken
+and his manner brusque and imperious. As regards those in his service,
+Mehemet Ali was by turns severe or gentle, tolerant or impatient,
+irascible, and surprisingly forbearing. He was jealous of the glory of
+others, and desired all honours for himself. He was an enemy of all that
+was slow. He liked to do everything, to decide everything, and worked
+night and day. All letters, notices, and memoranda that referred to
+his government, he read himself or had them read to him. Picked men
+translated French and English political newspapers into Turkish, and
+he encouraged discussion on all subjects of high interest, although
+generally imposing his own opinion. He did not always keep strictly to
+his word. He was a stoic, and great pain could not destroy his habitual
+gaiety, and when very ill he would still speak affably to those around
+him; but illnesses with him were rare, for his health was, as a rule,
+excellent. He was very careful about his appearance, and was fond
+of women without being their slave; in his youth his life had been
+dissolute. He was above the prejudices of his nation, and prayed very
+often, although a fatalist.
+
+At the age of forty-five he learned to read, and he held European
+learning in great esteem, confessing it superior to that of Turkey; but
+he continued to regard European scientists and artists only as salaried
+foreigners, whom he hastened to replace by natives as soon as he
+considered the latter sufficiently enlightened. Mehemet Ali made one
+great mistake, with which his nearest servants reproach him, and that
+is with not having introduced into his family learned men from Europe,
+picked men devoted to his cause, and well versed in the special things
+of which his country was in need.
+
+Had they been brought into a close contact with the viceroy, and
+admitted unreservedly to all the privileges the Turks enjoyed, these men
+would have adopted Egypt as their country. They would have spoken the
+language and have become the' sentinels and safeguards necessary for the
+maintenance of useful institutions which the Turks either refused or did
+not understand.
+
+During the administration of Mehemet Ali, public hygiene was not
+neglected, and a sanitary council watched over the health of the
+country. Measures were taken to increase the cleanliness and sanitation
+of the towns; military hospitals were built, and a lazarette was
+established at Alexandria, whilst vaccine was widely used. In the
+country the planting of many trees helped the atmosphere, and Egypt,
+which Europeans had hitherto regarded as the seat of a permanent
+plague epidemic, became more and more a healthy and pleasurable
+resort. Mehemet, whose aims were always for the furthering of Egyptian
+prosperity, profited by the leisure of peace to look after the
+industrial works. Two great projects that occupied his attention were
+the Nile dams and the construction of a railway from Suez to Cairo.
+
+The actual condition of the canalisation of Egypt, while vastly improved
+by the viceroy, was still far from complete. Canals, partial dams, and
+embankments were attempted; fifty thousand draw-wells carried the
+water up to a considerable height, but the system of irrigation was
+insufficient.
+
+The railway from Cairo to Suez was an easier, though not less important,
+work. The road crossed neither mountain, river, nor forest, while a
+series of little plains afforded a firm foundation, requiring very
+few earthworks. Its two iron arms stretched out into the desert, and
+steam-engines could traverse the distance from the Nile to the Red Sea
+in three hours.
+
+Suez would thus become a suburb of Cairo, and thus, being brought closer
+to Egypt, would regain her trade. This enterprise, just as the former
+one, gave promise of bringing to Egypt the two sources of national
+wealth and prosperity: agriculture and trade.
+
+[Illustration: 179.jpg HARBOR OF THE BULAK]
+
+The agricultural unity which Mehemet Ali constituted enabled him to
+bring about improvements which with private proprietorship would have
+been impossible. The fellah, careless of to-morrow, did not sow for
+future reaping, and made no progress, but when Mehemet Ali undertook
+the control of agricultural labour in Egypt, the general aspect of
+the country changed, though, in truth, the individual condition of the
+fellah was not improved. Besides the work of irrigation by means of
+canals, dykes, and banks, and the introduction of the cultivation of
+indigo, cotton, opium, and silk, the viceroy had also planted thousands
+of trees of various kinds, including 100,000 walnut-trees; he ordered
+the maimours, or prefects, to open up the roads between the villages,
+and to plant trees. He wished the villages, towns, and hamlets to be
+ornamented, as in Europe, with large trees, under whose shelter the
+tired traveller could rest.
+
+In the various districts were vast tracts of land which for a long time
+the plough had not touched. Concessions of these lands were made to
+Franks, Turks, Greeks, and Armenians, which concessions were free, and
+for a term of seven or eight years, while the guarantees were exempt
+from taxes.
+
+During the closing years of his life, between 1841 and 1849, Mehemet
+occupied himself with improvements in Egypt. He continued to prosecute
+his commercial speculations, and manufacturing, educational, and other
+schemes. The barrage of the Nile, which has only been finished during
+the British occupation, was begun under his direction. In 1847 he
+visited Constantinople, and was received with the rank of a vizier. In
+the year 1848 symptoms of imbecility appeared, and his son Ibrahim
+was declared his successor. After a reign of only two months he died.
+Mehemet Ali's death occurred on the 3rd of August, 1849. His direct
+successor was his grandson, Abbas Pasha, who held the sceptre of
+Egypt as the direct heir of Ibrahim Pasha. This prince took but little
+interest in the welfare of his country. He had in him no spark of the
+noble ambition of his predecessor, and no trace of his genius, and he
+showed no desire for progress or reforms. He was a real prince of the
+ancient East, suspicious, sombre, and careless of the destiny of the
+country entrusted to his care. He liked to withdraw to the privacy of
+his palace, and, isolated in the midst of his guards, to live that life
+of the distrustful and voluptuous despots of the East. The palace of
+Bar-el-Beda, which he had built on the road to Suez in the open desert,
+a palace without water, lifting its head in the solitude like a silent
+witness of a useless life and tragic death, impresses the traveller with
+astonishment and fear.
+
+Abbas Pasha was weak in his negotiations with the European Powers, and
+this was well for Egypt, as their representative was able to hold in
+check his silent hostility to Western civilisation. Such guardianship
+is useful when exercised over a prince like Abbas Pasha, but it tends
+to become troublesome and baneful when it attempts to interfere with the
+government of an active and enlightened sovereign animated by just and
+generous intentions.
+
+Muhammed Said, the successor of Abbas Pasha, was born in 1822, nine
+years later than his nephew Abbas. He was brought up in Europe by French
+professors, and M. Kornig, a distinguished Orientalist, remained with
+his pupil and became his secretary. He not only instructed him in all
+branches of knowledge becoming to his rank, but also developed in him
+a love of European civilisation and noble sentiments, of which he gave
+proof from the moment of his accession. He was imbued with liberal
+principles, which in an Eastern potentate give proof of great moral
+superiority, and in this respect Muhammed Said wras second to no prince
+in Europe. He worked for the emancipation of his subjects and the
+civilisation of Egypt, and was not content to produce that superficial
+civilisation which consists in transplanting institutions that the mass
+of the people could not understand. Said Pasha endeavoured to pursue his
+father's policy and to carry out his high aims. He had not, however,
+the strength of character nor the health necessary to meet the serious
+difficulties involved in such a task, and he will be chiefly remembered
+by his abolition of the more grinding government monopolies, and for the
+concession of the Suez Canal.
+
+After his death Said Pasha was succeeded in the vice-royalty by his
+nephew, Ismail Pasha, who was proclaimed viceroy without opposition
+early in the year 1863. Ismail, the first who accepted the title of
+khedive from the sultan, was born on December 31, 1830, being the second
+of the three sons of Ibrahim, and grandson of Mehemet Ali. He had been
+educated at the Ecole d'Etat Major at Paris, and when Ahmed, the eldest
+son of Ibrahim, died in 1858, Ismail became the heir to his uncle Said.
+He had been employed, after his return to Egypt, on missions to the
+sovereign pontiff; the emperor, Napoleon III.; and the Sultan of Turkey.
+In the year 1861 he was despatched with an army of 18,000 men to
+quell an insurrection in the Sudan, which undertaking he brought to a
+successful conclusion. On ascending the throne he was much gratified
+to find that, on account of the scarcity of cotton, resulting from the
+Civil War in America, the revenues had very considerably increased from
+the export of the Egyptian cotton. At this date the cotton crop was
+worth $125,000,000, instead of $25,000,000, which was the normal value
+of the Egyptian output. It was a very serious misfortune to Egypt that
+during his sojourn abroad Ismail had learned many luxurious ways, and
+had also discovered that European nations were accustomed to make
+free use of their credit in raising sums of money for their immediate
+advantage. From this moment Ismail started upon a career which gave to
+Egypt, in the eyes of the world, a fictitious grandeur, and which made
+him one of the most talked-of rulers among the cabinets and peoples of
+the European countries. He began by transferring his own private debts
+to the state, and thereafter looked upon Egypt merely as his private
+estate, and himself as the sovereign landholder. Without any sense of
+his responsibility to the Egyptians themselves, he increased his
+own fame throughout Europe in the sumptuous fashion of a spendthrift
+millionaire. He deemed it necessary for his fame that Egypt should
+possess institutions modelled upon those of European countries, and he
+applied himself with energy to achieve this, and without any stint of
+expense. By burdening posterity for centuries to come, Ismail, during
+the two decades subsequent to his accession, always had a supply of
+ready money with which to dazzle European guests. During his entire
+reign Egypt swarmed with financiers and schemers of every description,
+to whom the complacent Ismail lent an only too willing ear.
+
+In the year 1866, in return for an increase of tribute, he obtained from
+the sultan a firman giving him the title of khedive (Turkish, _khidewi_,
+a king), and changing the law of succession to that of direct descent
+from father to-son; and in 1873 he obtained a new firman, purchased
+again at an immense cost to his subjects, which rendered him practically
+independent of the sultan. Ismail projected vast schemes of internal
+reform. He remodelled the system of customs and the post-office,
+stimulated commercial progress, and created the Egyptian sugar industry.
+He introduced European improvements into Cairo and Alexandria; he
+built vast palaces, entertained visitors with lavish generosity, and
+maintained an opera and a theatre. By his order the distinguished
+composer, Verdi, produced the famous opera "Aida" for the entertainment
+of his illustrious guests on the occasion of their visit to Egypt during
+the festivities connected with the opening of the Suez Canal. On this
+occasion Mariette Bey ransacked the tombs of the ancient Egyptian kings
+in order to reproduce in a lifelike manner the costumes and scenery
+appropriate for the occasion.
+
+[Illustration: 185.jpg A FELLAH PLOWING]
+
+The opening of this canal gave Ismail much prominence in the courts of
+Europe. He was made a Grand Commander of the Bath, and the same year
+visited Paris and London, where he was received by Queen Victoria and
+welcomed by the lord mayor. In 1869 he again visited London. By his
+great power of fascination and lavish expenditure he was ever able to
+make a striking impression upon the foreign courts. During the opening
+of the canal, when Ismail gave and received royal honours, treating
+monarchs as equals, and being treated by them in like manner, the
+jealousy of the sultan was aroused. Ismail, however, contrived
+judiciously to appease the suspicions of his overlord, Abdul Aziz.
+
+In the year 1876 the old system of consular jurisdiction for foreigners
+was abolished, and the system of mixed courts was introduced, by which
+European and native judges sat together to try all civil cases, without
+respect to nationality.
+
+In the year 1874 Darfur, a province in the Sudan west of Kordofan,
+was annexed by Ismail. He also engaged in a disastrous war against the
+Abyssinians, who had ever shown themselves capable of resisting the
+inroads of Egyptians, Muhammedans, Arabs, and even of European invaders,
+as was proven by the annihilation of a large Italian army of invasion,
+and the abandonment of the campaign against Abyssinia by the Italians in
+the closing years of the nineteenth century.
+
+[Illustration: 187.jpg ARABS AT A DESERT SPRING]
+
+It was true that Ismail had attempted to carry out the great schemes of
+his grandfather for the regeneration of the Orient, and it is possible
+that, if the jealousy of European Powers had not prevented the army of
+Ibrahim Bej from controlling immense territories in Syria and Anatolia,
+which they had won by conquest, that the regeneration of the Orient
+might have been accomplished at least a century earlier. No people would
+have benefited more by the success of Mehemet Ali's policy than the
+Christian people who to-day are under the rule of the barbarous Turks.
+With the regeneration of the Orient, the trade of European nations in
+the East would have been very largely increased.
+
+The policy of regeneration, wisely begun by Mehemet Ali, was resumed
+within Egypt itself in a spendthrift manner by his grandson Ismail.
+Every act of his reign, with its ephemeral and hollow magnificence,
+moved towards the one inevitable result of foreign intervention. The
+price of all the transient splendour was the surrender by slow degrees
+of the sovereignty and independence of Egypt itself. The European Powers
+of late have withdrawn their interest in the betterment of the native
+populations in the Asiatic dominions of the sultan, and have concerned
+themselves exclusively with the immediate interests of commerce and the
+enforcement of debts contracted to European bondholders. All progress in
+the later history of Egypt has originated in the desire of the European
+Powers to see Egypt in a position capable of meeting her indebtedness to
+foreign bondholders.
+
+In so far as the cry raised of "Egypt for the Egyptians" was a protest
+against forcing the Egyptians to pay for an assumed indebtedness
+which was at least four times greater than anything they had actually
+received, no movement was ever more just and righteous than the protest
+of the fellaheen against foreign control, a movement which has been
+chiefly associated with the name of Arabi Pasha. The issue of Ismail's
+financial troubles was most ignominious and disastrous to Egypt,
+after nearly a hundred years of heroic struggles to keep pace with the
+progress of modern Europe. Had Ismail modelled his career upon that of
+his illustrious grandfather, rather than that of Napoleon III.,
+with which it shows many striking parallels, it is probable that the
+advantage secured to Egypt through the British occupation might have
+resulted in political and financial independence. When the crash came,
+and the order for his deposition was sent by the sultan, Ismail resigned
+the khedivate in complete submission; and, taking away with him a large
+private fortune and a portion of the royal harem, he spent the remainder
+of his life in retirement at Naples and Constantinople, and was buried
+with solemn pomp in the royal cemetery at Cairo.
+
+[Illustration: 190.jpg PART OF CAIRO, SHOWING THE MULQUFS ON THE HOUSES
+OF MODERN EGYPT]
+
+[Illustration: 191.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--THE BRITISH INFLUENCE IN EGYPT
+
+
+_Ismail deposed: Tewfik Pasha: Revolt of Arabi Pasha: Lord Wolseley and
+the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir: The Mahdist Rising: General Gordon in the
+Sudan: Death of Gordon: The Sudan abandoned and re-conquered: Battle of
+Onidurman: Khartum College: Financial Stability: Abbas II.: Education,
+Law, and the improved condition of the Fellaheen: The Caisse de la
+Dette_
+
+
+
+The official deposition of Ismail Pasha by the sultan of Turkey, Abdul
+Hamid, occurred on June 26, in the year 1879, and his son Tewfik assumed
+the khedivate, becoming practically the protege of England and Egypt. To
+understand how this came to pass, it is necessary to review the account
+of the financial embarrassments of Ismail. In twelve years he had
+extracted more than $400,000,000 from the fellaheen in taxes. He had
+borrowed another $400,000,000 from Europe at the same time, of which
+nominal sum he probably received $250,000,000 in cash. The loans were
+ostensibly contracted for public works. Possibly ten per cent, of the
+borrowed money was profitably laid out. The railways were extended;
+Upper Egypt was studded with sugar factories,--most of them doomed to
+failure,--and certain roads and gardens were made about the city of
+Cairo.
+
+The remainder of this enormous sum of money was spent in purchasing
+a change in the law of succession, and the new title of khedive; in
+disastrous Abyssinian campaigns; in multiplying shoddy palaces, and in
+personal extravagance, which combined Oriental profusion with the
+worst taste of the Second Empire. Useless works engaged the corvee;
+the fellaheen were evicted from vast tracts, which became ill-managed
+estates; and their crops, cattle, and even seed were taken from them
+by the tax-gatherers, so that they died by hundreds when a low Nile
+afflicted the land. The only persons who flourished in Ismail's time
+were foreign speculators and adventurers of the lowest type. As these
+conditions became more serious, the khedive attempted to find some means
+of protection against the concession-monger. He adopted a suggestion of
+the wise Nubar Pasha, and instituted the mixed tribunals for adjudging
+civil cases between natives and foreigners.
+
+The Powers agreed to the establishment of these tribunals, and intended
+to enforce the decisions of the courts, even in case that Ismail
+himself were the delinquent. When later the khedive repudiated the mixed
+tribunals, this action precipitated his fall. It became increasingly
+difficult for the khedive to meet his accumulated obligations. The price
+of cotton had fallen after the close of the American war, and there was
+less response from the impoverished people to the Cour-bash, which in
+1868 was still more strictly enforced; and soon this enforcement by the
+mixed tribunal of debts due to foreigners by an agricultural population,
+who lived by borrowing, and were accustomed to settle their debts
+by haggling, aggravated the misery of the fellaheen, and led to that
+universal despair which was to give strength and significance to
+the Arabist revolt. It was no uncommon procedure for the Levantine
+money-lender to accompany the tax-gatherer into the provinces with
+a chest of money. He paid the taxes of the assembled and destitute
+fellaheen, who in return were obliged to give mortgages on their crops
+or holdings.
+
+The desperate state of Egyptian finance, which led to the sale of the
+precious Suez Canal shares, at last opened the eyes of the bondholders.
+Mr. G. T. Goschen (Viscount Goschen) and M. Joubert were deputed to
+Egypt on behalf of the foreign creditors. The accounts were found to be
+in a state of wild confusion, with little or no chance of learning
+the actual facts controlling the financial situation. The minister of
+finance, or "Mufet-tish," Ismail Pasha Sadeck, was now arrested and
+banished to Dongola.
+
+There was an immediate prospect of a dual control by England and France.
+Commissioners were appointed to constitute a caisse, or court, for
+receiving the interest due to the bondholders. The great mass of the
+debt was then unified, but the Goschen and Joubert arrangement was found
+to be too severe for the impoverished country. A low Nile and a famine
+resulted in a demand for an investigation into the administration,
+and the following year Ismail was obliged to authorise a commission
+of inquiry. The waste, extravagance, and wholesale extortion from the
+peasantry revealed by this report made a deep impression upon Europe,
+and Ismail was forced to disgorge the estates which he had received from
+the fellaheen.
+
+In the meantime, the khedive was not inactive in taking measures
+to prevent the advent of a confirmed foreign control. He created a
+constitutional ministry, upon whom the responsibility rested for the
+different branches of the administration. He likewise fomented an
+outburst of feeling among the Moslems against the foreign element in
+the constitutional ministry. This was intended to strengthen the
+pro-Egyptian element in the government, and Ismail thus hoped to
+demonstrate to the European Powers the uselessness of attempting to
+subordinate the Egyptians to foreign methods of finance and control.
+Ismail subsequently dismissed the ministry, and soon afterwards the
+controllers themselves. Knowing well the jealousy which existed between
+England and France, he believed that there was a chance that he might
+successfully play off one Power against the other. If the Moslems had
+not been so severely oppressed by taxation, and Ismail had acted with
+courage and firmness, it is probable that he might have held his own,
+and Egypt might have refused to again accept the dual control.
+
+Bismarck now intervened, and hinted to the sultan that he would receive
+the support of the Powers, and Abdul Hamid immediately sent a telegram
+to the Egyptian government that Ismail Pasha was deposed from the
+khedivate. At this moment his courage gave way, and Ismail surrendered
+his throne to his son Tewfik.
+
+[Illustration: 195.jpg THE KHEDIVE TEWFIK]
+
+Tewfik had the misfortune to enter upon a doleful heritage of an empty
+treasury, a starving people, and an army ready to mutiny. There were now
+two parties in Egypt. The military movement was of the least importance.
+The superior posts in the army had been occupied by Circassians since
+the days of Mehemet Ali.
+
+196 THE BRITISH INFLUENCE IN EGYPT
+
+Slave boys were bought and trained as officers. The number and quality
+of the Circassians had deteriorated, but they still held the most
+important posts. The fellaheen officers, under Arabi, who had been
+brought to protest against reductions in the military establishment, now
+claimed that the Circassians should make way for the Egyptians. Together
+with this military dissatisfaction was also a strong civil movement
+towards national reform, which included a number of serious and sensible
+administrative reforms, which have since been carried out. Arabi Pasha
+was the leader of the National Party, and had hopes of convincing
+fair-minded people of the justice of their cause; but many influences,
+some good and some bad, were at work simultaneously to divert him from
+constitutional methods towards making his appeal to the violent and
+fanatical element.
+
+Just at this time a divergence between English and French views in
+dealing with the situation had manifested itself, having its root in
+earlier history. France, now as in 1840, was aiming at the policy of
+detaching Egypt from the control of the unprogressive Turks; England
+aimed at the maintenance of the much talked of integrity of the Ottoman
+Empire. The French premier, Gambetta, was determined that there should
+be no intervention on the part of the Turks. He drafted the "Identic
+Note" in January, 1881, and induced Lord Granville, the English Foreign
+Secretary, to give his assent. This note contained the first distinct
+threat of foreign intervention. The result was a genuine and spontaneous
+outburst of Moslem feeling. All parties united to protest against
+foreign intervention, joined by the fellaheen, who now saw an
+opportunity of freeing themselves from foreign usurers, to whom they
+had become so unjustly indebted. Riots broke out in Alexandria in 1881.
+Gambetta was replaced by the hesitating Freycinet, who looked upon the
+intervention with alarm, and upon Germany with suspicion. England was
+thus at the last moment left to act alone. Past experience had taught
+her that the destiny of Egypt lay in the hands of the dominant sea-power
+of the Mediterranean, and that Egypt must not be neglected by the
+masters of India. After a vain attempt to bring about mediation through
+Dervish Pasha, the special commissioner of the Porte, it was discovered
+that the Nationalist Party was too little under control to be utilised
+in any further negotiations. Ahmed Arabi Pasha had greatly increased his
+influence, and had finally been appointed Minister of War. On the 11th
+of June there was serious rioting, in which many Greeks and Maltese,
+four Englishmen, and six Frenchmen were slain. Arabi now stepped forward
+to preserve order, being at this moment practically the dictator of
+Egypt. While endeavouring to maintain order, he also threw up earthworks
+to protect the harbour of Alexandria, and trained the guns upon the
+British fleet. The admiral in charge, Sir Beauchamp Seymour, who was
+waiting for the arrival of the Channel Squadron, sent word to the
+Egyptians to cease the construction of fortifications. The request was
+not fully assented to, although it was reinforced by an order from
+the Porte. An ultimatum was presented on July 10, commanding Arabia to
+surrender the forts. The terms were refused, and eight ships and five
+gunboats prepared for action on the following day. At the same time the
+French fleet retired upon Port Said.
+
+The first shot was fired on July 11th, at seven o'clock in the morning,
+by the Alexandrians, and in reply an iron hail rained upon the forts of
+the Egyptians from the guns of the British fleet. Arabi's troops
+fought well and aimed correctly, but their missiles were incapable of
+penetrating the armour of the ironclads. One fort after another was
+silenced. Lord Charles Beresford, in command of the gunboat _Condor_,
+led a brilliant attack upon Fort Marabout. The firing re-opened on
+the next day, and a flag of truce was soon displayed. After some
+unsatisfactory parleying the bombardment was resumed, and when a second
+flag of truce was unfurled it was discovered that Arabi Pasha had
+retreated to Kefr-el-Dowar, fourteen miles away from Alexandria. On
+his departure the city was given over to plunder and destruction. The
+convicts escaped from the prison, and, joining forces with the Arabs,
+looted and burned the European quarters. Two thousand persons, mostly
+Greeks and Levantines, were slain, and an enormous quantity of property
+destroyed. Admiral Seymour then sent a body of sailors on land, who
+patrolled the streets and shot down the looters, and order was thus
+finally restored in Alexandria. The khedive, who was forced to fly for
+his life to an English steamer, was reinstated in the Ras-el-Tin Palace,
+under an escort of seven hundred marines. The British admiral was
+afterwards severely criticised for not having put a stop to the rioting
+before it assumed such serious proportions.
+
+Arabi's army of 6,000 was now increased by recruits flocking in from
+every port in Egypt. After considerable pressure had been brought to
+bear upon the khedive, Tewfik issued a proclamation dismissing Arabi
+from his service. To enforce the submission of the Arabists, an English
+army of 33,000 men was gradually landed in Egypt, under the command of
+Sir Garnet Wolseley, with an efficient staff, including Sir John Adye,
+Sir Archibald Alison, Sir Evelyn Wood, and General Hamley. An Indian
+contingent also arrived under General Macpherson.
+
+Sir Garnet, after making a feint to land near Alexandria, steamed to
+Port Said and disembarked, moving up the Suez Canal in order to join
+forces with the Indian contingent, who were advancing from Suez.
+Fighting took place over the control of the canal at the Mahsameh and
+Kassassin Locks, and at the latter place the British cavalry won an
+important victory over the Egyptian advance-guard. Arabi's stronghold
+was at Tel-el-Kebir, and the English were very anxious to win a
+decisive victory before the troops which the sultan was sending from
+Constantinople under Dervish and Baker Pasha should arrive. On September
+12, 1882, preparations had been completed for an advance, and the army
+of 11,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, with sixty pieces of artillery,
+moved forward during the night to within a mile of Arabi's lines. The
+Egyptians had 20,000 regulars, of which number 2,500 were cavalry, with
+seventy guns, and they were also aided by 6,000 Bedouins. Though well
+situated, the army of Arabi was taken by surprise, and the following
+day, in response to the various flanking movements of the British,
+directed by Wolseley, and the direct charge of the Highlanders, they
+made but a very indifferent defence. In a brief space of time the
+Egyptians were in full retreat, Arabi fleeing to Cairo. The Indian
+contingent occupied Zagazig, and General Drury-Lowe rode with his
+cavalry for thirty-nine miles, and entered Cairo on the evening of the
+14th. Arabi made a dignified surrender, and with him 10,000 men also
+gave themselves up.
+
+The Nationalist movement was now at an end, the various garrisons
+surrendering one after another, and the greater part of the British army
+left Egypt, 12,000 men remaining behind to maintain order. The Egyptian
+government wished to try Arabi as a rebel in a secret tribunal. It was
+generally believed that this would have meant a death sentence. Mr.
+Wilfrid Blunt, a distinguished British Liberal and a friend of Arabi,
+who had often expressed his sympathy with the cause of the Nationalists
+in their endeavour to free Egypt from the slavery of the foreign
+bondholder, now raised a vigorous protest in favour of an open trial. He
+personally contributed to the defence of Arabi, and his efforts led to
+the commutation of the sentence of death to that of perpetual exile
+in Ceylon--a sentence which was subsequently very much modified. Arabi
+Pasha returned to Egypt in the year 1902, after an exile which had
+lasted about nine years.
+
+[Illustration: 201.jpg PALACE OP THE KHEDIVE AT ALEXANDRIA]
+
+The difficult task of readjusting the government of Egypt was then
+undertaken. Proposals were made to France for a modification of the
+dual control, in which France was offered the presidency of the Debt
+Commission. France, however, refused to accept the compromise, and the
+British government finally determined upon independent action. In place
+of the officials through whom the two governments had hitherto exercised
+the control, a single financial adviser was appointed, who was not
+allowed to take part in the direct administration of the country. The
+outline of this adjustment was given in a circular note addressed by
+Lord Granville to the Powers. He declared that an army would remain in
+Egypt as long as it was required; representative institutions were to
+be created; the Egyptian army and gendarmery were to be placed in the
+hands of Englishmen; the Diara estates were to be economically managed;
+foreigners were to be placed upon the same footing as natives in regard
+to taxation. The other Powers, including Turkey but excluding France,
+accepted the agreement. The office of financial adviser was given to Sir
+Edgar Vincent.
+
+The important work of the reconstruction of Egypt now began in earnest.
+Sir Benson Maxwell set about establishing an effective means for the
+impartial administration of justice, and Colonel Moncrieff undertook the
+responsibility for the work of irrigation. Mr. Clifford Lloyd created a
+police system, reorganised the prisons and hospitals, and set free the
+untried prisoners. Baker Pasha formed a provincial gendarmery, and Sir
+Evelyn Wood organised an army of six thousand men.
+
+In the year 1883, while this work of reconstruction was proceeding, a
+religious insurrection, which had originated two years previously, was
+forced upon the notice of the government. It has already been related
+that the Ismailian sect of the Muhammedans had introduced the doctrine
+of a coming Messiah, or Mahdi, who was to be the last of the imans, and
+the incarnation of the universal soul.
+
+Not a few impostors had exploited this doctrine to their own advantage,
+and some of the Arabian tribes were firmly convinced that the Mahdi had
+come, and that the Mahdis who had appeared to their kinsmen elsewhere
+were merely clever charlatans. In the year 1881 Muhammed Ahmet, a
+religious leader among the Moslem Arabs in the Central African provinces
+of Kordofan and Darfur, proclaimed himself as the Mahdi, and called upon
+the Muhammedans to initiate a holy war.
+
+The Mahdi's continued advances were rendered possible by the precarious
+state of affairs in Egypt. After a settlement was effected in 1883,
+Hicks Pasha, an officer of courage and ability, who had retired from
+the Indian army, gathered 11,000 men at Omdurman to quell the Mahdist
+insurrection. With this force he started up the Nile and struck across
+the desert to El-Obeid, where his troops were decoyed into a ravine, and
+after three days' fighting his whole army was annihilated by the Mahdist
+army numbering about 300,000 men. The entire Sudan then revolted against
+Egypt. The redoubtable Osman Digna appeared with the Hadendowa Arabs
+off the coast of the Red Sea, and harassed the Egyptian garrison. Osman
+defeated Captain Moncrieff and an army of 3,000 Bashi-Bazouks led by
+Baker Pasha. Egypt, under the advisement of the British government, then
+attempted to withdraw from the Sudan. It was decided that the western
+provinces of Kordofan and Dafur should be abandoned, but that important
+centres like Khartum on the Nile should be preserved, at least for
+a time. Here all the Egyptian colonists were to congregate. If the
+revolting Arab tribes, called by the general name of Dervishes, would
+not come to friendly terms with the settlers, then, in time, it was
+decided that Khartum itself, and every other locality in the Sudan,
+should be entirely relinquished, except the ports of the Red Sea.
+
+General Gordon was sent to Khartum to make terms with the Mahdi and
+prepare for eventualities. The evacuation of this place was almost
+immediately decided upon by the British Cabinet, and Gordon arrived on
+February 18, 1884, but, being unsupported by European troops, he found
+the position an exceedingly difficult one to maintain. The Mahdi scorned
+his overtures, and Osman Digna was daily closing in upon the Egyptian
+port of Suakin.
+
+[Illustration: 204.jpg OSMAN DIGNA]
+
+The British then determined to act with vigour. Sinkitat had fallen on
+February 8th, and to protect Tokar and Suakin they landed four thousand
+men and fought a fierce battle with nine thousand Hadendowas at El - Teb
+February 28, 1884. The Egyptian garrison of Tokar, when the British army
+arrived, was found to have compromised with the Mahdists. Later on was
+fought the battle of Tamai against Osman Digna, during which a body
+of Arabs rushed the British guns and broke up the formation of their
+square. The British were on the point of defeat, but they managed to
+recover the lost guns, and scatter the Hadendowas.
+
+General Gordon's situation was now extremely critical. It was hoped that
+an army might advance from Suakin across the desert to Berber, and then
+ascend the Nile to Khartum. In the meantime, Gordon urgently called for
+help, and, after interminable delays, in the autumn of 1884, an English
+army under Lord Wolseley started up the Nile to relieve him. The troops
+of Wolseley were aided by a camel corps of one thousand men, who were
+organised to make a rush across the desert. On the 16th of January,
+1885, the camel troops came up with the enemy and fought the decisive
+battle of Matammeh. The Mahdist troops were mown down by rifles and
+Gatling-guns as soon as they were within short range. Immediately after
+the battle, Sir Charles Wilson determined to use the Egyptian flotilla
+to make an immediate advance. The steamers were protected, and a small
+relief force started on January 24th. They came in sight of Khartum on
+the 28th, but were fired upon from every side. At this moment, a native
+called from the bank that the city had fallen, and that the heroic
+Gordon had been killed.
+
+A history of Egypt would be incomplete without some account of that
+leader whose bravery, humanitarian views, and understanding of the
+Oriental character have made him famous among the pioneers of Christian
+civilisation in Asia and Africa. Fresh from his laurels won in the
+service of the Chinese government in suppressing the Tai-peng rebellion,
+Gordon returned to England in 1871. In 1874 he accepted a position from
+Egypt, with the consent of the British government. He journeyed to Cairo
+and up the Nile to take up the command as governor of the Equatorial
+Provinces in succession to Sir Samuel Baker. There he laboured with
+incessant energy to put down the slave-trade and to secure the welfare
+of the natives. He established a series of Egyptian outposts along the
+Abyssinian frontier and made a survey of Lake Albert Nyanza. Returning
+to Cairo in 1874, after some delay, he was appointed by Ismail Pasha as
+governor-general of the whole of the Egyptian Sudan. A war followed
+with Abyssinia, and, after the army, led by Egyptian officers, had been
+beaten twice, Gordon went to Massowah to negotiate with the Abyssinian
+monarch, Atti Johannes. He next proceeded to Khartum, and vigorously
+undertook the suppression of the slave-trade.
+
+[Illustration: 207.jpg MOSQUE OF THE IBRIHAM AT DESUK]
+
+Gordon's death at Khartum, in 1884, is one of the greatest tragedies of
+modern history. Supported neither by Egypt nor by the English army, of
+a different religion from all his followers, pressed on all sides by the
+Mah-dist forces, Gordon gallantly kept his few faithful followers at his
+side, and, with incessant activity and heroism, protected the remaining
+Egyptian colonists of the cities along the Nile, over which he still
+held control. He had called upon the British government to send aid
+across the desert from Suakin via Berber, but this request had been
+denied him. Berber then fell, and he was cut off to the north by many
+hundred miles of territory occupied by Mahdists. On January the
+1st, nearly a month before the long-delayed succour approached the
+beleaguered city, the provisions had given out. He had written on
+December 14th that, with two hundred men, he could have successfully
+kept up the defence. As his army had been starving since the 5th of
+January, it is difficult to understand how he managed to hold out till
+January the 26th. On this date, two days before the relief expedition
+approached, the Mahdi's troops attacked Khartum, and, finding Gordon's
+men too weak to fight, the defences were cut down, and the heroic Gordon
+was killed by a shot at the head of the steps of the palace.
+
+Upon learning of the death of Gordon, the relief expedition retreated,
+finding that the object of their advance had proved to be a hopeless
+one. A general evacuation was begun, and Dongola and the whole country
+south of Wady Haifa surrendered. The Mahdi, soon after winning Khartum,
+died, and was succeeded by the Califa Abdulla at Taashi. This change
+facilitated the Anglo-Egyptian retreat. About the same time Slatin
+Bey surrendered in Darfur and embraced Muhammedan-ism, and Lupton Bey,
+following his example, also adopted the religion of Islam, and yielded
+in Bahr-el-Ghazel. Emin Pasha alone retained his authority, derived
+originally from Egypt, in the province of Equatoria. Sir H. M. Stanley
+afterwards made his famous journey "Through Darkest Africa" and rescued
+this famous pasha. This noted explorer died May 9, 1904.
+
+In the autumn of 1885, the dervish Emir of Dongola, Muhammed el-Kheir,
+advanced upon the Egyptian frontier. On December 30th he was met by the
+Egyptian troops under Sir Frederick Stephenson. The Egyptian troops,
+unaided by Europeans, attacked the dervishes at Ginnis and totally
+defeated them, winning two guns and twenty banners. It was a source of
+much gratification that the Egyptian fellaheen had proved themselves so
+courageous and well disciplined in the encounter with the fierce hosts
+of the desert.
+
+[Illustration: 210.jpg LORD KITCHENER OF KHARTUM]
+
+In October, 1886, Wad en Nejumi, the victor of El-Obeid, was sent by the
+califa to invade Egypt. The advance of this army was delayed by trouble
+within the Sudan; but the califa, having at length beaten his enemies,
+in the year 1889 sent large reinforcements northwards to carry on
+the campaign against Egypt with vigour. The Egyptian troops, with one
+squadron of hussars, fought a decisive engagement with Wad en Nejumi on
+August 3rd of the same year. The dervish leader, many of his emirs, and
+twelve hundred Arab warriors were slain; four thousand more were taken
+prisoners, and 147 dervish standards were captured.
+
+The ever-increasing progress of Egypt during the next ten years,
+together with the accounts received from escaped prisoners of the
+reign of terror and inhumanity which obtained in the Sudan, brought
+the question of the reconquest of the lost provinces once more into
+prominence. The Italians had met with a fearful disaster in fighting
+against the Abyssinians at the battle of Adowa on March 1,1896. They
+were holding Kassala within the ex-Egyptian territory by invitation
+from England, and a reason was presented for attacking the dervishes
+elsewhere in order to draw off their army from Kassala. With the
+appointment of Sir Henry Kitchener, on March 11,1896, as sirdar of the
+Egyptian army, the final period of hostilities was entered upon between
+Egypt and the independent Arabs of the Central African Provinces.
+
+General Kitchener was ordered to build a railroad up the Nile, and to
+push forward with a well-organised Egyptian army, whose chief officers
+were Englishmen. The whole scheme of the invasion was planned with
+consummate forethought and deliberation, the officials and advisers
+in charge of the enterprise being chosen from the most tried and able
+experts in their several provinces. Lieut.-Col. E. P. C. Girouard, a
+brilliant young Canadian, undertook the work of railroad reconstruction.
+Col. L. Bundle was chief of the staff, and Major R. Wingate head of the
+Intelligence Department, ably assisted by the ex-prisoner of the califa,
+Slatin Bey. The army consisted in the beginning almost entirely of
+Egyptian and Sudanese troops, together with one battalion of the North
+Staffordshire Regiment. There were eight battalions of artillery, eight
+camel corps, and sixty-three gunboats which steamed up the Nile.
+
+After some sharp skirmishing, the advance was made to Dongola, when the
+English battalion was sent home disabled, and in time was replaced by a
+strong English brigade under General Gatacre. Early in 1897, a railroad
+had been thrown across the desert from Wady Haifa towards Abu Hamed,
+obviating the need of making an immense detour around the bend of the
+Nile near Dongola. The califa had, by this time, organised his defence.
+The Jaalin tribe had revolted against him at Metammeh, and had sought
+for help from the Egyptians, but before the supply of rifles arrived,
+the dervishes under the Emir Mahmud stormed Metammeh and annihilated the
+whole tribe of the Jaalin Arabs.
+
+The van of the army of invasion, both the flying corps and the flotilla
+of gunboats, advanced upon Abu Hamed towards the end of August.
+Major-General Hunter carried the place by storm. Berber was found to be
+deserted, and was occupied on September 5th. Hunter burned Adarama and
+reconnoitred on the Atbara. The gunboats bombarded Metammeh and reduced
+the place to ruins. The sirdar, General Kitchener, then went on a
+mission to Kassala, where he found the Italians anxious to evacuate.
+He thereupon made an agreement whereby the Egyptians should occupy
+the place, which was accordingly accomplished under Colonel Parsons on
+Christmas Day, 1897. Disagreements among the dervishes prevented them
+from making any concerted defence, and early in 1896 Kitchener renewed
+the advance and captured the dervish stores at Shendy on March 27th. The
+zeriba or camp of Mahmud was attacked and stormed with great loss to the
+dervishes on the 5th of April.
+
+On the date scheduled beforehand by Lord Kitchener, just after the
+annual rains had refreshed the country, the Anglo-Egyptian army made its
+final advance upon Khartum. There were ten thousand British troops and
+fifteen thousand Egyptians. The forces were concentrated at Wady Hamed,
+sixty miles above Omdurman, from which point they bombarded the city
+with shells filled with deadly lyddite, and the mosque and tomb of the
+late Mahdi were destroyed. At length the entire army advanced to within
+four miles of Khartum. On September 2nd the cavalry and a horse battery
+reached Kasar Shanbal. From this point they saw the whole army of the
+califa, consisting of from forty to fifty thousand men, advancing to
+confront them from behind the hills. The Anglo-Egyptians advanced to
+meet the dervishes disposed in the form of a horseshoe, with either end
+resting upon the banks of the river. At intervals along the whole line
+of the army were field-pieces and Maxims, and the gunboats were within
+reach to aid in shelling the enemy. The British soldiers then built
+a square sand rampart called a zarilea, and their Egyptian allies dug
+defensive trenches.
+
+On the front and left the dervishes came on in great strength, but, when
+the Maxims, the field-guns, and the repeating rifles opened fire upon
+them, at a comparatively close range, a frightful havoc was the result.
+All who remained to fight were immediately shot down, and the whole
+field was cleared in fifteen minutes. The dervishes retreated behind the
+hills, and were joined by fresh forces. General MacDonald, in making
+a detour with a body of Lancers, was suddenly beset by two thousand
+dervish riflemen, who fiercely charged him on three sides. Quickly
+forming a square, he succeeded by desperate efforts in repelling the
+enemy, until he was reinforced by Kitchener, who perceived his desperate
+situation.
+
+The calif then attacked the extreme left wing of the army, but was again
+driven off. The Anglo-Egyptians were now in a position to deliver the
+main attack upon the dervish defences. The troops of the califa
+fought with heroic bravery, fearlessly advancing within range of the
+Anglo-Egyptian fire, but each time they were mown down by the cross fire
+of the Maxims and rifles. Vast numbers were slain, and some divisions
+of the dervishes suffered complete annihilation. They left ten thousand
+dead upon the field, and ten thousand wounded. The rest fled in all
+directions, a scattered and straggling force, with the califa himself.
+The Anglo-Egyptians lost but two thousand men. Few prisoners were taken,
+for, in almost every instance, the dervishes refused to surrender, and
+even when wounded used their swords and spears against the rescuers of
+the ambulance corps. All the fighting was over by midday, and in the
+afternoon General Kitchener entered Omdurman, and the army encamped in
+the vicinity. Slatin Bey was duly installed as governor in the name
+of the Egyptian khedive. The European prisoners of the califa were now
+released, and on Sunday, the 4th of September, the sirdar and all his
+army held a solemn service in memory of General Gordon near the spot
+where he was killed.
+
+Bodies of men were now sent out on all sides to pacify the country, and
+the sirdar, who had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Kitchener of
+Khartum, started on an expedition up the Nile in a gunboat, in order to
+settle the difficult question arising from the occupation of Pashoda by
+a French corps under Major Marchand. The ability and strategy of this
+French commander were of a very high order. The general plan of the
+expedition had been in accord with French military traditions, based
+upon former attempts in India and America to separate the British
+colonial dominions, or to block the way to their extension by
+establishing a series of military outposts or forts at certain strategic
+points chosen for this purpose. Had the French designs under Desaix in
+India, or of the army of occupation in the Mississippi Valley in the
+eighteenth century, been supported by a powerful fleet, there is no
+doubt that British colonisation would have suffered a severe setback. If
+Major Marchand remained in Fashoda, the route to all the upper regions
+of the Nile would be cut off from any English or Egyptian enterprise.
+Accordingly, Lord Kitchener ran the risk of grave international
+complications by advancing upon Fashoda to meet Major Marchand.
+Fortunately, a temporary agreement was entered upon that the home
+governments should decide the question at issue, and Lord Kitchener then
+hoisted the Anglo-Egyptian flag south of the French settlement, and the
+officers fraternised over glasses of champagne.
+
+It is now believed that Russia would have aided France if it had come
+to a war, but the French government thought the affair not of sufficient
+importance to warrant an international struggle over the retention of
+Fashoda, and the respective spheres of influence of France and Great
+Britain were finally agreed upon early in the following year by the
+Niger Convention, which left the whole of the ex-Egyptian provinces
+under British protection, as far south as the Equatorial Lakes, and as
+far west as the border line between Darfur and Wadai.
+
+The calif was subsequently pursued from place to place in the desert,
+and was at length overtaken by Colonel Wingate at Om Dubreikat. The
+dervish leader fought a desperate fight; and, refusing to fly, was slain
+with all his personal followers on November 26, 1899.
+
+The total cost of these campaigns had been incredibly small, not
+amounting in all to the total of $12,000,000, and the railroad, the cost
+of which is here included in the expenditure, is of permanent value to
+Egypt.
+
+After the re-occupation of Khartum, it was again, as in Gordon's time,
+made the seat of government, the dervish capital having been located
+across the Nile at Omdurman. For a memorial to Gordon, $500,000 was
+enthusiastically raised in England. The memorial took the practical
+form of an educational establishment for the natives of the Sudan, the
+foundation-stone of which was laid by Lord Cromer in January, 1900.
+The school is intended to be exclusively for Muhammedans, and only the
+Moslem religion is to be taught within its walls.
+
+Though the Mahdism, of which the late califa had been the leading
+spirit, had degenerated into a struggle of slave-traders versus
+civilisation, the calif at least showed conspicuous courage in the
+manner in which he faced his death. For the last twenty years, during
+which the revolts of the dervishes had troubled the outlying provinces
+of the Egyptian dominions, trade had been almost at a standstill; large
+numbers of blacks had been enslaved; an equal number probably had been
+slaughtered, and whole regions depopulated. The total population was cut
+down during these years to one-half of what it previously had been, and
+it was of vital importance to Egypt to reconquer all the lost provinces
+which lay upon the banks of the river Nile. If the prosperity of
+Egypt is to rest upon a sound basis, and not be subjected to periodic
+overthrow at the hands of the hostile inhabitants of the south, it is
+essential that the Upper Nile should be under the control of those who
+are responsible for the welfare of the country. Egypt is the gift of the
+Nile, and the entire population of Egypt is dependent upon this river.
+To secure prosperity for the country and to develop Egyptian resources
+to the fullest extent, the rulers of Egypt must also be the rulers of
+the Nile. When the Anglo-Egyptian expedition under Kitchener set out to
+reconquer the Sudan, the development of Egypt had been progressing in
+all directions at a rapid rate. Having greater interests to defend, less
+indebtedness to meet, and greater facilities for meeting the taxes due
+the home government, no less than the foreign bondholders, the time was
+ripe in which to take that great step towards securing the prosperity of
+Egypt in the future by finally destroying the community of slaveholders,
+which, under the sanction of Mahdism, brutally tyrannised over the
+non-Muhammedan population.
+
+[Illustration: 218.jpg SLAVE BOATS ON THE NILE]
+
+From the beginning of the British occupation, the English have been
+engaged in persevering efforts at reform in every branch of the
+administration. The reforms which they instituted in the different
+departments of the army, finance, public works, and the police system
+were not at first popular. The native officials found out that they
+could not use methods of extortion; the upper classes, the pashas, and
+the wealthy landowners also discovered that they were not at liberty
+to do as they pleased, and that the English inspectors of irrigation
+strictly regulated the water-supply. It has since been fully
+demonstrated that the curtailing of their privilege to make use of
+the water when and how they chose is more than compensated by improved
+conditions.
+
+During the fifteen years previous to 1898, the population of Egypt had
+increased by about three million, or forty-three per cent. It was then
+ten million; it is now nearly eleven million. Within the boundaries of
+the irrigated land Egypt has always been a very populous country. By
+the effort to expand this area of irrigation, the way was prepared for
+a considerable increase in the total population. There are sections of
+this land where the density of the population averages from seven to
+eight hundred or even a thousand persons to the square mile. In early
+times, the population was still greater, as the irrigation area was
+increased by the great reservoir of Lake Mceris. When Omar made a census
+(A.D. 640), there were to be found six million Kopts, exclusive of the
+aged, the young, and the women, and three hundred thousand Greeks: this
+would imply, even at that decadent period, a total population of fifteen
+million.
+
+The increased prosperity shown by the railroads is most satisfactory.
+Two hundred and twelve miles of new railroad have been constructed,
+and an enormous development of the railroad and telegraph business has
+resulted. Since the year 1897 railroad development has been very rapid,
+and, with the line to the Sudan, amounted in 1904 to some two thousand
+miles. From the Sudan railway it is intended ultimately to extend a
+railroad system through the heart of Africa, from Cairo to Capetown.
+
+Great progress has been made in all departments of public works.
+Hundreds of agricultural roads have been built, and the mileage of
+canals and drains has been largely increased to the very great benefit
+of the Egyptian peasant.
+
+The quantity of salt sold was doubled between 1881 and 1897, while the
+price has been reduced nearly forty per cent. The tonnage of the port of
+Alexandria increased from 1,250,000 pounds to 2,549,739 between 1881 and
+1901. This increase was paralleled by a like increase in Alexandria's
+great rival, Port Said.
+
+Sir Evelyn Baring (Viscount Cromer) was appointed consul-general and
+financial adviser to Egypt in January, 1884, succeeding in this position
+Sir Edward Malet. Sir Evelyn was nominally the financial adviser, but
+practically the master of Egypt. The khedive never ventured to oppose
+the carrying out of his wishes, since the British army of occupation was
+ever at his beck and call to lend its weight to the commands which he
+issued to the government under the appearance of friendly advice.
+
+The most serious obstacle to the progress of Egypt has been the
+authority of the mixed administrations, the chief of which is the Caisse
+de la Dette. The main object of these administrations is to secure for
+European bondholders payment of the debts incurred by Egypt chiefly
+under the incredibly profligate government of Ismail Pasha. The Caisse
+de la Dette has commissions from six of the Powers. It receives from the
+tax-gatherer all the taxes apportioned to the payment of the interest
+for foreign indebtedness. Its influence, however, extends much farther,
+and the Caisse exercises the right of prohibiting expenditure on the
+part of the Egyptian government until its own demands for current
+interest have been complied with. It further has the right to veto any
+loan which the Egyptian government might be willing to raise, however
+urgent the necessity might be, unless it can be demonstrated that there
+is not the least likelihood that payment of the shareholders whom the
+Caisse represents will be in the least degree affected. If all that the
+Caisse claimed as belonging to its jurisdiction were really allowed to
+it by the Anglo-Egyptian government, the Caisse or International Court
+might exercise an arbitrary control over Egyptian affairs. It has many
+times seriously attempted to block the progress of Egypt with the sole
+aim of considering the pockets of the foreign shareholders, and in
+entire disregard to the welfare of the people.
+
+Added to this tribunal is the Railway Board and the Commissions of
+the Daira and Domains. The Railway Board administers the railroads,
+telegraphs, and the port of Alexandria. The Daira and Domains
+Commissions administer the large estates, mortgaged to the holders of
+the loans raised by Ismail Pasha under these two respective names. The
+Daira Estate yielded a surplus over and above the amount of interest
+on the debt paid, for the first time, in 1890. The Domain Estate had
+to face a deficit until the year 1900. Until these respective dates the
+Egyptian government itself was obliged to pay the deficit due to the
+bondholders.
+
+[Illustration: 223.jpg VISCOUNT CROMER (SIR EVELYN BARING)]
+
+In the year 1884, the Convention of London was signed by the European
+Powers, which was, however, for the most part, oppressive and unjust to
+the Egyptians. The amount of money raised by taxation, which was allowed
+to be spent in one year, was limited to the definite sum of $25,927,890.
+Fortunately for Egypt, the London Convention had one clause by which
+$44,760,000 could be utilised for the development of the country. With
+this sum the indemnities of Alexandria were paid, defects in the payment
+of interest were made good, and a small sum was left wherewith to
+increase irrigation and other useful works. The criminal folly of
+the former lavish expenditure was now demonstrated by a brilliant
+object-lesson. This small sum, when kept out of the hands of the
+rapacious bondholders, and applied to the development of the rich soil
+of Egypt, was found to work wonders. From the moment when the finances
+of Egypt were for the first time used to develop what is naturally the
+richest soil in the world, progress towards betterment grew rapidly into
+the remarkable prosperity of to-day. For a time, however, the government
+was obliged to use extreme parsimony in order to keep the country from
+further falling under the control of the irresponsible bondholders.
+Finally, in the year 1888, Sir Evelyn Baring wrote to the home
+government that the situation was so far improved that in his judgment
+"it would take a series of untoward events seriously to endanger
+the stability of Egyptian finance and the solvency of the Egyptian
+government." The corner had been turned, and progressive financial
+relief was at length afforded the long-suffering Egyptian people in the
+year 1890. After several years of financial betterment, it was decided
+to devote future surpluses to remunerative objects, such as works of
+irrigation, railway extension, the construction of hospitals, prisons,
+and other public buildings, and in the improvement of the system of
+education. Great difficulty was experienced in making use of this
+surplus, on account of technical hindrances which were persistently
+placed in the way of the Egyptian government by the Caisse de la Dette.
+These difficulties are now almost entirely removed.
+
+In 1896 it was decided, as has been narrated, to be for the interest of
+Egypt to start a campaign against the dervishes. Appeal was made to the
+Caisse de la Dette to raise additional funds for the necessary
+expenses of the projected campaign. The Caisse, following its universal
+precedent, immediately vetoed the project. England then made special
+grants-in-aid to Egypt, which both aided the Egyptian government and
+greatly strengthened her hold upon Egypt. By means of this timely
+assistance, Egypt was enabled successfully to pass through the period of
+increased expenditure incurred by the reconquest of the Sudan.
+
+During the lifetime of Khedive Tewfik, who owed his throne to the
+British occupation, there had been little or no disagreement between the
+British and Egyptian authorities. In the year 1887 Sir Henry Drummond
+Wolff prepared a convention, in accordance with which England promised
+to leave Egypt within three years from that date. At the last moment
+the sultan, urged by France and Russia, refused to sign it, and the
+occupation which these two Powers would not agree to legalise even for
+a period of three years was now less likely than ever to terminate. The
+following year Tewfik dismissed Nubar Pasha, who had, by the advice of
+the foreign Powers, stood in the way of reforms planned by the English
+officials.
+
+Tewfik died in 1892, and was succeeded by Abbas Hilmi Pasha, called
+officially Abbas II. He was born in 1874, and was barely of age
+according to Turkish law, which fixes magistracy at eighteen years of
+age in the case of the succession to the throne. He came directly from
+the college at Vienna to Cairo, where his accession was celebrated
+with great pomp; and the firman, confirming him in all the powers,
+privileges, and territorial rights which his father had enjoyed, was
+read from the steps of the palace in Abdin Square. For some time the
+new khedive did not cooperate with cordiality with Great Britain. He was
+young and eager to exercise his power. His throne had not been saved for
+him by the British, as his father's had been, and he was surrounded
+by intriguers, who were scheming always for their own advantage. He at
+first appeared almost as unprogressive as his great-uncle, Abbas I.,
+but he later learned to understand the importance of British counsels.
+During his visit to England in 1899 he frankly acknowledged the great
+good which England had done in Egypt, and declared himself ready
+to cooperate with the officials administering British affairs. This
+friendliness was a great change from the disposition which he had shown
+in previous years, during the long-drawn-out dispute between himself and
+Sir Evelyn Baring regarding the appointment of Egyptian officials. The
+controversy at one time indicated a grave crisis, and it is reported
+that on one occasion the British agent ordered the army to make a
+demonstration before the palace, and pointed out to the young ruler the
+folly of forcing events which would inevitably lead to his dethronement.
+The tension was gradually relaxed, and compromises brought about which
+resulted in harmony between the khedive and the British policy of
+administration, and no one rejoiced more than Abbas Hilmi over the
+victory of Omdurman.
+
+[Illustration: 227.jpg BAZAR IN ASWAN]
+
+Agricultural interests are dearer to the heart of the khedive than
+statecraft. He rides well, drives well, rises early, and is of
+abstemious habits. Turkish is his mother tongue, but he talks Arabic
+with fluency and speaks English, French, and German very well.
+
+An agreement between England and Egypt had been entered upon January 19,
+1899, in regard to the administration of the Sudan. According to this
+agreement, the British and Egyptian flags were to be used together,
+and the supreme military and civil command was vested in the
+governor-general, who is appointed by the khedive on the recommendation
+of the British government, and who cannot be removed without
+the latter's consent. This has proved so successful that the
+governor-general, Sir Reginald Wingate, reported in 1901:
+
+"I record my appreciation of the manner in which the officers,
+non-commissioned officers, soldiers, and officials,--British, Egyptian,
+and Sudanese,--without distinction, have laboured during the past year
+to push on the work of regenerating the country. Nor can I pass over
+without mention the loyal and valuable assistance I have received from
+many of the loyal ulemas, sheiks, and notables, who have displayed a
+most genuine desire to see their country once more advancing in the path
+of progress, material success, and novel development."
+
+In 1898 there were in all about 10,000 schools, with 17,000 teachers
+and 228,000 pupils. Seven-eighths of these schools were elementary,
+the education being confined to reading, writing, and the rudiments
+of arithmetic. The government has under its immediate direction
+eighty-seven schools of the lowest grade, called kuttabs, and
+thirty-five of the higher grades, three secondary, two girls' schools,
+and ten schools for higher or professional education,--the school of
+law, the school of medicine, with its pharmaceutical school and its
+school for nursing and obstetrics, polytechnic schools for civil
+engineers, two training-schools for schoolmasters, a school of
+agriculture, two technical schools, one training-school for female
+teachers, and the military school. In addition to the schools belonging
+to the Ministry of Public Instruction, there were under the inspection
+of that department in 1901 twenty-three primary schools of the higher
+grade, with an attendance of 3,585, and 845 schools of the lowest grade,
+with 1,364 teachers and an attendance of 26,831 pupils. There are
+187 schools attached to various Protestant and Catholic missions, and
+forty-three European private schools.
+
+The Koptic community supports one thousand schools for elementary
+education, twenty-seven primary boys' and girls' schools, and one
+college. The teaching of the Koptic language in the schools is now
+compulsory; the subjects taught, and the methods of teaching them, are
+the same as in vogue in other countries. Fifty per cent, of the Koptic
+male population can read and write well. The indigenous tribunals of the
+country are called Mehkemmehs, and are presided over by cadis. At
+the present time they retain jurisdiction in matters of personal law
+relating to marriage succession, guardianship, etc. Beyond this sphere
+they also fulfil certain functions connected with the registration
+of title of land. In matters of personal law, however, the native
+Christians are subject to their own patriarchs or other religious
+leaders.
+
+In other matters, natives are justiciable before the so-called native
+tribunals, established during the period of the British occupation.
+These consist of forty-six summary tribunals, each presided over by a
+single judge, who is empowered to exercise jurisdiction in matters up to
+$500 in value, and criminal jurisdiction in offences punishable by fine
+or by imprisonment of three years or less. Associated with these are
+seven central tribunals, each chamber consisting of three judges.
+There is also a court of appeal in Cairo, one-half of its members
+being Europeans. In criminal matters there is always a right to appeal,
+sometimes to the court of appeal, sometimes to a central tribunal.
+In civil matters an appeal lies from a summary tribunal to a central
+tribunal in matters exceeding $500 in value, and from the judgment of
+a central tribunal in the first instance to the court of appeal in all
+cases. The prosecution in criminal matters is entrusted to the parquet,
+which is directed by a procurer-general; the investigation of crime
+is ordinarily conducted by the parquet, or by the police under its
+direction. Offences against irrigation laws, which were once of such
+frequent occurrence and the occasion of injustice and lawlessness, are
+now tried by special and summary administration tribunals.
+
+The capitulations or agreements concerning justice entered into by all
+the Great Powers of Europe and the Ottoman Empire, relative to the trial
+and judgment of Europeans, include Egypt as an integral part of the
+Turkish Empire. Foreigners for this reason have the privilege of being
+tried by European courts. But if one party in a case is European and
+another Egyptian, there are special mixed tribunals, established in
+1876, consisting partly of native and partly of foreign judges. These
+tribunals settle civil and also some criminal cases between Egyptians
+and Europeans, and in 1900 penal jurisdiction was conferred upon them in
+connection with offences against the bankruptcy laws.
+
+There are three mixed tribunals of the first class, with a court of
+appeal, sitting at Alexandria. Civil cases between foreigners of the
+same nationality are tried before their own consular courts, which also
+try criminal cases not within the jurisdiction of the mixed
+tribunals, in which the accused are foreigners. By this well organised
+administration of justice, crime has steadily decreased throughout
+Egypt, and the people have learned to enjoy the benefit of receiving
+impartial justice, from which they had been shut off for many centuries.
+
+About sixty per cent, of the inhabitants of modern Egypt belong to
+the agricultural class--the fellaheen. The peasantry are primitive
+and thrifty in their habits, and hold tenaciously to their ancient
+traditions. They are a healthy race, good-tempered and tractable, and
+fairly intelligent, but, like all Southern nations breathing a balmy
+atmosphere, they are unprogressive. Centuries of oppression have not,
+however, crushed their cheerfulness. There is none of that abject misery
+of poverty among the Egyptians which is to be seen in cold countries.
+There is no starvation amongst them. Food is cheap, and a peasant can
+live well on a piastre (five cents) a day. A single cotton garment is
+enough for clothing, and the merest hut affords sufficient protection.
+The wants of the Egyptians are few. Their condition, now freed from
+forced labour, called the "Courbash," as also from injustice, crushing
+taxation, and usury, which characterised former administrations,
+compares favourably with the peasantry of many countries in Europe, and
+is equal, if not superior, to that of the peasantry of England itself.
+
+Under the British protection there has been a renewal of the Koptic
+Christian race. They are easily to be distinguished from their
+Muhammedan countrymen, being lighter in colour, and resembling the
+portraits on the ancient monuments. They are a strong community in Upper
+Egypt, whither they fled from the Arab invaders, and they there hold
+a large portion of the land. They live mostly in the towns, are better
+educated than other Egyptians, and are employed frequently in the
+government service as clerks and accountants.
+
+Koptic is still studied for church purposes by the Kopts, who both by
+their physiognomy and by their retention of the old Egyptian institution
+of monasticism are the only true descendants having the social
+and physical heredity of the ancient Egyptians. Four of the oldest
+monasteries in the world still survive in the Natron Valley.
+
+[Illustration: 232.jpg MOSQUE OF EL GHURI AT CAIRO]
+
+In spite of their distinguished social ancestry, the Kopts are by no
+means a superior class morally to the fellaheen, who are in part the
+descendants of those ancient Egyptians who renounced the Christian
+religion, the language and institutions of the Egyptian Christians, and
+accepted Muhammedanism and the Arabic language and institutions.
+
+The creed of the Kopts is Jacobite. They have three metropolitans and
+twelve bishops in Egypt, one metropolitan and two bishops in Abyssinia,
+and one bishop in Khartum. There are also arch-priests, priests,
+deacons, and monks. Priests must be married before ordination, but
+celibacy is imposed upon monks and high dignitaries. The Abyssinian
+Church is ruled by a metropolitan, and bishops are chosen from amongst
+the Egyptian-Koptic ecclesiastics, nor can the coronation of the King of
+Abyssinia take place until he has been anointed by the metropolitan, and
+this only after the authorisation by the Patriarch of Alexandria.
+
+[Illustration: 235.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.--THE WATER WAYS OF EGYPT
+
+
+_The White and Blue Niles: The Barrage: Clearing the Sudd: The Suez
+Canal: Ancient and modern irrigation: The Dam at Aswan: The modern
+exploration of the Nile._
+
+
+Between the Sudan and the Mediterranean the only perennial stream is
+the Nile, a word probably derived from the Semitic root nahal, meaning
+a valley or a river-valley, and subsequently a "river," in a pre-eminent
+and exclusive sense. The ancient Egyptians called it the Ar or Aur
+(Koptic, Iaro), or "black"; hence the Greek word [...] allusion to the
+colour, not of the water, but of the sediment which it precipitated
+during the floods. In contrast to the yellow sands of the surrounding
+desert, the Nile mud is black enough to have given the land itself its
+oldest name, Kem, or Kemi, which has the same meaning of "black." At
+Khartum, where the White Nile joins the Blue Nile, the main branch has
+a fall from its upper level in the region of the tropical lakes, four
+thousand feet above the sea, to twelve hundred feet, while traversing
+a distance of twenty-three hundred miles. From Khartum to the sea the
+distance through which the waters of the Nile wend their way is about
+eighteen hundred and forty miles. During the greater part of this course
+the flow is level, the average descent being about eight inches per
+mile. If it were not, therefore, for the obstruction met with in the
+Nubian section, the course of the Nile would be everywhere navigable.
+Although no perennial affluents enter the main stream lower down
+than Khartum, the volume of the Nile remains with little diminution
+throughout the entire distance to the Mediterranean. During the period
+of low water the amount of water in different localities is still
+uniform, notwithstanding all the irrigation, infiltration, and
+evaporation constantly taking place. The only explanation which has been
+given to this phenomenon is that there are hidden wells in the bed of
+the Nile, and from their flow the waste is ever renewed.
+
+As the earth revolves from west to east, the waters of the Nile tend
+to be driven upon the right bank on the west, where the current is
+constantly eating away the sandstone and limestone cliffs. For
+this reason the left side of the river is far more fertile and well
+cultivated than the right bank. Below Ombos the valley is narrowly
+constructed, being but thirteen hundred yards in width, the cliffs
+overhanging the river on either side, but at Thebes it broadens out to
+nine or ten miles, and farther up, in the Keneh district, the valley is
+twelve or fifteen miles in width. The river here approaches within sixty
+miles of the Red Sea, and it is believed that a branch of the Nile once
+flowed out into the sea in this direction.
+
+[Illustration: 237.jpg THE PLAIN OF THEBES]
+
+Seventy miles below Keneh the Nile throws from its left bank the Bahr
+Yusef branch, a small current of 350 feet in breadth, which flows for
+hundreds of miles through the broader strip of alluvial land between the
+main stream and the Libyan escarpments. In the Beni-Suef district this
+stream again bifurcates, the chief branch continuing to wind along the
+Nile Valley to a point above the Delta, where it joins the main
+stream. The left branch penetrates westward through a gap in the
+Libyan escarpments into the Fayum depression, ramifying into a thousand
+irrigating rills, and pouring its overflow into the Birket-el-Qarum, or
+"Lake of Horns," which still floods the lowest cavity and is a remnant
+of the famous ancient Lake Moris. The Fayum, which is the territory
+reclaimed from the former lake, is now an exceedingly productive
+district, a sort of inland delta, fed like the marine delta by the
+fertilising flood-waters of the Nile.
+
+The traveller Junker wrote of this district in 1875: "I found myself
+surrounded by a garden tract of unsurpassed fertility, where there was
+scarcely room for a path amid the exuberant growths; where pedestrians,
+riders, and animals had to move about along the embankments of countless
+canals. Now a land of roses, of the vine, olive, sugar-cane, and cotton,
+where the orange and lemon plants attain the size of our apple-trees, it
+was in primeval times an arid depression of the stony and sandy Libyan
+waste."
+
+North of the Fayum the Nile flows on to Cairo, where the narrow water
+way allowed to its course by the two lines of cliffs widens, and the
+cliffs recede to the right and left. There is thus space for the waters
+to spread and ramify over the alluvial plain. Nearly all this portion
+of Egypt has been covered by the sediment of the Nile, and from the
+earliest times there have been numerous distinct branches or channels of
+the river running out by separate openings into the sea. As several of
+these branches have been tapped to a great extent for irrigation, all
+except two have ceased to be true outlets of the Nile. In the Greek
+period there were seven mouths and several [...Greek...], or "false
+mouths." The two remaining mouths are those of Rosetta and Damietta, and
+these were always the most important of the number. They branched off
+formerly close to the present spot where Cairo stands, a little below
+Memphis; but during two thousand years the fork has gradually shifted to
+about thirteen miles lower down.
+
+The triangular space enclosed by these two branches and the sea-coast
+was called by the Greeks the delta, on account of the likeness in
+shape to the Greek letter of that name A. At the head, or apex, of the
+triangle stands the famous barrage, or dam, begun in 1847 by Mehemet
+Ali, for the twofold purpose of reclaiming many thousand acres of waste
+land, and of regulating the discharge and the navigation through the
+Delta. The idea was originated by a Frenchman in his service named
+Linant Bey. This engineer desired to alter the course of the river and
+build a weir at a point farther to the north, where the contour of land
+seemed to favour the design more than that of the present locality.
+Mehemet Ali thought his plans too costly, and accepted in preference
+those of Mougel Bey. Unexpected difficulties were encountered from the
+very beginning. Mehemet was exceedingly anxious to hurry the work, and
+Mougel Bey had only made a beginning, when an exceptionally high Nile
+carried away all the lime in the concrete base. Mehemet Ali did not
+live to see the completion of this work. The object, could it have been
+realised, was to hold up the waters of the Nile during the eight months
+of the ebb, and thus keep them on a level with the soil, and at the same
+time to supply Lower Egypt with an amount of water equal to that which
+came down during flood-time. It was hoped to cover the very large
+expenditure by the additional land which it was expected would come
+under irrigation, and by doing away with the primitive _shadoofs_
+and setting free for productive enterprise the numerous army of the
+agricultural labourers who spent the greater part of their time in
+slowly raising up buckets of water from the Nile and pouring them into
+the irrigating channels.
+
+[Illustration: 240b.jpg Harbour at Suez]
+
+The barrage is a double bridge, or weir, the eastern part spanning the
+Damietta branch of the Nile, the western part the Rosetta branch. The
+appearance of the structure is so light and graceful that the spectator
+finds it hard to conceive of the difficulty and the greatness of the
+work itself. Architecturally, the barrage is very beautiful, with
+a noble front and a grand effect, produced by a line of castellated
+turrets, which mark the site of the sluice gates. There are two lofty
+crenellated towers, corresponding with the towers over the gateway of
+a mediaeval baronial castle. The sluices are formed of double cones of
+hollow iron, in a semicircular form, worked on a radii of rods fixed to
+a central axis at each side of the sluice-gate. They are slowly raised
+or let down by the labour of two men, the gates being inflected as they
+descend in the direction of the bed of that part of the river whose
+waters are retained. The working of the barrage was never what it was
+intended to be. After the year 1867 it ceased to be of any practical
+utility, and was merely an impediment to navigation. Between the
+years 1885--90, however, during the British occupation, Sir Colon
+Scott-Moncrieff successfully completed the barrage at a cost of
+$2,500,000, and now the desired depth of eight feet of water on the
+lower part of the Nile can always be maintained.
+
+[Illustration: 241.jpg THE NILE BARRAGE]
+
+It proved to be of the greatest advantage in saving labour worth
+hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and in the irrigation and
+navigation facilities that had been contemplated as among the benefits
+which would naturally accrue from its successful completion.
+
+Compared with the advance of the land seaward at the estuary of the
+Mississippi and the Ganges, the advance of the Nile seaward is very
+slow. This is accounted for by the geological theory that the Delta
+of the Nile is gradually sinking. If this is so, the tendency of the
+periodical deposit to raise the level of the Delta will be counteracted
+by the annual subsidence. These phenomena account for the gradual burial
+of Egyptian monuments under the sand, although the actual level of the
+sea above what it formerly was is quite unappreciable.
+
+The periodical rise in the Nile, recurring as regularly as the
+revolutions of the heavenly bodies, necessarily remained an unsolved
+mystery to the ancients, for until the discovery of the tropical
+regions, with their mountainous lakes and deluging rains, it was
+impossible to learn the occasion of this increase. It is now known that
+the Blue Nile, flowing out of the mountainous parts of Abyssinia, is the
+sole cause of the periodic overflow of the Nile. Without the tropical
+rains of the Ethiopian tablelands, there would be no great rise nor any
+fertilising deposits. Without the White Nile, which runs steadily from
+the perennial reservoirs of the great Central African lakes, the Lower
+Nile would assume the character of an intermittent wady, such as the
+neighbouring Khor Baraka, periodically flushed by the discharge of
+the torrential downpours from Abyssinia. Though there is a periodical
+increase in the flow of the upper waters of the White Nile, yet the
+effect of this, lower down, is minimised by the dense quantities of
+vegetable drift, which, combining with the forest of aquatic growth,
+forms those vast barriers, known by the name of _sudd_, which not only
+arrest navigation but are able to dam up large bodies of water.
+
+The sudd, it is supposed, stopped the advance of the Roman centurions
+who were sent up the Nile in the days of Nero. Sir Samuel Baker was
+the one who first pointed out the great disadvantage of allowing the
+vegetable matter to accumulate, both to merchants and to those who were
+employed to suppress the slave-trade. In the year 1863 the two branches
+of the White Nile were blocked above their junction at Lake No. Once
+blocked, the accumulation rapidly increased from the stoppage of outlet,
+forming the innumerable floating islands which at this part of the Nile
+customarily float down-stream. A marsh of vast extent had been
+formed, and to all appearance, as Baker narrates, the White Nile had
+disappeared. Baker cut through fifty miles of the sudd, and urged the
+khedive to reopen the Nile. The work was successfully undertaken by
+Ishmail Ayub Pasha, and the White Nile became clear for large vessels
+when Gordon reached Khartum in 1874. It is practically impossible to
+keep the central provinces of the Nile open to civilisation unless
+the course of the Nile is free. Yet in 1878 the obstruction had been
+renewed, and during the occupation of these provinces by the rebel
+dervishes under the Mahdi and the califa the Nile was completely
+blocked, as formerly, at Lake No. The alarming failure of the Nile flood
+in 1899--1900 was generally attributed to this blockade, and in
+1899 fifty thousand dollars was placed at the disposal of the
+governor-general for reopening the White Nile by removing the vast
+accumulation of sudd which blocked the Bahr-el-Jebel from Lake No almost
+as far as Shambeh. The work was started under the direction of Sir
+William Garstin in 1899. In 1900 the greater part of the sudd had been
+removed by the strenuous labours of Major Peake, and the Nile again
+became navigable from Khartum to Rejaf. The sudd was found to be piled
+up and of almost as close a structure as peat. It was sawn out in blocks
+ten feet square and carried away by gunboats. In the years 1901--02
+further progress was made, and twenty thousand dollars appropriated
+for the work; and by means of constant patrolling the sudd is now
+practically absent from the whole course of the White Nile.
+
+The discharge of the flood waters from the Upper Nile begins to make
+itself felt in Lower Nubia and Egypt in the month of June, at first
+slightly, and after the middle of July much more rapidly, the river
+continuing to rise steadily till the first week in October, when it
+reaches high-water mark, nearly fifty-four or fifty-five feet at the
+Egyptian frontier, and twenty-five or twenty-six feet at Cairo. A
+subsidence then sets in, and continues till low-water level is again
+reached, usually about the end of May. The floods are then much higher
+and confined to a narrower space in the Nubian section of the Nile,
+while they gradually die out in the region of the Delta, where the
+excess seawards is discharged by the Rosetta and Damietta branches. In
+place of the old Nilometers, the amount of the rise of the Nile is now
+reported by telegraph from meteorological stations.
+
+It is popularly supposed that at every rise the plains of the Delta are
+inundated, but this is not the case. The actual overflow of the banks
+of the river and canals is the exception, and when it happens is most
+disastrous. The irrigation of fields and plantations is effected by
+slow infiltration through the retaining dykes, which are prevented
+from bursting by the process of slow absorption. The first lands to be
+affected are not those which are nearest to the dyke, but those which
+are of the lowest level, because the waters, in percolating through
+under the ground, reach the surface of these parts first. In Manitoba
+during a dry season sometimes the roots of the wheat strike down deep
+enough to reach the reservoir of moisture under ground. In Egypt this
+underground moisture is what is counted upon, but it is fed by a special
+and prepared system, and is thus brought to the roots of the plants
+artificially.
+
+[Illustration: 245.jpg SCALE OF THE NILOMETER]
+
+An analysis of the Nile alluvium, which has accumulated in the course of
+ages to a thickness of from three to four feet above the old river-bed,
+shows that it contains a considerable percentage of such fertilising
+substances as carbonate of lime and magnesia, silicates of aluminum,
+carbon, and several oxides. Where the water has to be raised to higher
+levels, two processes are used. The primitive shadoof of native origin
+figured on a monument as far back as 3,300 years ago, and the more
+modern sakieh was apparently introduced in later times from Syria and
+Persia. The shadoof is used on small farms, and the sakieh is more often
+used for larger farms and plantations. These contrivances line the whole
+course of the Nile from Lower Egypt to above Khartum. The shadoof will
+raise six hundred gallons ten feet in an hour, and consists of a pole
+weighted at one end, with a bucket at the other; when the water is
+raised the weight counterbalances the weight of the full bucket. The
+sakieh, which will raise twelve hundred gallons twenty or twenty-four
+feet in an hour, is a modified form of a Persian wheel, made to revolve
+by a beast of burden; it draws an endless series of buckets up from the
+water, and automatically empties them into a trough or other receptacle.
+In former times these appliances were heavily taxed and made the
+instruments of oppression, but these abuses have been reformed since
+Egypt came under a more humane form of government.
+
+Another interesting feature of the water ways of Egypt is the
+intermittent watercourses. The largest of these is the Khor Baraka
+(Barka), which flows out towards Tapan, south of Suakin. It presents
+some analogy to the Nile, and in part was undoubtedly a perennial stream
+250 miles long, and draining seven or eight thousand square miles. At
+present its flat sandy bed, winding between well-wooded banks, is dry
+for a great part of the year. This route is extensively used for the
+caravan trade between Suakin and Kassala. During September the water
+begins to flow, but is spasmodic. After the first flood the natives
+plant their crops, but sometimes the second flow, being too great,
+cannot be confined to the limits prepared for it, and the crops are
+carried away and the sowing must of necessity be started again.
+
+[Illustration: 247.jpg A MODERN SAKIEH]
+
+The canals of Egypt are of great aid in extending the beneficial
+influence of the inundations of the Nile. In Lower Egypt is the
+Mahmudiyeh Canal, connecting Alexandria with the Rosetta branch, and
+following the same direction as an ancient canal which preceded it.
+
+Mehemet Ali constructed this canal, which is about fifty miles long and
+one hundred feet broad. It is believed that twelve thousand labourers
+perished during its construction. Between the Rosetta and the Damietta
+branches of the Nile there are other canals, such as the Manuf, which
+connects the two branches of the river at a point not far from the
+Delta. East of the Damietta branch are other canals, occupying the
+ancient river-beds of the Tanitic and Pelusiac branches of the Nile.
+One of these is called the canal of the El-Muiz, from the first Fatimite
+caliph who ruled in Egypt, and who ordered it to be constructed.
+Another is named the canal of Abul-Munegga, from the name of the Jew who
+executed this work under the caliph El-'Amir, in order to bring water
+into the province of Sharkiyah. This last canal is connected with the
+remains of the one which in ancient times joined the Nile with the Red
+Sea. After falling into neglect it has again in part been restored and
+much increased in length as the Sweet Water Canal.
+
+Further mention may also be made of the great canal called the
+Bahr-Yusef, or River Joseph, which is important enough to be classed as
+a ramification of the Nile itself. As has been mentioned, this water way
+runs parallel with the Nile on the west side below Cairo for about 350
+miles to Farshut, and is the most important irrigation canal in Egypt.
+It is a series of canals rather than one canal. Tradition states that
+this canal was repaired by the celebrated Saladin. Another tradition,
+relating that the canal existed in the time of the Pharaohs, has
+recently been proved to be correct.
+
+Egypt possesses not only the greatest natural water way in the world,
+but also the greatest artificial water way--the Suez Canal. Before the
+opening of this canal there were in the past other canals which afforded
+communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. These ancient
+canals differed in one respect from the Suez Canal, since they were all
+fed by the fresh waters of the Nile. One of these still remains in use,
+and is called the Fresh Water Canal. According to Aristotle, Strabo, and
+Pliny, Sesostris was the first to conceive and carry out the idea of a
+water connection between the two seas, by means of the Pelusiac branch
+of the Nile from Avaris to Bubastis, and by rendering navigable the
+irrigation canal which already existed between Bubastis and Heroopolis.
+It is believed by some that the fragment bearing the oval of Ramses II.
+found near the course of the present canal affords confirmation of this
+assertion.
+
+The first authentic account of the carrying out of the conception of
+an inter-sea water way is to be found in the time of Pharaoh Necho II.,
+about the year 610 B.C. Herodotus records of Necho that he was "the
+first to attempt the construction of the canal to the Red Sea." This
+canal tapped the Nile at Bubastis, near Zagazig, and followed closely
+the line of modern Wady Canal to Heroopolis, the site of which lies in
+the neighbourhood of Toussun and Serapeum, between the Bitter Lakes and
+Lake Tinseh. At that date the Red Sea reached much farther inland than
+it does now, and was called in the upper portion the Heroopolite Gulf.
+The expanse of brackish water, now known as the Bitter Lakes, was then,
+in all probability, directly connected with the Red Sea. The length
+of this canal, according to Pliny, was sixty-two miles, or about
+fifty-seven English miles. This length, allowing for the sinuosity of
+the valley traversed, agrees with the distance between the site of old
+Bubastis and the present head of the Bitter Lakes. The length given
+by Herodotus of more than one thousand stadia (114 miles) must be
+understood to include the whole distance between the two seas, both by
+the Nile and by the canal. Herodotus relates that it cost the lives of
+120,000 men to cut the canal. He says that the undertaking was abandoned
+because of a warning from an oracle that the barbarians alone, meaning
+the Persians, would benefit by the success of the enterprise.
+
+[Illustration: 251.jpg HIEROGLYPHIC RECORD OF AN ANCIENT CANAL]
+
+The true reason for relinquishing the plan probably was that the
+Egyptians believed the Red Sea to have been higher in altitude than the
+Nile. They feared that if the canal were opened between the Nile and
+the Red Sea the salt water would flow in and make the waters of the Nile
+brackish. This explanation would indicate a lack of knowledge of locks
+and sluices on the part of the Egyptians.
+
+The work of Necho was continued by Darius, the son of Hystaspes (520
+B.C.). The natural channel of communication between the Heroopolite
+Gulf and the Red Sea had begun to fill up with silt even in the time of
+Necho, and a hundred years later, in the time of Darius, was completely
+blocked, so that it had to be entirely cleaned out to render it
+navigable. The traces of this canal can still be plainly seen in the
+neighbourhood of Shaluf, near the south end of the Bitter Lakes. The
+present fresh-water canal was also made to follow its course for some
+distance between that point and Suez. Persian monuments have been found
+by Lepsius in the neighbourhood, commemorating the work of Darius. On
+one of these the name of Darius is written in the Persian cuneiform
+characters, and on a cartouche in the Egyptian form. Until this date it
+therefore appears that ships sailed up the Pelusiac branch of the Nile
+to Bubastis, and thence along the canal to Heroopolis, where the cargoes
+were transhipped to the Red Sea. This inconvenient transfer of cargoes
+was remedied by the next Egyptian sovereign, who bestowed much care on
+the water connection between the two seas.
+
+Ptolemy Philadelphus (285 B.C.), in addition to cleaning out and
+thoroughly restoring the two canals, joined the fresh-water canal with
+the Heroopolite Gulf by means of a lock and sluices, which permitted the
+passage of vessels, and were effective in preventing the salt water from
+mingling with the fresh water. At the point where the canal joined the
+Heroopolite Gulf to the Red Sea, Ptolemy founded the town of Arsinoe, a
+little to the north of the modern Suez.
+
+The line of communication between the two seas was impassable during
+the reign of Cleopatra (31 b.c.). It is believed by some that it was
+restored during the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan (98-117). During
+this period the Pelusiac branch of the Nile was very low, the water
+having almost completely deserted this formerly well-filled course.
+If Trajan, therefore, undertook to reopen the water way, he must have
+tapped the Nile much higher up, in order to reach a plentiful supply of
+water. The old canal near Cairo, which elsewhere joined the line of
+the former canal on the way to the Bitter Lakes, was once called "Amnis
+Trajanus," and from this it has been inferred that Trajan was really the
+builder, and that during his reign this canal was cleaned and rendered
+navigable. As there is no further evidence than the name to prove that
+Trajan undertook so important an enterprise, the "Amnis Trajanus" was
+probably constructed during the Arabic period.
+
+When Amr had conquered Egypt, according to another account, the caliph
+Omar ordered him to ship rich supplies of grain to Mecca and Medina,
+because during the pilgrimages these cities and often the whole of
+Hedjaz suffered severely from famine. As it was extremely difficult to
+send large quantities of provisions across the desert on the backs
+of camels, it is supposed that to facilitate this transportation Omar
+ordered the construction of the canal from a point near Cairo to the
+head of the Red Sea. On account of his forethought in thus providing for
+the pilgrims to the Hedjaz, Omar received the title of "Prince of the
+Faithful" (Emir el-Momeneen), which thenceforth was adopted by his
+successors in the caliphate. One hundred and thirty-four years after
+this time, El-Mansur, the second caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, is said
+to have closed the canal to prevent supplies from being shipped to one
+of the descendants of Ali who had revolted at Medina. Since that time it
+is probable that it has never been reopened, although there is a report
+that the Sultan Hakim rendered it available for the passage of boats in
+the year A.D. 1000, after which it was neglected and became choked with
+sand. While not thereafter used for navigation, there were parts which
+during the time of the annual inundation of the Nile were filled with
+water, until Mehemet Ali prevented this. The parts filled during the
+inundation extended as far as Sheykh Hanaydik, near Toussun and the
+Bitter Lakes.
+
+The old canal which left the Nile at Cairo had long ceased to flow
+beyond the outskirts of the city, and the still more ancient canal from
+the neighbourhood of Bubastis, now known as the Wady Canal, extended
+only a few miles in the direction of the isthmus as far as Kassassin.
+During the construction of the Suez Canal the need of supplying the
+labourers with fresh water was imperative. The company, therefore,
+determined in 1861 to prolong the canal from Kassassin to the centre of
+the isthmus, and in the year 1863 they brought the fresh-water canal as
+far as Suez. In one or two places the bed of the old canal was cleared
+out and made to serve the new canal. The level of the fresh-water canal
+is about twenty feet above that of the Suez Canal, which it joins at
+Ismailia by means of two locks. The difference of level between it and
+the Red Sea is remedied by four locks constructed between Nefeesh and
+its terminus at Suez. Its average depth of water at high Nile is six
+feet, and at low Nile three feet.
+
+A canal from Bulak, near Cairo, passing by Heliopolis and Belbeys, and
+joining the Wady Canal a few miles east of Zagazig, restores the line
+of water communication between the Nile and the Red Sea as it existed
+perhaps in the time of Trajan, and certainly as it was in the time of
+the Caliph Omar. The improvement of this canal as a means of transit is
+local and external only.
+
+Napoleon Bonaparte was the first in modern times to take up the subject
+of a water connection between the two seas. In 1798 he examined the
+traces of the old canal of Necho and his successors, and ordered
+Monsieur Lepere to survey the isthmus and prepare a project for uniting
+the two seas by a direct canal. The result of this French engineer's
+labours was to discover a supposed difference of thirty feet between
+the Red Sea at high tide and the Mediterranean at low tide. As this
+inequality of level seemed to preclude the idea of a direct maritime
+canal, a compromise was recommended.
+
+Owing to the exertions of Lieutenant Waghorn, the route through
+Egypt for the transmission of the mails between England and India was
+determined upon in 1839. The Peninsular and Oriental Company established
+a service of steamers between England and Alexandria, and between Suez
+and India. In spite of this endeavour nothing was actually accomplished
+with regard to a canal until 1846, when a mixed commission was appointed
+to enquire into the subject. This commission entirely exploded the error
+into which Lepere had fallen in reporting a difference of level between
+the two seas.
+
+A plan was projected in 1855 by M. Linant Bey and M. Mougel Bey, under
+the superintendence of M. de Les-seps, who had already received a firman
+of concession from Said Pasha. This plan recommended a direct canal
+between Suez and Pelusium, which should pass through the Bitter Lakes,
+Lake Tinseh, Ballah, and Menzaleh, and connecting with the sea at each
+end by means of a lock. A fresh-water canal from Bulak to the centre of
+the isthmus and thence through Suez, with a conduit for conveying water
+to Pelusium, was also proposed. This project was in 1856 submitted to
+an international commission company composed of representatives from
+England, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Prussia, and Spain,
+and the following modification was suggested: that the line of the canal
+to the north should be slightly altered and brought to a point seventeen
+and a half miles west of Pelusium, this change being determined upon
+from the fact that the water at this point was from twenty-five to
+thirty feet deep at a distance of two miles from the coast, whereas at
+Pelusium this depth of water was only to be found at a distance of
+five miles from the coast. It was suggested that the plan for locks
+be abolished, and the length of the jetties at Suez and Port Said be
+diminished. Various other details of a minor character were determined,
+and this project was finally accepted and carried through by the Suez
+Canal Company.
+
+[Illustration: 259.jpg FERDINAND DE LESSEPS]
+
+In 1854 M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose father was the first
+representative of France in Egypt after the occupation, and who was
+chosen consul at Cairo (1831--1838), obtained a preliminary concession
+from Said Pasha, authorising him to form a company for the purpose of
+excavating a canal between the two seas, and laying down the connections
+on which the concession was granted. This was followed by the drawing up
+and revision of the project mentioned above, and by the renewal in
+1856 of the first concession with certain modifications and additions.
+Meanwhile the British government, under the influence of Lord
+Palmerston, then foreign secretary, endeavoured for various political
+reasons to place obstacles in the way of the enterprise, and so far
+succeeded in this unworthy attempt as to prevent the sultan from giving
+his assent to the concessions made by the viceroy of Egypt. Nothing,
+however, could daunt the intrepid promoter, M. de Lesseps. He declared
+his motto to be "Pour principe de commencer par avoir de la con-fiance."
+Undeterred by intrigues, and finding that his project met with a
+favourable reception throughout the Continent of Europe, he determined,
+in 1858, to open a subscription which would secure funds for the
+undertaking. The capital, according to the statistics of the company,
+approved in the firman of the concession, was to consist of forty
+million dollars in shares of one hundred dollars each. More than half
+of this amount was subscribed for, and eventually, in 1860, Said Pasha
+consented to take up the remaining unallotted shares, amounting to more
+than twelve million dollars. Disregarding the opposition of the English
+government, and ignoring the Sublime Porte, which was influenced by
+England, M. de Lesseps began his work in 1859, and on the 25th of April
+of that year the work was formally commenced, in the presence of M. de
+Lesseps and four directors of the company, by the digging of a small
+trench along the projected line of the canal, on the narrow strip of
+land between Lake Menzaleh and the Mediterranean. This was followed
+by the establishment of working encampments in different parts of the
+isthmus.
+
+Although the first steps were thus taken, incredible difficulties
+prevented de Lesseps from pushing forward with his work. Towards the
+close of 1862 the actual results were only a narrow "rigole" cut from
+the Mediterranean to Lake Tinseh, and the extension of the freshwater
+canal from Rasel-Wady to the same point. The principal work done in 1863
+was the continuation of the fresh-water canal to Suez. At this point a
+fresh obstacle arose which threatened to stop the work altogether.
+Among the articles of the concession of 1856 was one providing that
+four-fifths of the workmen on the canal should be Egyptians. Said Pasha
+consented to furnish these workmen by conscription from different parts
+of Egypt, and the company agreed to pay them at a rate equal to about
+two-thirds less than was given for similar work in Europe, and one-third
+more than they received in their own country, and to provide them with
+food, dwellings, etc. In principle this was the _corvee_, or forced
+labour. The fellaheen were taken away from their homes and set to work
+at the canal, though there is no doubt that they were as well treated
+and better paid than at home. The injustice and impolicy of this clause
+had always been insisted upon to the sultan by the English government,
+and when Ismail Pasha became viceroy, in the year 1863, he saw that
+the constant drain upon the working population required to keep twenty
+thousand fresh labourers monthly for the canal was a loss to the country
+for which nothing could compensate. In the early part of 1864 he refused
+to continue to send the monthly contingent, and the work was almost
+stopped.
+
+By the consent of all the parties, the subjects in dispute were
+submitted to the arbitrage of the French Emperor Napoleon III., who
+decided that the two concessions of 1854 and 1856, being in the nature
+of a contract and binding on both parties, the Egyptian government
+should pay an indemnity equal to the fellah labour and $6,000,000 for
+the resumption of the lands originally granted, two hundred metres only
+being retained on each side of the canal for the erection of workshops,
+the deposit of soil, etc., and $3,200,000 for the fresh-water canal, and
+the right of levying tolls on it. The Egyptian government undertook to
+keep it in repair and navigable, and to allow the company free use of
+it for any purpose. The sum total of these payments amounted to
+$16,800,000, and was to be paid in sixteen instalments from 1864 to
+1879.
+
+The company now proceeded to replace by machinery the manual labour,
+and, thanks to the energy and ingenuity of the principal contractors,
+Messrs. Borel and Lavalley, that which seemed first of all to threaten
+destruction to the enterprise now led to its ultimate success. Without
+the machinery thus called into action, it is probable that the canal
+would never have been completed when it was. The ingenuity displayed
+in the invention of this machinery, and its application to this vast
+undertaking, constituted one of the chief glories in the enterprise of
+M. de Lesseps.
+
+The work now proceeded without interruption of any kind; but at the end
+of the year 1867 it became evident that more money would be needed, and
+a subscription was opened for the purpose of obtaining $20,000,000 by
+means of one hundred dollar shares, issued at $600 a share, and bearing
+interest at the rate of five dollars a share. When more money was needed
+in 1869, the government agreed to renounce the interest on the shares
+held by it for twenty-five years, and more bonds were issued.
+
+By help of these subventions and loans the work was pushed onward with
+great vigour. The sceptical were gradually losing their scepticism,
+and all the world was awakening to see what an immense advantage to
+civilisation the triumph of de Lesseps' engineering enterprise would be.
+
+[Illustration: 263.jpg THE OPENING OF THE SUEZ CANAL]
+
+The great Frenchman had shown consummate skill as an organiser, but
+still more perhaps as an astute diplomatist, who knew how to upset
+the machinations of his numerous and powerful opponents by judicious
+counter-strokes of policy. By the beginning of 1869, the great labours
+of the company had very nearly reached their completion. The waters,
+flowing from the Mediterranean, first entered into the Bitter Lakes on
+March 18, 1869. Ismail Pasha was present to watch the initial success of
+the grand undertaking, and predicted that in a very short space of time
+the canal would be open to the ships of all the world. The first steamer
+which made the passage was one which carried M. de Lesseps on board,
+and which steamed the whole length of the canal September, 1869, in an
+interval of fifteen hours. This was a great triumph for the intrepid and
+persevering engineer, whose enterprise had been scoffed at by many men
+of the greatest European fame, and the completion of which had been
+delayed by incredible obstacles arising from jealousy or want of funds.
+By this time the unworthy tactics of the former Palmerston ministry of
+Great Britain in opposition to a scheme of such universal helpfulness
+to commerce had been succeeded by an official interest in the success
+of the enterprise which grew from sentiment, in the first instance, to
+a willingness later to buy up all the shares held by the Egyptian
+government. M. de Lesseps gave formal notice early in September that the
+canal would be opened for navigation on November 17, 1869. The khedive
+made costly preparations in order that the event might become an
+international celebration. Invitations were sent to all the sovereigns
+of Europe. The sultan refused to be present, but the Empress Eugenie
+accepted the invitation in the name of the French people. The Austrian
+emperor, the Prussian crown prince, and Prince Amadeus of Italy also
+took part in the festivity. The initial ceremony was on November 15th,
+at Port Said. Emperor Francis Joseph landed at midday, and was received
+with pomp and magnificence by the Khedive Ismail. There were splendid
+decorations in the streets and triumphal arches were raised. Meanwhile
+salutes were exchanged between the batteries and the ships of war in the
+harbour. At night there were gorgeous illuminations and fireworks. The
+khedive gave a grand ball on his own yacht, at which the Emperor of
+Austria and all the distinguished guests were in attendance. The French
+empress then arrived in Alexandria, and was received by Ismail and
+Francis Joseph with salutes of guns and the acclamations of the people.
+The next day the French imperial yacht Aigle, with the empress on board,
+proceeded to steam up the canal, being followed by forty vessels. They
+reached Ismailia after eight hours and a half, and were there met by
+vessels coming from the south end at Suez. On November 19th the fleet
+of steamers, led by the French imperial yacht, set out for Suez. They
+anchored overnight at the Bitter Lakes, and on November 21st the whole
+fleet of forty-five steamers arrived at Suez and entered the Red Sea.
+The empress, accompanied by the visiting fleet, returned on November
+22nd, and reached the Mediterranean on the 23rd.
+
+England, the country which more than any other had opposed the progress
+of the canal, derived more benefit than any other country from its
+completion. In 1875 the British government bought 176,600 shares from
+the khedive for a sum of nearly $20,000,000; and at the present time the
+value of these shares has risen more than fourfold. By this acquisition
+the British government became the largest shareholder. Of the shipping
+which avails itself of this route to the East, which is shorter by six
+thousand miles than any other, about eighty per cent, is British. In
+1891, of 4,207 ships, with a grain tonnage of 12,218,000, as many as
+3,217 of 9,484,000 tons were British.
+
+Extensive works were undertaken in 1894 for the widening of the canal.
+Illuminated buoys and electric lights have been introduced to facilitate
+the night traffic, so that, proceeding continuously, instead of stopping
+overnight, ships can now pass through in less than twenty hours in place
+of the thirty-five or forty hours which were formerly taken to effect
+the passage. These greater facilities postponed the need of discussing
+the project for running a parallel canal to the East which some time ago
+was thought to be an impending necessity on account of the blockage of
+the canal by the number of vessels passing through its course.
+
+By the Anglo-French Convention of 1888, the canal had acquired an
+international character. Both the water way itself and the isthmus for
+three miles on either side were declared neutral territory, exempt from
+blockade, fortification, or military occupation of any kind. The passage
+is to remain open for all time to ships of all nations, whether they are
+war-ships or merchantmen or liners, or whether the country to which they
+belong is engaged in war or enjoying peace. Within this convention was
+included the fresh-water canal which supplies drinking water to Ismailia
+and Port Said, and all the floating population about the banks of
+the Suez Canal. On April 8, 1904, by the terms of a new Anglo-French
+Colonial Treaty, it has been jointly agreed that the provisions of the
+Convention of 1888 shall remain in force for the next thirty years.
+
+Egypt was the scene of the earliest of all advances in engineering
+science. The system of irrigation, which originated in the days of the
+oldest Egyptian dynasties, has remained practically the same through all
+the intervening centuries until very recent times. During every period
+of vigorous government the rulers of Egypt paid special attention to
+irrigation canals and sluices, through which the flood waters could
+be brought to some hitherto uncultivated area. The famous barrage,
+projected early in the nineteenth century and only rendered efficient
+for what it was intended since the British occupation, made very little
+alteration in the actual supply of water during the seasons of low water
+in the Nile. The most serious problem is how to ward off the periodical
+famine years, of which there has been record from the earliest ages,
+and of which the Book of Genesis has left an account in the history of
+Joseph and the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Without
+creating such a vast reservoir in the upper waters of the Nile, that the
+storage there retained can be available in years of low water to fill
+the river to its accustomed level, it is impossible to prevent
+the calamity occasioned by leaving many districts of Egypt without
+cultivation for one or more seasons. With the desire of accomplishing
+this, Sir Benjamin Baker, the leading authority on engineering works in
+Egypt, prepared a scheme for reserving a vast storage of water in Upper
+Egypt at Aswan. It was also decided to follow up the enterprise with
+another to be undertaken at Assiut.
+
+On February 20,1898, the khedive approved of a contract with Messrs.
+John Aird and Company, which settled the much-debated question of the
+Nile reservoir and the scheme for the great dam at Aswan. The government
+was able to start the undertaking without any preliminary outlay. It was
+agreed that the company should receive the sum of $800,000 a year for
+a period of thirty years. Aswan, six hundred miles south of Cairo, was
+selected as an advantageous site because the Nile at that place flows
+over a granite bed, and is shut in on either side by granite rocks,
+which, when the course of the river is barred, would form the shores of
+the artificial irrigation lake.
+
+Before this work started, there had been a long controversy as to the
+effect produced by the rising waters upon the renowned temple on the
+Isle of Philae. Lord Leighton, the president of the Royal Academy, had
+vigorously protested against allowing the destruction of this famous
+ancient ruin. In the modification of the plans caused by this protest,
+it was hoped that no serious harm would result to this well-preserved
+relic of ancient Egyptian religion and art.
+
+[Illustration: 269.jpg APPROACH TO PHILAE]
+
+The enterprise was put through with great rapidity, the project
+fully realising the designs of its inaugurators. By aid of this great
+structure, 2,500 square miles have been added to the area of the 10,500
+miles hitherto subject to cultivation. Its value to the country is at
+the least worth $100,000,000. The dam extends for one and a quarter
+miles, and possesses 180 openings, each of which is twenty-three feet
+high, and will altogether allow the outpour of fifteen thousand tons of
+water per second. Navigation up and down the Nile has not been impeded,
+since, by a chain of four locks, vessels are able to pass up and down
+the river. Each lock is 260 feet long and thirty-two feet wide. During
+flood-time the gates of the dam are open; while the flood is subsiding
+the gates are gradually closed, and thus, in a long season of low water,
+the reservoir is gradually filled up for use through a system of canals,
+whereby the waters can be drawn off for irrigation and the main flow of
+the Nile can be increased. The lake thus formed is nearly three times
+the superficial area of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, and the waters are
+held back for a distance of 140 miles up the course of the river. The
+reservoir is filled during the months of January and February, and from
+April to the end of August the water is let out for irrigation purposes
+from the bottom of the reservoir, thus enabling the sediment, which
+is of such value, to be carried out through the sluices. Four or five
+waterings are allowed to percolate from it to the various regions which
+are thus brought under cultivation, and besides this the main supply of
+the river itself is artificially increased at the same time.
+
+The dam has been constructed of granite ashlar taken from quarries near
+Aswan. These quarries are the very same from which the ancient obelisks
+were hewn. The amount of rock used was about one million tons in
+weight. In building the dam it was found to be very difficult to lay the
+foundation, since the bottom of the river proved to be unsound, although
+in the preliminary reports it had been declared to be of solid granite.
+In some instances it was found necessary to dig down for forty feet, in
+order to lay a perfectly secure foundation on which the heavy wall could
+be superimposed. This required much additional labour, and great risk
+and damage was encountered during the progress of the work at the date
+of the impending rise of the waters of the Nile. Rubble dams were
+raised to ward off the waters from the point where it was necessary to
+excavate. The holes were gradually filled with solid blocks of granite;
+then the base of the structure, one hundred feet in width, was laid,
+and the massive piers, capable of resisting the immense pressure of
+the water during the height of the floods, were raised, and the whole
+edifice was at length completed with great rapidity by the aid of
+many thousand workmen, just before the rise in the Nile occurred. The
+official opening of the dam took place on the 10th of December, 1902.
+
+The dam at Aswan is the greatest irrigation project ever yet undertaken,
+but is by no means the last one likely to be executed in relation to
+the waters of the Nile. A smaller dam is to be constructed at Assiut,
+in order to supply a system of irrigation in the neighbourhood of that
+city, and also to carry water across to thousands of acres between this
+region and Cairo. This project is planned somewhat after the design of
+the barrage which is below Cairo.
+
+It is impossible to forecast what engineering skill may have in
+store for the future of Egypt. One may hope, at least, that the most
+prosperous days of the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Romans will be
+reproduced once more for the modern Egyptians, as an outcome of the
+wise administration which has originated through the occupation of the
+country by the English, as an international trust held for civilisation.
+By aid of British initiative, Egypt now controls a vast empire in
+equatorial Africa and the Sudan, and the great water ways of this
+immense territory are being gradually brought under such control that
+the maximum advantage to all the population will be the necessary
+result. The whole Nile is now opened to commerce. The British have
+guaranteed equal rights, and what has been called the policy of the
+"open door," for the commerce of all nations.
+
+The history of the modern exploration of the Nile is closely associated
+with the history of Egypt in modern times. The men who first
+visited Egypt and ascended the Nile valley were in almost every case
+Indo-Euro-peans. The early Egyptians were familiar perhaps with the
+Nile as far as Khartum, and with the Blue Nile up to its source in Lake
+Tsana, but they showed little or no interest in exploring the White
+Nile. In 457 B.C., Herodotus entered Egypt, and ascended the Nile as
+far as the First Cataract. He then learned many things about its upper
+waters, and made enquiries about the territories which lay beyond.
+He heard that the source was unknown; that there was a centre of
+civilisation in a city of the Ethiopians, in the bend of the Nile at
+Meroe (Merawi of to-day), but about the regions beyond he was unable to
+learn anything. Eratosthenes, the earliest geographer of whom we
+have record, was born in 276 b. c. at Cyrene, North Africa. From the
+information he gathered and edited, he sketched a nearly correct route
+of the Nile to Khartum. He also inserted the two Abyssinian affluents,
+and suggested that lakes were the source of the river.
+
+When Rome extended her domains over Egypt, in 30 B.C., the interest of
+the Romans was aroused in the solution of the problem of the discovery
+of the source of the Nile. Strabo set out with AElius Gallus, the Roman
+Governor of Egypt, on a journey of exploration up the Nile as far as
+Philae, at the First Cataract. About 30 B.C. Greek explorers by the names
+of Bion, Dalion, and Si-mondes were engaged in active exploration of the
+Nile above the First Cataract and perhaps south of Khartum, according to
+the account of Pliny the Elder, writing in 50 A.D. The Emperor Nero, in
+A.D. 66, sent an expedition up the Nile, and its members journeyed as
+far as the modern Fashoda and perhaps even beyond the White Nile.
+Their advance was impeded by the sudd, and, after writing discouraging
+reports, their attempt was abandoned. Among the Greek merchants who
+traded on the East African coast was one named Diogenes, who had been
+informed by an Arab that by a twenty-five days' journey one could gain
+access to a chain of great lakes, two of which were the headwaters of
+the White Nile. They also said that there was a mountain range, named
+from its brilliant appearance the Mountains of the Moon. He was informed
+that the Nile formed from the two head streams, flowed through marshes
+until it united with the Blue Nile, and then it flowed on until it
+entered into well-known regions. Diogenes reported this to a Syrian
+geographer named Marinus of Tyre, who wrote of it in his _Geography_
+during the first century of the Christian era. The writings of Marinus
+disappeared, it is supposed, when the Alexandrian Library was scattered,
+but luckily Gladius Ptolemy quoted them, and thus they have been
+preserved for us. Ptolemy wrote, in 150 A.D., the first clearly
+intelligible account of the origin of the White Nile, the two lakes,
+Victoria and Albert Nyanza, and the Mountains of the Moon. But no less
+than 1,740 years elapsed before justice could be done to this ancient
+geographer, and his account verified. It was Sir Henry M. Stanley who
+discovered the Ruwanzori mountain range, corresponding to the classical
+Mountains of the Moon, and who thus justified Ptolemy's view of
+the topography of Africa. For many years after Ptolemy, the work of
+exploring the sources of the Nile was entirely discontinued, and the
+solution of the problem was still wrapped in impenetrable mystery.
+
+The first modern explorer of any consequence who came from Great Britain
+was a Scotchman named Bruce. In 1763 he travelled through many ports
+of Northern Africa and visited the Levant, and subsequently Syria and
+Palestine. Wherever he went he drew sketches of antiquities, which are
+now preserved in the British Museum. Landing in Africa in 1786, he went
+up the Nile as far as Aswan. From there he travelled to the Red Sea and
+reached Jiddah, the port of Hajas. He then returned to Africa, stopping
+at Massawra, and from there penetrated into the heart of Abyssinia.
+The emperor received him with favour and suffered him to reach the Blue
+Nile, which to the mind of Bruce had always been considered as the main
+stream of the Nile. Having determined the latitude and longitude, he
+went down the Blue Nile as far as the site of Khartum, where the waters
+of the White Nile join with those of the Blue Nile. He next proceeded
+to Berber, and crossed the desert to Korosko, returning, after a three
+years' journey, in the year 1773. In journeying through France many
+learned men took a great interest in the story of his explorations, but
+he was bitterly disappointed to hear that he had not been the first to
+reach the sources of the Blue Nile. Partly for this reason he delayed
+publishing his travels for seventeen years after his return. Bruce was a
+truthful and accurate writer, but nevertheless his book was received on
+all sides with incredulity. Although received at the British court, he
+was not given any special honours or decorations. He first pointed out
+the great importance to England of controlling the Egyptian route to
+India, and he also secured for English merchants a concession on the Red
+Sea.
+
+In 1812, John Ludwig Burckhardt, of Swiss nationality, the first among
+Europeans, made a pilgrimage to Mecca and then travelled up the Nile
+to Korosko, after which he crossed the desert to Berber and Shendy.
+His death occurred after his return to Cairo, and he left a valuable
+collection of Oriental manuscripts to the University of Cambridge,
+England, which were published after his death.
+
+In 1827, a Belgian, named Adolphe Lisiant, ascended the White Nile to
+within 150 miles of Khartum. The expedition which he led was aided by
+an English society, called the "African Association," which became
+afterwards a part of the Royal Geographical Society. Many explorers
+visited the White Nile between 1827 and 1845. In 1845, John Pethrick, a
+Welshman, explored the Nile for coal and precious metals in the interest
+of Mehemet Ali. After the death of this pasha, Pethrick visited El-Obeid
+in Kordofan as a trader, and remained there for five years. In 1853
+he ventured upon an enterprise relating to the ivory trade. For this
+purpose he travelled backwards and forwards upon the White Nile and the
+Bahr-el-Ghazal for a period of six years, reaching some of the important
+affluents of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, the Jur and the Jalo, or the Rol.
+Returning to England, he was commissioned to undertake a relief
+expedition to help Captains Speke and Grant, who had set out upon their
+journey of exploration, and in the year 1861 he returned to Central
+Africa. Interest in the slave-trade deterred him from following the
+directions under which he had been sent out, namely, to bring relief
+to Speke and Grant. Sir Samuel Baker anticipated him in relieving the
+expedition, and this so angered Speke that he attempted to have Pethrick
+deprived of his consular position. Pethrick died in 1882.
+
+When Lieutenant Richard Francis Burton had completed his famous journey
+through Hedjaz to the sacred city of Mecca, he called at the port of
+Aden at the southwest extremity of Arabia. While there, he made friends
+with the authorities, and persuaded them to allow him to penetrate
+Africa through Somaliland, which is situated to the southwest of
+Abyssinia. He hoped by an overland journey westbound to strike the Nile
+at its headwaters. John H. Speke accompanied Burton on his journey, and
+thus gained his first experience of African exploration. Unfortunately
+this expedition was not a success, for the Somali were so suspicious
+of the object of the travellers that they forced them to return to the
+coast.
+
+[Illustraton: 277.jpg THE MAIN STREAM OF THE NILE]
+
+Once more, in 1856, the same party started farther south from Zanzibar.
+Hearing of a great inland lake, they pressed forwards to make an
+exploration, but were prevented by the Masai tribes. Burton was now laid
+up with fever, and Speke formed a large party and crossed the Unyamivezi
+and Usukuma. On July 30, 1858, they were fortunate enough to cross one
+of the bays of the southern half of Lake Victoria Nyanza. They struck
+northwards, and, on August 3rd, gained sight of the open waters of the
+great lake. Speke did not realise the vast area of the lake at this
+time, and put down its width at about one hundred miles. As he had
+promised Burton to return at a certain pre-arranged date, he went back
+to the coast. Burton, however, was unreasonable enough to be displeased
+with Speke's discovery, and the two fell into strained relations. On
+arriving at the coast, Speke at once went back to England, and there
+raised funds to make a longer and more complete exploration. He was
+naturally anxious to learn more about the great lake in the middle of
+the continent, and, besides this, he thought that he could demonstrate
+to the satisfaction of the scientific world that this vast basin of
+water was the source of the White Nile. Captain James A. Grant asked
+leave to accompany Speke, and became his efficient lieutenant. Grant was
+a good shot, a matter of importance, for it was almost certain that
+the party would have to confront the danger of being surrounded by wild
+beasts and hostile natives. He was also a good geologist and painted
+well in water-colours, and proved himself to be a capable lieutenant
+to the leader of the party. The Indian government sent the expedition a
+quantity of ammunition and surveying instruments.
+
+The party started from Zanzibar for the interior in October, 1860. At
+Usugara they were detained by the illness of Captain Grant and some of
+the Hottentot retainers. A number of the instruments were now sent back
+in order to lighten the burdens, and among other things was returned the
+cumbrous photographic apparatus, which was the only kind in use in the
+sixties. At Ugogo serious trouble arose with the native chiefs, who
+demanded tolls from the party. Many of the remaining porters here
+deserted, and others were frightened by the hostility of the local
+tribes. When at length they reached the Unyamivezi most of the beasts of
+burden had died, and half of the stores they had intended to bring with
+them were found to have been stolen by the natives. The Arabs here told
+Speke that there was another lake besides the Victoria, whose waters,
+according to some, were reported to be salty.
+
+Fierce internecine wars were now being waged between the tribes of the
+locality, which made any thought of progress, so long as they lasted,
+an impossibility. Speke, having successfully endeavoured to negotiate a
+peace between the chief Mouwa and the Arabs of the region, resolved upon
+the bold enterprise of pushing on without Grant and the supplies
+towards Buzina, the nearest country ruled by Bahima chiefs. The venture,
+however, was a fruitless one, and he bravely struggled to reach Usui.
+In this he succeeded, remaining there till October, 1861, when he went
+through the region of the Suwaroras, who demanded excessive tolls
+for permission to pass through their territory. Proceeding into the
+wilderness, they were met by envoys from Rumanika, a king whose court
+they intended to visit, and who had heard in advance of their impending
+journey. The messengers of the king received them well and brought them
+to the court. Rumanika now desired them to remain at his capital until
+he had sent word before them that the party intended to go to Uganda.
+Grant, about this time, was laid up with an ulcerated leg; and, when the
+time came for moving forward, Speke was obliged to set out for Uganda
+alone, which place he entered on January 16, 1862. He became a close
+friend of the royal family and the chief men, and his beard was a
+constant source of admiration and conversation.
+
+The illness of Grant prevented him from joining the party at Uganda till
+the end of May, and on July 7th of the same year, after many delays,
+they obtained leave from the king to leave Uganda. By July the 28th,
+Speke had reached the Ripon Falls, where the Victoria Nyanza branch of
+the Nile flows out of the great lake at the head of Napoleon Gulf. These
+falls were called after the Marquis of Ripon, who was then the
+president of the Royal Geographical Society. At this time, Grant, still
+convalescent, was moving by a more direct route towards Ungaro. Speke
+met him again on the way thither, and they finished their journey
+together. After suffering vexatious impositions from the monarch,
+Speke asked leave to go and visit a new lake which the natives called
+Lutanzige, but was refused permission. He then sent Bombay, his servant
+and interlocutor, along the course of the Nile towards the outposts
+of Pethrick. The messenger returned with hopeful news that there was
+a clear course open to them in that direction. The whole party then
+journeyed down the Kafu River to the point where it enters the Nile.
+On the way thither, they came to the Karuma Falls, and were obliged
+to march across swampy ground. Finally they met a Sudanese black named
+Mu-hammed Wad-el-Mek, who was dressed like an Egyptian and who spoke
+Arabic. Muhammed first of all told them that he had come from Pethrick,
+but it was later discovered that he was in the employment of Doctor
+Bono, a trader from Malta. The Sudanese was not anxious that the
+party should proceed, and told them stories about the impossibility of
+ascending the river at that time, during the month of December. It was
+difficult to dissuade Speke, however, and on January 12, 1863, he set
+out for a place which is now called Affudu. There the party paused for
+awhile in order to kill enough game to feed the native servants. On the
+1st of February, having forced some of the natives into their service as
+porters, they descended the Nile to its confluence with the Asua River.
+They next crossed this river, and proceeded onwards to the Nile Rapids,
+and from thence skirted the borders of the Bari country. On February 15,
+1863, they made an entrance into Gondokoro, where the whole party was
+filled with joy to meet Sir Samuel Baker, who had arrived there on the
+way out to relieve them. They all advanced together to Khartum, after
+which Speke and Grant returned to England, in the spring of 1863. Thus
+was the task of the discovery of the sources of the Nile, which had
+baffled the seekers for many centuries, at length completed. Speke was
+received by the Prince of Wales (King Edward VII.), but the satisfaction
+of being allowed to place an additional motto on his coat-of-arms was
+the only recognition which he received for his services.
+
+As a result of Speke's discoveries, the Victoria Nyanza took its place
+on the maps of Africa, and a fair conception had been obtained of the
+size and shape of Lake Albert Nyanza.
+
+[Illustration: 283.jpg THE FERRY AT OLD CAIRO]
+
+The whole course of the White Nile was also revealed with more or less
+accuracy, and all the mysterious surmises as to the great flow of the
+Nile from some unknown headwaters of enormous extent were now solved.
+It was only necessary to fill in the details of the map in regard to
+the great lakes and the rivers which flowed into them, and further to
+investigate the extensive territory between the lakes and the Egyptian
+settlements to the north. Sir Samuel Baker was the man who more than
+any other helped to supply the details of the work already accomplished.
+From Cairo he started on a journey up the course of the Nile. When he
+had reached Berber, he chose the course of the At-bara, or Blue Nile,
+the branch which receives the floods of water from the Abyssinian
+table-lands. He travelled up the western frontier of Abyssinia,
+proceeding as far as the river Rahad, a river flowing into the Blue Nile
+from the Egyptian side. From this point Baker turned backwards towards
+Khartum, which he reached in June, 1862, where he made a stay of some
+duration. He now made up his mind to search for Speke, and went up the
+White Nile as far as Gondokoro, where the meeting with Speke took place.
+Baker left this place March 26, 1863, but met with almost insuperable
+obstacles in trying to make further advance. The porters deserted, the
+camels died, and the ammunition and the presents intended to ease the
+way through the territory of native princes had to be all abandoned.
+Thus disencumbered, his party ascended the White Nile until they reached
+the Victoria affluent. The Bauyno tribes now prevented his intended
+advance to the Albert Nyanza. Baker, however, had the good fortune to be
+well received by the chieftain Kamurasi, and, as he was at this moment
+suffering from a severe attack of fever, the friendliness of this
+Central African chieftain was probably the means of saving his life. The
+king graciously received Baker's present of a double-barrelled gun, and
+then sent him onward with two guides and three hundred men. The party
+now managed to push their way to the shores of the Albert Nyanza. They
+first arrived at a place called Mbakovia, situated near the south-east
+coast, and on March 16, 1864, they saw for the first time the great lake
+itself, which they now named the Albert Nyanza. After a short stay at
+Mbakovia, they proceeded along the coast of the lake until they reached
+Magungo, where the Victoria branch of the Nile flows into the Albert
+Nyanza. Continuing the journey up the source of the Victoria Nile, they
+discovered the Murchison Falls. When they set out for the Karuma Falls
+the porters deserted, and after many desperate adventures they at length
+returned to Khartum in May, 1865. Baker then went on to Berber, and
+crossed the desert to Suakin on the Red Sea. He returned to England
+late in the year 1865, and was received with honour and decorated by the
+queen with a well-earned knighthood.
+
+In the year 1869 Baker entered the service of the Egyptian government,
+and was commissioned by the viceroy to subdue the regions of Equatorial
+Africa, and annex them to the Egyptian Empire. To succeed in this
+enterprise he waged many a war with African tribes like the Boni. On
+several occasions these conflicts had been forced upon him; on
+other occasions Baker Pasha was the aggressor, owing to his fixed
+determination to extend on all sides the limits of the Egyptian Sudan.
+With all the rulers, however, who treated him well, he remained on terms
+of loyalty and friendship; and, in time, he inspired them with respect
+for his fairness and liberality. Baker Pasha scattered the slave-traders
+on all sides, and, for the time being, effectually broke up their power.
+The slave-traders of the Sudan were of Arab nationality, and were in
+the habit of advancing farther, year by year, upon the villages of the
+defenceless Africans, and spreading their ravages into the heart of
+Africa. They always attacked the less warlike tribes, and, upon breaking
+into a negro settlement, would carry off the whole population, except
+the aged or sick. The slaves were herded together in vast numbers by
+help of logs of wood sawn in two, with holes cut large enough to enclose
+the neck of a slave, and the two sides of the log afterwards securely
+fastened again, thereby yoking together a row of these unfortunate
+beings. Every year, out of five hundred thousand or more slaves, at
+least half the number perished.. The markets for the slaves were the
+cities of the Muhammedans all through North Africa, Syria, Turkey, and
+Persia. The death-dealing hardships to the slaves were for the most part
+endured on the long journey to Cairo, or, when the trade was suppressed
+there, to points north of the Sudan, such as Tripoli, or certain ports
+on the Red Sea. Those who were hardy enough to reach the slave-markets
+were usually well treated by their Muhammedan masters. During the time
+of Baker Pasha's administration, while he was pursuing the slave-traders
+and establishing Egyptian outposts, the whole course of the Nile from
+the Great Lakes became well known to the civilised world, though after
+this period Baker Pasha did not make any further voyages of discovery
+into unknown parts.
+
+During the years of 1859 and 1860, an adventurous Dutch lady of fortune,
+Miss Alexandrine Tinne, journeyed up the Nile as far as Gondokoro, and
+in 1861 she commenced to organise a daring expedition to find the source
+of the Bahr-el-Ghazel, and explore the territory between the Nile basin
+and Lake Chad. She started from Khartum, and ascended the Bahr-el-Ghazel
+as far as the affluent Bahr-el-Hamad. She then crossed overland as far
+as the Jur and Kosango Rivers, and reached the mountains on the outlying
+districts of the Nyam-Nyam country. Here the members of the expedition
+suffered from black-water fever, and only with the greatest difficulty
+were they able to return to Khartum, where they arrived in July, 1864.
+In 1868 Miss Tinne, nothing-daunted, started for Lake Chad from Tripoli,
+with the intention of closing in upon the Nile from the eastern sources
+of the affluents of the Bahr-el-Ghazel. On reaching Wadi-Aberjong,
+however, this brave-hearted woman was waylaid by the fierce Tuaregs, and
+was beheaded August 1, 1868.
+
+In the sixties, Georg Schweinfurth, a native of Riga, in the Baltic
+provinces of Russia, set out to explore Nubia, Upper Egypt, and
+Abyssinia for botanical purposes. Subsequently the Royal Academy of
+Science in Berlin equipped him for an expedition to explore the region
+of the Bahr-el-Ghazel. He entered the Sudan by Suakin on the Red Sea,
+and crossed the desert to Berber, reaching Khartum on November 1, 1868.
+The following January he set out along the course of the White Nile,
+passed Getina, and examined the vegetation (sudd) which had drifted
+down from all the affluents of the White Nile. He prolonged his stay
+for three years on the Bahr-el-Ghazel, solely absorbed in scientific
+studies, and, unlike his predecessors, he was unconcerned with reforms
+and attempts to suppress the slave-trade.
+
+Schweinfurth penetrated so far into the heart of Africa that he reached
+the Congo basin and explored the upper waters of the Welle River, and on
+his return to Europe he published a work, in 1873, called "The Heart
+of Africa." In this book he tried to demonstrate that the area of the
+Victoria Nyanza was taken up by a chain of five lakes.
+
+About this time, in the same year, the famous Henry Morton Stanley
+returned to London from his adventurous discovery and relief of Dr.
+David Livingstone. The distinguished missionary and explorer died not
+long afterwards, and the fame of his brilliant discoveries and heroic
+life aroused great sympathy and interest in African exploration. The
+great river which Livingstone had explored was believed by him to have
+been the Nile, but was more correctly thought by others to have been the
+Congo River. On account of the interest aroused in Livingstone, the _New
+York Herald_ and the _Daily Telegraph_ of London decided to send Stanley
+on a fully equipped expedition to solve the many problems relating to
+the heart of Africa about which the civilised world was still in the
+dark.
+
+Stanley chose the route of Zanzibar, and, landing there, he went up the
+course of the river and crossed the country to the Victoria Nyanza by
+the way of Unyamwezi. He reached the lake by the end of February,
+1875. On March the 8th he set out to explore the shores of the lake, and
+mapped the whole region, including its bays, islands, and archipelagoes,
+with a considerable amount of accuracy. He also examined Napoleon Gulf,
+and reached as far as Ripon Falls, at which point the waters of the lake
+flow towards the Albert Nyanza. He then verified the accuracy of Speke's
+supposition that the Victoria Nyanza really was the main source of the
+White Nile. Stanley set out from Uganda at the end of the year 1875,
+and travelled across the country to the Congo. About the same time
+three English surveyors, Colonels Purdy, Colston, and Sidney Enser,
+made several topographical reports on much of the territory between
+the Bahr-el-Ghazel, the Shari, and the Nile. Later on, in 1876, General
+Gordon sent Romolo Gesei, an Italian in the service of the khedive,
+to navigate and to explore Lake Albert Nyanza. In the following year
+Colonel Mason, an American, surveyed the lake, of which he made an
+accurate topographical chart.
+
+In the year 1880, Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, an eminent geographer, made some
+valuable surveys of eastern equatorial Africa, which had the effect
+of inciting the Royal Geographical Society to send out, in 1882, an
+expedition under Joseph Thomson, a brilliant young African explorer, in
+order to find out a direct route to the Victoria Nyanza. Thomson set out
+from Momhasa early in the year 1883, but he never succeeded in realising
+the purpose of his mission.
+
+Emin Pasha, as we have seen, was the governor appointed by the khedive
+to rule the Egyptian equatorial provinces. He made a few discoveries,
+such as the Semliki River, which was called by him Divern. Whilst he
+was engaged in travelling through the Bahr-el-Ghazel district, the
+revolt of the Mahdi occurred, and Emin Pasha was isolated from the outer
+world. In the year 1886 Doctor Junker returned to Europe from Emin, and
+roused great interest by his account of the adventures of the pasha,
+whom most people had believed to have died, but whom they now learned
+had set up an independent sovereignty in the heart of Africa, awaiting
+anxiously the advent of a relief expedition. Then Henry M. Stanley
+volunteered to go out on a relief expedition to bring Emin Pasha home.
+
+Stanley avoided the route through the German colony on the East, and
+started upon his ever memorable relief expedition by the Congo
+route. The veteran adventurer succeeded in relieving Emin Pasha, and,
+furthermore, he discovered the Mountains of the Moon, called by the
+natives Ruwenjori, on May 24, 1888. He also traced to its sources
+the Semliki River, and explored Lake Albert Edward and a gulf of the
+Victoria to the south-west. The remainder of this famous journey,
+for the success of which he was knighted as Sir Henry M. Stanley, was
+outside the basin of the Nile, and is recorded in his book, "Through
+Darkest Africa."
+
+In 1900, Dr. Donaldson Smith, an American, made an important journey
+through the countries between the north end of Lake Rudolf and the
+Mountain Nile.
+
+[Illustration: 290b.jpg EXAMPLES OF PHOENECIAN PORCELAIN]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--THE DECIPHERMENT OF THE HIEROGLYPHS*
+
+     *The early portion of this chapter is selected, by kind
+     permission of Dr. Henry Smith Williams, from his "History
+     of the Art of Writing," Copyright, 1902 and 1903.
+
+_The Rosetta Stone: The Discoveries of Dr. Thomas Young: The
+Classification of the Egyptian Alphabet by Champollion: Egyptian
+Love-songs and the Book of the Dead_
+
+
+Conspicuously placed in the great hall of Egyptian antiquities, in the
+British Museum, is a wonderful piece of sculpture known as the Rosetta
+Stone. A glance at its graven surface suffices to show that three sets
+of inscriptions are recorded there. The upper one, occupying about
+one-fourth of the surface, is a pictured scroll, made up of chains of
+those strange outlines of serpents, hawks, lions, and so on, which are
+recognised, even by the least initiated, as hieroglyphics. The middle
+inscription, made up of lines, angles, and half-pictures, one might
+suppose to be a sort of abbreviated or shorthand hieroglyphic. The
+third, or lower, inscription, is manifestly Greek, obviously a thing of
+words. If the screeds above be also made of words, only the elect have
+any way of proving the fact.
+
+Fortunately, however, even the least scholarly observer is left in
+no doubt as to the real import of the thing he sees, for an obliging
+English label tells us that these three inscriptions are renderings of
+the same message, and that this message is a "decree of the Priests
+of Memphis conferring divine honours on Ptolemy V., Epiphanes, King
+of Egypt, B.C. 195." The label goes on to state that the upper
+transcription (of which, unfortunately, only parts of the last dozen
+lines or so remain, the slab being broken) is in "the Egyptian language,
+in hieroglyphics, or writing of the priests"; the second inscription in
+the same language, "in demotic, or the writing of the people"; and the
+third "in the Greek language and character."
+
+Then comes a brief biography of the Rosetta Stone itself, as follows:
+"This stone was found by the French in 1798 among the ruins of Fort St.
+Julian, near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. It passed into the hands
+of the British by the treaty of Alexandria, and was deposited in the
+British Museum in the year 1801." There is a whole volume of history
+in that brief inscription, and a bitter sting thrown in, if the reader
+chance to be a Frenchman. Yet the facts involved could scarcely be
+suggested more modestly. They are recorded much more bluntly in a graven
+inscription on the side of the stone, which runs: "Captured in Egypt by
+the British Army, 1801." No Frenchman could read those words without a
+sinking of the heart.
+
+The value of the Rosetta Stone depended on the fact that it gave
+promise, even when originally inspected, of furnishing a key to the
+centuries-old mystery of the hieroglyphics. For two thousand years the
+secret of these strange markings had been forgotten. Nowhere in the
+world--quite as little in Egypt as elsewhere--had any man the slightest
+clue to their meaning; there were even those who doubted whether these
+droll picturings really had any specific meaning, questioning whether
+they were not merely vague symbols of esoteric religious import and
+nothing more. And it was the Rosetta Stone that gave the answer to these
+doubters, and restored to the world a lost language and a forgotten
+literature.
+
+The trustees of the British Museum recognised that the problem of the
+Rosetta Stone was one on which the scientists of the world might
+well exhaust their ingenuity, and they promptly published a carefully
+lithographed copy of the entire inscription, so that foreign scholarship
+had equal opportunity with British to try to solve the riddle. How
+difficult a riddle it was, even with this key in hand, is illustrated by
+the fact that, though scholars of all nations brought their ingenuity
+to bear upon it, nothing more was accomplished for a dozen years than
+to give authority to three or four guesses regarding the nature of the
+upper inscriptions, which, as it afterwards proved, were quite incorrect
+and altogether misleading. This in itself is sufficient to show that
+ordinary scholarship might have studied the Rosetta Stone till the end
+of time without getting far on the track of its secrets. The key was
+there, but to apply it required the inspired insight--that is to say,
+the shrewd guessing power--of genius.
+
+The man who undertook the task had perhaps the keenest scientific
+imagination and the most versatile profundity of knowledge of his
+generation--one is tempted to say, of any generation. For he was none
+other than the extraordinary Dr. Thomas Young, the demonstrator of the
+vibratory nature of light.
+
+Young had his attention called to the Rosetta Stone by accident, and
+his usual rapacity for knowledge at once led him to speculate as to the
+possible aid this tri-lingual inscription might give in the solution of
+Egyptian problems. Resolving at once to attempt the solution himself, he
+set to work to learn Koptic, which was rightly believed to represent the
+nearest existing approach to the ancient Egyptian language. His amazing
+facility in the acquisition of languages stood him in such good stead
+that within a year of his first efforts he had mastered Koptic and
+assured himself that the ancient Egyptian language was really similar
+to it, and had even made a tentative attempt at the translation of the
+Egyptian scroll. His results were only tentative, to be sure, yet they
+constituted the very beginnings of our knowledge regarding the meaning
+of hieroglyphics. Just how far they carried has been a subject of ardent
+controversy ever since. Not that there is any doubt about the specific
+facts; what is questioned is the exact importance of these facts. For
+it is undeniable that Young did not complete and perfect the discovery,
+and, as always in such matters, there is opportunity for difference of
+opinion as to the share of credit due to each of the workers who entered
+into the discovery.
+
+Young's specific discoveries were these: (1) that many of the pictures
+of the hieroglyphics stand for the names of the objects actually
+delineated; (2) that other pictures are sometimes only symbolic; (3)
+that plural numbers are represented by repetition; (4) that numerals are
+represented by dashes; (5) that hieroglyphics may read either from
+the right or from the left, but always from the direction in which the
+animals and human figures face; (6) that proper names are surrounded
+by a graven oval ring, making what he called a cartouche; (7) that the
+cartouches of the preserved portion of the Rosetta Stone stand for the
+name of Ptolemy alone; (8) that the presence of a female figure after
+such cartouches, in other inscriptions, always denotes the female
+sex; (9) that within the cartouches the hieroglyphic symbols have a
+positively phonetic value, either alphabetic or syllabic; and (10) that
+several different characters may have the same phonetic value.
+
+Just what these phonetic values are, Doctor Young pointed out in the
+case of fourteen characters, representing nine sounds, six of which
+are accepted to-day as correctly representing the letters to which he
+ascribed them, and the three others as being correct regarding their
+essential or consonantal element. It is clear, therefore, that he was on
+the right track thus far, and on the very verge of complete discovery.
+But, unfortunately, he failed to take the next step, which would have
+been to realise that the same phonetic values given the alphabetic
+characters within the cartouches were often ascribed to them also when
+used in the general text of an inscription; in other words, that the
+use of an alphabet was not confined to proper names. This was the great
+secret which Young missed, but which his French successor, Jean Francois
+Champollion, working on the foundation that Young had laid, was enabled
+to ferret out.
+
+[Illustration: 296.jpg JEAN FRANCOIS CHAMPOLLION]
+
+Young's initial studies of the Rosetta Stone were made in 1814; his
+later publications bore date of 1819. Champollion's first announcement
+of results came in 1822; his second and more important one in 1824. By
+this time, through study of the cartouches of other inscriptions, he had
+made out almost the complete alphabet, and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
+was practically solved. He proved that the Egyptians had developed a
+relatively complete alphabet (mostly neglecting the vowels, as early
+Semitic alphabets did also) centuries before the Phoenicians were heard
+of in history.
+
+Even this statement, however, must in a measure be modified. These
+pictures are letters and something more. Some of them are purely
+alphabetical in character, and some are symbolic in another way.
+Some characters represent syllables. Others stand sometimes as mere
+representatives of sounds, and again, in a more extended sense, as
+representatives of things, such as all hieroglyphics doubtless were
+in the beginning. In a word, this is an alphabet, but not a perfected
+alphabet such as modern nations generally use.
+
+The word "hieroglyphic" is applied, as we have seen, to various forms of
+picture writing; but the original interpretation which the Greeks, who
+invented it, put upon the word was the "holy writing" of the Egyptians.
+The earliest Greek travellers who went to Egypt, when that country was
+finally opened up to the outside world, must have noticed the strange
+picture scrolls everywhere to be seen there on the temple walls, on
+obelisks, on statues, and mummy-cases, as well as on papyrus rolls,
+which were obviously intended to serve the purpose of handing down
+records of events to future generations.
+
+It is now known that this writing of the Egyptians was of a most
+extraordinary compound character. Part of its pictures are used as
+direct representations of the objects presented. Here are some examples:
+
+[Illustration: 298.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+Again the picture of an object becomes an ideograph, as in the following
+instances:
+
+Here the sacred ibis or the sacred bull symbolises the soul. The bee
+stands for honey, the eyes for the verb "to see." Yet again these
+pictures may stand neither as pictures of things nor as ideographs, but
+as having the phonetic value of a syllable. Such syllabic signs may be
+used either singly, as above, or in combination, as illustrated below.
+
+But one other stage of evolution is possible, namely, the use of signs
+with a purely alphabetical significance. The Egyptians made this
+step also, and their strangely conglomerate writing makes use of the
+following alphabet:
+
+[Illustration: 299.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+In a word, then, the Egyptian writing has passed through all the stages
+of development, from the purely pictorial to the alphabetical, but with
+this strange qualification,--that while advancing to the later stages it
+retains the use of crude earlier forms. As Canon Taylor has graphically
+phrased it, the Egyptian writing is a completed structure, but one from
+which the scaffolding has not been removed.
+
+The next step would have been to remove the now useless scaffolding,
+leaving a purely alphabetical writing as the completed structure.
+Looking at the matter from the modern standpoint, it seems almost
+incredible that so intelligent a people as the Egyptians should have
+failed to make this advance. Yet the facts stand, that as early as
+the time of the Pyramid Builders, say four thousand years B.C.,* the
+Egyptians had made the wonderful analysis of sounds, without which the
+invention of an alphabet would be impossible.
+
+     * The latest word on the subject of the origin of the
+     alphabet takes back some of the primitive phonetic signs to
+     prehistoric times. Among these prehistoric signs are the
+     letters A, E, I, O, U, (V), F and M.
+
+They had set aside certain of their hieroglyphic symbols and given them
+alphabetical significance. They had learned to write their words with
+the use of this alphabet; and it would seem as if, in the course of a
+few generations, they must come to see how unnecessary was the cruder
+form of picture-writing which this alphabet would naturally supplant;
+but, in point of fact, they never did come to a realisation of this
+seemingly simple proposition. Generation after generation and century
+after century, they continued to use their same cumbersome, complex
+writing, and it remained for an outside nation to prove that an alphabet
+pure and simple was capable of fulfilling all the conditions of a
+written language.
+
+Thus in practice there are found in the hieroglyphics the strangest
+combinations of ideographs, syllabic signs, and alphabetical signs or
+true letters used together indiscriminately.
+
+It was, for example, not at all unusual, after spelling a word
+syllabically or alphabetically, to introduce a figure giving the idea
+of the thing intended, and then even to supplement this with a so-called
+determinative sign or figure:
+
+[Illustration: 301.jpg DETERMINATIVE SIGNS]
+
+Here Queften, monkey, is spelled out in full, but the picture of a
+monkey is added as a determinative; second, Qenu, cavalry, after being
+spelled, is made unequivocal by the introduction of a picture of a
+horse; third, Temati, wings, though spelled elaborately, has pictures
+of wings added; and fourth, Tatu, quadrupeds, after being spelled, has
+a picture of a quadruped, and then the picture of a hide, which is the
+usual determinative of a quadruped, followed by three dashes to indicate
+the plural number.*
+
+     * Another illustration of the plural number is seen in the
+     sign Pau, on page 298, where the plural is indicated in the
+     same manner.
+
+These determinatives are in themselves so interesting, as illustrations
+of the association of ideas, that it is worth while to add a few more
+examples. The word Pet, which signifies heaven, and which has also the
+meaning up or even, is represented primarily by what may be supposed
+to be a conventionalised picture of the covering to the earth. But
+this picture, used as a determinative, is curiously modified in the
+expression of other ideas, as it symbolises evening when a closed flower
+is added, and night when a star hangs in the sky, and rain or tempest
+when a series of zigzag lines, which by themselves represent water, are
+appended.
+
+[Illustration: 302a.jpg HIEROGLYPHICS]
+
+As aids to memory such pictures are obviously of advantage, but this
+advantage in the modern view is outweighed by the cumbrousness of the
+system of writing as a whole.
+
+Why was such a complex system retained? Chiefly, no doubt, because the
+Egyptians, like all other highly developed peoples, were conservatives.
+They held to their old method after a better one had been invented. But
+this inherent conservatism was enormously aided, no doubt, by the fact
+that the Egyptian language, like the Chinese, has many words that have
+a varied significance, making it seem necessary, or at least highly
+desirable, either to spell such words with different signs, or, having
+spelled them in the same way, to introduce the varied determinatives.
+
+Here are some examples of discrimination between words of the same sound
+by the use of different signs:
+
+[Illustration: 302b.jpg HIEROGLYPHICS]
+
+Here, it will be observed, exactly the same expedient is adopted which
+we still retain when we discriminate between words of the same sound by
+different spelling, as to, two, too; whole, hole; through, threw, etc.
+
+But the more usual Egyptian method was to resort to the determinatives;
+the result seems to us most extraordinary. After what has been said, the
+following examples will explain themselves:
+
+[Illustration: 303.jpg HIEROGLYPHICS]
+
+It goes without saying that the great mass of people in Egypt were never
+able to write at all. Had they been accustomed to do so, the Egyptians
+would have been a nation of artists. Even as the case stands, a
+remarkable number of men must have had their artistic sense well
+developed, for the birds, animals, and human figures constantly
+presented on their hieroglyphic scrolls are drawn with a fidelity which
+the average European of to-day would certainly find far beyond his
+skill.
+
+Until Professor Petrie* published his "Medum," and Professor Erman
+his "Grammar," no important work on Egyptian hieroglyphic writing had
+appeared in recent years.
+
+     * The information as to the modern investigation in
+     hieroglyphics has been obtained from F. L. Griffith's paper
+     in the 6th Memoir of the Archaeological Survey on
+     Hieroglyphics from the collections of the Egypt Exploration
+     Fund, London, 1894-95.
+
+Professor Petrie's "Medum" is the mainstay of the student in regard to
+examples of form for the old kingdom; but for all periods detailed and
+trustworthy drawings and photographs are found among the enormous mass
+of published texts.*
+
+     *To these may now be added the 105 coloured signs in Beni
+     Hasan, Part III., and still more numerous examples in the
+     Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund (Archaeological
+     Survey), for the season 1895-96.
+
+There is an important collection of facsimiles at University College,
+London, made for Professor Petrie by Miss Paget. A large proportion of
+these are copied from the collections from Beni Hasan and El Bersheh;
+others are from coffins of later periods, and have only paleographical
+interest; and others are from earlier coffins in the British Museum.
+But the flower of the collection consists in exquisite drawings of
+sculptured hieroglyphics, sometimes with traces of colour, from the tomb
+of Phtahhotep at Saqqara, supplemented by a few from other tombs in
+the same neighbourhood, and from the pyramid of Papi I. These were all
+copied on the spot in 1895--96.
+
+The only critical list of hieroglyphics with their powers published
+recently is that of Erman, printed in his "Grammar." The system by
+which he classifies the values--obscured in the English edition by
+the substitution of the term of "ideograph" for _Wortzeichen_
+(word-sign)--displays the author's keen insight into the nature of
+hieroglyphic writing, and the list itself is highly suggestive.
+
+In the case of an altogether different system of ancient writing
+that has come down to us,--the old cuneiform syllabary of the
+Assyrians,--dictionaries, glossaries, and other works of a grammatical
+character have been preserved to the present day. Documents such as
+these are, of course, of material aid in regard to obscure texts, but in
+the case of the Egyptian writing the only surviving native word-list
+is the Sign Papyrus of Tanis,* which is, unfortunately, of the Roman
+Period, when the original meanings of the signs had been well-nigh
+forgotten.
+
+     * Egypt Exploration Fund, Ninth Memoir, 1889-1890. This is
+     an extra volume, now out of print.
+
+It has its own peculiar interest, but seldom furnishes the smallest hint
+to the seeker after origins. The famous "Hieroglyphics of Horapollo"
+occasionally contains a reminiscence of true hieroglyphics, but may
+well be a composition of the Middle Ages, embodying a tiny modicum of
+half-genuine tradition that had survived until then.
+
+Scattered throughout Egyptological literature there are, as may
+be imagined, many attempts at explaining individual signs. But any
+endeavour to treat Egyptian hieroglyphics critically, to ascertain
+their origins, the history of their use, the original distinction or the
+relationship of signs that resemble each other, reveals how little is
+really known about them. For study, good examples showing detail and
+colouring at different periods are needed, and the evidence furnished
+by form and colour must be checked by examination of their powers in
+writing.
+
+In investigating the powers of the uses of the signs, dictionaries give
+most important aid to the student. The key-words of the meanings, viz.,
+the names of the objects or actions depicted, are often exceedingly rare
+in the texts. Doctor Brugsch's great Dictionary (1867-82) frequently
+settles with close accuracy the meanings of the words considered in it,
+supplying by quotations the proof of his conclusions.*
+
+     * There has been in preparation since 1897 an exhaustive
+     dictionary, to be published under the auspices of the German
+     government. The academies of Berlin, Gottingen, Leipsig and
+     Munich have charge of the work, and they have nominated as
+     their respective commissioners Professors Erman, Pietsch-
+     mann, Steindorff, and Ebers (since deceased). This colossal
+     undertaking is the fitting culmination of the labours of a
+     century in the Egyptian language and writing. The collection
+     and arrangement of material are estimated to occupy eleven
+     years; printing may thus be begun about 1908.
+
+     Despite its uncritical method of compilation, Levy's bulky
+     Vocabulary (1887-1804), with its two supplements and long
+     tables of signs, is indispensable in this branch of
+     research, since it gives a multitude of references to rare
+     words and forms of words that occur in notable publications
+     of recent date, such as Maspero's excellent edition of the
+     Pyramid Texts. There are also some important special
+     indices, such as Stern's excellent "Glossary of the Papyrus
+     Ebers," Piehl's "Vocabulary of the Harris Papyrus," Erman's
+     "Glossary of the Westcar Papyrus," and Doctor Pudge's
+     "Vocabulary" of the XVIIIth Dynasty "Book of the Dead."
+     Schack's Index to the Pyramid Texts will prove to be an
+     important work, and the synoptic index of parallel chapters
+     prefixed to the work is of the greatest value in the search
+     for variant spellings.
+
+In 1872, Brugsch, in his "Grammaire Hieroglyphique," published a useful
+list of signs with their phonetic and ideographic values, accompanying
+them with references to his Dictionary, and distinguishing some of the
+specially early and late forms. We may also note the careful list in
+Lepsius' "AEgyptische Lesestucke," 1883.
+
+Champollion in his "Grammaire Egyptienne," issued after the author's
+death in 1836, gave descriptive names to large numbers of the signs.
+In 1848, to the first volume of Bunsen's "Egypt's Place in Universal
+History," Birch contributed a long list of hieroglyphics, with
+descriptions and statements of their separate phonetic and ideographic
+values. De Rouge, in his "Catalogue des signes hieroglyphiques de
+l'imprimerie nationale," 1851, attached to each of many hundreds of
+signs and varieties of signs a short description, often very correct.
+He again dealt with the subject in 1867, and published a "Catalogue
+Raisonne" of the more usual signs in the first _livraison_ of his
+"Chrestomathie Egyptienne." Useful to the student as these first lists
+were, in the early stages of decipherment, they are now of little
+value. For, at the time they were made, the fine early forms were mostly
+unstudied, and the signs were taken without discrimination from texts
+of all periods; moreover, the outlines of the signs were inaccurately
+rendered, their colours unnoted, and their phonetic and ideographic
+powers very imperfectly determined. Thus, whenever doubt was possible
+as to the object represented by a sign, little external help was
+forthcoming for correct identification. To a present-day student of the
+subject, the scholarly understanding of De Rouge and the ingenuity of
+Birch are apparent, but the aid which they afford him is small.
+
+As a result of recent discoveries, some very interesting researches have
+been made in Egyptian paleography in what is known as the _signary_.*
+We reach signs which seem to be disconnected from the known hieroglyphs,
+and we are probably touching on the system of geometrical signs used
+from prehistoric to Roman times in Egypt, and also in other countries
+around the Mediterranean.
+
+     * The information regarding the alphabet here given is
+     derived from the Eighteenth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration
+     Fund, 1899-1890.
+
+How far these signs are originally due to geometrical invention, or how
+far due to corruption of some picture, we cannot say. But in any case
+they stood so detached from the hieroglyphic writing and its hieratic
+and demotic derivations, that they must be treated as a separate system.
+For the present the best course is to show here the similarity of forms
+between these marks and those known in Egypt in earlier and later times,
+adding the similar forms in the Karian and Spanish alphabets. The usage
+of such forms in the same country from about 6000 B.C. down to 1200
+B.C., or later, shows that we have to deal with a definite system. And
+it seems impossible to separate that used in 1200 B.C. in Egypt from the
+similar forms found in other lands connected with Egypt from 800 B.C.
+down to later times: we may find many of these also in the Kretan
+inscriptions long before 800 B.C. The only conclusion then seems to
+be that a great body of signs--or a _signary_--was in use around the
+Mediterranean for several thousand years. Whether these signs were
+ideographic or syllabic or alphabetic in the early stages we do not
+know; certainly they were alphabetic in the later stage. And the
+identity of most of the signs in Asia Minor and Spain shows them to
+belong to a system with commonly received values in the later times.
+
+What then becomes of the Phoenician legend of the alphabet? Certainly
+the so-called Phoenician letters were familiar long before the rise of
+Phoenician influence. What is really due to the Phoenicians seems to
+have been the selection of a short series (only half the amount of the
+surviving alphabets) for numerical purposes, as A = 1, E = 5, I = 10, N
+= 50, P = 100.
+
+[Illustration: 309.jpg TABLE OF COMPARATIVE SYMBOLS]
+
+This usage would soon render these signs as invariable in order as our
+own numbers, and force the use of them on all countries with which the
+Phoenicians traded. Hence, before long these signs drove out of use
+all others, except in the less changed civilisations of Asia Minor and
+Spain. According to our modern authorities this exactly explains the
+phenomena of the early Greek alphabets; many in variety, and so diverse
+that each has to be learned separately, and yet entirely uniform in
+order. Each tribe had its own signs for certain sounds, varying a good
+deal; yet all had to follow a fixed numerical system. Certainly all did
+not learn their forms from an independent Phoenician alphabet, unknown
+to them before it was selected.
+
+The work of Young and Champollion, says Doctor Williams,* gives a new
+interest to the mass of records, in the form of graven inscriptions, and
+papyrus rolls, and cases and wrappings, which abound in Egypt, but which
+hitherto had served no better purpose for centuries than to excite,
+without satisfying, the curiosity of the traveller.
+
+     * History of the Art of Writing, Portfolio I., plate 8.
+
+Now these strange records, so long enigmatic, could be read, and within
+the past fifty years a vast literature of translations of these Egyptian
+records has been given to the world. It was early discovered that the
+hieroglyphic character was not reserved solely for sacred inscriptions,
+as the Greeks had supposed in naming it; indeed, the inscription of the
+Rosetta Stone sufficiently dispelled that illusion. But no one, perhaps,
+was prepared for the revelations that were soon made as to the extent of
+range of these various inscriptions, and the strictly literary character
+of some of them.
+
+A large proportion of these inscriptions are, to be sure, religious in
+character, but there are other extensive inscriptions, such as those on
+the walls of the temple of Karnak, that are strictly historical; telling
+of the warlike deeds of such mighty kings as Thutmosis III. and
+Ramses II. Again, there are documents which belong to the domain of
+belles-lettres pure and simple. Of these the best known example is the
+now famous "Tale of Two Brothers"--the prototype of the "modern" short
+story.
+
+Up to the middle of the nineteenth century, no Egyptologist had
+discovered that the grave-faced personages who lie in their mummy-cases
+in our great museums ever read or composed romance. Their literature,
+as far as recovered, was of an eminently serious nature,--hymns to the
+divinities, epic poems, writings on magic and science, business letters,
+etc., but no stories. In 1852, however, an Englishwoman, Mrs. Elizabeth
+d'Orbiney, sent M. de Rouge, at Paris, a papyrus she had purchased in
+Italy, and whose contents she was anxious to know. Thus was the tale of
+the "Two Brothers" brought to light, and for twelve years it remained
+our sole specimen of a species of literature which is now constantly
+being added to.
+
+This remarkable papyrus dates from the thirteenth century B.C., and was
+the work of Anna, one of the most distinguished temple-scribes of his
+age. Indeed, it is to him that we are indebted for a large portion of
+the Egyptian literature that has been preserved to us. This particular
+work was executed for Seti II., son of Meneptah, and grandson of Ramses
+II. of the nineteenth dynasty, while he was yet crown prince.
+
+The tale itself is clearly formed of two parts. The first, up to the
+Bata's self-exile to the Valley of the Cedar, gives a really excellent
+picture of the life and habits of the peasant dwelling on the banks
+of the Nile. The civilisation and moral conditions it describes are
+distinctly Egyptian. Were it not for such details as the words spoken by
+the cows, and the miraculous appearance of the body of water between the
+two brothers, we might say the ancient Egyptians were strict realists
+in their theory of fiction. But the second part leads us through marvels
+enough to satisfy the most vivid of imaginations. It is possible,
+therefore, that the tale as we have it was originally two separate
+stories.
+
+The main theme of the story has occupied a great deal of attention. Its
+analogy to the Biblical narrative of Joseph and Potiphar's wife comes at
+once into the reader's mind. But there is just as close a similarity
+in the Greek tales, where the hero is killed or his life endangered
+for having scorned the guilty love of a woman, as in the stories of
+Hippolytus, Peleus, Bellerophon, and the son of Glaucus, not to
+mention the extraordinary adventure of Amgiad and Assad, sons of Prince
+Kamaralzaman, in the _Thousand and One Nights_.
+
+The religions of Greece and Western Asia likewise contain myths that can
+be compared almost point for point with the tale of the two brothers.
+In Phrygia, for example, Atyo scorns the love of the goddess Cybele,
+as does Bata the love of Anpu's wife. Like Bata, again, he mutilates
+himself, and is transformed into a pine instead of a persea tree.
+Are we, therefore, to seek for the common origin of all the myths and
+romance in the tragedy of Anpu and Bata that was current, we know not
+how long, before the days of King Seti?
+
+Of one thing we may be sure: of this particular type the Egyptian tale
+is by far the oldest that we possess, and, if we may not look to the
+valley of the Nile as the original home of the popular tale, we may
+justly regard it as the locality where it was earliest naturalised and
+assumed a true literary form.
+
+Analogies to the second part of the tale are even more numerous and
+curious. They are to be found everywhere, in France, Italy, Germany,
+Hungary, in Russia and all Slavonic countries, Roumania, Peloponnesia,
+in Asia Minor, Abyssinia, and even India.
+
+Of late years an ever-increasing accumulation of the literature of every
+age of Egyptian history has either been brought to light or for
+the first time studied from a wider point of view than was formerly
+possible. In making a few typical selections from the mass of this
+new material, none perhaps are more worthy of note than some of the
+love-songs which have been translated into German from Egyptian in
+"Die Liebespoesie der Alten AEgypten," by W. Max Muller. This is a very
+careful edition of the love-songs on the recto (or upper surface) of the
+Harris Papyrus 500, and of similar lyrics from Turin, Gizeh, and Paris.
+The introduction contains an account of Egyptian notions of love and
+marriage, gathered from hieroglyphic and demotic sources, and a chapter
+is devoted to the forms of Egyptian verse, its rhythm and accent. The
+interesting "Song of the Harper," which is found on the same Harris
+Papyrus, is also fully edited and collated with the parallel texts from
+the Theban tombs, and compared with other writings dealing with death
+from the agnostic point of view. The following extracts are translated
+from the German:
+
+     LOVE-SICKNESS
+
+     I will lie down within doors
+     For I am sick with wrongs. T
+     hen my neighbours come in to visit me.
+     With them cometh my sister,
+     She will make fun of the physicians;
+     She knoweth mine illness.
+
+
+     THE LUCKY DOORKEEPER
+
+     The villa of my sister!--
+     Her gates (are) in the midst of the domain--
+     (So oft as) its portals open,
+     (So oft as) the bolt is withdrawn,
+     Then is my sister angry:
+     O were I but set as the gatekeeper!
+     I should cause her to chide me;
+     (Then) I should hear her voice in anger,
+     A child in fear before her!
+
+
+     THE UNSUCCESSFUL BIRD-CATCHER
+
+     The voice of the wild goose crieth,
+     (For) she hath taken her bait;
+     (But) thy love restraineth me,
+     I cannot free her (from the snare);
+     (So) must I take (home) my net.
+     What (shall I say) to my mother,
+     To whom (I am wont) to come daily
+     Laden with wild fowl?
+     I lay not my snare to-day
+     (For) thy love hath taken hold upon me.
+
+
+The most ardent interest that has been manifested in the Egyptian
+records had its origin in the desire to find evidence corroborative of
+the Hebrew accounts of the Egyptian captivity of the Jewish people.* The
+Egyptian word-treasury being at last unlocked, it was hoped that
+much new light would be thrown on Hebrew history. But the hope proved
+illusive. After ardent researches of hosts of fervid seekers for half
+a century, scarcely a word of reference to the Hebrews has been found
+among the Egyptian records.
+
+     * The only inscription relating directly to the Israelites
+     will be found described in Chapter VII.
+
+If depicted at all, the Hebrew captives are simply grouped with other
+subordinate peoples, not even considered worthy of the dignity of names.
+Nor is this strange when one reflects on the subordinate position which
+the Hebrews held in the ancient world. In historical as in other matter,
+much depends upon the point of view, and a series of events that seemed
+all-important from the Hebrew standpoint might very well be thought too
+insignificant for record from the point of view of a great nation like
+the Egyptians. But the all-powerful pen wrought a conquest for the
+Hebrews in succeeding generations that their swords never achieved, and,
+thanks to their literature, succeeding generations have cast historical
+perspective to the winds in viewing them. Indeed, such are the strange
+mutations of time that, had any scribe of ancient Egypt seen fit to
+scrawl a dozen words about the despised Israelite captives, and had
+this monument been preserved, it would have outweighed in value, in
+the opinion of nineteenth-century Europe, all the historical records
+of Thutmosis, Ramses, and their kin that have come down to us. But
+seemingly no scribe ever thought it worth his while to make such an
+effort.
+
+It has just been noted that the hieroglyphic inscriptions are by no
+means restricted to sacred subjects. Nevertheless, the most widely known
+book of the Egyptians was, as might be expected, one associated with
+the funeral rites that played so large a part in the thoughts of the
+dwellers by the Nile. This is the document known as "The Chapters of the
+Coming-Forth by Day," or, as it is more commonly interpreted, "The Book
+of the Dead." It is a veritable book in scope, inasmuch as the closely
+written papyrus roll on which it is enscrolled measures sometimes
+seventy feet in length. It is virtually the Bible of the Egyptians, and,
+as in the case of the sacred books of other nations, its exact origin is
+obscure. The earliest known copy is to be found, not on a papyrus roll,
+but upon the walls of the chamber of the pyramid at Saqqara near Cairo.
+The discovery of this particular recension of "The Book of the Dead" was
+made by Lepsius. Its date is 3333 B.C. No one supposes, however, that
+this date marks the time of the origin of "The Book of the Dead." On the
+contrary, it is held by competent authority that the earliest chapters,
+essentially unmodified, had been in existence at least a thousand years
+before this, and quite possibly for a much longer time. Numerous copies
+of this work in whole or in part have been preserved either on the walls
+of temples, on papyrus rolls, or upon the cases of mummies. These
+copies are of various epochs, from the fourth millennium B.C., as just
+mentioned, to the late Roman period, about the fourth century A.D.
+
+Throughout this period of about four thousand years the essential
+character of the book remained unchanged. It is true that no two copies
+that have been preserved are exactly identical in all their parts. There
+are various omissions and repetitions that seem to indicate that the
+book was not written by any one person or in any one epoch, but that it
+was originally a set of traditions quite possibly handed down for a long
+period by word of mouth before being put into writing. In this regard,
+as in many others, this sacred book of the Egyptians is closely
+comparable to the sacred books of other nations. It differs, however,
+in one important regard from these others in that it was never
+authoritatively pronounced upon and crystallised into a fixed,
+unalterable shape. From first to last, apparently, the individual scribe
+was at liberty to omit such portions as he chose, and even to modify
+somewhat the exact form of expression in making a copy of the sacred
+book. Even in this regard, however, the anomaly is not so great as might
+at first sight appear, for it must be recalled that even the sacred
+books of the Hebrews were not given final and authoritative shape until
+a period almost exactly coeval with that in which the Egyptian "Book of
+the Dead" ceased to be used at all.
+
+A peculiar feature of "The Book of the Dead," and one that gives it
+still greater interest, is the fact that from an early day it was the
+custom to illustrate it with graphic pictures in colour. In fact, taken
+as a whole, "The Book of the Dead" gives a very fair delineation of the
+progress of Egyptian art from the fourth millennium B.C. to its climax
+in the eighteenth dynasty, and throughout the period of its decline; and
+this applies not merely to the pictures proper, but to the forms of the
+hieroglyphic letters themselves, for it requires but the most cursory
+inspection to show that these give opportunity for no small artistic
+skill.
+
+As to the ideas preserved in "The Book of the Dead," it is sufficient
+here to note that they deal largely with the condition of the human
+being after death, implying in the most explicit way a firm and
+unwavering belief in the immortality of the soul. The Egyptian believed
+most fully that by his works a man would be known and judged after
+death. His religion was essentially a religion of deeds, and the code of
+morals, according to which these deeds were adjudged, has been said by
+Doctor Budge, the famous translator of "The Book of the Dead," to be
+"the grandest and most comprehensive of those now known to have existed
+among the nations of antiquity."
+
+[Illustration: 318.jpg TAILPIECE]
+
+
+[Illustration: 318b.jpg PHOENICIAN JEWLERY]
+
+
+[Illustration: 321.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--THE DEVELOPMENT OF EGYPTOLOGY
+
+
+_Mariette, Wilkinson, Bunsen, Brugsch, and Ebers: Erman's speech on
+Egyptology: The Egypt Exploration Fund: Maspero's investigations: The
+Temple of Bubastis: Ancient record of "Israel": American interest in
+Egyptology._
+
+
+Accompanying Napoleon's army of invasion in Egypt was a band of savants
+representative of every art and science, through whom the conqueror
+hoped to make known the topography and antiquities of Egypt to the
+European world. The result of their researches was the famous work
+called "Description de l'Egypte," published under the direction of the
+French Academy in twenty-four volumes of text, and twelve volumes of
+plates. Through this magnificent production the Western world received
+its first initiation into the mysteries of the wonderful civilisation
+which had flourished so many centuries ago, on the banks of the Nile.
+Egypt has continued to yield an ever-increasing harvest of antiquities,
+which, owing to the dry climate and the sand in which they have been
+buried, are many of them in a marvellous state of preservation. From
+the correlation of these discoveries the new science of Egyptology
+has sprung, which has many different branches, relating either to
+hieroglyphics, chronology, or archaeology proper.
+
+The earliest and most helpful of all the discoveries was that of the
+famous Rosetta Stone, found by a French artillery officer in 1799,
+while Napoleon's soldiers were excavating preparatory to erecting
+fortifications at Fort St. Julien. The deciphering of its trilingual
+inscriptions was the greatest literary feat of modern times, in which
+Dr. Thomas Young and J. F. Champollion share almost equal honours.
+
+Jean Francois Champollion (1790-1832) is perhaps the most famous of
+the early students of Egyptian hieroglyphs. After writing his "_De
+l'ecriture hieratique des anciens egyptiens_" at Paris, he produced in
+1824 in two volumes, his "_Precis du systeme hieroglyphique des anciens
+egyptiens,_" on which his fame largely depends, as he was the first to
+furnish any practical system of deciphering the symbolic writing, which
+was to disclose to the waiting world Egyptian history, literature, and
+civilisation. Champollion wrote many other works relating to Egypt, and
+may truly be considered the pioneer of modern Egyptology. While much of
+his work has been superseded by more recent investigations, he was so
+imbued with the scientific spirit that he was enabled securely to lay
+the foundation of all the work which followed.
+
+[Illustration: 321.jpg THE GREAT HALL OF ABYDOS]
+
+The distinguished French savant, Augustus Mariette, (1821-1881) began
+his remarkable excavations in Egypt in the year 1850. The series of
+discoveries inaugurated by him lasted until the year 1880. Mariette made
+an ever-memorable discovery when he unearthed the famous Serapeum which
+had once been the burial-place of the sacred bulls of Memphis, which the
+geographer Strabo records had been covered over by the drifting sands of
+the desert even in the days of Augustus.
+
+[Illustration: 322.jpg PROPYLON AT DENDERAH]
+
+The Serapeum was in the neighbourhood of the Sphinx, and, on account of
+its great height, remained in part above the ground, and was visible to
+all passers-by; while everything else in the neighbourhood except the
+great Pyramid of Khufui was totally buried under the sand. Mariette
+worked his way along the passage between the Great Sphinx and the other
+lesser sphinxes which lay concealed in the vicinity, and thus gradually
+came to the opening of the Serapeum. In November, 1850, his labours were
+crowned with brilliant success. He discovered sixty-four tombs of
+Apis, dating from the eighteenth dynasty until as late as the reign of
+Cleopatra. He likewise found here many figures, images, ancient Egyptian
+ornaments and amulets, and memorial stones erected by the devout
+worshippers of antiquity. Fortunately for Egyptian archaeology and
+history, nearly all the monuments here discovered were dated, and were
+thus of the highest value in settling the dates of dynasties and of the
+reigns of individual monarchs. Mariette afterwards discovered a splendid
+temple in the same place, which he proved to have been the famous shrine
+of the god Sokar-Osiris. He was soon appointed by the Egyptian Viceroy,
+Said Pasha, as director of the new museum of antiquities which was then
+placed at Bulak, in the vicinity of Cairo, awaiting the completion of
+a more substantial building at Gizeh. He obtained permission to make
+researches in every part of Egypt; and with varying success he excavated
+in as many as thirty-seven localities. In some of the researches
+undertaken by his direction, it is to be feared that many invaluable
+relics of antiquity may have been destroyed through the carelessness of
+the workmen. This is to be accounted for from the fact that Mariette was
+not always able to be present, and the workmen naturally had no personal
+interest in preserving every relic and fragment from the past. It is
+also to be regretted that he left no full account of the work which he
+undertook, and for this reason much of it had to be gone over again by
+more modern explorers.
+
+In the Delta excavations were made at Sais, Bubastis, and elsewhere.
+Mariette also discovered the temple of Tanis, and many curious
+human-headed sphinxes, which probably belong to the twelfth dynasty,
+and represent its kings. He further continued the labours of Lepsius
+about the necropolis of Memphis and Saqqara. Here several hundred tombs
+were discovered with the many inscriptions and figures which these
+contained. One of the most important of these findings--a superb example
+of Egyptian art--is the statue called by the Arabs "The Village
+Chief," which is now in the museum at Bulak. Mariette followed out his
+researches on the site of the sacred city of Abydos. Here he discovered
+the temple of Seti I. of the nineteenth dynasty.
+
+[Illustration: 324.jpg TYPES OF EGYPTIAN COLUMNS: 1, 2, 3, GEOMETRIC ',
+6-11, BOTANICAL; 4, 5, 12, HATHORIC.]
+
+On the walls are beautiful sculptures which are exquisite examples of
+Egyptian art, and a chronological table of the Kings of Abydos. Here
+Seti I. and Ramses IL, his son, are represented as offering homage to
+their many ancestors seated upon thrones inscribed with their names and
+dates.
+
+Mariette discovered eight hundred tombs belonging for the most part
+to the Middle Kingdom. At Denderah he discovered the famous Ptolemaic
+temple of Hathor, the goddess of love, and his accounts of these
+discoveries make up a large volume. Continuing his labours, he excavated
+much of the site of ancient Thebes and the temple of Karnak, and, south
+of Thebes, the temple of Medinet-Habu. At Edfu Mariette found the temple
+of Horus, built during the time of the Ptolemies, whose roof formed the
+foundation of an Arab village. After persevering excavations the whole
+magnificent plan of the temple stood uncovered, with all its columns,
+inscriptions, and carvings nearly intact.*
+
+     * In connection with the architecture of the ancient
+     Egyptian tombs, it is interesting to note that there was a
+     development of architectural style in the formation of
+     Egyptian columns not dissimilar in its evolution to that
+     which is visible in the case of the Greek and Roman columns.
+
+     The earliest Egyptian column appears to have been of a
+     strictly geometrical character. This developed into a column
+     resembling the Doric order. A second class of Egyptian
+     column was based upon plant forms, probably derived from the
+     practice of using reeds in the construction of mud huts. The
+     chief botanical form which has come down to us is that of
+     the lotus. A more advanced type of decoration utilised the
+     goddess Hathor for the support of the superincumbent weight
+     and has its analogy in the decadent caraytides of late Roman
+     times.
+
+Owing to Mariette's friendship with the viceroy he was able to guard
+his right to excavate with strict exclusiveness. He was accustomed to
+allow other scholars the right to examine localities where he had been
+the first one to make the researches, but he would not even allow the
+famous Egyptologist, also his great friend, Heinrich Brugsch, to make
+excavations in new places. After his death, conditions were somewhat
+altered, although the general directorship of the excavations was still
+given exclusively to Frenchmen. The successors of Mariette Bey were
+Gaston Maspero, E. Grebault, J. de Morgan, and Victor Laret. But as time
+went on, savants of other nationalities were allowed to explore, with
+certain reservations. Maspero founded an archaeological mission in Cairo
+in 1880, and placed at its head, in successive order, MM. Lebebure,
+Grebault, and Bouriant. The first of all to translate complete Egyptian
+books and entire inscriptions was Emanuel de Rouge, who exerted a great
+influence upon an illustrious galaxy of French savants, who followed
+more or less closely the example set by him. Among these translators we
+may enumerate Mariette, Charles Deveria, Pierret, Maspero himself, and
+Revillout, who has proved himself to be the greatest demotic scholar of
+France.
+
+England is also represented by scholars of note, among whom may be
+mentioned Dr. Samuel Birch (1813--85). He was a scholar of recognised
+profundity and also of remarkable versatility. One of the most important
+editorial tasks of Doctor Birch was a series known as "The Records
+of the Past," which consisted of translations from Egyptian and
+Assyrio-Babylonian records. Doctor Birch himself contributed several
+volumes to this series. He had also the added distinction of being the
+first translator of the Egyptian _Book of the Dead_.
+
+Another English authority was Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, who wrote
+several important works on the manners and customs of the ancient
+Egyptians. Wilkinson was born in 1797 and died in 1875. Whoever would
+know the Egyptian as he was, in manner and custom, should peruse
+the pages of his Egyptian works. His "Popular Account of the Ancient
+Egyptians" has been the chief source of information on the subject.
+
+German scholars have done especially valuable work in the translation
+of texts from the Egyptian temples, and in pointing out the relation
+between these texts and historical events. Foremost among practical
+German archaeologists is Karl Richard Lepsius, who was born in 1810 at
+Naumburg, Prussia, and died in 1884 at Berlin. In his maturer years
+he had a professorship in Berlin. He made excursions to Egypt in an
+official capacity, and familiarised himself at first hand with the
+monuments and records that were his life-study. The letters of Lepsius
+from Egypt and Nubia were more popular than his other writings, and were
+translated into English and widely read.
+
+Another famous German who was interested in the study of Egyptology
+was Baron Christian Bunsen (1791-1867). From early youth he showed the
+instincts of a scholar, but was prevented for many years from leading a
+scholar's life, owing to his active duties in the diplomatic service for
+Prussia at Rome and London. During the years 1848--67, Bunsen brought
+out the famous work called "Egypt's Place in Universal History,"
+which Brugsch deemed to have contributed more than any other work in
+popularising the subject of Egyptology.
+
+Heinrich Carl Brugsch was born at Berlin in 1827 and died there in 1894.
+Like Bunsen, he was a diplomatist and a scholar. He entered the
+service of the Egyptian government, and merited the titles of bey
+and subsequently of pasha. He became known as one of the foremost of
+Egyptologists, and was the greatest authority of his day on Egyptian
+writing. He wrote a work of standard authority, translated into English
+under the title of "The History of Egypt under the Pharaohs." The
+chronology of Egypt now in use is still based upon the system created by
+Brugsch, which, though confessedly artificial, nevertheless is able to
+meet the difficulties of the subject better than any other yet devised.
+
+Among distinguished German Egyptologists must be mentioned Georg
+Moritz Ebers (1839-96). He is best known by his far-famed novels, whose
+subjects are taken from the history of ancient Egypt, perhaps the most
+popular being "An Egyptian Princess." Besides these popular novels and a
+valuable description of Egypt, Ebers also made personal explorations in
+the country, and discovered at Thebes the great medical papyrus, which
+is called the Papyrus Ebers. This remarkable document, to which he
+devoted so much labour, is our chief source of information regarding
+the practice of medicine as it existed, and would alone keep the name of
+Ebers alive among Egyptologists.
+
+The leading German Egyptologist of to-day is Dr. Adolf Erman, who was
+born at Berlin in 1854. He is the worthy successor to Brugsch in the
+chair of Egyptology at the University of Berlin, and is director of
+the Berlin Egyptian Museum. His writings have had to do mainly with
+grammatical and literary investigations. His editions of the "Romances
+of Old Egypt" are models of scholarly interpretation. They give the
+original hieratic text, with translation into Egyptian hieroglyphics,
+into Latin and into German. Doctor Erman has not, however, confined his
+labours to this strictly scholarly type of work, but has also written a
+distinctly popular book on the life of the ancient Egyptians, which
+is the most complete work that has appeared since the writings of
+Wilkinson.
+
+The memorable speech of Erman, delivered on the occasion of his election
+as a member of the Berlin Academy, sets forth clearly the progress
+made in the science of Egyptology and present-day tendencies. On that
+occasion he said:
+
+"Some of our older fellow-specialists complain that we of the younger
+generation are depriving Egyptology of all its charm, and that, out of
+a delightful science, abounding in startling discoveries, we have made
+a philological study, with strange phonetic laws and a wretched syntax.
+There is doubtless truth in this complaint, but it should be urged
+against the natural growth of the science, and not against the personal
+influence of individuals or its development. The state through which
+Egyptology is now passing is one from which no science escapes. It is a
+reaction against the enthusiasm and the rapid advance of its early days.
+
+"I can well understand to outsiders it may seem as though we had only
+retrograded during later years. Where are the good old times when every
+text could be translated and understood? Alas! a better comprehension of
+the grammar has revealed on every side difficulties and impediments
+of which hitherto nothing had been suspected. Moreover, the number of
+ascertained words in the vocabulary is continually diminishing, while
+the host of the unknown increases; for we no longer arrive at the
+meaning by the way of audacious etymologies and still more audacious
+guesses.
+
+"We have yet to travel for many years on the arduous path of empirical
+research before we can attain to an adequate dictionary. There is indeed
+an exceptional reward which beckons us on to the same goal, namely,
+that we shall then be able to assign to Egyptian its place among the
+languages of Western Asia and of Africa. At present we do well to
+let this great question alone. As in the linguistic department of
+Egyptology, so it is in every other section of the subject. The Egyptian
+religion seemed intelligently and systematically rounded off when each
+god was held to be the incarnation of some power of nature. Now we
+comprehend that we had better reserve our verdict on this matter until
+we know the facts and the history of the religion; and how far we are
+from knowing them is proved to us by every text. The texts are full of
+allusions to the deeds and fortunes of the gods, but only a very small
+number of these allusions are intelligible to us.
+
+"The time has gone by in which it was thought possible to furnish the
+chronology of Egyptian history, and in which that history was supposed
+to be known, because the succession of the most powerful kings had been
+ascertained. To us the history of Egypt has become something altogether
+different. It comprises the history of her civilisation, her art, and
+her administration; and we rejoice in the prospect that one day it may
+be possible in that land to trace the development of a nation throughout
+five thousand years by means of its own monuments and records. But we
+also know that the realisation of this dream must be the work of many
+generations.
+
+"The so-called 'demotic' texts, which lead us out of ancient Egypt into
+the Graeco-Roman period, were deciphered with the acumen of genius more
+than half a century ago by Heinrich Brugsch, but to-day these also
+appear to us in a new light as being full of unexpected difficulties and
+in apparent disagreement with both the older and the later forms of
+the language. In this important department we must not shrink from a
+revision of past work.
+
+"I will not further illustrate this theme; but the case is the same in
+every branch of Egyptology. In each, the day of rapid results is at an
+end, and the monotonous time of special studies has begun. Hence I would
+beg the Academy not to expect sensational discoveries from their new
+associate. I can only offer what _labor improbus_ brings to light, and
+that is _small_ discoveries; yet in the process of time they will
+lead us to those very ends which seemed so nearly attainable to our
+predecessors."
+
+The German school may perhaps be said to have devoted its time
+especially to labours upon Egyptian grammar and philology, while the
+French school is better known for its excellent work on the history
+and archaeology of ancient Egypt. On these topics the leading authority
+among all the scholars of to-day is the eminent Frenchman, Professor
+Gaston C. C. Maspero, author of the first nine volumes of the present
+work. He was born at Paris, June 24,1846. He is a member of the French
+Institute, and was formerly Professor of Egyptian Archeology and
+Ethnology in the College de France, and, more recently, Director of
+the Egyptian Museum at Bulak. His writings cover the entire field
+of Oriental antiquity. In this field Maspero has no peer among
+Egyptologists of the present or the past. He possesses an eminent gift
+of style, and his works afford a rare combination of the qualities of
+authority, scientific accuracy, and of popular readableness.
+
+Some extraordinary treasures from tombs were discovered in the year
+1881. At that date Arabs often hawked about in the streets what
+purported to be genuine works of antiquity. Many of these were in
+reality imitations; but Professor Maspero in this year secured from an
+Arab a funeral papyrus of Phtahhotpu I., and after considerable trouble
+he was able to locate the tomb in Thebes from which the treasure had
+been taken. Brugsch now excavated the cave, which was found to be the
+place where a quantity of valuable treasures had been secreted, probably
+at the time of the sacking of Thebes by the Assyrians. Six thousand
+objects were secured, and they included twenty-nine mummies of kings,
+queens, princes, and high priests, and five papyri, among which was
+the funeral papyrus of Queen Makeru of the twentieth dynasty. The
+mummy-cases had been opened by the Arabs, who had taken out the mummies
+and in some instances replaced the wrong ones. Many mummies of the
+eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties had been removed to this cave
+probably for safety, on account of its secrecy. Out of the twenty-nine
+mummies found here, seven were of kings, nine of queens and princesses,
+and several more of persons of distinction. The place of concealment
+was situated at a turn of a cliff southwest of the village of
+Deir-el-Bahari.
+
+The explorers managed successfully to identify King Raskamen of the
+seventeenth dynasty, King Ahmosis I., founder of the eighteenth dynasty,
+and his queen Ahmo-sis-Nofritari, also Queen Arhotep and Princess Set
+Amnion, and the king's daughters, and his son Prince Sa Amnion. They
+also found the mummies of Thutmosis I., Thutmosis II. and of Thutmosis
+III. (Thutmosis the Great), together with Ramses I., Seti I., Ramses
+XII., King Phtahhotpu II., and noted queens and princesses.
+
+In the year 1883 the Egypt Exploration Fund was founded for the purpose
+of accurate historical investigation in Egypt. The first work undertaken
+was on a mound called the Tel-el-Mashuta, in the Wadi-et-Tumi-lat.
+This place was discovered to be the site of the ancient Pithom, a
+treasure-city supposed to have been built by the Israelites for Pharaoh.
+In the Greek and Roman period the same place had been called Hereopolis.
+M. Naville also discovered Succoth, the first camping-ground of the
+Israelites while fleeing from their oppressor, and an inscription with
+the word "Pikeheret," which he judged to be the Pihahiroth of the Book
+of Exodus. The next season the site of Zoan of the Bible was explored, a
+village now termed San.
+
+Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie started work where a rim of red granite
+stood up upon one of the many mounds in the neighbourhood. The site of
+the ancient city had been here, and the granite rim was on the site of a
+temple. The latter had two enclosure walls, one of which had been built
+of sun-dried bricks, and was of extreme antiquity; the other was built
+of bricks of eight times the size and weight of modern bricks, and the
+wall was of very great strength. Dwelling-houses had been built in the
+locality, and coins and potsherds discovered. These remains Professor
+Petrie found to belong to periods between the sixth and twenty-sixth
+dynasties. Stones were found in the vicinity with the cartouche of King
+Papi from one of the earliest dynasties. There were also red granite
+statues of Ahmenemhait I., and a black granite statue of Kind Usirtasen
+I. and of King Ahmenemhait II., and a torso of King Usirtasen II. was
+found cut from yellow-stained stone, together with a vast number of
+relics of other monarchs. Parts of a giant statue of King Ramses II.
+were discovered which must have been ninety-eight feet in height before
+it was broken, the great toe alone measuring eighteen inches across, and
+the weight of the statue estimated to be about 1,200 tons. In addition
+to these relics of ancient monarchs, a large number of antiquities were
+discovered, with remains of objects for domestic use in ancient Egyptian
+society.
+
+The explorations conducted at Tanis during 1883-84 brought to light
+objects mainly of the Ptolemaic period, because a lower level had not at
+that period been reached, but here many invaluable relics of Ptolemaic
+arts were unearthed. The results of researches were published at this
+date bearing upon the Great Pyramid. Accurate measurements had been
+undertaken by Professor Petrie, who was able to prove that during one
+epoch systematic but unavailing efforts had been made to destroy these
+great structures.
+
+Professor Maspero discovered among the hills of Thebes an important
+tomb of the eleventh dynasty, which threw light upon obscure portions
+of Egyptian history, and contained texts of the "Book of the Dead."
+The following year he discovered the necropolis of Khemnis in the
+neighbourhood of Kekhrneen, a provincial town in Upper Egypt built on
+the site of the ancient Panopolis. The remains were all in a state of
+perfect preservation.
+
+In July, 1884, Professor Maspero secured permission from the Egyptian
+government to buy from the natives the property which they held on the
+site of the Great Temple at Luxor, and to prevent any further work of
+destruction. These orders, however, were not carried out till early in
+1885, when Maspero began excavating with one hundred and fifty workmen.
+He first unearthed the sanctuary of Amenhothes III., with its massive
+roof. He brought to light the great central colonnade, and discovered a
+portico of Ramses II., and many colossi, which were either still erect
+or else had fallen on the ground. The columns of Amenhothes III. were
+next explored, which were found to be among the most beautiful of all
+specimens of Egyptian architecture. It is believed that Luxor will prove
+to have been a locality of almost as great a beauty as Karnak.
+
+During the season of 1884-85 Professor Petrie started excavations at the
+modern Nehireh, which he learned was the site of the ancient Naucratis.*
+Here many Greek inscriptions were found.
+
+     * The investigations on this site were continued in the
+     season of 1888-89.
+
+[Illustration: 336.jpg ruins at luxor]
+
+This city was one of great importance and a commercial mart during the
+reign of Ahmosis, although in the time of the Emperor Commodus it had
+wholly disappeared. Two temples of Apollo were discovered, one of which
+was built from limestone in the seventh century B.C.; and the other
+was of white marble, beautifully decorated, and dating from the fifth
+century.
+
+Magnificent libation bowls were also discovered here, some of which had
+been dedicated to Hera, others to Zeus, and others to Aphrodite. The
+lines of the ancient streets were traced, and a storehouse or granary
+of the ancient Egyptians was unearthed, also many Greek coins. Besides
+these were discovered votive deposits, cups of porcelain, alabaster
+jugs, limestone mortars; and trowels, chisels, knives, and hoes.
+
+Much light was thrown by these discoveries on the progress of the
+ceramic arts, and many links uniting the Greek pottery with the Egyptian
+pottery were here for the first time traced. It was learned that the
+Greeks were the pupils of the Egyptians, but that they idealised the
+work of their masters and brought into it freer conceptions of beauty
+and of proportion.
+
+M. Naville was engaged about this time in controversies as to the true
+site of this ancient Pithom. He also made, in 1886, a search for the
+site of Goshen. He believed he had identified this when he discovered
+at Saft an inscription dedicated to the gods of Kes, which Naville
+identified with Kesem, the name used in the Septuagint for Goshen.
+Others, however, disagree, and locate the site of Goshen at a place
+called Fakoos, twelve miles north of Tel-el-Kebir.
+
+The explorations of 1885-86 started under the direction of Professor
+W. M. Flinders Petrie, Mr. F. Llewellen Griffith, and Mr. Ernest A.
+Gardiner. Gardiner set out in the direction of Naucratis, and Petrie and
+Griffith proceeded to explore the site of Tanis. The mound at which they
+worked, like many other localities of modern and ancient Egypt, has been
+known by a variety of names. It is called Tel Farum, or the Mound of the
+Pharaoh; Tel Bedawi, the Mound of the Bedouins; and Tel Nebesheh, after
+the name of the village upon this site. There are remains here of an
+ancient cemetery and of two ancient towns and a temple. The cemetery
+was found to be unlike those of Memphis, Thebes, or Abydos. It contained
+many small chambers and groups of chambers irregularly placed about a
+sandy plain. These were built mostly of brick, but there were other and
+larger ones built of limestone. A black granite altar of the reign of
+Ahmenemhait II. was discovered, and thrones of royal statues of the
+twelfth dynasty. Here were also found a statue of Harpocrates, a portion
+of a statue of Phtah, with an inscription of Ramses II., a sphinx and
+tombs of the twentieth century B.C. containing many small relics of
+antiquity.
+
+Professor Petrie went on from here to the site of Tell Defenneh, the
+Tahpanhes of the Bible, called Taphne in the version of the Septuagint.
+This proved to be the remains of the earliest Greek settlement in
+Egypt, and contains no remains from a later period than the twenty-sixth
+dynasty. It was here that Psammeticus I. established a colony of the
+Carian and Ionian mercenaries, by whose aid this monarch had won
+the throne; and this Greek city had been built as one out of three
+fortresses to prevent the incursions of the Arabians and Syrians. The
+city of Tahpanhes or Taphne is referred to in the book of Jeremiah.
+
+There were found on this site the remains of a vast pile of brick
+buildings, which could be seen in outline from a great distance across
+the plains. The Arabs called this "El Kasr el Bin el Yahudi," that is,
+"The Castle of the Jew's Daughter." This was found to have been a fort,
+and it contained a stele with a record of the garrison which had been
+stationed there; pieces of ancient armour and arms were also found in
+the neighbourhood. There was likewise a royal hunting-box on this site,
+and all the principal parts of the settlement were found to have been
+surrounded by a wall fifty feet thick, which enclosed an area of three
+thousand feet in length and one thousand in breadth. The gate on the
+north opened towards the Pelusiac canal, and the south looked out upon
+the ancient military road which led up from Egypt to Syria. Pottery,
+bronze-work, some exquisitely wrought scale armour, very light but
+overlapping six times, were unearthed within this enclosure. There were
+also Greek vases and other Greek remains, dating in the earlier part
+of the reign of Ahmosis, who had subsequently sent the Greeks away, and
+prevented them from trading in Egypt. Since this Greek colony came to an
+end in the year 570 B.C., and as the locality was no longer frequented
+by Greek soldiers or merchants, it is possible to set an exact term to
+the period of Greek art which these antiquities represent. The Greek
+pottery here is so unlike that of Naucratis and of other places that it
+seems to be well ascertained that it must have been all manufactured at
+Defenneh itself. Outside the buildings of the Kasr, Petrie discovered a
+large sun-baked pavement resting upon the sands, and this discovery was
+of value in explaining a certain passage of the forty-third chapter of
+Jeremiah, translated from the Revised Version as follows: "Then came the
+word of the Lord to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, Take great stones in
+thine hand, and hide them in the mortar of the brick-work which is at
+the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes in the sight of the men of
+Judah [i.e. Johannan and the captains who had gone to Egypt]; and say
+unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I
+will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the King of Babylon, my servant, and
+will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall
+spread his royal pavilion over them. And he shall come and smite the
+land of Egypt." An alternate reading for "brickwork" is the pavement
+or square. The pavement which Jeremiah described was evidently the one
+which Petrie discovered, though he was not able at the time to discover
+the stones which, according to Jeremiah, had been inserted in the
+mortar. Outside the camp wall was further discovered the remains of a
+large settlement, strewn on all sides with bits of pottery and jewelry
+and a great number of weights.
+
+During this season Maspero carried on researches at Luxor, and proceeded
+to excavate in the neighbourhood of the Great Sphinx. There are many
+Egyptian pictures which represent the Sphinx in its entirety down to
+the paws, but the lower parts had for centuries been buried in the
+accumulations of sand which had covered up all of the ancient site.
+It had previously been supposed that the Sphinx had been hewn out of a
+solid mass of rock resembling an immense boulder. Professor Maspero's
+excavations enabled him not only to verify the accuracy of the
+old Egyptian paintings of the Sphinx, but also to show that a vast
+amphitheatre had been hewn out of the rock round the Sphinx, which was
+not therefore sculptured from a projecting rock. Since the upper rim of
+this basin was about on the same level with the head of the figure, it
+became evident that the ancient sculptors had cut the rock away on all
+sides, and had subsequently left the Sphinx isolated, as it is at the
+present day. Maspero dug down during this season to a depth of thirty
+yards in the vicinity.
+
+Professor Maspero's last official act as Director-General of the
+Excavations and Antiquities of Egypt was his examination of the mummy of
+Ramses II. found in 1884, in the presence of the khedive and other
+high dignitaries. The mummy of this great conqueror was well preserved,
+revealing a giant frame and a face expressive of sovereign majesty,
+indomitable will, and the pride of the Egyptian king of kings. He
+then unbandaged the mummy of Nofritari, wife of King Ahmosis I. of the
+eighteenth dynasty, beside which, in the same sarcophagus, had been
+discovered the mummy of Ramses ITT. The physiognomy of this monarch is
+more refined and intellectual than that of his warlike predecessor; nor
+was his frame built upon the same colossal plan. The height of the body
+was less, and the shoulders not so wide. In the same season Maspero also
+discovered an ancient Egyptian romance inscribed on limestone near the
+tomb of Sinuhit at Thebes. A fragment on papyrus had been preserved at
+the Berlin Museum, but the whole romance was now decipherable.
+
+Professor Maspero resigned his office of directorship on June 5, 1886,
+and was succeeded in the superintendency of excavations and Egyptian
+archeology by M. Eugene Grebault. In the same month Grebault started
+upon the work of unbandaging the mummy of the Theban King Sekenenra
+Ta-aken, of the eighteenth dynasty. It was under this monarch that a
+revolt against the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, had originated, in the
+course of which the Asiatics were expelled from Egypt. The history of
+this king has always been considered legendary, but from the signs of
+wounds present in the mummy, it is certain that he had died in battle.
+In the same season the mummy of Seti I. was unbandaged, and also that of
+an anonymous prince.
+
+The next season the work of clearing away the sand from around the Great
+Sphinx was vigorously prosecuted by Grebault. In the beginning of the
+year 1887, the chest, the paws, the altar, and plateau were all
+made visible. Flights of steps were unearthed, and finally accurate
+measurements were taken of the great figures. The height from the lowest
+of the steps was found to be one hundred feet, and the space between the
+paws was found to be thirty-five feet long and ten feet wide. Here there
+was formerly an altar; and a stele of Thutmosis IV. was discovered,
+recording a dream in which he was ordered to clear away the sand that
+even then was gathering round the site of the Sphinx.
+
+M. Naville and Mr. F. Llewellen Griffiths explored during the season of
+1886-87 the mound of Tel-el-Yehu-dieh (the mound of the Jew). The
+site is probably that on which was once built the city that Ptolemy
+Philadelphus allowed the Jews to construct. The remains of a statue of
+the cat-headed goddess Bast, to which there is a reference in Josephus,
+was also found here. The discovery of tablets of definitely Jewish
+origin make it clear that the modern name had been given to the place
+for some reason connected with the colony thus proved to have once been
+settled there.
+
+Naville also made researches at Tel Basta, the site of the Bubastis
+of the Greeks, the Pi Beseth of the Bible, and the Pi Bast of the
+Egyptians, which was formerly the centre of worship of the goddess Pasht
+and her sacred animal, the cat. The whole plan of the ancient temple was
+soon disclosed, the general outline of which bears much resemblance to
+that of the great Temple of San. In the division which Naville called
+the Festival Hall were numerous black and red statues inscribed with the
+name of Ramses II., but many of which were probably not really erected
+by this monarch. Here there was also found a standing statue of the
+Governor of Ethiopia, a priest and priestess of the twenty-sixth
+dynasty, and many other monuments of the greatest historical interest.
+The hall itself was built of red granite.
+
+Another hall, which Naville called the "Hypostyle Hall," possessed a
+colonnade of such beauty that it would seem to justify the statement of
+Herodotus, that the temple of Bubastis was one of the finest in Egypt.
+The columns were either splendid red granite monoliths, with lotus-bud
+or palm-leaf capitals; or, a head of Hathor from which fell two long
+locks. These columns probably belonged to the twelfth dynasty. In what
+Naville called the "Ptolemaic Hall" occurs the name Nephthorheb or
+Nectanebo I. of the thirtieth dynasty. The relics of this remarkable
+temple thus cover a period from the sixth to the thirtieth dynasties,
+some 3,200 years. During this season Professor Petrie made important
+discoveries in relation to the obscure Hyksos dominion in Egypt. Many
+representations of these Shepherd Kings were found, and, from their
+physiognomy, it was judged that they were not Semites, but rather
+Mongols or Tatars, who probably came from the same part of Asia as the
+Mongul hordes of Genghis Khan.
+
+Early in 1888 excavations were resumed on the site of the great temple
+of Bubastis by M. Edouard Naville, Mr. F. LI. Griffiths, and the Count
+d'Hulst. The investigation again yielded the usual crop of antiquities
+that was now always expected from the exploration of the famous sites. A
+third hall was discovered, which had been built in the time of Osorkon
+I., of red granite inlaid with sculptured slabs. There were also many
+other monuments and remains of the monarchs, together with much valuable
+evidence relating to the rule of the Hyksos.
+
+Petrie brought to London many beautiful Ptolemaic and Roman portraits,
+which he had discovered in a vast cemetery near the pyramid which bears
+the name of King Ahmenemhait III. The portraits are in an excellent
+state of preservation, and are invaluable as illustrative of the
+features, manners, and customs of the Greek and Roman periods in
+Egyptian history.
+
+His researches in the neighbourhood of the Fayum at this time commenced
+to bear fruit; and many questions were answered regarding the ancient
+Lake Mceris. It was in this season also that the ever memorable
+excavations conducted at Tel-el-Amarna were first begun. This place is
+situated in Upper Egypt on the site of the capital, which had been built
+by Ahmenhotpu IV. Here were discovered many clay tablets in cuneiform
+characters containing documents in the Babylonian language. These were
+found in the tomb of a royal scribe. The list contained a quantity
+of correspondence from the kings or rulers of Palestine, Syria,
+Mesopotamia, and Babylonia to Ahmenhotpu III. and IV. There were
+Egyptian garrisons in those days in Palestine, and they were accustomed
+to keep their royal masters well informed as to what was going on in the
+country. Among other cities mentioned are Byblos, Smyrna, Appo or Acre,
+Megiddo, and Ashpelon. During this season many relics of early Christian
+art were discovered. In many cases a pagan picture had been in part
+painted over, and thus given a Christian significance. Two figures of
+Isis suckling Horus are, with slight alterations, made to represent the
+Virgin and the Child. A bas-relief of St. George slaying the dragon was
+discovered, which closely resembled that of Horus slaying Set.
+
+During the following season of 1888-89, Petrie resumed his excavations
+round the pyramid of Hawara, which was supposed to be the site of the
+famous Labyrinth. Work had been begun here in the season previous,
+and it was now to be crowned with great success. All the underground
+passages and secret chambers under the pyramid were examined, and the
+inscriptions discovered of King Ahmenemhait III. prove that this was
+without doubt the pyramid of the monarch of that name. It was discovered
+that the Romans had broken into the recesses of these secret chambers,
+and many broken Roman _amphorae_ were unearthed. Later Professor Petrie
+examined the pyramid of Illahun, which stands at the gate of the Fayum.
+It is probable that this was on the site of the ancient locks which
+regulated the flow of the Nile into Lake Moris. Many of the antiquities
+here discovered bore inscriptions of King Usirtasen II., and, in the same
+locality, was discovered the site of an early Christian cemetery dating
+from the fifth or sixth centuries. A few miles from Illahun, the same
+indefatigable explorer discovered the remains of another town belonging
+to the eighteenth or nineteenth dynasties. A wall once surrounded the
+town, and beyond the wall was a necropolis. The place is now called
+Tell Gurah, and the relics give inscriptions of Thutmosis III. or
+Tutankhamon and of Horemheb.
+
+In the same season of 1888--89, Miss Amelia B. Edwards, who had been
+sent out by the Egypt Exploration Fund, brought to a conclusion the
+excavations which had been carried on for several seasons at Bubastis.
+It was discovered that the temple itself dated back to the reign of
+the famous Khufui (Kheops), the builder of the great Pyramid, since
+an inscription with his name on it was discovered, together with one
+inscribed to King Khafri (Chephren). The monuments discovered on this
+site were, for the most part, shipped to Europe and America.
+
+The city of Boston, Mass., received a colossal Hathor-head capital of
+red granite, part of a colossal figure of a king, an immense lotus-bud
+capital from the Hypo-style Hall of the temple, a bas-relief in red
+granite from the Hall of Osorken II., and two bas-reliefs of limestone
+from the temple of Hathor, taken from the ancient Termuther.
+
+[Illustration: 347.jpg THE LOTUS FLOWER NYMPHAEA LOTUS]
+
+Specimens recovered from here date from the fourth to the twenty-second
+dynasties, and the relics from Termuther are from the last period of the
+Ptolemies.
+
+Early in 1891, Professor Petrie made his exhaustive examination of the
+pyramid of Me-dum, which he declared to be the earliest of all dated
+Egyptian pyramids, and probably the oldest dated building in the world.
+Its builder was Snofrui of the third dynasty; and, joined with it, and
+in a perfect state of preservation, was the pyramid temple built at the
+same period. From forty to sixty feet of rubbish had accumulated around
+the buildings, and had to be removed. The front of the temple was thirty
+feet wide and nine feet high, and a door was discovered at the south
+end. A wide doorway leads to the open court built on the side of the
+pyramid. In the centre of the court stands the altar of offerings, where
+there is also an inscribed obelisk thirteen feet high. The walls of the
+temple are all marked with _graffiti_ of visitors who belonged to the
+twelfth and eighteenth dynasties. A statuette was found dedicated to the
+gods of the town by a woman.
+
+The tombs at this place had been rifled in ancient times, but many
+skeletons of people, who had been buried in a crouching attitude, were
+discovered, and Petrie considered that these belonged to a different
+race from that which was accustomed to bury the dead recumbent. A
+quantity of pottery was also unearthed, dating from the fourth century.
+The method by which the plan of a pyramid was laid out by the ancient
+Egyptians was discovered in this excavation, and the designs show
+considerable mechanical ingenuity in their execution, and afford a
+perfect system for maintaining the symmetry of the building itself, no
+matter how uneven the ground on which it was to be built.
+
+In the spring of 1891, M. Naville started an excavation on the site of
+the ancient Heracleopolis Magna at a place now named Hanassieh. He found
+here many Roman and Koptic remains, and further discovered the vestibule
+of an ancient Egyptian temple. There were six columns, on which Ramses
+II. was represented as offering gifts. The name of Menephtah was also
+noticed, and the architraves above the columns were seen to be cut with
+cartouches of Usirtasen II. of the twelfth dynasty. This temple was
+probably one of those to the service of which Ramses II. donated some
+slaves, as is described in one of the papyri of the Harris collection.
+
+A stone was discovered by Mr. Wilborn at Luxor, recording a period of
+seven years' successive failure of the Nile to overflow, and the efforts
+made by a certain sorcerer named Chit Net to remove the calamity.
+
+During the season of 1895, Professor Petrie and Mr. Quibell discovered
+homes belonging to paleolithic man on a plateau four thousand feet
+above the Nile. Thirty miles south of Thebes, there are many large and
+beautifully worked flints. Their great antiquity is proved by the fact
+that they are deeply stained, whereas, in the same locality, there are
+other flints of an age of five thousand years, which show no traces of
+stains.
+
+Close by this site was discovered the abundant remains of a hitherto
+unknown race. This race has nothing in common with the true Egyptians,
+although their relics are invariably found with those of the Egyptians
+of the fourth, twelfth, eighteenth, and nineteenth dynasties. Petrie
+declares these men to have been tall and powerful, with strong features,
+a hooked nose, a long, pointed beard, and brown, wavy hair. They were
+not related to the negroes, but rather to the Amorites or Libyans. The
+bodies in these tombs are not mummified, but are contracted, though laid
+in an opposite direction from those discovered at Medum. The graves are
+open, square pits, roofed over with beams of wood. This ancient race
+used forked hunting-lances for chasing the gazelle, and their beautiful
+flints were found to be like those belonging to an excellent collection
+already existing in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford. They also made
+an abundant use of copper for adzes, harpoons for spearing fish, and
+needles for sewing garments. They used pottery abundantly, and its
+variety is remarkable no less than the quality, which, unlike the
+Egyptian, was all hand-made and never fashioned by aid of the wheel.
+They entered Egypt about 3,000 B.C., and were probably of the white
+Libyan race, and possibly may have been the foreigners who overthrew the
+old Egyptian empire.
+
+The discovery of the name of "Israel" in an Egyptian inscription was
+in a sense, perhaps, the most remarkable event of the year 1895 in
+archaeology. It was first laid before the public by Professor Petrie,*
+and was treated by Spiegelberg** in a communication to the Berlin
+Academy, and by Steindorff.***
+
+     * Contemporary Review, May 1896.
+
+     ** Sitzberichte, xxv., p. 593. 3.
+
+     *** Zeitschrift fur deutsch. Alt. test. Wiss., 1896, p. 330.
+
+The name occurs in an inscription dated in the fifth year of Merenptah,
+the successor of Ramses II., and often supposed to be the Pharaoh of the
+Exodus. It is there written with the determinative of a people, not of
+a city or country, and reads in our conventional transliteration
+_Ysiraar_, but in reality agrees very closely to the Hebrew [...] the
+last portion _aar_ being recognised as the equivalent of _el_ in several
+words. Merenptah states that "Israel is fekt (?) without seed (grain or
+offspring), Syria (Kharu) has become widows (Kharut) of or to Egypt." We
+can form no conclusion from these statements as to the relation in
+which the Israelites stood to Pharaoh and to Egypt, except that they are
+represented as having been powerless. It is pretty clear, however, from
+the context that they were then in Palestine, or at least in Syria.
+Steindorff suggests that they may have entered Syria from Chaldaea
+during the disturbed times in Egypt at the end of the eighteenth
+dynasty, and connects them with the movements of the Khabiri (Hebrews?)
+mentioned in the Tel-el-Amarna tablets. On the other hand, it is of
+course possible, as Professor Petrie points out, that this reference
+to the Israelites may have some connection with the Exodus itself.
+M. Clermont Ganneau thinks that the localities mentioned are all in
+Southern Palestine.*
+
+     * Revue Archeologique, xxix., p. 127.
+
+M. Edouard Naville found at Thebes many remains of the Punt sculptures.
+The Puntites appear with their aquiline features, their pointed beards,
+and their long hair; negroes also of black and brown varieties are
+represented adjoining the Puntites proper. There are wickerwork
+huts, and a figure of a large white dog with its ears hanging down.
+Long-billed birds also appear flying about in the trees. Their nests
+have been forsaken and robbed, and the men are represented as gathering
+incense from the trees. Altogether, much invaluable information has been
+gathered concerning the famous people who lived in the Land of Punt, and
+with whom for a long period the Egyptians held intercommunication. Other
+discoveries were made near the great temple of Karnak, and the buildings
+of Medinet-Habu were cleared of rubbish in order to show their true
+proportions.
+
+From its foundation, the Egypt Exploration Fund has received large
+pecuniary support from the United States, chiefly through the enthusiasm
+and energy of Dr. W. C. Winslow, of Boston. In 1880 Doctor Winslow, who
+had been five months in Egypt, returned to America deeply impressed with
+the importance of scientific research in Egypt, and, upon hearing of the
+Exploration Fund in London, he wrote a letter expressive of his interest
+and sympathy to the president, Sir Erasmus Wilson, which brought a
+reply not only from him, but also from the secretary, Miss Edwards,
+expatiating upon the purpose and needs of the society, and outlining
+optimistically its ultimate accomplishments.
+
+Doctor Winslow was elected honorary treasurer of the Fund for the United
+States for the year 1883-84.* Many prominent residents became interested
+and added their names to its membership, and have given it their effort
+and their hearty financial support. Among the distinguished American
+members have been J. R. Lowell, G. W. Curtis, Charles Dudley Warner, and
+among the chief Canadian members are Doctor Bourinot and Dr. J. William
+Dawson.
+
+     *The American subscriptions from the year 1883 rapidly
+     increased, and by the year 1895 had figured up to $75,800,
+     and the total number of letters and articles written during
+     that time had grown to 2,467. The organisation in America
+     consists of a central office at Boston, together with
+     independent local societies, such as have already been
+     formed in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The Boston
+     office, and any independent local society, which subscribes
+     not less than $750 a year, is entitled to nominate a member
+     of the Committee. At the end of July, 1884, Doctor Winslow
+     had forwarded to London $1,332.20.
+
+The Fund has always preserved amicable relations with the Government
+Department of Antiquities in Egypt. Excavations are conducted by
+skilled explorers, and the results published promptly with due regard to
+scientific accuracy and pictorial embellishment. The antiquities found
+are either deposited in the National Museum at Cairo, or distributed
+among public museums in the United Kingdom and the United States of
+America and Canada, in strict proportion to the contribution of each
+locality. Exhibitions are usually held in London in July of each year.
+
+The Fund now consists of three departments, for each of which separate
+accounts are kept. These departments are: 1. The Exploration Fund, for
+conducting archeological research generally, by means of systematic
+excavations. 2. The Archaeological Survey, for preserving an accurate
+pictorial record of monuments already excavated but liable to
+destruction. 3. The Graeco-Roman Branch, for the discovery of the
+remains of classical antiquity and early Christianity.
+
+The first work of the Graeco-Roman Branch was to publish the recently
+discovered Oxyrrhynchos papyri, of which two volumes, containing many
+important classical and theological texts, were issued in 1898 and 1899
+and 1900. Among its contents are parts of two odes of Pindar, of which
+one begins with a description of the poet's relation to Xenocritus, the
+inventor of the Locrian mode of music; a considerable piece of the
+"Kolax" of Menander, one of the two plays upon which the "Eunuchus" of
+Terence was based; part of a rhetorical treatise in Doric dialect, which
+is undoubtedly a work of the Pythagorean school; the conclusion of the
+eighteenth Keo-Tcfe of Julius Africanus, dealing with a question of
+Homeric criticism; and part of a biography of Alcibiades. A new light
+is thrown upon some of the less-known departments of Greek literature by
+a well-preserved papyrus, which contains on one side a prose mime in two
+scenes, a work of the school of Sophron, having points of resemblance to
+the fifth mime of Herondas; while on the other side is an amusing farce,
+partly in prose, partly in verse. The scene is laid on the shores of the
+Indian Ocean, and the plot turns upon the rescue of a Greek maiden from
+the hands of barbarians, who speak a non-Greek language with elements
+apparently derived from Prakrit.*
+
+     * This is a peculiarly interesting suggestion in view of the
+     fact that there is in the British Museum an unpublished
+     fragment which for some time was considered by Doctor Budge
+     to be a species of Egyptian stenography, but which has also
+     been suggested to be in Pehlevi characters.
+
+The new Homeric fragments include one of Iliad VI., with critical
+signs and interesting textual notes. Sappho, Euripides (Andromache,
+"Archelaus," and "Medea"), Antiphanes, Thucydides, Plato ("Gorgias" and
+"Republic"), AEschines, Demosthenes, and Xenophon are also represented.
+Among the theological texts are fragments of the lost Greek original of
+the "Apocalypse of Baruch" and of the missing Greek conclusion of the
+"Shepherd" of Hennas.
+
+In the winter of 1898-99, Doctors Grenfell and Hunt conducted
+excavations for the Graeco-Roman Branch in the Fayum. In 1899-1900, they
+excavated at Tebtunis, in the Fayum, on behalf of the University of
+California; and by an arrangement between that university and the Egypt
+Exploration Fund an important section of the Tebtunis papyri, consisting
+of second-century B.C. papyri from crocodile mummies, was issued jointly
+by the two bodies, forming the annual volumes of the Graeco-Roman Branch
+for 1900-01 and 1901-02. Since 1900 Doctors Grenfell and Hunt have
+excavated each winter on behalf of the Graeco-Roman Branch,--in 1900-01
+in the Fayum, and in 1901-02 both there and at Hibeh, with the result
+that a very large collection of Ptolemaic papyri was obtained. In the
+winter of 1902-03, after finishing their work at Hibeh, they returned to
+Oxyrrhynchos. Here was found a third-century fragment of a collection of
+sayings of Jesus, similar in style to the so-called "Logia" discovered
+at Oxyrrhynchos in 1897. As in that papyrus, the separate sayings
+are introduced by the words "Jesus saith," and are for the most part
+unrecorded elsewhere, though some which are found in the Gospels (e.g.
+"The Kingdom of God is within you" and "Many that are first shall
+be last, and the last shall be first") occur here in different
+surroundings. Six sayings are preserved, unfortunately in an imperfect
+condition. But the new "Logia" papyrus supplies more evidence concerning
+its origin than was the case with its predecessor, for it contains an
+introductory paragraph stating that what follows consisted of "the
+words which Jesus, the Living Lord, spake" to two of His disciples; and,
+moreover, one of the uncanonical sayings is already extant in part, the
+conclusion of it, "He that wonders shall reign and he that reigns shall
+rest," being quoted by Clement of Alexandria from the Gospel according
+to the Hebrews. It is, indeed, possible that this Gospel was the source
+from which all this second series of "Logia" was derived, or they, or
+some of them, may perhaps have been taken from the Gospel according to
+the Egyptians, to which Professor Harnack and others have referred the
+"Logia" found in 1897. But the discoverers are disposed to regard both
+series as collections of sayings currently ascribed to our Lord rather
+than as extracts from any one uncanonical gospel.
+
+
+[Illustration: 357.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--IMPORTANT RESEARCHES IN EGYPT
+
+
+_The Royal Tombs at Abydos: Reconstruction of the First and Second
+Dynasties: The Ten Temples at Abydos: The statuette of Khufui: Pottery
+and Pottery Marks: The Expedition of the University of California._
+
+
+Some interesting explorations have been conducted in Egypt by the
+Exploration Fund during the four years 1900-04, under the guidance of
+Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, whose enthusiasm and patience for the work
+in this field seem to increase with the years of labour. In the winter
+of 1899-1900, Professor Petrie and his zealous helpers began their
+investigation of the royal tombs of the first dynasty at Abydos.
+Commenting on this undertaking, Professor Petrie writes:
+
+"It might have seemed a fruitless and thankless task to work at Abydos
+after it had been ransacked by Mariette, and had been for the last four
+years in the hands of the Mission Amelineau. My only reason was that
+the extreme importance of results from there led to a wish to ascertain
+everything possible about the early royal tombs after they were done
+with by others, and to search even for fragments of the pottery. To work
+at Abydos had been my aim for years past; but it was only after it
+was abandoned by the Mission Amelineau that at last, on my fourth
+application for it, I was permitted to rescue for historical study the
+results that are here shown.
+
+"Nothing is more disheartening than being obliged to gather results out
+of the fraction left behind by past plunderers. In these royal tombs
+there had been not only the plundering of the precious metals and the
+larger valuables by the wreckers of early ages; there was after that the
+systematic destruction of monuments by the vile fanaticism of the Kopts,
+which crushed everything beautiful and everything noble that mere greed
+had spared; and worst of all, for history, came the active search in the
+last four years for everything that could have a value in the eyes of
+purchasers, or be sold for profit regardless of its source; a search in
+which whatever was not removed was deliberately and avowedly destroyed
+in order to enhance the intended profits of European speculators. The
+results are therefore only the remains which have escaped the lust
+of gold, the fury of fanaticism, and the greed of speculators in this
+ransacked spot.
+
+"A rich harvest of history has come from the site which was said to be
+exhausted; and in place of the disordered confusion of names without any
+historical connection, which was all that was known from the _Mission
+Amelineau_, we now have the complete sequence of kings from the middle
+of the dynasty before Mena to probably the close of the second dynasty,
+and we can trace in detail the fluctuations of art throughout these
+reigns."*
+
+At the time when Professor Maspero brought his history of Egypt to a
+close, the earliest known historical ruler of Egypt was King Mena or
+Menes.**
+
+     * "The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty," Parts I.-II.
+     (Eighteenth and Twenty-first Memoirs of the Egypt
+     Exploration Fund), London, 1900-1902.
+
+     ** See Volume I., page 322, et seq.
+
+Mena is the first king on the fragmentary list of Manetho, and the
+general accuracy of Manetho was supported by the accounts of Herodotus
+and other ancient writers. For several centuries these accounts were
+accepted as the basis of authentic history. With the rise of the science
+of Egyptology, however, search began to be made for some corroboration
+of the actual existence of Mena, and this was found in the inscriptions
+of a temple wall at Abydos, which places Mena at the head of the first
+dynasty; and, allowing for differences of language, the records of
+Manetho relating to the earlier dynasty were established. Mena was
+therefore accepted as the first king of the first dynasty up to the very
+end of the nineteenth century.
+
+As a result of Professor Petrie 's recent investigations, however, he
+has been enabled to carry back the line of the early kings for three or
+four generations.
+
+The royal tombs at Abydos lie closely together in a compact group on a
+site raised slightly above the level of the surrounding plain, so that
+the tombs could never be flooded. Each of the royal tombs is a large
+square pit, lined with brickwork. Close around it, on its own level,
+or higher up, there are generally small chambers in rows, in which were
+buried the domestics of the king. Each reign adopted some variety in the
+mode of burial, but they all follow the type of the prehistoric burials,
+more or less developed. The plain square pit, like those in which the
+predynastic people were buried, is here the essential of the tomb. It
+is surrounded in the earlier examples of Zer or Zet by small chambers
+opening from it. By Merneit these chambers were built separately around
+it. By Den an entrance passage was added, and by Qa the entrance was
+turned to the north. At this stage we are left within reach of the early
+passage-mastabas and pyramids. Substituting a stone lining and roof for
+bricks and wood, and placing the small tombs of domestics farther away,
+we reach the type of the mas-taba-pyramid of Snofrui, and so lead on to
+the pyramid series of the Old Kingdom.
+
+[Illustration: 361.jpg PLAN OF THE ROYAL TOMBS AS ABYDOS]
+
+The careful manner with which all details of a burial were supervised
+under the first dynasty enables the modern Egyptologist, by a skilful
+piecing together of evidence, to reconstruct an almost perfect picture
+of the life of Egypt at the dawn of civilisation. One of our most
+valuable sources of information is due to the fact that, in building the
+walls of the royal tombs, there were deposited in certain parts within
+the walls objects now technically known as _deposits_. We do not know
+whether, in selecting these objects, the ancient Egyptian had regard
+to what he considered their intrinsic value, or whether, as was most
+probable, it was some religious motive that prompted his action. Often
+the objects thus deposited come under the designation of pottery,
+although the vases were sometimes shaped of stone and not of clay.
+Within such vases all kinds of objects were preserved. The jar or vase
+was closed with a lump of clay, either flat or conical, and the clay was
+impressed, while wet, with a seal.
+
+A detailed and elaborate examination of the relative positions of the
+tombs, their dimensions, and the objects found in them, compared with
+the various fragments of historical records of the early dynasties,
+enables us to reconstruct the exact order of these ancient rulers. This
+sequence is:
+
+[Illustration: 362.jpg TABLE OF ANCIENT RULERS]*
+
+     * Ka and Zeser were possibly brothers of Mena.
+
+Following the dating tentatively computed by Professor Petrie, the dates
+of some of these kings are:
+
+[Illustration: 363a.jpg TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY OF EARLY KINGS]
+
+Thus we have reconstructed the list of Thinite kings before Mena so
+far as the facts allow, and perhaps so far as we are ever likely to
+ascertain them.
+
+The facts about the second dynasty, the kings after Qa, must now be
+studied. In the tomb of Perabsen it was found that there were
+buried with him vases of three other kings, which are therefore his
+predecessors. Their names are Hotepahaui, Raneb, and Neteren; and it
+is certain that Raneb preceded Neteren, as the latter had defaced and
+re-used a vase of the former. As on statue No. 1, Cairo Museum, these
+three names are in the above order, and, as the succession of two of
+them is now proved, it is only reasonable to accept them in this order.
+From all the available facts it seems that we ought to restore the
+dynasty thus:
+
+[Illustration: 363b.jpg TABLE OF KINGS]
+
+The oldest tomb that we can definitely assign is that marked B 7, the
+tomb of King Ka. This is a pit with sloping sides; the thickness of the
+brick walls is that of the length of one brick, and the soft footing of
+the wall and pressure of sand behind it has overthrown the longer sides.
+
+[Illustration: 364.jpg ENLARGED PLAN OF FIRST DYNASTY TOMBS]
+
+The broken pottery mixed with the sand, which filled it, largely
+consisted of cylinder jars, like the later prehistoric form; and these
+had many inscriptions on them, written in ink with a brush, most of
+which showed the name of Ka in the usual panelled frame. There can
+therefore be no doubt of the attribution of this tomb.
+
+The tomb B 9 is perhaps that of King Zeser, who seems to have been a
+successor of Ka. It is of the same construction as that of Ka. The tomb
+B 10 appears to be the oldest of the great tombs, by its easternmost
+position; and the objects of Narmer point to this as his tomb. In both
+the thickness and the batter of the walls there is a care shown in
+proportioning the strength of the ends and the sides. The tomb B 15
+is probably that of King Sma. Its walls are not quite so thick, being
+fifty inches at the end. The post-holes in the floor suggest that there
+were five on the long side, and one in the middle of each end, as in the
+tomb of Narmer. But along the sides are holes for roofing beams near the
+top of the wall. These roof beams do not at all accord with the posts;
+and this proves that, here at least, the posts were for backing a wooden
+chamber inside the brick chamber. If this be the case here, it was
+probably also true in Narmer's tomb; and hence these brick tombs were
+only the protective shell around a wooden chamber which contained the
+burial. This same system is known in the first dynasty tombs, and we see
+here the source of the chambered tombs of Zer and Zet. Before the age
+of Mena, the space around the wood chamber was used for dropping in
+offerings between the framing posts; and then, after Mena, separate
+brick chambers were made around the wooden chamber in order to hold more
+offerings.*
+
+     *This chamber was burnt; and is apparently that mentioned by
+     M. Amelineau, Fouilles, in extenso, 1899, page 107.
+
+The tomb B 19, which contained the best tablet of Aha-Mena, is probably
+his tomb; for the tomb with his vases at Naqada is more probably that of
+his queen Neithotep. As both the tombs B 17 and 18 to the north of this
+contained objects of Mena, it is probable that they were the tombs of
+some members of his family.
+
+The great cemetery of the domestics of this age is the triple row of
+tombs to the east of the royal tombs; in all the thirty-four tombs here,
+no name was found beside that of Aha on the jar sealings, and the two
+tombs, B 6 and B 14, seen to be probably of the same age. In B 14 were
+found only objects of Aha, and three of them were inscribed with the
+name of Bener-eb, probably the name of a wife or a daughter of Mena,
+which is not found in any other tomb.*
+
+     * Professor Petrie's arguments, although home out by the
+     evidence that he produces, have from time to time been
+     criticised. M. Naville, for example, endeavours to prove
+     that the buildings in the desert are not literally tombs,
+     but rather temples for the cult of their Ka; and that there
+     ought not to be kings anterior to Mena, particularly at
+     Abydos: "Narmer" is really Boethos, the first king of the
+     second dynasty. According to M. Naville, Boethos, Usaphis,
+     and Miebidos are the only kings as yet identified of the
+     early time. M. Naville also suggests that Ka-Sekhem and Ka-
+     Sekhemui are two names for one king.
+
+[Illustration: 366.jpg EBONY TABLET OF KING AHA-MENA]
+
+From the time of Mena has come down to us an ebony tablet, as shown in
+the illustration. This is the most complete of the inscriptions of this
+king, and was found in two portions in the tombs marked B 18 and B 19.
+The signs upon the tablet are most interesting. On the top line, after
+the cartouche of Aha-Mena, there are two sacred boats, probably of
+Sokaris, and a shrine and temenos of Nit. In the line below is seen a
+man making an offering, and behind him is a bull running over undulating
+ground into a net stretched between two poles, while at the end,
+standing upon a shrine, is a bird, which appears to be the ibis of Thot.
+A third line shows three boats upon a canal or river, passing between
+certain places, and it has been reasonably conjectured that the other
+signs in this line indicate these places as being Biu, a district of
+Memphis; Pa She (or "the dwelling of the lake"), the capital of the
+Fayum; and the Canal of Mer, or Bahr Yusef. So far this tablet
+contains picture signs, but the fourth line gives a continued series of
+hieroglyphics, and is the oldest line of such characters yet discovered.
+Mr. F. LI. Griffiths translates these characters as "who takes the
+throne of Horus."
+
+In the north-west corner of the tomb, a stairway of bricks was roughly
+inserted in later times in order to give access to the shrine of Osiris.
+That this is not an original feature is manifest: the walls are burnt
+red by the burning of the tomb, while the stairs are built of black
+mud brick with fresh mud mortar smeared over the reddened wall. It is
+notable that the burning of these tombs took place before their re-use
+in the eighteenth dynasty; as is also seen by the re-built doorway of
+the tomb of Den, which is of large black bricks over smaller red burnt
+bricks. It is therefore quite beside the mark to attribute this burning
+to the Kopts.
+
+The tomb of King Zer has an important secondary history as the site of
+the shrine of Osiris, established in the eighteenth dynasty (for none of
+the pottery offered there is earlier than that of Amenhothes III.), and
+visited with offerings from that time until the twenty-sixth dynasty,
+when additional sculptures were placed here.
+
+[Illustration: 368.jpg TOMB OF ZER, 4700 B.C.]
+
+Afterwards it was despoiled by the Kopts in erasing the worship of
+Osiris. It is the early state of the place as the tomb of King Zer that
+we have to study here, and not its later history.
+
+The tomb chamber has been built of wood; and the brick cells around
+it were built subsequently against the wooden chamber, as their rough,
+unplastered ends show; moreover, the cast of the grain of the wood can
+be seen on the mud mortar adhering to the bricks. There are also long,
+shallow grooves in the floor, a wide one near the west wall, three
+narrow ones parallel to that, and a short cross groove, all probably the
+places of beams which supported the wooden chamber. Besides these there
+was till recently a great mass of carbonised wood along the north side
+of the floor. This was probably part of the flooring of the tomb, which,
+beneath the woodwork, was covered with a layer of bricks, which lay
+on clean sand. But all the middle of the tomb had been cleared to the
+native marl for building the Osiris shrine, of which some fragments of
+sculpture in hard limestone are now all that remain.
+
+A strange feature here is that of the red recesses, such as were also
+found in the tomb of Zet. The large ones are on the west wall, and in
+the second cell on the north wall. No meaning can yet be assigned to
+these, except as spirit-entrances to the cells of offerings, like the
+false doors in tombs of the Old Kingdom.
+
+In spite of the plundering of the tombs in various ages, the work of the
+Egypt Exploration Fund was so thorough that not a few gold objects
+have been found in the course of recent excavations. By far the most
+important discovery of recent years was that of some jewelry in the tomb
+of King Zer. The story of this find is so entertaining, and illustrates
+so admirably the method of the modern scientific explorer, that we give
+the account of it in Professor Petrie's own words:
+
+"While my workmen were clearing the tomb, they noticed among the rubbish
+which they were moving a piece of the arm of a mummy in its wrappings.
+It lay in a broken hole in the north wall of the tomb. The party of four
+who found it looked into the end of the wrappings and saw a large gold
+bead, the rosette in the second bracelet. They did not yield to the
+natural wish to search further or to remove it; but laid the arm down
+where _they_ found it until Mr. Mace should come and verify it. Nothing
+but obtaining the complete confidence of the workmen, and paying them
+for all they find, could ever make them deal with valuables in this
+careful manner. On seeing it, Mr. Mace told them to bring it to our huts
+intact, and I received it quite undisturbed. In the evening the most
+intelligent of the party was summoned as a witness of the opening of
+the wrappings, so that there should be no suspicion that I had not dealt
+fairly with the men. I then cut open the linen bandages, and found,
+to our great surprise, the four bracelets of gold and jewelry. The
+verification of the exact order of threading occupied an hour or two,
+working with a magnifier, my wife and Mr. Mace assisting. When recorded,
+the gold was put in the scales and weighed against sovereigns before
+the workman, who saw everything. Rather more than the value of gold was
+given to the men, and thus we ensured their good-will and honesty for
+the future."
+
+The hawk bracelet consists of thirteen gold and fourteen turquoise
+plaques in the form of the facade with the hawk, which usually encloses
+the _ka_ name of the king. The gold hawks have been cast in a mould
+with two faces, and the junction line has been carefully removed and
+burnished. The gold was worked by chisel and burnishing; no grinding or
+file marks are visible. In the second bracelet, with the rosette, two
+groups of beads are united at the sides by bands of gold wire and thick
+hair. The fastening of the bracelet was by a loop and button. This
+button is a hollow ball of gold with a shank of gold wire fastened in
+it. The third bracelet is formed of three similar groups, one larger,
+and the other smaller on either side. The middle of each group consists
+of three beads of dark purple lazuli. The fastening of this bracelet
+was by a loop and button. The fourth bracelet is fashioned of hour-glass
+beads.
+
+In this extraordinary group of the oldest jewelry known, we see
+unlimited variety and fertility of design. Excepting the plain gold
+balls, there is not a single bead in any one bracelet which would be
+interchangeable with those in another bracelet. Each is of independent
+design, fresh and free from all convention or copying.
+
+The tomb of Zet consists of a large chamber twenty feet wide and thirty
+feet long, with smaller chambers around it at its level, the whole
+bounded by a thick brick wall, which rises seven and a half feet to the
+roof, and then three and a half feet more to the top of the retaining
+wall. Outside of this on the north is a line of small tombs about five
+feet deep, and on the south a triple line of tombs of the same depth.
+And apparently of the same system and same age is the mass of tombs
+marked W, which are parallel to the tomb of Zet. Later there appears to
+have been built the long line of tombs, placed askew, in order not to
+interfere with those which have been mentioned, and then this skew line
+gave the di-rection to the next tomb, that of Merneit, and later on to
+that of Azab. The private graves around the royal tomb are all built of
+mud brick, with a coat of mud plaster over it, and the floor is of sand,
+usually also coated over with mud.
+
+[Illustration: 372.jpg TOMB OF ZET, CIRCA 4700 B.C.]
+
+The first question about these great tombs is how they were covered
+over. Some have said that such spaces could not be roofed, and at first
+sight it would seem almost impossible. But the actual beams found yet
+remaining in the tombs are as long as the widths of the tombs, and
+therefore timber of such sizes could be procured. In the tomb of Qa the
+holes for the beams yet remain in the walls, and even the cast of the
+end of a beam, and in the tombs of Merneit, Azab, and Mer-sekha are
+posts and pilasters to help in supporting a roof. The clear span of
+the chamber of Zet is 240 inches, or 220 if the beams were carried on
+a wooden lining, as seems likely. It is quite practicable to roof
+over these great chambers up to spans of twenty feet. The wood of such
+lengths was actually used, and, if spaced out over only a quarter of the
+area, the beams would carry their load with full safety. Any boarding,
+mats, or straw laid over the beams would not increase the load. That
+there was a mass of sand laid over the tomb is strongly shown by the
+retaining wall around the top. This wall is roughly built, and not
+intended to be a visible feature. The outside is daubed with mud
+plaster, and has a considerable slope; the inside is left quite rough,
+with bricks in and out.
+
+Turning now to the floor, the basis of it is mud plastering, which was
+whitewashed. On that were laid beams around the sides, and one down the
+middle: these beams were placed before the mud floor was hard, and have
+sunk about one-quarter inch into it. On the beams a ledge was recessed,
+and on this ledge the edges of the flooring planks rested. Such planks
+would not bend in the middle by a man standing on them, and therefore
+made a sound floor. Over the planks was laid a coat of mud plaster. This
+construction doubtless shows what was the mode of flooring the palaces
+and large houses of the early Egyptians, in order to keep off the damp
+of the ground in the Nile valley. For common houses a basis of pottery
+jars turned mouth down was used for the same purpose. A very striking
+example of this method was unearthed at Koptos.
+
+The sides of the great central chamber of Zet are not clear in
+arrangement. The brick cross walls, which subdivide them into separate
+cells, have no finished faces on their ends. All the wall faces are
+plastered and whitewashed; but the ends of the cross walls are rough
+bricks, all irregularly in and out. Moreover, the bricks project forward
+irregularly over the beam line. It seems, then, that there was an
+upright timber lining to the chamber, against which the cross walls were
+built the walls thus having rough ends projecting over the beams. The
+footing of this upright plank lining is indicated by a groove left along
+the western floor beam between the ledge on the beam and the side of
+the flooring planks. Thus we reach a wooden chamber, lined with upright
+planks, which stood out from the wall, or from the backs of the beams.
+How the side chambers were entered is not shown; whether there was a
+door to each or not. But as they were intended to be for ever closed,
+and as the chambers in two corners were shut off by brickwork all round,
+it seems likely that all the side chambers were equally closed. And
+thus, after the slain domestics and offerings were deposited in them,
+and the king in the centre hall, the roof would be permanently placed
+over the whole.
+
+The height of the chamber is proved by the cast of straw which formed
+part of the roofing, and which comes at the top of the course of headers
+on edge which copes the wall all around the chamber. Over this straw
+there was laid one course of bricks a little recessed, and beyond that
+is the wide ledge all round before reaching the retaining wall. The
+height of the main chamber was 90.6 inches from the floor level.
+
+Having examined the central chamber, the chambers at the sides should be
+next considered. The cross walls were built after the main brick outside
+was finished and plastered. The deep recesses coloured red, on the north
+side, were built in the construction; where the top is preserved entire,
+as in a side chamber on the north, it is seen that the roofing of
+the recess was upheld by building in a board about an inch thick.
+The shallow recesses along the south side were merely made in the
+plastering, and even in the secondary plastering after the cross walls
+were built. All of these recesses, except that at the south-west, were
+coloured pink-red, due to mixing burnt ochre with the white.
+
+The tomb of Merneit was not at first suspected to exist, as it had no
+accumulation of pottery over it; and the whole ground had been pitted
+all over by the Mission Amelineau making "_quelques sondages_," without
+revealing the chambers or the plan. As soon, however, as Petrie began
+systematically to clear the ground, the scheme of a large central
+chamber, with eight long chambers for offerings around it, and a line of
+private tombs enclosing it, stood apparent. The central chamber is very
+accurately built, with vertical sides parallel to less than an inch. It
+is about twenty-one feet wide and thirty feet long, or practically the
+same as the chamber of Zet. Around the chamber are walls forty-eight
+to fifty-two inches thick, and beyond them a girdle of long, narrow
+chambers forty-eight inches wide and 160 to 215 inches long. Of these
+chambers for offerings, Nos. 1, 2, 5, and 7 still contain pottery in
+place, and No. 3 contains many jar sealings.
+
+At a few yards distant from the chambers full of offerings is a line
+of private graves almost surrounding the royal tomb. This line has
+an interruption at the south end of the west side similar to the
+interruption of the retaining wall of the tomb of Zet at that quarter.
+It seems, therefore, that the funeral approached it from that direction.
+
+The chamber of the tomb of Merneit shows signs of burning on both the
+walls and the floor. A small piece of wood yet remaining indicates that
+it also had a wooden floor like the other tombs. Against the walls stand
+pilasters of brick; and, although these are not at present more than a
+quarter of the whole height of the wall, they originally reached to the
+top. These pilasters are entirely additions to the first building; they
+stand against the plastering and upon a loose layer of sand and pebbles
+about four inches thick. Thus it is clear that they belonged to the
+subsequent stage of the fitting of a roof to the chamber. The holes that
+are shown in the floor are apparently connected with the construction,
+as they are not in the mid-line where pillars are likely. At the edge of
+chamber No. 2 is a cast of plaited palm-leaf matting on the mud mortar
+above this level, and the bricks are set back irregularly. This shows
+the mode of finishing off the roof of this tomb.
+
+[Illustration: 377.jpg PLANS OF THE TOMBS OF DEN-SETUI AND OTHERS]
+
+From the position of the tomb of Den-Setui, it is seen naturally to
+follow the building of the tombs of Zet and Merneit. It is surrounded by
+rows of small chambers for offerings, and for the burial of domestics.
+The king's tomb appears to have contained a large number of tablets of
+ivory and ebony, for fragments of eighteen were found, and two others
+are known, making in all twenty tablets from this one tomb. The
+inscriptions on stone vases are, however, not more frequent than in
+previous reigns. This tomb appears to have been one of the most costly
+and sumptuous. The astonishing feature of this chamber is the granite
+pavement, such considerable use of granite being quite unknown until the
+step pyramid of Saqqara early in the third dynasty. At the south-west
+corner is a strange annex. A stairway leads down from the west and then
+turns to the north. At the foot of the first flight of steps is a
+space for inserting planks and brickwork to close the chamber, like
+the blocking of the door of the tomb of Azab.1 This small chamber was
+therefore intended to be closed. Whether this chamber was for the burial
+of one of the royal family, or for the deposit of offerings, it is
+difficult to determine. Of the various rows of graves around the great
+tomb there is nothing to record in detail. An ebony tablet, presumably
+of the time of Den, found among the first dynasty tombs, represents a
+scene in which a king is dancing before Osiris, the god being seated
+in his shrine. This tablet is the earliest example of those pictorial
+records of a religious ceremony which, as we now know, was continued
+almost without change from the first dynasty to the thirty-third. It is
+interesting to note on this engraving that the king is represented with
+the _hap_ and a short stick instead of the oar.
+
+[Illustration: 379.jpg TABLET OF DEN-SETUI, 4600 B.C.]
+
+It should be noted also that the royal name, Setui, occurs in the lower
+part of the tablet, so that there is a strong presumption that the
+tablet is of the time of Den-Setui, and the presumption is almost a
+certainty when the tablet is compared with some sealings found in its
+vicinity. Mr. F. LI. Griffiths has written at length on this important
+inscription.*
+
+     * Royal Tombs of the first dynasty, Part I: Eighteenth
+     Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, London, 1900, page 42.
+
+He thinks that this tablet and two others somewhat similar were the
+brief annals of the time, and record the historic events and the names
+of government officials. He translates a portion of the inscription as
+"Opening the gates of foreign lands," and in another part he reads,
+"The master comes, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt." Moreover, he
+translates certain signs as "Sheikh of the Libyans," and he identifies
+a place named _Tny_ as This, or the capital of the nome in which Abydos
+lay.
+
+Of this reign also is an ivory tablet finely polished, but blackened
+with burning, which has engraved upon it the oldest architectural
+drawing in the world.
+
+[Illustration: 380.jpg architectural drawing, B.C. 4600.]
+
+The inscription on this precious fragment apparently refers to the great
+chiefs coming to the tomb of Setui, and a picture of a building in the
+middle of the inscription may be taken as representing on the left the
+tomb chamber of Den-Setui, with a slight mound over it. The upright
+strokes represent the steles outside the tombs, adjacent to which is the
+inclined stairway, while on the right is a diagram of the cemetery, with
+graves ar-ranged in rows around the tomb, with small steles standing up
+over the graves.
+
+A small piece of still another ivory tablet gives an interesting
+portrait of Den-Setui. This king flourished about 4600 b. c, so that
+this is perhaps the oldest portrait that can be named and dated. It
+shows the double crown fully developed, and has an additional interest,
+inasmuch as the crown of Lower Egypt was apparently coloured red, while
+the crown of Upper Egypt was white in accordance with the practice that
+we know existed during the later historic period.
+
+[Illustration: 381.jpg IVORY PANEL OF DEN-SETUI, 4600 B.C.]
+
+Among the many ivory objects found at Abydos is a small ivory panel from
+a box which seems to have contained the golden seal of judgment of King
+Den.
+
+The engraving of this ivory panel is of the finest description, and
+bears evidence of the magnificent workmanship of the Egyptians 6,500
+years ago. It will be seen that enough of the fragment has been
+preserved to include the cartouche of the monarch, and the snake at the
+side is the pictograph of judgment. Beneath is the hieroglyph for gold,
+and at the bottom is a sign which represents a seal cylinder* rolling
+over a piece of clay.
+
+     * It was for a long time thought that this hieroglyphic
+     character represented a finger ring, but as it is now
+     positively known that finger rings were not in use until
+     long after the time of Den, this explanation had to be
+     abandoned in favour of the more correct interpretation of a
+     seal cylinder.
+
+The tomb of Azab-Merpaba is a plain chamber, with rather sloping sides,
+about twenty-two feet long and fourteen feet wide. The surrounding wall
+is nearly five feet thick. The lesser and more irregular chamber on
+the north is of the same depth and construction, fourteen feet by nine.
+This lesser chamber had no remains of flooring; it contained many large
+sealings of jars, and seems to have been for all the funeral provision,
+like the eight chambers around the tomb of Merneit. Around this tomb is
+a circuit of small private tombs, leaving a gap on the southwest like
+that of Merneit, and an additional branch line has been added on at the
+north.
+
+[Illustration: 382.jpg STAIRWAY IN THE TOMB AZAB]
+
+All of these tombs are very irregularly built; the sides are wavy in
+direction, and the divisions of the long trench are slightly piled up,
+of bricks laid lengthwise, and easily overthrown. This agrees with
+the rough and irregular construction of the central tomb and offering
+chamber. The funeral of Azab seems to have been more carelessly
+conducted than that of any of the other kings here; only one piece of
+inscribed vase was in his tomb, as against eight of his found in his
+successor's tomb, and many other of his vases erased by his successor.
+Thus his palace property seems to have been kept back for his
+successor's use, and not buried with Azab himself. In some of the
+chambers much ivory inlaying was found.
+
+The entrance to the tomb of Azab was by a stairway descending from the
+east, thus according with the system begun by Den. On the steps, just
+outside of the door, were found dozens of small pots loosely piled
+together. These must have contained offerings made after the completion
+of the burial. The blocking is made by planks and bricks, the whole
+outside of the planking being covered by bricks loosely stacked, as can
+be seen in the photograph, the planking having decayed away from before
+them. The chamber was floored with planks of wood laid flat on the sand,
+without any supporting beams as in other tombs.
+
+The tomb of Mersekha-Semempses is forty-four feet long and twenty-five
+feet wide, surrounded by a wall over five feet thick. The surrounding
+small chambers are only three to four feet deep where perfect, while the
+central pit is still eleven and one-half feet deep, though broken away
+at the top. When examined by Professor Petrie few of the small chambers
+contained anything. Seven steles were found, the inscriptions of which
+are marked in the chambers of the plan; and other steles were also found
+here, scattered so that they could not be identified with the tombs.
+The most interesting are two steles of dwarfs, which show the dwarf type
+clearly; with one were found bones of a dwarf. In a chamber on the
+east was a jar and a copper bowl, which shows the hammer marks, and
+is roughly finished, with the edge turned over to leave it smooth. The
+small compartments in the south-eastern chambers were probably intended
+to hold the offerings placed in the graves; the dividing walls are only
+about half the depth of the grave.
+
+[Illustration: 384.jpg TOMB OF MERSEKHA, SHOWING WOODEN FLOOR]
+
+The structure of the interior of the tomb of Mersekha is at present
+uncertain. Only in the corner by the entrance was the wooden flooring
+preserved; several beams (one now in Cairo Museum) and much broken wood
+was found loose in the rubbish. The entrance is nine feet wide, and
+was blocked by loose bricks, flush with wall face, as seen in the
+photograph. Another looser walling farther out, also seen in the
+photograph, is probably that of plunderers to hold back the sand.
+
+The tomb of King Qa, which is the last of the first dynasty, shows a
+more developed stage than the others. Chambers for offerings are built
+on each side of the entrance passage, and this passage is turned to the
+north, as in the mastabas of the third dynasty and in the pyramids. The
+whole of the building is hasty and defective.
+
+[Illustration: 385.jpg PLAN OF TOMB OF QA, CIRCA 4500 B.C.]
+
+The bricks were mostly used too new, probably less than a week after
+being made. Hence the walls have seriously collapsed in most of the
+lesser chambers; only the one great chamber was built of firm and
+well-dried bricks. In the small chambers along the east side the long
+wall between chambers 10 and 5 has crushed out at the base, and spread
+against the pottery in the grave 5, and against the wooden box in grave
+2. Hence the objects must have been placed in those graves within a few
+days of the building of the wall, before the mud bricks were hard enough
+to carry even four feet height of wall. The burials of the domestics
+must therefore have taken place all at once, immediately after the
+king's tomb was built, and hence they must have been sacrificed at the
+funeral. The pottery placed in the chambers is all figured in position
+on the plan.
+
+[Illustration: 386.jpg STYLE OF KING QA]
+
+Only three steles were found in the grave of Qa, but these were larger
+than those of the earlier graves. One of them, No. 48, is the longest
+and most important inscription that has come down to us from the first
+dynasty. This lay in a chamber on the west side of the tomb. In the
+preparation of the stele, the block of stone had been ground all over
+and edges rounded. On its surface the hieroglyphs were then sketched in
+red ink, and were finally drawn in black, the ground being then roughly
+hammered out. There the work stopped, and the final scraping and
+dressing of the figures was never accomplished. The reading of the signs
+is therefore difficult, but enough is seen to show that the keeper
+of the tomb bore the name of Sabef. He had two titles which are now
+illegible, and was also "Overseer of the Sed Festival." This scanty
+information goes to show how little the official titles were changed
+between the days of the first dynasty and the time of the building of
+the pyramids. The stele of the king Qa was found lying over chamber;
+it is like that found by M. Amelineau, carved in black quartzose stone.
+Near it, on the south, were dozens of large pieces of fine alabaster
+bowls.
+
+Among various objects found in these chambers should be noted the fine
+ivory carving from chamber 23, showing a bound captive; the large stock
+of painted model vases in limestone in a box in chamber 20; the set of
+perfect vases found in chamber 21; a fine piece of ribbed ivory; a piece
+of thick gold-foil covering of a hotep table, patterned as a mat, found
+in the long chamber west of the tomb; the deep mass of brown vegetable
+matter in the north-east chamber; the large stock of grain between
+chambers 8 and 11; and the bed of currants ten inches thick, though
+dried, which underlay the pottery in chamber 11. In chamber 16 were
+large dome-shaped jar sealings, with the name of Azab, and on one of
+them the ink-written signs of the "King's ka."
+
+The entrance passage has been closed with rough brick walling at the
+top. It is curiously turned askew, as if to avoid some obstacle, but the
+chambers of the tomb of Den do not come near its direction. After nine
+steps, the straight passage is reached, and then a limestone portcullis
+slab bars the way, let into grooves on either side; it was, moreover,
+backed up by a buttress of brickwork in five steps behind it. All this
+shows that the rest of the passage must have been roofed in so deeply
+that entry from above was not the obvious course. The inner passage
+descends by steps, each about five inches high, partly in the slope,
+partly in the rise of the step. The side chambers open off this stairway
+by side passages a little above the level of the stairs.
+
+The interior structure of the tomb of Qa is rather different from any
+other. Instead of the timber being an entirely separate structure apart
+from the brick, the brick sides seem here to have been very loosely
+built against the timber sides. Some detail yet remains of the wooden
+floor. The roofing is distinct in this tomb, and it is evident that
+there was an axial beam, and that the side beam only went half across
+the chamber. This is the only tomb with the awkward feature of an axial
+doorway, and it is interesting to note how the beam was placed out of
+the axis to accommodate it.
+
+The tomb of Perabsen shows a great change in form since the earlier
+series. A new dynasty with new ideas had succeeded the great founders
+of the monarchy; the three reigns had passed by before we can again see
+here the system of the tombs. Even the national worship was changed,
+and Set had become prominent. The type of tomb which had been developed
+under Azab, Mer-sekha, and Qa seems to have given way to the earlier
+pattern of Zer and Zet. In this tomb of Perabsen we see the same row of
+small cells separated by cross walls, like those of the early kings;
+but in place of a wooden central chamber there is a brick chamber, and
+a free passage is left around it communicating with the cells. What was
+the form of the south side of that chamber cannot now be traced, as, if
+any wall existed, it is now entirely destroyed. The entirely new feature
+is the continuous passage around the whole tomb. Perhaps the object of
+this was to guard against plunderers entering by digging sideways into
+the tomb.
+
+[Illustration: 389.jpg STONE CHAMBER OF KHASEKHEMUI]
+
+The tomb of Khasekhemui is very different from any of the other royal
+tombs yet known. The total length of the chamber from end to end is two
+hundred and twenty-three feet, and the breadth in the middle is forty
+feet, growing wider towards the northern end. The whole structure is
+very irregular; and, to add to the confusion, the greater part of it was
+built of freshly made mud bricks, which have yielded with the pressure
+and flowed out sideways, until the walls are often double their original
+breadth. It was only owing to this flow of the walls over the objects
+in the chambers, that so many valuable things were found perfect, and
+in position. Where the whole of the original outline of a wall had
+disappeared, the form is given in the plan with wavy outline.
+
+The central stone chamber of the tomb of Khasekhemui is the most
+important part of the whole, as it is the oldest stone construction yet
+known. The chamber is roughly seventeen by ten feet; the depth is nearly
+six feet. There is no sign of any roof.
+
+Nearly all the contents of this tomb were removed by the French
+investigators in 1897. Among the more interesting objects found were
+sealings of yellow clay, which were curiously enough of different types
+at opposite ends of the tomb. Copper needles, chisels, axes, and model
+tools were also found, and a beautiful sceptre of gold and sard was
+brought to light by Professor Petrie, only an inch or two below a spot
+that had been cleared by previous explorers.
+
+In chamber 2 of the tomb of Khasekhemui were also found six vases
+of dolomite and one of carnelian. Two of these are shown in the
+illustration, and each has a cover of thick gold-foil fitted over the
+top, and secured with a double turn of twisted gold wire, the wire being
+sealed with a small lump of clay, the whole operation resembling the
+method of the modern druggist, in fastening a box of ointment. Near
+these vases were found two beautiful gold bracelets; one, Number 3,
+is still in a perfect condition; the other, Number 4, has been,
+unfortunately, crushed by the yielding of the wall of the tomb in which
+it was deposited.
+
+[Illustration: 391.jpg GOLD-CAPPED VASES AND GOLD BRACELETS]
+
+Each royal grave seems to have had connected with it two great steles.
+Two, for instance, were found in the tomb of Merneit, one of which,
+however, was demolished. There were also two steles at the grave of Qa.
+So far only one stele had been found of Zet, and one of Mersekha, and
+none appear to have survived of Zer, Den, or Azab. These steles seem to
+have been placed at the east side of the tombs, and on the ground level,
+and such of them as happened to fall down upon their inscribed faces
+have generally been found in an excellent state of preservation.
+
+Hence we must figure to ourselves two great steles standing up, side by
+side, on the east of the tomb; and this is exactly in accord with the
+next period that we know, in which, at Medum, Snofrui had two great
+steles and an altar between them on the east of his tomb; and Rahotep
+had two great steles, one on either side of the offering-niche, east
+of his tomb. Probably the pair of obelisks of the tomb of Antef V., at
+Thebes, were a later form of this system. Around the royal tomb stood
+the little private steles of the domestics, placed in rows, thus forming
+an enclosure about the king.
+
+Some of Professor Petrie's most interesting work at Abydos was commenced
+in November, 1902. In the previous season a part of the early town of
+Abydos had been excavated, and it was found that its period began at the
+close of the prehistoric age, and extended over the first few dynasties;
+the connection between the prehistoric scale and historic reigns was
+thus settled. The position of this town was close behind the site of the
+old temples of Abydos, and within the great girdle-wall enclosure of the
+twelfth dynasty, which stands about half a mile north of the well-known
+later temples of Seti I. and Ramses II. This early town, being behind
+the temples, or more into the sandy edge of the desert, was higher up;
+the ground gently sloping from the cultivated land upward as a sandy
+plain, until it reaches the foot of the hills, a couple of miles back.
+
+The broad result of these new excavations is that ten different temples
+can be traced on the same ground, though of about twenty feet difference
+of level; each temple built on the ruins of that which preceded it,
+quite regardless of the work of the earlier kings.
+
+In such a clearance it was impossible to preserve all the structures.
+Had Petrie and his companions avoided moving the foundations of the
+twenty-sixth dynasty, they could never have seen much of the earlier
+work; had they left the paving of the twelfth dynasty in place, they
+must have sacrificed the objects of the Old Kingdom.
+
+[Illustration: 393.jpg GENERAL PLAN OF BUILDINGS AT ABYDOS]
+
+Also, had they only worked the higher levels, and left the rest, the
+inflow of high Nile would have formed a pond, which would have so
+rotted the ground that deeper work could not have been carried on in the
+future. The only course, therefore, was to plan everything fully, and
+remove whatever stood in the way of more complete exploration. All
+striking pieces of construction, such as the stone gateways of Papi,
+were left untouched, and work carried on to deep levels around them; in
+this way, at the end of the season, the site was bristling with pieces
+of wall and blocks of stonework, rising ten or fifteen feet above
+the low level clearances. As the excavations progressed, there was
+an incessant need of planning and recording all the constructions.
+Professor Petrie always went about with a large dinner-knife and
+a trowel in his pocket, and spent much time in cutting innumerable
+sections and tracing out the lines of the bricks. The top and base level
+of each piece of wall had to be marked on it; and the levels could then
+be measured off to fixed points.
+
+An outline of some of the principal buildings is given, to show the
+general nature of the site of the temple of Abydos. This plan is not
+intended to show all periods, nor the whole work of any one age; but
+only a selection which will avoid confusion. The great outer wall on the
+plan was probably first built by Usirtasen I.; the bricks of the oldest
+parts of it are the same size as bricks of his foundation deposits, and
+it rests upon town ruins of the Old Kingdom. But this wall has been so
+often broken and repaired that a complete study of it would be a heavy
+task; some parts rest on nineteenth dynasty building, and even Roman
+patchwork is seen. Its general character is shown with alternating
+portions, the first set consisting of towers of brickwork built in
+concave foundations, and then connecting walls between; formed in
+straight courses. The purpose of this construction has long been a
+puzzle. The alternate concave and straight courses are the natural
+result of building isolated masses, on a concave bed like all Egyptian
+houses, and then connecting them by intermediate walls. The hard face
+across the wall, and the joint to prevent the spread of scaling, are the
+essential advantages of this construction.
+
+The corner marked Kom-de-Sultan is the enclosure which was emptied out
+by Mariette 's diggers, because of the abundance of burials with steles
+of the twelfth to eighteenth dynasties.
+
+[Illustration: 395.jpg WALL OF USIRTASEN I.]
+
+They have removed all the earth to far below the base of the walls, thus
+digging in most parts right through the town of the Old Kingdom, which
+stood here before the great walls were built. The inner two sides of
+this enclosed corner are later than the outer wall; the bricks are
+larger than those of Usirtasen, and the base of the wall is higher than
+his. The causeway line indicated through the site by a dotted line from
+the east to the west gate is a main feature; but it is later than the
+sixth dynasty, as the wall of that age cuts it, and it was cut in two
+by later buildings of the twentieth dynasty. It seems then to begin with
+Usirtasen, whose gateways it runs through; and to have been kept up by
+Thutmosis III., who built a wall with granite pylon for it, and also
+by Ramses II., who built a great portal colonnade of limestone for the
+causeway to pass through on entering the cemetery outside the west wall
+of this plan.
+
+To the north of the causeway are seen the tombs of the first dynasty.
+One more, No. 27, was found beneath the wall of Thutmosis; it was of the
+same character as the larger of the previous tombs. All of these are far
+below any of the buildings shown on this outline plan.
+
+Of the two long walls, marked vi., the inner is older, but was re-used
+by Papi. It is probably the temenos of the third dynasty. The outer
+wall is the temenos of the sixth dynasty, the west side of which is
+yet unknown, and has probably been all destroyed. The temple of Papi
+is shown in the middle with the north-west and south sides of the thin
+boundary wall which enclosed it. The thick wall which lies outside of
+that is the great wall of the eighteenth dynasty, with the granite
+pylon of Thutmosis III. It seems to have followed the line of the sixth
+dynasty wall on the north. The outline marked xix. shows a high level
+platform of stone, which was probably for the basement of buildings of
+Ramses II.
+
+Within the area of these temples was discovered quite a number of
+historical relics. None is more interesting, perhaps, than the ivory
+statuette of the first dynasty king. This anonymous ruler is figured as
+wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, and a thick embroidered robe.
+
+From the nature of the pattern and the stiff edge represented, it looks
+as if this robe were quilted with embroidery; no such dress is known
+on any Egyptian figure yet found. The work belongs to an unconventional
+school, before the rise of the fixed traditions; it might have been
+carved in any age and country where good natural work was done. In its
+unshrinking figuring of age and weakness with a subtle character, it
+shows a power of dealing with individuality which stands apart from all
+the later work.
+
+[Illustration: 395.jpg IVORY STATUETTE OF FIRST DYNASTY KING]
+
+Of greater interest, however, is the ivory statuette of Khufui, which
+is the first figure of that monarch that has come to light. The king is
+seated upon his throne, and the inscription upon the front of it leaves
+no doubt as to the identity of the figure. The work is of extraordinary
+delicacy and finish; for even when magnified it does not suggest any
+imperfection or clumsiness, but might have belonged to a life-sized
+statue. The proportion of the head is slightly exaggerated; as, indeed,
+is always the case in minute work; but the character and expression are
+as well handled as they might be on any other scale, and are full of
+power and vigour. The idea which it conveys to us of the personality
+of Khufui agrees with his historical position. We see the energy, the
+commanding air, the indomitable will, and the firm ability of the man
+who stamped for ever the character of the Egyptian monarchy and outdid
+all time in the scale of his works. No other Egyptian king that we know
+resembled this head; and it stands apart in portraiture, though perhaps
+it may be compared with the energetic face of Justinian, the great
+builder and organiser.
+
+[Illustration: 398.jpg ivory statuette of khufvi.]
+
+Two ivory lions were also found in one of the private tombs around that
+of Zer. It is evident that these lions were used as playing pieces,
+probably for the well-known pre-historic game of Four Lions and a Hare,
+for the bases of the lions are much worn, as if by sliding about upon a
+smooth surface, and the pelt of the lion, as originally carved, is also
+worn off as if by continued handling. The lion shown in the illustration
+is of a later style than those of Zer or of Mena. Near the place where
+this was found were a few others. One of them, apparently a lioness, is
+depicted with a collar, indicating that the animal had been tamed,
+and yet another had inserted within the head an eye accurately cut in
+chalcedony. Another valuable object unearthed at Abydos was the sceptre
+of King Khase-khemui. This consisted of a series of cylinders of sard
+embellished at every fourth cylinder with double bands of thick gold,
+and completed at the thinner end with a plain cap of gold, copper rod,
+now corroded, binding the whole together.
+
+During the reign of King Zer the ivory arrow tip began to be commonly
+used; hundreds were gathered from his tomb, and the variety of forms is
+greater than in any other reign. Besides the plain circular points,
+many of them have reddened tips; there are also examples of quadrangular
+barbed tips, and others are pentagonal, square, or oval. Only the plain
+circular tips appear in succeeding reigns down to the reign of Mersekha,
+except a single example of the oval forms under Den.
+
+[Illustration: 399.jpg CARVED IVORY LION]
+
+Some flint arrow-heads were also found around the tomb of Zer, mostly of
+the same type as those found in the tomb of Mena. Two, however, of these
+arrow-heads, Numbers 13 and 14, are of a form entirely unknown as yet
+in any other age or country. The extreme top of the head is of a chisel
+form, and this passes below into the more familiar pointed form. The
+inference here is almost inevitable, and it seems as if the arrow-heads
+had been made in this peculiar way with a view to using the arrow a
+second time after the tip was broken in attacking an animal.
+
+[Illustration: 400.jpg ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ARROWS]
+
+Another curious object dating from this reign and classed among the
+arrows is a small portion of flint set perpendicularly into the end of
+a piece of wood. This, in the opinion of Professor Giglioli, is not
+an arrow at all, but a tattooing instrument. If this explanation be
+correct, then this instrument is an extremely interesting find, for the
+fact has been recently brought to light that tattooing was in vogue
+in prehistoric times, and there is, moreover, at Cairo, the mummy of
+a priestess of the twelfth dynasty having the skin decorated in this
+manner.
+
+Among the domestic articles is an admirable design of pair of tweezers,
+made with a wide hinge and stiff points. Of analogous interest are two
+copper fish-hooks, which, however, have no barbs. Needles also, which we
+know were used in prehistoric days, appear in the relics of the tomb of
+Zer and of subsequent rulers. Of the reign of Zer are also found copper
+harpoons cut with a second fang, similar forms being found among
+the remains of Mersekha and of Khasekhemui. In the centre of the
+illustration is seen the outline of a chisel of the time of Zer, very
+similar to those used in the early prehistoric ages. The same continuity
+from prehistoric to first dynasty times is shown in the shape of the
+copper pins dating from Zer, Den, Mersekha, and Qa.
+
+[Illustration: 401.jpg MISCELLANEOUS COPPER OBJECTS]
+
+At various times quite a considerable number of articles relating to
+intimate daily life has been discovered. An exceedingly fortunate find
+was that of an ivory comb of crude but careful workmanship, and which,
+even after the lapse of sixty-seven centuries, has only lost three of
+its teeth. This comb, according to the inscription on it, belonged to
+Bener-ab, a distinguished lady, whose tomb has been already mentioned,
+and who was either the wife or the daughter of King Mena of the first
+dynasty.
+
+Of the class of domestic objects is the primitive but doubtless quite
+effective corn-grinder shown in the illustration. This was found in
+an undisturbed tomb in the Osiris temenos, where also was a strangely
+shaped three-sided pottery bowl, similar in shape to a stone bowl of the
+same period, but otherwise unknown in antiquity. This three-sided bowl
+may be regarded as a freak of the workman rather than as having any
+particular value along the line of evolution of pottery forms; and it
+is interesting to note that bowls of this form have been quite recently
+made by the modern English potters in South Devonshire, as the result of
+the inventive fancy of a village workman.
+
+During the course of the excavations at Abydos many thousands of
+fragments of pottery were collected.
+
+[Illustration: 402a.jpg IVORY COMB, B. C. 4800]
+
+Those that appeared to be of historic value were sorted and classified,
+and, as a result of minute and extended labours, it is now possible for
+the reader to see at a glance the principal types of Egyptian pottery
+from prehistoric times, and to view their relationship as a whole. The
+diagram exhibits an unbroken series of pottery forms from s.d. 76 to
+B.C. 4400.
+
+[Illustration: 402b.jpg CORN-GRINDER AND THREE-SIDED BOWL]
+
+The forms in the first column are those classified according to the
+chronological notation devised by Professor Petrie, enabling a "sequence
+date" (s. d.) to be assigned to an object which cannot otherwise be
+dated. In the second column are forms found in the town of Abydos, and
+in the last column are those unearthed in the tombs. Most of the large
+jars bear marks, which were scratched in the moist clay before being
+baked; some few were marked after the baking.
+
+[Illustration: 403.jpg TYPES OF PREHISTORIC AND FIRST DYNASTY POTTERY]
+
+Some of the marks are unquestionably hieroglyphs; others are probably
+connected with the signs used by the earlier prehistoric people; and
+many can scarcely be determined.
+
+[Illustration: 404a.jpg POTTERY MARKS]
+
+A typical instance of these pottery marks is shown in the illustration.
+These signs appear to be distinctly of the time of Mer-sekha, and the
+fortified enclosure around the name may refer to the tomb as the eternal
+fortress of the king. These marks can be roughly classified into types
+according to the skill with which they were drawn. The first example
+illustrates the more careful workmanship, and the others show more
+degraded forms, in which the outline of the hawk and the signs in the
+cartouche become gradually more debased. It is tolerably certain that
+what are known as the Mediterranean alphabets were derived from a
+selection of the signs used in these pottery marks.
+
+[Illustration: 404b.jpg POTTERY FORMS FROM ABYDOS]
+
+An undisturbed tomb was found by accident in the Osiris temenos. The
+soil was so wet that the bones were mostly dissolved; and only fragments
+of the skull, crushed under an inverted slate bowl, were preserved. The
+head had been laid upon a sandstone corn-grinder. Around the sides of
+the tomb were over two dozen jars of pottery, most of them large. And
+near the body were sixteen stone vases and bowls. Some of the forms,
+such as are shown in the illustration, Nos. 3, 7, 8, are new to us. A
+strange three-sided pottery bowl was also found here, but since there
+is no museum in England where such a complete tomb can be placed, it was
+sent to Philadelphia, in order that the whole series should be arranged
+as originally found.
+
+The sealings, the general description of which has been already given,
+have come to light in such considerable quantities during the past few
+years that their study became a special branch of Egyptology. As to
+the earliest sealings, it was not until the time of Den that a broad
+uniformity of style was established. The seals of the second dynasty are
+generally of a smaller style and more elaborately worked than those of
+the first dynasty. It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the
+later seals were made in stone or metal rather than in wood.
+
+[Illustration: 405.jpg THREE TYPES OF SEALINGS]
+
+The illustration given of sealing No. 128, of the Egypt Exploration Fund
+collection, shows a very fair type of the figuring of men and animals at
+the time of the first dynasty as a survival of the prehistoric manner of
+engraving. Here, then, at the very dawn of history, we find a spirited
+depiction of the human form, for, rude though it is, there can be no
+doubt but that it is a representation of the human figure, and stiff and
+ungainly though the action of the drawing be, there can be no doubt as
+to the progressive movement intended by the artist. On a sealing, No.
+116, is seen the leopard with the bent bars on his back. The shrine upon
+the same seal is of the general form, and is like the early huts with
+reed sides, and an interwoven palm-rib roof. This is a specimen of an
+intermediate manner of workmanship. The most advanced stage of art in
+the sealings of the first dynasty, is No. 108. This is the royal seal of
+King Zer, B.C. 4700, showing him seated and wearing the crowns of Upper
+and Lower Egypt. By his side are the royal staff and his cartouches. It
+was workmanship of this character which survived in Egypt almost as late
+as Roman times; that is to say, the same style engraving was current in
+the Valley of the Nile for forty-six centuries.
+
+A particularly interesting sealing is a representation of two jars with
+the flat seals across their tops.
+
+[Illustration: 406.jpg A SEALING SHOWING JARS]
+
+These jars, moreover, are depicted as bound around with a network of
+rope in a manner which corresponds with some fragments of rope found
+around some jars of this character.
+
+[Illustration: 407.jpg accounts on pottery, B.C. 4600]
+
+A small fragment of pottery originally forming the base of a brown
+earthenware dish had inscribed upon it some accounts, and is the oldest
+of such business records yet found in Egypt. The exact import of the
+figures is not yet entirely intelligible, but they seem to refer
+to quantities of things rather than to individuals, as the numbers,
+although mostly twenty, are sometimes one hundred and two hundred. This
+interesting fragment was found at the tomb of Zet, and thus establishes
+the use of arithmetic before 4600 B.C.
+
+The expedition supported by Mrs. Hearst, in the name of the University
+of California, has done some useful work at El-Ahaiwah, opposite
+Menshiyeh. The main cemetery at this place is an archaic one, containing
+about a thousand graves or more, of which about seven hundred had
+already been plundered. Between these plundered graves, about 250 were
+found untouched in modern times. The graves yielded a good collection of
+archaic pottery, pearl and ivory bracelets, hairpins, carnelian, garnet,
+gold, blue glaze and other beads, etc.
+
+About this cemetery was a cemetery of the late New Empire, containing a
+number of vaulted tombs built of unburned brick. These yielded a large
+number of necklaces, and several fine pieces of faience and ivory, and
+other objects. A second cemetery, farther north, contained a few late
+archaic graves and about fifteen large tombs, usually with one main
+chamber and two small chambers at each end. These tombs were of two
+types (1) roofed over with wood, without a stairway, (2) roofed over
+with a corbelled vault and entered from the west by a stairway. The
+burials in these tombs are in the archaic position, head to south.
+Dissected, or secondary, burials occur in these cemeteries, but
+only rarely. Only one indisputable case was found, as shown in the
+illustration.
+
+[Illustration: 408.jpg UNIQUE INSTANCE OF A DISSECTED BURIAL]
+
+It would require several volumes adequately to deal with the results
+of the excavations of the present century. Further discoveries, all
+throwing new light upon the life of ancient Egypt, are being made each
+season, and the number of enthusiastic workers gathered from every
+nation constantly increases. Notwithstanding the heroic and splendid
+work of past investigators, for many years to come the valley of the
+Nile promises to yield important results, not only in actual field work,
+but also in the close study and better classification of the thousands
+of objects that are continually being brought to light.
+
+Six thousand years of history have been unrolled; tomb and tablet, shard
+and papyrus have told their story, and the vista stretches back to
+the dawn of human history in that inexhaustible valley watered by the
+perennial overflow of the grandest river in the world. But there is
+much still to be accomplished by the enthusiastic spirit, the keen and
+selective mind, in the study of this ancient land, the cradle and the
+grave of nations.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The
+Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12), by S. Rappoport
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 17332.txt or 17332.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/3/17332/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/17332.zip b/17332.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e97cef5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/17332.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..391b580
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #17332 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17332)