DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5295#0040
HOLY LAND, AND CYPRUS. 21
The dreadful malady of blindness was common, and every
third or fourth peasant seemed to have a complaint in his
eyes. This and the plague are the chief diseases ; I heard of
nothing else; and there was always resignation to both.
The latter, according to the opinion of the common Arabs,
with whom I spoke on the subject of precaution against it by
quarantine, was a necessary evil, to prevent the population
from being more than could be fed.
On the 22d of March, I arrived at Boolac; and went to
Colonel Missefs, the British consul-general, to whose kind-
ness I was indebted for every assistance in my further pro-
gress up the Nile, and in whose house I remained while in
that part of Egypt.
I will not add to the numberless descriptions of Cairo.
Each year takes away from its population, and adds to its
ruins; nothing is repaired that grows old : but still it is an
extraordinary city, where, from the circumstance of its being
the point of union from all parts of the south and west, is
presented an active and crowded scene.
Whilst Cairo* appears neglected, Boolac, its port, in-
* Henry Blount remained at Boolac, in the house of a Venetian gentleman,
for some time ; and learned that the number of churches and mosques amounted
to thirty-five thousand; the noted streets twenty-four thousand, besides petty
turnings and divisions. Some of the streets he found two miles in length, some
The dreadful malady of blindness was common, and every
third or fourth peasant seemed to have a complaint in his
eyes. This and the plague are the chief diseases ; I heard of
nothing else; and there was always resignation to both.
The latter, according to the opinion of the common Arabs,
with whom I spoke on the subject of precaution against it by
quarantine, was a necessary evil, to prevent the population
from being more than could be fed.
On the 22d of March, I arrived at Boolac; and went to
Colonel Missefs, the British consul-general, to whose kind-
ness I was indebted for every assistance in my further pro-
gress up the Nile, and in whose house I remained while in
that part of Egypt.
I will not add to the numberless descriptions of Cairo.
Each year takes away from its population, and adds to its
ruins; nothing is repaired that grows old : but still it is an
extraordinary city, where, from the circumstance of its being
the point of union from all parts of the south and west, is
presented an active and crowded scene.
Whilst Cairo* appears neglected, Boolac, its port, in-
* Henry Blount remained at Boolac, in the house of a Venetian gentleman,
for some time ; and learned that the number of churches and mosques amounted
to thirty-five thousand; the noted streets twenty-four thousand, besides petty
turnings and divisions. Some of the streets he found two miles in length, some