DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0038
TRAVELS IN UPPER
tractingfrom, and copying Herodotus, Strabo, Dio-
dorus Siculus, and others. More fortunate than
Savary and many others, I had it in my power to
traverse the Said, for this is the name given by the
Arabs to Upper Egypt, from ancient Cairo up to
Assouan ; and this consideration will perhaps ren-
der my work somewhat interesting.
But what interest more powerful in favour of
travels through Egypt can be imagined, than to
reflect that it is no longer in the hands of the Ma-
melucs who oppressed it; thattheFrench, in break-
ing asunder the brazen yoke under which lived in
a state of brutal subjection the descendants of the
most illustrious nation of antiquity, present to them,
together with the gift of liberty, the means of re-
covering illumination and the sciences, the first do-
main of their ancestors ! Egypt such as I paint it,
will soon cease to be what I saw it. An immense
space of time is going to elapse in a few days, and
not long hence, nay during my own lifetime, I
shall be only an ancient traveller, as those of an-
tiquity at present are with respect to us. So many
prodigies were reserved for the greatest nation in
the universe. Cities shall rise again out of their
rubbish ; the monuments, to which all approach
was interdicted by ferocious usurpers, are going at
length to become objects of inspection; those
which ignorance and barbarism took pains to an-
4 nihilatc
tractingfrom, and copying Herodotus, Strabo, Dio-
dorus Siculus, and others. More fortunate than
Savary and many others, I had it in my power to
traverse the Said, for this is the name given by the
Arabs to Upper Egypt, from ancient Cairo up to
Assouan ; and this consideration will perhaps ren-
der my work somewhat interesting.
But what interest more powerful in favour of
travels through Egypt can be imagined, than to
reflect that it is no longer in the hands of the Ma-
melucs who oppressed it; thattheFrench, in break-
ing asunder the brazen yoke under which lived in
a state of brutal subjection the descendants of the
most illustrious nation of antiquity, present to them,
together with the gift of liberty, the means of re-
covering illumination and the sciences, the first do-
main of their ancestors ! Egypt such as I paint it,
will soon cease to be what I saw it. An immense
space of time is going to elapse in a few days, and
not long hence, nay during my own lifetime, I
shall be only an ancient traveller, as those of an-
tiquity at present are with respect to us. So many
prodigies were reserved for the greatest nation in
the universe. Cities shall rise again out of their
rubbish ; the monuments, to which all approach
was interdicted by ferocious usurpers, are going at
length to become objects of inspection; those
which ignorance and barbarism took pains to an-
4 nihilatc