DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0138
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TRAVELS IN UPPER
at Alexandria, and who have been the witnesses,
perhaps the victim?, of this character of ferocity.
If, on the entrance of a victorious army, they knew
how to assume the appearance of good people, it
is not to be wondered at. The cruellest of men is
commonly the most abject: he has no valour, un-
less when he is sure of being the stronger ; he fawns
the moment he feels himself weak ; but he retains
his character of perfidy and treason, and those arms
of grovelling souls he will certainly employ, as
often as he thinks he can pass undiscovered.
The Arabic is the language generally spoken at
Alexandria, as well as all over Egypt. But most
of the Alexandrians, those in particular whom com-
mercial intercourse brings into contact with the
merchants of Europe, speak likewise the Italian,
adopted in the ports of the Levant. The Moresco
or Imgua Franca is likewise spoken there ; it is a
compound of bad Italian, Spanish, and Arabic. A
stranger could, more easily there than any where
else, provide himself with domestics, who, if they
were not of approved fidelity, had at least the fa-
cility of making themselves understood by persons
not well versed in the Arabic. A Serdar, an offi-
cer of no great consideration, had the command
there, and his power did not always extend so far
as to overawe an ungovernable populace.
A wide
TRAVELS IN UPPER
at Alexandria, and who have been the witnesses,
perhaps the victim?, of this character of ferocity.
If, on the entrance of a victorious army, they knew
how to assume the appearance of good people, it
is not to be wondered at. The cruellest of men is
commonly the most abject: he has no valour, un-
less when he is sure of being the stronger ; he fawns
the moment he feels himself weak ; but he retains
his character of perfidy and treason, and those arms
of grovelling souls he will certainly employ, as
often as he thinks he can pass undiscovered.
The Arabic is the language generally spoken at
Alexandria, as well as all over Egypt. But most
of the Alexandrians, those in particular whom com-
mercial intercourse brings into contact with the
merchants of Europe, speak likewise the Italian,
adopted in the ports of the Levant. The Moresco
or Imgua Franca is likewise spoken there ; it is a
compound of bad Italian, Spanish, and Arabic. A
stranger could, more easily there than any where
else, provide himself with domestics, who, if they
were not of approved fidelity, had at least the fa-
cility of making themselves understood by persons
not well versed in the Arabic. A Serdar, an offi-
cer of no great consideration, had the command
there, and his power did not always extend so far
as to overawe an ungovernable populace.
A wide