Sonnini de Manoncourt, Charles Nicolas Sigisbert: Travels in upper and lower Egypt (Band 1) (London, 1807)

TRAVELS IN UPPER

CHAP. XIV.

Disturbances at Cairo—Oriental dress—rBoats of the
Nile— Winter—Rosseiij— Commerce — Rice, its
culture, and its antiquity in i%yfj,—1 refoil-*-
Oxen and cows.

Whether it be that the traveller, after having
dwelt for some time in the dust, and amidst the
ruins of Alexandria, after having traversed the
twelve leagues of scorched plains, which separate
that city from the banks of the Nile; in a word,
after having surmounted the hills of sand which
run close up to Rossetta on the west, arrives there,
or rather seems all at once to drop into it; or
whether he has quitted a disagreeable and dan-
gerous residence at Cairo, a habitation at Rossetta
becomes a most desirable retreat, which compa-
rison renders delicious. With an intention to
penetrate into Upper Egypt, and afterwards into
Abyssinia, I had, at first, made a rapid progress to
Cairo, as I have mentioned, in company with M.
Tott, who left me there. Circumstances could not
have been more Unpropitious. The dissensions
which so frequently arise among the potentates of
Egypt had reached the highest pitch of fury. The
Said was filled with combatants, and infested with

robbers ;