DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0062
36
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. [chap, vii
the towing-path ; from a patch of firm ground a camel rears its
melancholy head ; and, by Jove ! there goes a pelican !
We passed, for some miles, along a causeway that separates
the salt-Water Lake Maadee from Lake Mareotis, and nothing
can be more desolate than the aspects of these two lonely lakes,
stretching with their low swampy shores, away to the horizon.
If Alastor, or the spirit of solitude, was fond of yachting, these
waters would be the very place for him to cruise in undisturbed,
except by the myriads of wild fowl, that kept wheeling, shriek-
ing, and whistling round us. These lakes seem to have been
born for one another ; but the Pharaohs, like poor-law guardi-
ans, saw fit to separate them ; their object, however, the reverse
of the said poor-law, was to make Mareotis fruitful. A vast mound
was raised, which kept the salt lake at a respectful distance; -
and, until the English invasion in 1801, or at least until the
eighteenth century, the greater part of Mareotis was a fertile
plain.
Buonaparte, after having defeated the Mamelukes at the Py-
ramids, had taken possession of Cairo. Having denied Christ in
Europe, he acknowledged Mahomet in Asia; having butchered
his prisoners at Jaffa, he was defeated by the Butcher* Pasha
and Sir Sydney Smith, at Acre ; having poisoned part of that
army whom he called his " children," he started for Paris, and
left the remainder to encounter those
" Storms that might veil his fame's ascending star." f
That remainder occupied Cairo, under the gallant and ill-fated
Kleber. He had accepted, and was preparing to act unon. terms
of capitulation from the Turks, which Lord Keith had however,
refused to ratify. The moment Sir Sydney Smith learned the
English admiral's determination, he took upon himself to inform
Kleber of the fact, and advised him to hold his position. The
Turks exclaimed against this chivalrous notice as a treachery,
and there were not a few found in England to echo the same cry ;
* Djezzar, Arabic for " butcher "
f Sir J Hanmer
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. [chap, vii
the towing-path ; from a patch of firm ground a camel rears its
melancholy head ; and, by Jove ! there goes a pelican !
We passed, for some miles, along a causeway that separates
the salt-Water Lake Maadee from Lake Mareotis, and nothing
can be more desolate than the aspects of these two lonely lakes,
stretching with their low swampy shores, away to the horizon.
If Alastor, or the spirit of solitude, was fond of yachting, these
waters would be the very place for him to cruise in undisturbed,
except by the myriads of wild fowl, that kept wheeling, shriek-
ing, and whistling round us. These lakes seem to have been
born for one another ; but the Pharaohs, like poor-law guardi-
ans, saw fit to separate them ; their object, however, the reverse
of the said poor-law, was to make Mareotis fruitful. A vast mound
was raised, which kept the salt lake at a respectful distance; -
and, until the English invasion in 1801, or at least until the
eighteenth century, the greater part of Mareotis was a fertile
plain.
Buonaparte, after having defeated the Mamelukes at the Py-
ramids, had taken possession of Cairo. Having denied Christ in
Europe, he acknowledged Mahomet in Asia; having butchered
his prisoners at Jaffa, he was defeated by the Butcher* Pasha
and Sir Sydney Smith, at Acre ; having poisoned part of that
army whom he called his " children," he started for Paris, and
left the remainder to encounter those
" Storms that might veil his fame's ascending star." f
That remainder occupied Cairo, under the gallant and ill-fated
Kleber. He had accepted, and was preparing to act unon. terms
of capitulation from the Turks, which Lord Keith had however,
refused to ratify. The moment Sir Sydney Smith learned the
English admiral's determination, he took upon himself to inform
Kleber of the fact, and advised him to hold his position. The
Turks exclaimed against this chivalrous notice as a treachery,
and there were not a few found in England to echo the same cry ;
* Djezzar, Arabic for " butcher "
f Sir J Hanmer