There is nothing beautiful or pleasant in the present Alexandria, but a handsome street of modern houses, where a very active and intelligent number of merchants live upon the miserable remnants of that trade, which made its glory in the first times.
It is thinly inhabited, and there is a tradition among the natives, that, more than once, it has been in agitation to abandon it all together, and retire to Rosetto, or Cairo, but that they have been withheld by the opinion of divers saints from Arabia, who have allured them, that Mecca being destroyed, (as it must be as they think by the Russians) Alexandria is then to become the holy place, and that Mahomet’s body is to be transported thither; when that city is destroyed, the sanctified reliques are to be transported to Cairouan, in the kingdom of Tunis: lastly, from Cairouan they are to come to Rosetto, and there to remain till the consummation of all things, which is not then to be at a great distance.
Ptolemy places his Alexandria in lat 30° 31´ and in round numbers in his almagest, lat. 31° north.
Our Professor, Mr Greaves, one of whose errands into Egypt was to ascertain the latitude of this place, seems yet, from some cause or other, to have failed in it, for though he had a brass sextant of five feet radius, he makes the latitude of Alexandria, from a mean of many observations, to be lat 31° 4´ N. whereas the French astronomers from the Academy of Sciences have settled it at 31° 11´ 20´´, so between Mr Greaves and the French there is a difference of 7´ 20´´, which is too much. There is not any thing, in point of situation, that can account for this variance, as in the case of Ptolemy; for the new town of Alexandria is built from east to west; and as all christian travellers necessarily make their observations now on the same line, there cannot possibly be any difference from situation.
Mr Niebuhr, whether from one or more observations he does not say, makes the latitude to be 31° 12´. From a mean of thirty-three observations, taken by the three-feet quadrant I have spoken of, I found it to be 31° 11´ 16´´: So that, taking a medium of these three results, you will have the latitude of Alexandria 31° 11´ 32´´, or, in round number, 31° 11´ 30´´, nor do I think there possibly can be 5´´ difference.
By an eclipse, moreover, of the first satellite of Jupiter, observed on the 23d day of June 1769, I found its longitude to be 30° 17´ 30´´ east, from the meridian of Greenwich.
We arrived at Alexandria the 20th of June, and found that the plague had raged in that city and neighbourhood from the beginning of March, and that two days only before our arrival people had begun to open their houses and communicate with each other; but it was no matter, St John’s day was past, the miraculous nucta, or dew, had fallen, and every body went about their ordinary business in safety, and without fear.
With very great pleasure I had received my instruments at Alexandria. I examined them, and, by the perfect state in which they arrived, knew the obligations I was under to my correspondents and friends. Prepared now for any enterprise, I left with eagerness the thread-bare inquiries into the meagre remains, of this once-famous capital of Egypt.
The journey to Rosetto is always performed by land, as the mouth of the branch of the Nile leading to Rosetto, called the Bogaz[67], is very shallow and dangerous to pass, and often tedious; besides, nobody wishes to be a partner for any time in a voyage with Egyptian sailors, if he can possibly avoid it.
The journey by land is also reputed dangerous, and people travel burdened with arms, which they are determined never to use.