There are many public buildings in Kahira. The mosques are numerous, and some of them distinguished for their size, architecture, and great age. There are also many public baths, which are handsomely ornamented and painted, and in some parts paved with marble. The public gardens are filled with groves of orange and lemon trees, and the cemeteries are also much used as promenades.
The population is estimated at twenty-four thousand, consisting of natives, Jews and strangers. The police maintained in the metropolis is tolerably strict. Malefactors are mostly employed in the public works.
Kahira still maintains the reputation of being the best school of Arabic literature, theology and jurisprudence. Schools for children are very numerous; almost every mosque has a koottab, or day school attached to it, in which children are instructed in reading the Koran, and in writing and arithmetic.
A Patagonian.
Pictures of Various Nations.
CHAPTER VII.
CHILI.
Chili lies south of Peru, and is a narrow tract about twelve hundred miles in length, between the Pacific ocean and the Andes. It has a climate remarkably fine and salubrious, and a soil which is very fertile. It seldom rains there, but the dews are abundant. In several parts of the Andes, volcanoes yearly spout forth their fires, and earthquakes are frequent and severe.
Chili was conquered by the Spaniards many years since; but the conquest was achieved with much difficulty. In the native Chilese they found a bold and intrepid people, who fought with desperate courage, and continued the war for fifty years.
The Spaniards who have settled Chili, live principally in the northern part. With these have mingled a few English, French and Italians.