Those slaves which are emasculated for the exclusive use of the Fûrian monarch suffer within his palace.
CHAP. XXII.
FINAL DEPARTURE FROM KAHIRA, AND JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM.
Voyage down the Nile to Damiatt — Vegetation — Papyrus — Commerce — Cruelty of the Mamlûk government — Voyage to Yaffé — Description of Yaffé — Rama — Jerusalem — Mendicants — Tombs of the kings — Bethlehem — Agriculture — Naplosa — Samaria — Mount Tabor.
Having engaged a canjia, or small boat, to sail down the Nile from Kahira to Damiatt, I departed on Friday the 2d of December 1796. No occurrences worthy of particular commemoration happened during this little voyage, but we passed several towns of considerable note, among which may be mentioned Mansûra, remarkable for the defeat of St. Louis; a circumstance preserved in the name which denotes, The place of victory. Its condition is flourishing, owing to its being a station on the road between Kahira and Damiatt; and it was then governed by a Cashef deputed by Ibrahim Bey. The mosques amount to seven, which is the only circumstance I can offer relative to its population, my stay there having been only for a few hours.
Sifté and Miet Ghrammer are on the same route, about half way between Kahira and Mansûra, and situated on opposite banks of the Nile. Both are towns of the second order, and abounding with people, chiefly Mohammedans, very few Copts residing there. The river is here narrow but deep, not exceeding three hundred yards in breadth; and it may not be improper to remark in general concerning that celebrated stream, that its greatest breadth, when free from inundation, may be estimated at seven hundred yards, or something more than one third of a mile. Where narrowest, the distance between the banks may be one hundred yards. The depth from three to twenty-four feet.
That channel of the Nile which extends from Kahira to Damiatt is in general free from windings, and is interspersed with a few small islands.
There are several populous towns in the Delta, of which Mehallé-el-Kebîr is the chief. In point of population it is said to be equal to Damiatt. The next in consideration are probably Semmenûd and Menûf.
To form a general idea of the Delta, the reader may conceive a vast plain, intersected in all directions, by minute channels, (the canal of Menûf being almost the only important stream,) by which and by pumps the interstices are watered, and brought to the utmost fertility. As to real inundation on the rise of the Nile, that must be regarded as confined to a small space bordering on the sea.