Nile. Mr. Waddington's servant asked some of them, whether they were not afraid of the soldiers. The reply breathed a spirit of magnanimity, scarcely inferior to that which true religion would inspire: Why should we fear the soldiers? Can they do more than kill us?" In another village, an old woman was the only living creature in it, and she had her ears cut off; for Ismael, that he might send down a large collection of ears to his father as proofs of his success, bought them at fifty piastres a piece; and this necessarily led to much wanton cruelty. The shore was putrid, and the air tainted by the carcases of oxen, goats, sheep, camels, and men. Corpses were found every fifty yards scattered along the road, and among the corn. The horror of such objects formed a strong contrast to the placid beauty of the scenery. "I never," says Mr. Waddington saw the Nile so smooth and beautiful as in this country; it is like a succession of lakes ornamented by green islands, and surrounded by verdure. This may be fancy, and that the mind, disgusted by the fury of men, takes refuge in the tranquillity of nature, and is more disposed to the admiration of inanimate things, as it is shocked by the crimes and miseries of the things that live." On the 13th of December, Mr. Waddington and his party quitted the boat which had brought them from New Dongola, and proceeded along the eastern bank on dromedaries which the Pasha's physician had sent to meet them. They passed through a town, named Kadjeba, entirely deserted by its inhabitants; and, in the course of the day, they met many families, VOL. LXIV. consisting of old men, women, and children, who, with the Pasha's permission, were returning to their villages. The travellers were now in the dominions of Malek Chowes, whose capital, Merawe, they reached, when it was nearly dark. They did not halt there; but, passing through its long and gloomy streets, where the howling of dogs was the only sound that met their ears, they arrived in the camp of Ismael. A mud cottage had been prepared for them, in which they were received by the Pasha's physician, with every civility. On the following afternoon the travellers were presented to the Pasha, from whom they met with the most gracious reception. He made them sit by him on his sofa, and requested them to accommodate themselves in the fashion of their own country. He seemed to have a tolerable acquaintance with the geography of Europe, and put many questions and showed great curiosity concerning European politics. He was much surprised that the English did not assist Ali Pasha, for whose success he was anxious; and still more, that the congress should have allowed the force of Russia to be increased. Two days afterwards, an express arrived from Cairo in sixteen days. The messenger, who had used such dispatch, was charged only with some pears from Mahommed Ali to his son, and the present was accompanied by the following letter: 66 My son, I send you your share of the pears, which are just ripe ; your brother and I have found our's very good.-Mahommed Ali.” Dispatches of importance are entrusted to men of importance, and are generally 26 or 28 days on the road. 2 U The Pacha had several Eu ropeans altogether in his service. The principal of these was the physician already mentioned, a Greek by birth; and he had a useful, and, if one half of what reached Waddington's ears was true, a most dangerous, tool in a countryman of his own named Demetrio, whom he had transformed from a sailor into a medical practitioner. A Milanese, the Cavaliere Frediani, known in the camp by the title of Prince Amiro, had, at Mahommed Ali's request, accompanied Ismael as an advisor and instructor. The intrigues of the physician had brought Frediani into disgrace, and, when he demanded his dismissal, even this request was refused, unless he would certify to Mahommed Ali in writing, that he was perfectly satisfied with the treatment which he had experienced from the son. There were, likewise, one or two other Italians, and two American renegades. Jealousies and feuds ran high among these few retainers of the Pasha. The Italians did not scruple to accuse Demetrio and his principal of the most atrocious crimes. No military operations took place after Mr. Waddington's arrival in the camp. The Turks and the Sheygya were in constant negotiation; and Ismael appears to have let slip no opportunity of conciliat ing his adversaries. These negotiations terminated finally in peace. The Sheygya, who from the beginning had offered to pay tribute, became the allies of the Pasha, retaining their arms and horses; and it was agreed, that a number of them should advance with his army against the southern nations, who were their enemies as well as his. Our travellers were prevented from witnessing this event and from accompanying the army in its advance, by finding their departure most unexpectedly precis pitated. On the morning of the 20th of December, when they had not been quite a week in the camp, they were informed by a message from the Pasha, that he meant to dismiss them with all honour on the following evening. On the same day they had an interview with him: "We found him sitting in the European manner, on a very Christian-like sofa, on which we took our places by him. Nothing could be more gracious; the doctor, as usual, stood before us to interpret, and James within hearing, a little behind. On a carpet on the Pasha's right was a grand Turk from Cairo, and next to him two Sheygýa professors, with long white beards, who had just been clothed, to their very great surprise and dismay, in splendid pelisses and rich shawls. "The usual preliminary conversation about the river, the mountains, and the trees, we cut rather short, and came somewhat hastily to the point. • We are come according to the commands of your highness, supposing that your highness has something particular to communicate. I feel honoured by your visit to the army, and should be pleased to have your company as far as Sennaar, but the dangers and difficulties and privations will be so great, that I advise you to return. We wish respectfully to be informed, whether your highness's advice amounts to a command?' It is for your own good, and the love I have for England. We are to understand, then, that your high solely with a view to your own good that I give this order.'-'We are sorry that your highness has thought proper to prevent the intentions of English gentlemen. We submit to your highness's order. My only motive is a consideration of your own safety; besides which, the firman given you by my father extends no farther than Wady Halfa.' We do not dispute your highness's right to act, but rather thank your highness that we have been allowed to come thus far, and perhaps we should not have thought of advancing farther, had not the Protomedico communicated to us, from your highness, an invitation to accompany the army as far as Sennaar. I should have great pleasure, were it not that I fear for your safety. Well, we submit; we have only to beg your highness to permit us to advance as far as the cataract and the is lands near it, and then to return by water. The danger is not so much in advancing, as for your return, as the people in our rear are even now unquiet, and, when the army moves on, will probably break into insurrection; and from above I shall not be able to send a guard with you; nor will it be safe for you to go by water. As visitors to my army, I am responsible to my father, and to the English nation, for your safety.' In case of our writing to Cairo to mention the offers of protection made by your highness, may we be allowed these favours, by taking all responsibility on ourselves?" After some hesitation, he replied, 'If you will write a letter to such effect, and give it to me, I will send it to my father and the English consul, and you are then free to advance or return, as you like.' And after a few more words, in which he promised us a boat to go down in, the matter was ended greatly to our satisfaction. "He attempted, during the latter part of the conversation, which is here much abridged, to work alternately on our vanity and our fears; on the former, by a number of unmeaning compliments to ourselves and to the English nation; and on the latter, by ac counts of robberies committed every night in the very rear of his army, and of the general disturbed state of the country; and then he motioned away the Mamelouks and Janissaries, who were standing by, as if he were making us an important communication, that would spread a panic in his army if generally known. The courtier from Cairo gave us from time to time some looks of mixed anger and surprise, on observing perhaps a freedom in our words or manner that was not usual towards a Turkish prince. The Pasha ended by telling us, that he should defer the departure of the convoy till to-morrow evening, to give us more time for reflection, and we parted apparently good friends." They immediately wrote a letter, taking upon themselves exclusively, in the strongest language they could use, all responsibility for their own safety. The Pasha expressed himself perfectly satisfied with it, but still begged them to re-consider the subject. Abdin Casheff, too, having sent for them, entered into many details to prove, that their advance would be dangerous, and their return, after a certain time, impossible; and he enforced his objections in the warmest and most friendly manner. They at last yielded, from a conviction that, whatever it was erected. The two days, which were al- Hieroglyphics were still visible on the ruined walls. From having observed a sculptured stone among the mortar in the middle of the thick outer wall, Mr. Waddington inferred that the stones were taken from some more ancient edifice; and the irregularity of the foundations, together with the positions of several of the columns, inclined him to believe that this building had, when erected, included within it some chambers of one still older. The most perfect of these temples is one which, according to Mr. Waddington, was dedicated Bacchus; it is about a hundred feet in length, and is ornamented with figures of nearly all the gods of Egypt. to The pyramids of Djebel el Berkel are on the N. and N. W. of the mountain, near the edge of the desert. They are seventeen in number, but some of them are now mere shapeless mounds. None of them are of considerable size: the base of the largest is 81 feet square. One group, consisting of seven, have all, with one exception, arched porticos annexed to them, coeval, as it appeared, with the pyramids themselves. At El Bellál, a rocky spot surrounded by sand, on the edge of the desert, six or seven miles above Djebel el Berkel, and situate on the left bank of the river, the remains may be seen of nearly forty pyramids of different sizes, of higher apparent antiquity than those of Djebel el Berkel, and in a more ruinous state than the most ruinous of those at Saccara. Mud seems to have been the cement employed in them. The greater part of them are now mere mounds of decomposed stone, gravel, and sand. Even in those which have best withstood the ravages of time, the exterior coating has crumbled off, and the layers to some depth within have fallen away. The largest has a base of 152 feet square, and is 103 feet 7 inches in height: it contains within it another pyramid of a different age and architecture, and composed of a hard, light, coloured sand-stone, more durable," says Mr. Waddington," than that, which after sheltering it for ages, has at last decayed and fallen off and left it once more exposed to the eyes of men." The conclusion is too hasty. The outer case has been exposed to the winds and rains of thousands of years, while the inner pyramid has been completely sheltered: the less ruinous state of the latter is, therefore, no proof of the superior durability of its materials. They were informed that, in the island of Doulga, situated a short way up the river, immediately above a cataract, there were large excavations and "buildings that reached to heaven." These they supposed to have been fortifications, not temples; and that Doulga is the island in which the king of Dongola took refuge in 688 from the pursuit of the boats and troops of the Sultan of Egypt. On the 24th of December (the preceding day having been solemnized as Christmas in the camp), they commenced their journey downward along the left bank of the Nile. Their escort was composed at first of Tombol, (a Dongolese king, in whose dominions lay the fertile island of Argo), and Mohammed Casheff of Dar Mahass, with their respective retinues; it was afterwards increased by two other kings of Dar Mahass, and the king of Old Dongola. The respect and obedience, which these barbarous chiefs showed towards our travellers, are a clear incontrovertible proof, that they were believed to stand high in the estimation of the Pasha. As they returned through Dar Sheygýa, they saw many of the Arabs returning to their homes and resuming under the Pasha's protection the occupations which the war had forced them to abandon. Their swords and lances had been taken from them, but they had been allowed to retain a knife or dirk, which they usually wear on the left arm. On the 29th of December the travellers entered Old Dongola, which they had not had an opportunity of visiting in their voyage upwards. It has a stone castle; the streets are regular, but full of sand; the houses are of mud, with huge massive doors, resembling cacha separate fortification. Though capable of containing 2,000 people, its inhabitants do not exceed 200. At the end of the seventeenth century, though even then half-deserted and hastening to decay, it was still of importance; and it continued to have flourishing bazaars, and to be the centre of considerable commerce, till it became tributary to the Sheygya. These Arabs contributed to its depopulation, by carrying away many of the inhabi tants: but the establishment of the Mamelouks at Maragga gave the finishing blow to its consequence and wealth. The Dongolese seem to care little who the rulers are that hold them in vassalage. They had been patient subjects of the Sheygya; and they seemed already quite satisfied with the yoke of the Pasha. On the 3rd of January, 1821, |