e Indian trade was
also very considerable; we read of L36,000 paid at one time in customs
dues at Gidda, then an Egyptian port on the Red Sea. The Mamluk sultan
took toll on every bale of goods that passed between Europe and India in
the palmy days that preceded Vasco de Gama's discovery of the Cape route
in 1497. It was an immense monopoly, extortionately used, and it was not
resigned without a struggle. The Mamluk fleet engaged the Portuguese off
Chaul in the Bay of Bengal in 1508 and defeated them; but Almeida
avenged the honour of his country by a victory over the Mamluk admiral
Hoseyn off Diu in the following year, and the prolific transit trade of
Egypt was to a great extent lost.

This final effort was made by the last great sultan of the Circassian
dynasty, Kansuh Ghuri (1501-1516), who also exerted himself manfully in
defending his country from the impending disaster of Ottoman invasion.
But the Othmanli Turks, greatly heartened by the conquest of
Constantinople in 1453, had been steadily encroaching in Asia, and,
after defeating the shah of Persia, their advance upon Syria and Egypt
was only a matter of time. The victory was made easier by jealousies and
treachery among the Mamluks. Kansuh fell at the head of his gallant
troops in a battle near Aleppo in August 1516; a last desperate stand of
the Mamluks under the Mukattam Hill at Cairo in January 1517, was
overcome, and Sultan Selim made Egypt a province of the Turkish empire.
Such it remains, formally, to this day.

* * * * *

RAPHAEL HOLINSHED

Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland

Raphael Holinshed, who was born about 1520, is one of the most
celebrated of English chroniclers. The "Chronicles of England,
Scotland, and Ireland," known by his name, cover a long period
of English history, beginning with a "Description" of Britain
from the earliest times, and carried on until the reign of
Elizabeth, in the course of which, between 1580 and 1584,
Holinshed died. The work did good service to Shakespeare, who
drew from it much of the material for his historical plays.
The first edition, published in 1577, was succeeded in 1587 by
another, in which the "Chronicles" were continued by John
Hooker and others. An edition appeared in 1807, in the
foreword to which the "Chronicles" are described as containing
"the most curious and authentic account of