e tokens I could judge of
the magnitude and volume of that river, which at this season of the
year increases greatly, and had already been rising for two months.

August 7th.

At eight o'clock in the morning we safely reached the quay of
Alexandria.

CHAPTER XIV.

Alexandria--Keeping quarantine--Want of arrangement in the
quarantine house--Bad water--Fumigating of the rooms--Release--
Aspect of the city--Departure by boat for Atfe--Mehemet Ali--Arrival
at Atfe--Excellence of the Nile water--Good-nature of the Arab
women--The Delta of the Nile--The Libyan desert--The pyramids--
Arrival at Cairo.

At first we could only perceive the tops of masts, behind which low
objects seemed to be hiding as they rose from the sea. In a little
time a whole forest of masts appeared, while the objects before
mentioned took the shape of houses peering forth amongst them. At
length the land itself could be distinguished from the surrounding
ocean, and we discerned hills, shrubberies, and gardens in the
vicinity of the town, the appearance of which is not calculated to
delight the traveller, for a large desert region of sand girdles
both city and gardens, giving an air of dreariness to the whole
scene.

We cast anchor between the lighthouse and the new hospital. No
friendly boat was permitted to approach and carry us to the wished-
for shore; we came from the land of the plague to enter another
region afflicted with the same scourge, and yet we were compelled to
keep quarantine, for the Egyptians asserted that the Syrian plague
was more malignant than the variety of the disease raging among
them. Thus a compulsory quarantine is always enforced in these
regions, a circumstance alike prejudicial to visitors, commerce, and
shipping.

We waited with fear and trembling to hear how long a period of
banishment in the hospital should be awarded us. At length came a
little skiff, bringing two guardians (servants of the hospital), and
with them the news that we must remain in the hospital ten days from
the period of our entrance, but that we could not disembark to-day,
as it was Sunday. Excepting at the arrival of the English packet-
boats, the officials have no time to examine vessels on Sundays or
holidays,--a truly Egyptian arrangement. Why could not an officer
be appointed for these days to take care of the poor travellers?
Why should fifty persons suffer for the convenience of one, and be
deprived of their liberty for