n in the midst thereof: the cormorant and bittern lodge in the
temples and palaces. Their voice sings in the windows, and desolation is
in the thresholds."

The peoples who now occupy the territories of nations extinct or
exterminated have profited neither by their history nor their fate. What
was once a land occupied by nations superstitious and sensual is now
inhabited by robbers and slaves. The robbers have been expelled or
slain, and the oppressed peasant is emancipated by the arms of the
nation who avenged the cause of Heaven upon the degenerate Greeks, but
who nevertheless have derived neither instruction nor warning from their
downfall and subjugation. The Nile meantime, which has seen so many
nations and generations rise and disappear, still flows and overflows,
to distribute its fertilizing waters to the countries on its borders:
like the Good Providence, which seems unwearied in trying to overcome
the ingratitude of Man by the favors of Heaven.

On my arrival at the camp, I was informed of the particulars of the
progress of the victorious son of the distinguished Meheromet Ali from
Wady Haifa to Meroe. Before his march every thing had submitted or
fallen. All attempts to arrest his progress had proved as unavailing as
the obstacles opposed by the savage rocks of the Cataracts of the Nile
to the powerful course of that beneficent and fertilizing river.

His Excellence, as said before, set out from Wady Haifa on the 26th of
Zilhadge last. In ten days of forced march he arrived at New Dongola. A
little beyond this village, the Selictar, at the head of a detachment of
about four hundred men, surprised and dispersed about fifteen hundred
of the enemy, taking many of their horses and camels. Four days' march
beyond New Dongola, the Pasha, at the head of the advance guard of
the army, came up with the main body of the Shageias and their allies,
strongly posted on the side of a mountain near a village called Courty,
on the westerly bank of the river. The Pasha at this juncture had
with him but six hundred cavalry and some of the Abbadies mounted on
dromedaries, of whom we had about five hundred with the army, but none
of his cannon. The enemy advanced to the combat with loud screams and
cries, and with great fury. The Abbadies could not withstand their
charge, and were driven rearward. At this critical instant, his
Excellence gave the order, and the cavalry of the Pasha charged and
poured in the fire of their carabi