autumn. Each of
the generals, furnished with detailed instructions, was to repeat in
the country what had been done at Alexandria and at Cairo. They were to
court the sheikhs, to win the Kopts, and to establish the levy of the
taxes in order to supply the wants of the army. Bonaparte was also
attentive to keep up the relations with the neighbouring countries,
in order to uphold and to appropriate to himself the rich commerce of
Egypt. He appointed the Emir Hadgi, an officer annually chosen at Cairo,
to protect the great caravan from Mecca. He wrote to all the French
consuls on the coast of Barbary to inform the beys that the Emir Hadgi
was appointed, and that the caravans might set out. At his desire the
sheikhs wrote to the sherif of Mecca, to acquaint him that the pilgrims
would be protected, and that the caravans would find safety and
protection. The pasha of Cairo had followed Ibraham Bey to Belbeys.
Bonaparte wrote to him, as well as to the several pashas of St. Jean
d'Acre and Damascus, to assure them of the good disposition of the
French towards the Sublime Porte. The Arabs were struck by the character
of the young conqueror. They could not comprehend how it was that the
mortal who wielded the thunderbolt should be so merciful. They called
him the worthy son of the Prophet, the favourite of the great Allah, and
sang in the great mosque a litany in his praise.

Napoleon, in carrying out his policy of conciliating the natives, was
present at the Nile festival, which is one of the greatest in Egypt.
It was on the 18th of August that this festival was held. Bonaparte
had ordered the whole army to be under arms, and had drawn it up on the
banks of the canal. An immense concourse of people had assembled, who
beheld with joy the brave man of the West attending their festivals.

It was by such means that the young general, as profound a politician as
he was a great captain, contrived to ingratiate himself with the people.
While he flattered their prejudices for the moment, he laboured
to diffuse among them the light of science by the creation of the
celebrated Institute of Egypt. He collected the men of science and the
artists whom he had brought with him, and, associating with them some of
the best educated of his officers, established the institute, to which
he appropriated a revenue and one of the most spacious palaces in Cairo.

The conquest of the provinces of Lower and Middle Egypt had been
effected without diff