Thomas's Massachusetts spy, or, Worcester gazette. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1811-1821, 1821-04-11


The HavelsQf Bckxoni, n Egypt.
This traveller has shown an indefati-
gable boldness and perseverance in
searching for remnants Of antiquity, a.
midst the burning and binding sands of
the Egyptian deserts, seldom, and per-
haps never surpassed. Let us transport
ourselves for moment with this patient
son Of science into the midst Of those
scorching sands--a region never water
ed by Heavens refreshing rains. Hun
ger and thirst, aud penury and assassi-
nation, scowlwith their haggard features
around him, from the midst of those
sufocating clouds Of sand, while he,
with his attendant Arabs, is patiently
employed in removing those arid pillows
from the base of some superb and mag
ni6cent monument of human art, that
towers in solitary majesty above the des-
ert. When the winds arise and agitate
the sands. no other chance of safety re-
mains for the traveller but in flight; to
oppose them is inevitable death. But,
it may be asked, what should induce our
travellers to endure such sacrifices, to
bear hunger and thirst, and priyation
and heat, and the ferocious and perse-
cutting Arabs ? With these adventurers,
it the love ofscience, the rapacious
curiosity of research for this, they
forsake comfort family and friends, and
rush INTO the very vortex of danger !;
but the result Of these inquiries point
to an object of still more extended and
of still more awful importance. Let US
look at the Mosaick account of the his
tory of the Egyptians. We behold in
that venerable record divine curaes de-
nounced against Egypt-Egypt, the an
cient repository of the sciences and
arts, that formerly stood amongst all the
nations of the earth dazzling and pre-
eminent. Where is all this splendour,
this ostentation, this magni6cence now !?
Say, if you please, that the Egyptians
are degenerated, sunk, degraded nay,
even brutalized from their ancestors -
Say all this, and what then? Where
are her monuments, her obelisks, her
pyramids, and all the marble records of
her ancient magni6cence and grandeur |?
Where are they? They are buried be-
meath the sands of the desert.-Th
pyramids still tower as the monuments
of human art, amidst the ruins of the
desert but is any one mad enough to
believe that these venerable relicks of
ancient art were built by the Egyptians
themselves, in desert No. The
oldest authors speak Of blooming fields,
and fertile vallies, of a rich and redun-
dant climate, and of prolifick soil,
maintained and matured by heavens
choicest dews! What has produced
revolution SO awful and so tremendous
What has converted these smiling fields
and pleasant vaIlies into desert ? Let
us answer these interrogatories by one
short, simple, comprehensive sentence:
1t as the curse Of The almighty that has ac-
complisked sack zUonders it is that very
curse which we shall find recorded in the
Mosaick account Of the world. The
foot of the camel now tramples upon
those sands, thai hide in their hoary Boz
som all the relicks of Egyptian magnif-
cence. Amidst these burning sands, a.
midst all the horrours of climate and
of a country SO accused, we discern the
standing testimonials of the veracity of
Mosaick chronology. It is there seen
that not only the whole course of NOR
al, but of physical nature, that not only
living man, bat the insensible creation
likewise, has partaken of the curse of
its Almighty Author; that where hostile
armies, and all the pride and pomp and
circumstance of war could not obliterate
Egypt, and all its marble memorials,
from the admiration of man, the sands
of the desert have been let loose
Where the waves Of the ocean do not
roll, the waves Of the desert accomplish
the ruin of man, and bury beneath their
pillows all the memorials Of his art
Man steers bis solitary way by COM
pass over the once fertile and redundant
plains of Egypt. The camel tramples
on the palaces Of princes.-Who, after
such discoveries as have been made by
Mr.. Belzoni, will disbelieve in the Mo
saick account of the Red Sea :? Who
will disbelieye that Pharaoh and his
host were drowned in that place, when
Egypt affords such awful evidences at
the present Hour Of Divine indignation?
The fertile soil. tha rich and redundant