Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Wayne County, Ind.) 1831-1837, 1837-02-04

\ ENTERPRISE IN EsYPr-The Pasha Of EQ, pt Is
represented a sort Of Napoleon IN the gigantic
teachings Of his mind, for the accomplishment Of
great works that may be Of national Importance
Among other enterprises on foot he Is endea-
voring 10 dam the river Nile, raise il TO the levi
Of the surrounding country, so that the cultvators
may convey waters, by means Of canals over the
country to rrigate its parched and Barren wastes
Mr. Jones in his late tour through that country, WIS.,
tied this WORK ar! found upwards Of 10000 men
engaged N its Construction They under the
control Of a French Engineer, in whose hands the
Pasha he'd placed the whole management Of the
work. Very large additions Of men to be added,
it they can be had, in hopes Of completing the work
in two three years. but to the freemen Of America
there would appear small chances Of adding 10 The
laborers, when they told that the wages paid to
each pc, day is hirty-six paras Cor four and half
cents "from which six paras deducted for their
board" 1t is quite a new thing for the Pasha to
flow wages to his subjects at ali-but he consent
ed TO DO % at the instance Of Mons. LeLon, the
Engineer in The belief that It would facilitate the
progress Of the enterprise.
About fifteen years ago (savs our author) there
was a scarcity Of grain in Europe, but a great u
bundance in Egypt, and the merchant sovereign had
opportunity Of realizing an extremely handsome
profit on the products Of his sol; but the Nile hap
peDed at that season to be unusually low, and ves
sells found il difficult to load Mt the mouth Of the
river that his harvest Of grain IN . great mea-
unite the river with the and excellent har
Dor Of Alexandra. With him there - but short
interval between planning and executing. He sent
his sodersinto the country with acquisitions the
various governors for men, according to the size Of
their villages districts. The poor natives were
hunted up, and being to long poles by iron
collars around the neck, forty to pole were thus
driven down to the line marked out by the Engi-
neer and there set to work. Mr. Gliddon, who saw
the work in progress, states that there 600
men employ ed upon it 1t one time. In six months
the canal was completed, with the exception Of a
little masonry, and was opened for 1t j. sixty
miles in length ninety feet vide, and eighteen in
depth, including six feet Of water. The workmen
had no tools except few hoes brake the hard
upper crust when this was done, they scraped the
earth together with their 6ngers, formed il into
balls and passed them by hand to the sides of tho
canal, large portion of the wet mass often esca-
p,ng between their hands while the way. Ex-
posed the IN, ard without shelter at night, and
probably without sufficient food, dsease crept in l
among them; and that during the digging. 30 600 Of
the workmen pcrished their bodies, as soon as life
was extinct, were tossed upon the growing heaps Of
earth at the side, and this was their burial. The
canal follows the line Of that dug BY Alexander the
Great. till near Damanhour, when it unaccounta-
bly, makes great bend to the south.
saturday Courier. (