Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1873-07-17
Modern Egypt.

Auc lanu Vi tue hHeulVe Is likely
soon TO rival in greatness the ancient
kingdom Of the Pharaohs and the
Ptolemies. Modern Egypt cannot, it
is true. compare with ancient Egypt
in the number of it's inhabitants, for
Diodorus tells us that the latter con-
talned 10000 towns and villages, while
Herodotus says that in the reign of
Amasis there were in Egypt 10000
cities. What successive soYereigns,
however, from Sesostris to the caliphs
failed to effect, or accomplished only
in part, has been completely achieved
under the rule Of the Khedive by the
opening Of the Suez Canal, while AL
exandria and Cairo are fast becoming
cities of palaces, and the wealth of the
country is every day increasing.
Western prejudice attributes the
present ignorance of the Mussulman
population of Turkey to Islamism, and
concludes that the religion of Moham-
med is bar to all human progress.
Amy one, however, who visited Egypt
ten years ago, and could now see the
vast Improvements that have been and
are still being made by the khediye,
would at once have his prejudices very
much modified, if not altogether re-
moved. He would see the harbor of
Alexandria, the finest, probably, in the
world, crowded with the shipping of all
nations, with new break ater and
new docks in course of completion,
warehouses filled with cotton, grain
and other agricultural produce ready
for export, railways in operation or in
course OF constructiOn-everywhere, in
fact, the signs of increasing civiliza-
ton and prosperity. He would see
Alexandria itself moro like European
than an Eastern city, with its magniii-
cent buildings and its place DIES Con-
suls," that exceeds in size and beauty
any square to be found in Europe. He
would see the land, irrigated by the
Niles overflow or bv means of machin-
cry, everywhere teeming with rich crops
of wheat, maize, barley, beans and
peas, clover and flax, rice, sugar-cane,
tobacco and cotton, coffee, indigo and
madder; the gardens producing april
cots in May: peaches, plums, apples,
pears and carobs in June grapes, figs
and prickly pears in July; pomsgran-
ates, lemons aud dates in August;
oranges in October, sweet lemons and
bananas in November, and the mulber-
ry and Seville oranges in January. In
old times we know there was corn in
Egypt now there is also cotton in
Egypt" and cotton, too. of the best
description. Even SIX years ago there
were not less than two hundred steam
ploughs At work in cotton cultivation.
Every mechanical aid to production
has, in fact, been made use of, and the
result Is an enormous increase of wealth
h"ihtH jh2.nceUf aud tAeU ruler.
fast disappearing. A new bridge has
been recently built by the khedive
over To the Nile, 50 that travellers can
now 90 direct in carriages from their
hotel 10 the pyramids without being
obliged, as formerly, to cross the river
in boats and finish the excursion on
camels or donkeys. The Old "daha-
beah," or Nile boat, is giving way to
the comparatively luxurious Nile
steamer, and the charms of that dreamy
Epicurean life, floating up and down
the great river, will soon become a
of the past. No more en-
beneath the myriad stars
and the wondrous sky Of an Egyptian
night, amidst the labyrinth of pillars,
obellsks and fallen temples of Luxor
Or karnak. Instead of, as heretofore,
passing the night on land under a tent,
the traveller now sleeps in his comfor-
table berth on board the khedivc's
steamer, and docs" the Nile in three
weeks, instead of three months, as in
the palmy days of the dahabeahs. Dur
ing the winter of 1871, before the
steamers began to ply, the price ash ked
for tirst-class boat was from $50 to
5000 a month for three or four months
while now the vOyage--5S5 miles
from Cairo to Philg, few miles above
the first cataract, and back again, can
be made by the passenger steamers on
the Nile belonging to the khedive adj
at a cost of 1920, includ-
ing steamer, living, guides, and all
other necessary expense ". j. Ne
;hanic.