A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar: Under the Command of His Excellence Ismael Pasha, undertaken; by Order of His Highness Mehemmed Ali Pasha, Viceroy of; Egypt, By An American In The Service Of The ViceroyEnglish, George Bethune
History
A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar: Under the Command of His Excellence Ismael Pasha, undertaken; by Order of His Highness Mehemmed Ali Pasha, Viceroy of; Egypt, By An American In The Service Of The Viceroy
English, George Bethune
Dunqulah (Sudan) -- History; Sennar (Sudan) -- History; Sudan -- History -- 1821-1881; Sudan -- History -- To 1821
I doubt not that several remains worth research lie concealed
under the rubbish, which here covers a great space of ground. No other
remains of antiquity are visible in this place besides those I have
mentioned. The immediate spot where they stand, and its vicinity
backward from the river, is covered by the sand of the Desert,
underneath which probably many more lie concealed.
The river Nile has been represented, and I think with justice, as one
of the wonders of the world. I do not consider it as meriting this
appellation so much on account of its periodical and regular floods, in
which respect it is resembled by several other rivers, as on account
of another circumstance, in which, so far as I know, it is without a
parallel.
The Nile resembles the path of a good man in a wicked and worthless
world. It runs through a desert--a dry, barren, hideous desert; on the
parts of which adjoining its course it has deposited the richest soil in
the world, which it continually waters and nourishes. This soil has
been the source of subsistence to several powerful nations who have
established and overthrown mighty kingdoms, and have originated the
arts, the religion, the learning and the civilization of the greater
part of the ancient world. These nations, instructors and pupils, have
perished; but the remains of their stupendous labors, the pyramids and
the temples of Egypt, Nubia, and in the countries now visited for the
first time, at least for many ages, by minds capable of appreciating
the peoples who erected them, are more than sufficient to excite
astonishment and respect for the nations who founded them. The few in
stances that I have mentioned are such as have presented themselves to
my notice in sailing up the river, without my having the opportunity to
scrutinize them particularly, or time or means to pursue any researches
in the vicinity of those I have seen, by which doubtless many more would
be discovered. Some future traveler in these interesting and remote
regions, who may have the power and the means to traverse at his leisure
the banks and islands I have seen and admired, will, I believe, find
his labors rewarded by discoveries which will interest the learned, and
gratify the curious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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