The Crusades brought French, Germans, and English, Aragonese and Flemings to the Delta of the Nile in more or less disastrous expeditions against the Saracen power,--a power which was fast becoming that of the Turk. A curious relic of these crusading days in the Nile Delta is or was (for the present writer is not aware if they still exist) several Spanish (originally Aragonese) monasteries, which were established with the consent of the Muhammadan rulers of Egypt in order to mitigate the woes of Christian captives and to arrange terms for their release. [Illustration: AN ARAB TRADER (MASKATI).] Venice, however,--which had somewhat held aloof from the religious ardour of the Crusades in order to build up a great commerce with the Muhammadan East,--Venice became during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the great neutral go-between for the trade of India, Persia, Egypt, Arabia, and Syria with the Byzantine Empire and the rest of Europe. Venetians (in Arab dress, of course) ran less risk than other Europeans when travelling in Egypt in the days before the Portuguese discoveries. Through the Venetians Europe became acquainted with several strange African beasts which were brought from the Sudan for public exhibition in Muhammadan Egypt, and in this way European interest in the sources of the Nile was occasionally revived. It is remarkable to reflect that the name of Venice will probably never die out (as far as etymology is concerned) in the very heart of Africa. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and perhaps later, Venice manufactured in her arsenals improved types of guns. She also acted as an intermediary in exchanging muskets (manufactured elsewhere in Europe) with the Arabs and Turks, who at that time could not construct these firearms for themselves. Thus the Turks and Arabs became accustomed to call any improved type of musket a “Venetian” (Bunduqi).[12] In this way the name of the most beautiful city in the world has penetrated beyond the explorations of any European into the very heart of Africa, as it has also circulated through all the Muhammadan East. CHAPTER V A SUMMARY OF THE ANCIENTS’ KNOWLEDGE OF THE NILE The next page in the history of the Nile Quest is marked by the coming of the Portuguese; but before we proceed to consider what effect this movement had on the revelation of Africa to the knowledge of the Caucasian species, let us sum up briefly the purport of the foregoing chapters:-- 1. The lands through which the Nile flows were inhabited some ten thousand years ago--let us say at a guess--by Pygmies in the north, east, and southwest, and elsewhere by big black Negroes, these types being offshoots from the original Negro Asiatic stem.