Of Syria the Author could expect to say little that is new, after the numberless descriptions which have already been published, and he has accordingly used great rapidity in his narrative. In Kahira, the sources of information are few and scanty. A traveller may remain there many months, without finding his ideas of the country, or its inhabitants, much more clear or precise. The Europeans, there immured as prisoners, may be reasonably excused for hastening their commercial advantages, and, whenever unengaged by that object, for amusing themselves in trying to forget the place in which their ill fortune has obliged them to reside. Those who are found there, with every disposition to accommodate strangers, and receiving them always with complacency and kindness, are yet, with few exceptions, not of the order of men most able to generalize their ideas, and avail themselves to the utmost of the information which accident throws in their way. The Greeks, whose inquisitive turn, and more intimate connexion with the people at large and with the government, make them more familiar with characters and occurrences, rarely represent things as they really are, but as they feel them, or would have them to be. Where their report is not entirely imaginary, their portraits are like those of _Lely_, all adorned with nicely-combed locks and a fringed neckcloth. They mark no character, but as it appears to their prejudices; give no history that is not interlarded with their own fables; and describe no place but in the vague and superficial manner that satisfies their own ignorance. The Copts who, it might be supposed, would be accurately informed of all that relates to the government and history of the country, have no sentiment of antient glory, and are wholly immersed in gain or pleasure. Settled in the composure of ignorance, they cannot conceive the motive of minute inquiries; and timid and reserved, they fear to discover even what they know. The more liberal among the Mohammedan ecclesiastics, may be safely consulted for what concerns literature and the laws, and some few of them are communicative; but in general they despise strangers, and do not readily answer questions not of the most ordinary occurrence. On the whole, the most intelligent and communicative among the people of Kahira are the Mohammedan merchants, of a certain rank, who have visited various parts of the empire, and who have learned to think that all wisdom is not confined to one country or one race of men; and who having been led to mix, first by necessity and then by choice, with various nations, preserve their attachment to their own persuasion, without thinking all the rest of mankind _dogs_ and _accursed_.