The Christian merchants of Syria, established here, make such a prodigal and ostentatious display of wealth, that it lessens our wonder at the extortions of the Beys. At one of their weddings, five hundred chickens were served up every day, and other articles in proportion. This fête lasted ten successive days. The presents to the singers were said to have amounted to fourteen hundred mahbûbs. A riot happened between the _Galiongîs_, or sailors, (mostly Christians,) belonging to Murad Bey, and the Mamlûks. Murad had dismissed a naval officer, beloved by the Galiongîs, and their discontent joined with the constant jealousy of the Mamlûks to create a disturbance, in which about seventy lives were lost, and the city was shut up for several days. Nov. 1796. The waters of the Nile having almost abandoned the Eastern branch, which leads to Damiatt, pursuing the more direct course of the canal of Menûf, after a neglect of many years, it became necessary to apply a remedy. Accordingly, Murad Bey commanded his engineer, Achmed, to undertake this duty. After encountering some difficulties, the purpose was at length effected by driving piles, and the river resumed its former course. A circumstance is related concerning the propagation of fish in Kahira. As soon as the Nile begins to fill the several pools, _birkets_, in the neighbourhood, the fishermen go to the river, and collecting several sorts of spawn, distribute it into the pools, where in the space of three or four days, it produces fish in abundance. Nov. 1796. Achmet Aga, a Zanthiote, who has been already mentioned, about this time left Kahira on his way to Dar-Fûr, by the return of the caravan with which I came. The Sultan Abd-el-rachmân, desirous of gaining a name among the neighbouring princes, but injudicious and governed by caprice in the choice of the means, and stung with the rage of conquest, though regardless of the means of security, sought for some person to exhibit to him the European invention of artillery; and though he had not yet been witness to its effects, conceived that the possession of some of the gold mines under _Sennaar_ would soon be realized on his obtaining these powerful engines. He wrote to the Beys to request they would send him some one from among their servants, who might make him master of this important discovery. He also sought for a medical practitioner.