About four miles from this is the village of Nizelet el Arab, consisting of miserable huts. Here begin large plantations of sugar canes, the first we had yet seen; they were then loading boats with these to carry them to Cairo. I procured from them as many as I desired. The canes are about an inch and a quarter in diameter, they are cut in round pieces about three inches long, and, after having been slit, they are steeped in a wooden bowl of water. They give a very agreeable taste and flavour to it, and make it the most refreshing drink in the world, whilst by imbibing the water, the canes become more juicy, and lose a part of their heavy clammy sweetness, which would occasion thirst. I was surprized at finding this plant in such a state of perfection so far to the northward. We were now scarcely arrived in lat. 29°, and nothing could be more beautiful and perfect than the canes were. I apprehend they were originally a plant of the old continent, and transported to the new, upon its first discovery, because here in Egypt they grow from seed. I do not know if they do so in Brazil, but they have been in all times the produce of Egypt. Whether they have been found elsewhere I have not had an opportunity of being informed, but it is time that some skilful person, versed in the history of plants, should separate some of the capital productions of the old, and new continent, from the adventitious, before, from length of time, that which we now know of their history be lost. Sugar, tobacco, red podded or Cayenne pepper, cotton, some species of Solanum, Indigo, and a multitude of others, have not as yet their origin well ascertained. Prince Henry of Portugal put his discoveries to immediate profit, and communicated what he found new in each part in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, to where it was wanting. It will be soon difficult to ascertain to each quarter of the world the articles that belong to it, and fix upon those few that are common to all. Even wheat, the early produce of Egypt, is not a native of it. It grows under the Line, within the Tropics, and as far north and south as we know. Severe northern winters seem to be necessary to it, and it vegetates vigorously in frost and snow. But whence it came, and in what shape, is yet left to conjecture. Though the stripe of green wheat was continued all along the Nile, it was interrupted for about half a mile on each side of the coptish convent. These poor wretches know, that though they may sow, yet, from the violence of the Arabs, they shall never reap, and therefore leave the ground desolate. On the side opposite to Sment, the stripe begins again, and continues from Sment to Mey-Moom, about two miles, and from Mey-Moom to Shenuiah, one mile further. In this small stripe, not above a quarter of a mile broad, besides wheat, clover is sown, which they call Bersine. I don’t think it equals what I have seen in England, but it is sown and cultivated in the same manner.