University of Virginia Library

At length, my dear mother, I have reached the
`Land of the Seven Rivers,” and do now write to you
from her gorgeous capital, On, The City of the Sun.

How shall I describe to you the grand and solemn
magnificence of this city of divine temples, and convey
to you a just idea of its palaces that seem rather
to have been erected for the abodes of gods than of
men!

Wheresoever I turn my eyes, I realize that I am in
mighty Egypt; for everywhere I behold grandeur and
glory, excellency and perfection. Every object illustrates
the power, munificence, and taste of the imperial
princess who now sits on the throne of the Pharaohs,
and the splendor of whose reign has raised Egypt above
the mightiest empires of the earth.

And all that I behold recalls the ancient glory, my

dear mother, of our own land, the once princely Palestina
and Phœnicia,—twin kingdoms which of old gave
conquerors, and rulers, and laws to Egypt, under the
short but brilliant dynasty of her Shepherd Kings! But,
though fading with age, Phœnicia still lives in the
beauty, pride, and power of her daughter Egypt.

I will not lament over the waning glory of my own
dear land, my royal mother, while I can see it revived
here with increased magnificence. Phœnicia is not
dead while Egypt lives. Every ruin in my own kingdom
is restored with augmented beauty and splendor on
the green plains of this land of the shining River, whose
fountain-head is underneath the throne of Thoth, far in
the southern sky.

How shall I describe what I behold? Every new
object enchants me, and moves my soul with a fresh
pleasure. I am intoxicated, not with wine, but with
the splendor of art and scenes of beauty, and with manifestations
of human glory and power hitherto inconceivable.
I have heard my royal father describe the
glory of Salem in Palestine, under the princes of the
dynasty of Melchisedec, with its gorgeous temples to
the Sun, and its palaces of marble, its hanging gardens,
and noble terraces overlooking its flower-enamelled
valleys; but the cities of Egypt surpass this Syriac
magnificence.

In coming hither, across the Levantine seas, from
Syria, I seem to have crossed to the shores of that mystic
world where dwell the sacred divinities, rather than
only to another land of the plane of the earth; for
Egypt, compared with the kingdom of Phœnicia seems
truly the land of the blessed. What far-famed warriors!

what stately priests, clothed with power from the
gods! what superb princes! what a majestic queen!
what grace and dignity in the virgins of the Sun! what
a stupendous system of worship! what mighty mausolenms,
both tomb and temple, rising like mountains hewn
into solid triangles everywhere over the illimitable
plain! What a land of verdure and of flowers!—land
of gardens and palaces, obelisks and fountains, fanes
and altars, sphinxes and gigantic statues!—land, comprising
all that can delight the heart or take captive the
sense!

I ask myself—Am I, indeed, in Egypt, the “Land
shadowing with wings,” as those proud Pharaohs,
Thothmeses I. and II., termed it, upon their winged
globe-carved shields?—am I in Egypt, the glory of the
earth, the kingdom above all kingdoms, whose queen is
above all the monarchs that reign, and before the elevation
of whose golden sceptre all sceptres fall?

I have not yet, my dearest mother, seen, save at a
distance, as she was ascending the steps of her palace,
this mighty queen of the ancient house of the Pharaohs;
but the third day hence I shall be formally presented to
her in the throne-room, where she receives the ambassadors
and princes of the nations who come into Egypt
either to learn arts or arms, or to behold the magnificence
of her empire, or to study the religion, laws, and
government of a nation, the fame of which has filled
the earth.

Upon my arrival with my galleys off the mouths of
the Nile, I forwarded to her, by a private messenger in
my gilded barge, the letters written by your loving
hand and sealed with the regal signet of your kingdom.

commending me to her personal favor and royal consideration.

Although I have not yet been presented to the court,
I have seen, and must describe to you, the royal son of
Queen Amense—this proud daughter of the Pharaohs—
Prince Remeses. Never did the gods set their seal
upon a nobler and truer prince. Every movement of
his stately and graceful person, his rich voice, his superb
height, his lordly eyes, his majestic yet winning carriage,
all bespeak a youth born to empire—created for dominion
over men.

He is now in his thirty-fourth year, and is in the full
glory of manhood. He is skilled in all the arts of war,
and not less celebrated for his learning in all the wisdom
of the Egyptians. Sages and philosophers listen to his
words when he converses, not so much with the deference
that is the homage due to rank, as with the attention
which intelligence lends to superior wisdom.

He received me with kindness and embraced me with
affection, inquiring after the welfare of my royal mother,
and welcoming me to his country with gracious and
courteous words. Notwithstanding there is a difference
of six years in our ages, I feel that I shall be regarded
by him on terms of equal friendship, and that to his companionship
I shall owe the happiest hours I may pass in
the land of Egypt.

But, dear mother, as I promised to write you an
account of my voyage hither, with the adventures and
scenes thereof worthy of your notice, I will devote the
remainder of my letter to this subject.

When I took leave of you on the marble steps of the
stately pier which extends along the front of our palace,

and had stepped upon the deck of my galley, I felt that
a twofold cord had parted at my heart,—one which
bound me to thee, O mother, from whom I had never
before been separated, and one which tied me to my
native land.

Although for the first time in command of a beautiful
fleet, numbering a score and ten galleys, and about to visit
the fairest of all realms under the sunny skies of Afric,
yet the pang of this twofold separation deeply grieved
my soul. It was with tears glittering upon my eyelids
that I gazed upon you, as you waved your adieux and
called on the god of our race to bless me! It was with
a voice thick with emotion that I gave orders to the admiral
to spread the purple sails of my golden galley to
the favoring breezes which seemed to be sent in answer
to your prayers.

Long I stood upon the lofty poop of my ship, gazing
towards the receding city, with its noble lines of palaces,
its crowning temples, its familiar groves, and pleasant
gardens. (Even now I am moved as I recall the sweet
emotions of that time.) As I surveyed the fleets of merchantmen
from all lands gathered about her piers and
anchored in the haven, I felt my sorrow at parting, yielding
gradually to a feeling of pride that I was the prince
of the great city to which these argosies came bearing
the merchants of all the earth. Indeed it was a noble
and stirring sight, dear mother, and calculated to divert
my thoughts, to see these ships, as my galley passed
through them, lower their banners, or elevate their rows
of shining oars high in the air, both in homage and farewell
to the departing lord of the port. There were vessels
for bringing the merchandise of gold, and silver, and

precious stones from unknown seas; galleys from Tarsus
and the isles of the West, bearing pearls, and coral, and
precious woods, and thyme-wood; gayly decked barges,
that carry fine liuen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet
down to Egypt from Syria; painted ships from the Nile,
that receive by caravans from Ind and the East cinnamon,
and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and
ivory, and diamonds; the low dark galleys from Afric,
that bring Ethiopian slaves; and the broad heavier vessels
from the Delta, laden with wheat and fine flour!
There were also the strong craft from Colchis and the
North, with iron, and brass, and marble; and oaken
argosies from further Britannia, bringing tin; tall ships
from Græcia with horses and chariots; while from the
south shores of the summery seas were light, graceful
vessels laden with dainty and goodly fruits, and birds of
gorgeous plumes and of ravishing songs! All these annually
lay their treasures at thy feet!

As I moved slowly in my galley through the rich
fleet of ships which filled your haven, I felt my heart
beat quicker, and I returned the salutations of the shipmasters
and of the foreign merchants on their decks;
with smiles of gratification at the prosperity still at least
of our port of Tyre; though the half our realm has been
lost by invasion and our interior cities are decaying. So
long as Damascus and Tyre remain, dear mother, those
two eyes of your kingdom, your power and throne will
stand. The decadence of our sister city Sidon will not
affect our prosperity, since her ships will flock to Tyre.
Yet Sidon will rise again, if in my power to restore it.

I remained upon the poop of my ship until we had
passed, not only the fleet of merchant galleys, but the

fourscore war-ships with their hundred banks of oars,
that ever guard the entrance to the port with vigilant
eyes and arms. The sun was gilding with his setting
beams the battlements of the temple of Hercules; and
the columns of the graceful temple of Io were richly
roseate in the blushing glory of his radiance. The last
object on which my eye rested was the gilded gate of
the gorgeous Fane of Nyeth on Lebanon; and I sent
from my lips a prayer to the fair and kind-hearted goddess
to guard thee, mother, and me for thy sake.

We soon passed the bright red Pharos, from the lofty
lantern of which, as the shades of evening rapidly fell
around us, streamed forth like a new-born star its cheering
splendor for the haven-bound mariner. Soon in the
heavens over us other lights were kindled by the gods;
and the moon, rising over the lofty mountain-range of
Libanus, made far out upon the sea a path of light, that
seemed like a band of silver with which she would bind
me still to the shores I was leaving! But in Egypt I
yet behold the same moon shine down upon me with
familiar radiance; and as I gaze upon her I can feel,
that even here she is a link to bind me to my native
land—that upon her winged beams I can send a thought
to my dear mother, on whom also she shines.

My whole fleet got well out of the port before the star
Aldebaran rose; and as the breeze was light, the governors
of the rowers commanded them to ply their oars.
Thus with the fall of a thousand sweeps into the blue
sea at one motion, keeping time to the voice of a singer
who stood upon the bridge across the mid-ship, we
kept our course down the coast of Palestine. We
would have steered directly for the Delta of the Nile,

but had knowledge, by a vessel that met us, of a fleet
of Rhodian pirates, which lay wait, in that vicinity, for
the Egyptian merchant-ships; and, as my galleys were
rather an escort of honor than a war-fleet, I did not wish
to measure my strength with them, but dispatched one
of my ships, the same night, back to Tyre, to the admiral
of your Tyrian fleet, who, no doubt, has gone out ere
this in pursuit of these sea-rovers and enemies of our
commerce.

Nevertheless, after we had passed Jaffa, and the next
day Ascalon in lower Philistia, we beheld half a score
of ships of doubtful appearance, and, by my orders, six
galleys were detached from the fleet and gave chase.
They proved to be fast-sailing Ionian pirates, for one of
them, being crippled, was overtaken. They had been
many weeks on the sea, and were returning to their own
distant and barbarous islands, richly laden. The captain
of the galley took out her merchandise, and precious
stones, and spices, of which she had robbed other ships,
and burned her on the sea, with all the wretches who
appertained to her.

The shores of Egypt were reached by us on the seventh
day, without any accident to my fleet. It was two
hours after the sun rose that we came in view of the low
line of land which marks the entrance to the “Garden
of the World,” and from which open the seven gates of
the Nile into the great blue sea.

Upon ascending to the castle for bowmen on the highest
mast of the ship, I could discern the tall columns
erected by King Menes at the chief entrance of the
river, from the summit of each of which at night blazes
a wonderful flame, said to have been invented by the

Magi of Egypt. As our galley rowed nearer the faint
line of coast, I could see numerous ships coming out and
entering the Pelusian branch of the Nile,—some of them
in the interior so far, that only their tops could be seen
above the level land. I was now suddenly surprised
with a change in the color of the sea, which, from an
emerald green, became clouded with an intermixture of
tawny water, thick with mud, that seemed to flow upon
the surface of the sea, as if lighter than itself. I soon
perceived that this was the outrush of the river against
the sea, with which it refused wholly to intermingle
and lose itself,—as if the proud Father Nilus reluctantly
yielded his power, so long wielded for a thousand miles,
to the sceptre and dominion of the god of the Mediterranean.
Yet the latter—so vast was the volume of the
yellow waves of the former—was forced a league from
the shore before the conquered Nile ceased to resist his
fate.

The sun shone upon the battlements of the great city
of Pelusium—the oldest fortified place in Egypt, and
called “the Key of Egypt,” and also “the Strength of
Egypt”—and lighted up the terraces of its gardens and
temples; but the admiral told me that every year the
deposit of the Nile is covering them, and that ere many
centuries no trace will be left of a city which is older
than On or Memphis. We saw, from the deck, palaces
and obelisks and groves in the suburbs, and further inland
a country of wonderful beauty and of the highest
cultivation, but as level as the sea, from which it is elevated
but a few feet. The muddy and wonderful Nile
is overflowing annually these pleasant maritime plains;
and as the plane of the Delta is steadily raised, these

ancient cities and palaces and this fair land will become
a fen for the stork and the sea-mew! How different
the site of Tyre, my dear mother! Built upon the firm
coast, and defended by nature, it will stand forever as
the key of Syria and of the East; and to the end of time
the commerce of the world will flow into the palace-like
warehouses of its opulent merchants!

As we drew near the port, one of the large fishing
eagles which have their home in the Delta soared above
our heads, scanning our deck with his piercing glances:
and snow-white birds with black-tipped wings skimmed
past from wave to wave; while others, resting upon the
crest of a shining billow, rocked gracefully with the motion
of its undulations. An ibis stalked upon the shore,
and numerous aquatic birds, unknown to us, soared about
our galleys with sharp and strange outcries.

The atmosphere of the morning was slightly hazy,
and, suffused by the sunbeams, cast a soft veil over the
land, investing galley, pharos, and fane with the hues of
gold. It was a scene of novel beauty, and I hailed the
very first view of Egypt with delight. It was a happy
omen of the future.

As my galley advanced before the fleet, a large war-ship
with a triple poop-deck, and propelled by three
hundred oars, swept like a swift dark cloud out of the
mouth of the river and bore down towards me in hostile
attitude. I displayed the insignia of my kingdom
at the top of the chief mast, and awaited the Egyptian
guard-ship. The vessel was brought to, a bow-shot from
my own, and I was asked by the governor thereof, who
I was, whence I came, and my destination? To these
inquiries I gave satisfactory replies through my admiral;

whereupon the Egyptian captain, commanding
an elegant barge to be made ready, came on board,
attended by his suite, to pay his respects to me as
Prince of Tyre. I came forth from my state-room to
receive him, my dear mother, attired as became my
rank. In the most courteous language, and with an
elegance of manners unsurpassed save in the polite land
of Egypt, he assured me of the pleasure it would give
his royal mistress, Queen Amense, “The Support of
Worlds,” as he termed her, to have me visit her court.
He said she was just then returning from a visit to the
temple of Isis and Nephthys, at Philæ, with a vast
retinue of state and sacred galleys, and by the time I
arrived at Memphis she would be either there or at her
private palace at On.

By his advice, I dispatched, in our handsomest galley,
my secretary, Acherres, with a copy of the letter to the
queen, which you gave to me, sealed with my own signet.
This done, I entertained the Egyptian officer with
a magnificence becoming my position and his own. He
was much pleased with the elegance of my ship, and the
complete appointment of my fleet. He said he had never
seen a Tyrian squadron before, but had heard much of
our luxury and perfection in maritime affairs.

His ship was stately in height, and terrible with its
warlike aspect. The poop bristled with armed warriors
in polished helms of brass. It had four short masts,
and upon each top thereof a huge castle containing
a score of Libyan bowmen with steel-headed arrows.
Upon the prow was a sort of fortress, on which stood a
group of soldiers armed with long spears and with large
oval shields, on which were painted hieroglyphic devices

in brilliant colors. Arranged on the sides above the
rowers were black Ethiopians, gigantic men in steel
cuirasses, with long swords held before them. The
captains of these warriors were stationed at various
points, arrayed in rich armor of varied fashion, according
to the class of soldiers that were under them. The
prow of this mighty battle-ship, which carried one thousand
fighting men, besides three hundred rowers, was
ornamented with a lion's head and shoulders of colossal
size; while across the stern stretched the broad, gilded
wings of the feathered globe of the Sun, which is the
emblem of the kingdom of Egypt. Besides this gorgeous
and majestic galley, there were many lesser ones
near, having but a single mast and fifty oars. This fleet
ever kept guard at the mouth of the Nile, and thus defended
the gates of Egypt on the sea against foes.

When I had sufficiently admired his ship from my
own, the admiral, whose name is Pathromenes, invited
me to go on board. After viewing all the parts of the
ship, and especially the noble apartments devoted to him
and his officers, I was entertained with musical instruments
by players of infinite skill. Then I was amused
with the performances of jugglers and the wonderful
antics of grotesque deformed dwarfs, who seemed kept
on board only for the entertainment of these Egyptian
nobles. Towards evening, a banquet was offered me.
Among other rare dishes were gazelles. Before the
feast, the admiral made a signal to a priest of Osiris,
who presided over the sacred rites on board, and inaugurated
it by a prayer to the god for the welfare of the
queen and the prosperity of the kingdom. This custom
recalled our own, of offering first a libation of wine to

the gods. During the banquet, sweet strains of music
floated around us. After we had closed the feast, and
were drinking wine, an attendant entered, bearing a
miniature mummy, elaborately painted and gilded.
Holding this emblem of mortality before me and the
admiral, he said solemnly:

“Behold this, and drink and be happy; for such thou
shalt be when thou art dead!”

I was not a little surprised at this unwelcome, and, as
it seemed to me, unseasonable intrusion. Pathromenes,
observing my looks, said with a smile: “This introduction
of a memorial of death to our feasts, O prince,
is not unseasonable. It is designed to exhort us to enjoy
life while we possess it, for when we are no more,
enjoyment will be past.” Thus saying, he poured out
a vase of wine into our golden cups, and pledged me
“Thy health, my mother!” So I drank to thee, and
the glory of thy reign. Nevertheless, I do not agree
with the admiral, but think, rather, that the intention
of this exhibition of Death to guests, is to warn
them that, while life is so short, it ought not to be spent
wholly in pleasure and festivities.

At length, night coming on, I returned to my ship,
and the next day, with a light wind and aided by but
one bank of rowers, entered the mighty Nile, and
slowly ascended its powerful but sluggish stream. The
courtly Pathromenes escorted me past Pelusium, and
then took leave of me, embracing me more like a father
than a friend. I left my fleet at the Pelusian Delta, to
return to Tyre after it shall have received fresh water
on board from the Nile. The only galleys I took with
me are the one I came in, and that on board of which I

sent my secretary to the capital in advance of me. I
trust the remainder will safely reach Syria.

The shores of the Eastern Nile, as we ascended, presented
an unchanging scene of gardens, verdant fields
of corn, villages, temples, and tombs, all united in one
unbroken belt for leagues. The river was dotted with
fishers in their slender boats, and we constantly met vessels
descending, bound to the open sea: some for Afric,
for gold-dust and ivory; others to Philistia, for copper
and iron; others to Colchis, for silver, or to the Isle of
Thasos. The evening of the day we entered the river,
we beheld the sacred crocodile. It was a vast scaly
monster, basking on the shore. I gazed upon him with
wonder and fear. If he be a god, his votaries worship
him rather through terror than from love. But to my
senses all the minor deities of Egypt are gross and
revolting. Yet I must not dare to be impious while in
the very land of these gods.

The next day, after sailing for hours between gardens,
we drew near the City of On, on the east bank. Our
approach to it was marked by the increased size and
grandeur of the palaces and temples, and the life and
activity on the shores. Before reaching the city, I
caught view of Memphis on the west side of the river,
and far beyond towered the apex of one of those mighty
pyramids whose age is lost in the oblivion of the past.

Farewell, dear mother. In my next letter I will
describe my arrival and debarking at the terrace of the
City of the Sun, and my gratifying reception by the
Prince Remeses.