Letters on Egypt, Edom and the Holy Land Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1839 edition. Excerpt: ...his cloudy cave--who, in the olden time, " looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians"--by fire, and wind, and water, his ministering elements, " executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt," while he " led forth the people whom he had redeemed" from an apostate land that, no longer recognising him as a spirit, no longer worshipped him in spirit and in truth. Approaching Korosko, we sailed through a strange country, black volcanic-looking mountains on either side the river, and in many places a few yards only of cultivation intervening between it and the desert. We moored for the night at Korosko. Imagine our dismay when Wellee Kiashef, the Turkish governor of the country between the cataracts, resting there for the moment on one of his progresses through his little vice-royalty, sent to offer us a visit It could not be helped, so we entertained him--an intelligent and very inquisitive man, most anxious for information; he said it was his great delight to make acquaintance with, and gain knowledge from Englishmen, whenever he could meet with them. The first compliments were scarcely paid, when he produced a little Arabic treatise on geography, printed by the missionaries at Malta, and asked how many men formed the standing force of Russia? We expected to be regularly catechised on the resources of every state in Europe, but his subsequent questions were chiefly geographical; he had evidently made the most of his little book--his sole library, he told us--and had treasured the information he had picked up from travellers. I gave him four or five Arabic books, one on astronomy, the others chiefly religious, that I had found lying at...