KOSSEIR, IN EGYPT.

EXTRACT from a letter from Doctor Labat to the Editor of the Paris Journal des Debats, dated at Kosseir, an Egyptian port on the Red Sea, June 1st:

"After a long excursion on the Red Sea, which enabled me to visit the coasts of Arabia-Petrea, the magnificent sites of Mount Sinai, the Gulf of Acaba, and the shores of the Hedjar, quite to the borders of Arabia Happy, here I am, at last, arrived at Kosseir. This city, situated at the entrance of a desert valley, which extends from the Red Sea to the nearest point of the Nile, is with regard to Upper Egypt, what Suez is to Lower Egypt. It is by this double route, that all the commerce of Egypt with Arabia and India is carried on.

"Kossier is placed at the foot of a hill, the summit of which is occupied by a fortress flanked by four towers, and furnished with twenty pieces of artillery. Among these we found a French howitzer, bearing for an inscription 'Valence,' and dated Messidor, year of the Republic III.' This instrument, left by our army, has thus become a monument of Egyptian conquest.

"The fortress of Kossier, built by order of the Sultan Selim, and repaired by the French, protects the city against all attacks by land or sea. It was in fact cannonaded without success for three days by the English frigates, in hope of expelling our garrison. The brave Donzelot, who commanded the place, compelled the English to reembark after they had suffered considerable loss. The streets of Kosseir are almost all straight, and very neat, which forms a contrast to the general want of cleanliness of the Egyptian cities. But what gives a very gloomy appearance to it, is the uniform grayish aspect which is presented by the houses being built of unbaked bricks. Some rare dwellings, constructed of stone, or burnt brick, are not sufficient to take off that monotonous look, which always exists in the Egyptian villages. There are no remarkable buildings, except the governor's great house, which is situated on the sea-shore. Its architecture, which is in the Constantinople style, is not without elegance. The population of Kosseir amounts to about 2,000 souls, including the Turkish garrison, composed of a few cannoniers and some Arnauts. There is no Catholic Christian except our consular agent. The English agent is a rich Turkish merchant, who has much influence in the country. There is nothing to be seen but sands and deserts in the neighborhood of the city, which circumstance accounts for the rarity of rain, and the absence of all water-courses in the vicinity. The water consumed by the inhabitants is brought from a distance of several leagues. That furnished by the wells of the citadel and of the city is of a very brackish nature, and filled with sulphate of lime. An Artesian well would be of immense advantage in this place. The port forms a curve, sufficiently concave to receive fifty or sixty ships. It is shaded on the west by the hills on the coast, which are the beginnings of the high mountains we perceive in the horizon. A considerable bank of madrepores, stretching out three hundred metres into the sea,

protects it from the north wind. It consequently remains open only to the southwest winds, which are not much to be dreaded on the Red Sea. The bottom of the port is sandy, and furnishes good anchorage. In order to obviate the inconveniences which result from the absence of a quay for landing, Mehemet Ali has caused to be built a fine landing place, which reaches out into the sea so far that small ships can come up to it. It was necessary formerly, in discharging vessels, for the waterman to go down into the water, in order to transport the merchandise to the shore. This point of the Red Sea furnishes fish in such abundance, that it is said the ancient inhabitants made of it their only food, which gave them the denomination of Ichthyophagi, bestowed upon them by the geographers of antiquity. One of these colonies was more particularly designated by the name of Chelonophagi, on account of the great number of tortoises consumed by them. After having eaten the flesh, they made use of the large shells as bucklers, and employed others in the manufacture of different articles of furniture and utensils.

"When the French army arrived at Kosseir, the environs of the city were still occupied by tribes of fishermen, who fled at the approach of our soldiers. It is stated on this subject, in the great work published by the Egyptian scientific committee, that the cottages of these fishermen were, like those of their ancestors, covered with tortoise shells. In the valley of Kosseir we found also the tribe of the Ababdehs, who are the direct descendants of the Troglodytes. They were so named because they inhabited caverns. Their manners have not changed. They have stil! the singular costume, which consists in a cotton or woollen cloth, that they wind about the body, and bring back over one of the shoulders; their long hair, which contrasts with the shorn heads of the other Mussulmans, which are always covered, the strangeness of their language, their passionate taste for hunting, the rapidity of their long excursions in the desert, all which peculiarities agree with the accounts we have of them from the historians of antiquity, and which M. Dubois Aimee, one of our Egyptian literati, has taken occasion to confirm.

"At the northwest of the height which overlooks Kosseir, we see a considerable number of little excavations, which still serve as a refuge to the Ababdehs, who are brought for purposes of business to the city, where they encamp temporarily, with their camels and flocks. This colony, which has remained until this day out of the pale of civilization, lives entirely isolated from the neighboring tribes, with which they have never consented to mingle. It has nothing in common with the Arabians but the Mahomedan religion, which it has not accepted without allying with it some of their ancient idolatrous practices. These modern Troglodytes, whom I was able to visit without the least danger, thanks to the firman granted me by the viceroy, number still several thousands of individuals spread over the vast surface of uncultivated country which reaches from the Nile to Kosseir. It is truly curious to see, after so many ages have passed away, these miserable colonies, which remain almost unknown, still preserving their manners and their primitive habits.

"At the north of Kosseir is discovered at the distance of some miles, a considerable heap of ruins, called Kadima, or old Kosseir. We saw

there no vestige of an ancient monument, but only the remains of a great city, which must have had a population of about twenty thousand souls. The port of this city, formerly large and deep, is almost entirely filled up by the encroachments of corals and madrepores. According to M. Gosselin and several other geographers, Kadima must have been the ancient Myos-Hormos. M. D'Anville, however, maintains that this ancient commercial station was more towards the north. However this may be, Myos-Hormos was for Egypt of the old time, what Kosseir is to modern Egypt. I will only add, that the commerce on the Red Sea was formerly very considerable. On this part of the coast there were several other very important cities. Among these were the celebrated Berenice, (Portus Albus,) and Philoteras Portus. Still more at the south was Sucho (Soakin) and Ptolemais (Theron.) But it was principally from Myos-Hormos that the opulent city of Thebes received the rich products. of Arabia and India. To give an idea of the extent of this commerce, it is enough to quote this passage of Strabo, (Book 2d,) where he says, "that in his time a fleet of an hundred and twenty sail left Myos-Hormos to go to the Indias." It was also from this port that the fleet of Ælius Gallus sailed on his expedition to Arabia Felix, where the Romans possessed the important city of Aden, which they designated as Portus Romanus. At this epoch, numerous caravans of camels transported in some days the merchandise of Coptus to Myos-Hormos, whence they returned towards the borders of the Nile, with the products of the Red Sea, Arabia, and India. We see on different points of the route the ruins of ancient Grecian Egyptian stations, among which some wells, still in good preservation, are made use of by the caravans. They follow at the present time, the same route, except on leaving Coptos, which was entirely destroyed by Dioclitian. They now take their departure from Kenne, which is some leagues distant. These convoys, which effect their passage in three days and a half, carry daily to Kosseir considerable quantities of corn, barley, meal, beans, lentils, sugar, oil, &c., not only to supply the wants of the city, but also for exportation to Moilah, Sambo, Gedda, Confuda, Hodeida, Moka, Massaouh, and especially for Medina and Mecca. Lately several consignments of corn have left this port for the Isle of France, and other parts of the Indian Ocean. The merchandise destined for Arabia is exchanged for the coffee of Yemen, the gum, incense, spices of all kinds, India cottons and cachemeres. England begins to take part in these exchanges, in which she will find in future great advantage. Kosseir, however, whatever may be its commercial prosperity, will be in its relations to India nothing more than a second, so to speak, of Suez. This latter port, by its greater vicinity to Europe, and from the possibility of establishing communications with the Mediterranean by renewing the ancient canal of Ptolemy, will always continue to be of greater importance than Kosseir. In the present state of things, the Arabian ships cannot overcome, like those of Europe, the difficulties of navigation which occur at the north of the Red Sea at certain periods of the year. Kosseir, beside its immediate openings into Said and Nubia, would offer them also not less important communications with Lower Egypt, as well as the Mediterranean.

As may be imagined, England could not neglect the numerous advantages presented by this commercial station. The consular agent, therefore, seconds with all his efforts the transportation to the Nile of travellers and goods, which the steamboats from India land at Kosseir, before going to Suez. We have seen arrive in immediate succession merchant ships from Bombay, from Calcutta, and even from London. Some of these vessels, after having terminated their voyage at Suez, afterwards return to complete their lading of corn at the port of Kossier, where Mehemet Ali has given the most formal orders to assist all commercial relations. The impulse once given, the French government has not delayed to appoint a consular agent to give assistance to those of our citizens who reside in this region. The same has been done with regard to Kenne, situated, as I observed, at the extremity of the valley of Kosseir, corresponding to the Nile.

"We possess at Thebes, which is some leagues below, an advantage which we cannot pass over in silence. It is a great house, which our government has built on the colonnade of the temple. This house, after

More

having been used by the officers of the Luxor, who were employed to transport the obelisk to Paris, remained at the disposition of our consul general at Alexandria, who kept there a guardian or protector. It is a foresight for which we ought to render thanks where it is due. over, strangers and natives receive there equally a cordial hospitality. But according to a rule wisely established, whoever presents himself at this consular station, the keeper has orders to exhibit no flag but that of the French nation. I shall leave here in a few days for the cataracts of the Nile. My next letter will be dated at Aboukir, in Nubia. "Yours, &c. &c."

THE MINES OF ALMADEN, IN SPAIN.

THESE mines of quicksilver, in New Castile, have been worked for at least twenty-two centuries, as Theophrastus speaks of their renowned cinnabar; and the Spanish engineers of the present day have declared that their ascertained contents are still so great, that they will afford a yearly supply at the present rate of 22,000 quintals for at least five hundred years to come. One of the most recent improvements consists in a return to ancient workings in the grand valley of Sisapo, described by Pliny, (that of Valde-Azogues,) where the Romans burrowed superficially, like so many rabbits, (not knowing how to extract the water if they sank deeper,) until they pulled down the side of the hill, and completely interrupted their own scratchings. After thirty years of toil, frequently interrupted by war and want of funds, the present miners have hit upon the original and almost untouched vein of fourteen feet in breadth, and here also, as well as in Almaden and Almadenejos, their works are in full activity. They are carried on in a very old-fashioned style, partly from the natural difficulties connected with the locality, partly from the

unhealthy nature of the work, and partly from the great disinclination to change old customs, which marks the Spanish character so strongly. The isolation of the site may be judged of from the fact, that the roads around are in the same condition that they were in in the days of Theophrastus, that is to say, in a perfect state of nature, and that the metallic produce is borne to Seville, a journey of between three and four days, a lomo; that is, literally on the loins of mules, for carriages of any kind are yet an unheard-of invention in those rocky regions. The injurious effects of the labor on the health of the miners are, indeed, serious and lamentable. Formerly condemned felons were employed in great numbers there, and even paid highly to induce them to exert themselves; but they did little excepting mischief, setting fire to the mines in 1752, and discrediting the honest calling of the miner. The administradors long and loudly complained of their inefficiency, and of the want of willing, active, industrious hands to carry on the work. The measures adopted, in consequence, by the arbitrary government of that period, were very characteristic of the system which reduced Spain to the wreck of an empire, without ships, colonies, commerce, or a dollar in her treasury; the free and guiltless peasantry of the surrounding districts were impressed and driven perforce to labor in the mines in society with the felons! This could not last, for human sympathies are stronger than the caprices of courtly political economists. The peasantry gradually continued to run away and leave the mines to the care of the felons and the barbarous government that knew not how to avail itself of the labor of free men. The succeeding Ministry made, however, a "great step in reform." Finding that the neighboring peasantry were, forewarned by experience, abandoning all connection with the mines from the dread of forced labor, attempts at colonization were made, and individuals were induced to come from Arragon by the promise of high wages and certain valuable privileges, such as exemption from taxation, both local and public, from service in the army, &c. The Arragonese, however, finding themselves attacked by the serious and unknown diseases induced by working in the mercurial vapors, speedily abandoned their labors and privileges and returned home again. The felons were, therefore, still kept in requisition until the year 1801, when they were shipped off to the presidio at Ceuta, exactly forty-nine years after they had set fire to the mines, and stopped the workings for a couple of seasons; during which extensive era (comprising two generations,) they had been endeavoring, unsuccessfully, to convince the government that they were the most unprofitable laborers in existence. At length the revolution came, and with it glimmerings of the unprofitableness of contending with nature. Now, the mines are all worked on the principle of free labor, well paid and willingly exerted, under difficulties and trials to health almost incredible.

The following passages, taken from a memoir written by Don Rafael Cabanillas, late Director-General of Mines, in 1837, respecting the perils of health and life to which the miners are exposed, will be read with interest :

"As these mines have augmented in extension, and their annual duce in mercury has gone on increasing successively, the population of Al