I find also in the Egyptian Decade, that, on the first complementary day of the year VI., Fourier communicated to the Institute the description of a machine designed to promote irrigation, and which was to be driven by the power of wind.

This work, so far removed from the ordinary current of the ideas of our colleague, has not been printed.  It would very naturally find a place in a work of which the Expedition to Egypt might again furnish the subject, notwithstanding the many beautiful publications which it has already called into existence.  It would be a description of the manufactories of steel, of arms, of powder, of cloth, of machines, and of instruments of every kind which our army had to prepare for the occasion.  If, during our infancy, the expedients which Robinson Crusoe practised in order to escape from the romantic dangers which he had incessantly to encounter, excite our interest in a lively degree, how, in mature age, could we regard with indifference a handful of Frenchmen thrown upon the inhospitable shores of Africa, without any possible communication with the mother country, obliged to contend at once with the elements and with formidable armies, destitute of food, of clothing, of arms, and of ammunition, and yet supplying every want by the force of genius!

The long route which I have yet to traverse, will hardly allow me to add a few words relative to the administrative services of the illustrious geometer.  Appointed French Commissioner at the Divan of Cairo, he became the official medium between the General-in-Chief and every Egyptian who might have to complain of an attack against his person, his property, his morals, his habits, or his creed.  An invariable sauvity of manner, a scrupulous regard for prejudices to oppose which directly would have been vain, an inflexible sentiment of justice, had given him an ascendency over the Mussulman population, which the precepts of the Koran could not lead any one to hope for, and which powerfully contributed to the maintenance of friendly relations between the inhabitants of Cairo and the French soldiers.  Fourier was especially held in veneration by the Cheiks and the Ulemas.  A single anecdote will serve to show that this sentiment was the offspring of genuine gratitude.

The Emir Hadgey, or Prince of the Caravan, who had been nominated by General Bonaparte upon his arrival in Cairo, escaped during the campaign of Syria.  There existed strong grounds at the time for supposing that four Cheiks Ulemas had rendered themselves accomplices of the treason.  Upon his return to Egypt, Bonaparte confided the investigation of this grave affair to Fourier.  “Do not,” said he, “submit half measures to me.  You have to pronounce judgment upon high personages:  we must either cut off their heads or invite them to dinner.”  On the day following that on which this conversation took place, the four Cheiks dined with the General-in-Chief.  By obeying the