This expedition has been perfectly successful; and the conquest of the extensive and fertile countries, which, in the reign of Candace, repulsed the formidable legions of Rome, has been effected at an expense not greater than the blood of about two hundred soldiers.

The principal cause of a success so extraordinary, at such a price, has been the humanity and good faith of the Pasha Ismael towards those provinces that submitted without fighting.  Perfect security of person and property was assured to the peaceable, and severe examples were made of those few of the soldiery, who, in a very few instances, presumed to violate it.  The good consequences of this deportment toward the people of these countries have been evident.  All have seen that those who have preferred peace before war have had peace without war, and that those who preferred war before peace have not had peace but at the price of ruin.

The destruction or disarmament of the brigands, who have heretofore pillaged those countries with impunity—­the establishment of order and tranquility—­the security now assured to the peasants and the caravans—­and the annexment of so many fine provinces and kingdoms to the sway of the Viceroy of Egypt,[2] are not the only consequences of this expedition that will give him glory.

This expedition has laid open to the researches of the geographer and the antiquarian a river and a country highly interesting, and hitherto imperfectly known to the civilized world.  The Nile, on whose banks we have marched for so many hundred miles, is the most famous river in the world, for the uncertainty of its source and the obscurity of its course.  At present this obscurity ceases to exist, and before the return of the Pasha Ismael this uncertainty will probably be no more.  The countries we have traversed are renowned in history and poetry as the land of ancient and famous nations, which have established and overthrown mighty empires, and have originated the religions, the learning, the arts, and the civilization of nations long since extinct; and who have been preceded by their instructors in the common road which every thing human must travel.

This famous land of Cush and Saba, at present overawed by the camps of the Osmanii, has presented to our observation many memorials of the power and splendor of its ancient masters.  The remains of cities once populous—­ruined temples once magnificent—­colossal statues of idols once adored, but now prostrated by the strong arms of time and truth—­and more than a hundred pyramids, which entomb the bodies of kings and conquerors once mighty, but whose memory has perished, have suspended for awhile the march of our troops—­have attracted the notice of the Franks, who voyage with the army with the favor and the protection of the Pasha,[3] and which doubtless ere long, by engaging the attention and researches of men of learning, will unite the names of Mehemmed Ali and Ismael his son with the history and monuments of this once famous and long secluded land, in a manner that will make the memory of both renowned and inseparable.