A voyage up the Nile may be considered as presenting an epitome of the moral history of man.  We meet at almost every stage with the monuments of his superstition, his tyranny, or his luxury; but with few memorials of his ingenuity directed with a view to real utility.  We also every where behold the traces of the vengeance of Almighty Justice upon his crimes.  Everywhere on the banks of the ancient river we behold cities, once famous for power and luxury, a desolation, and dry like a wilderness; and temples once famous, and colossal idols once feared, now prostrate and confounded with the dust of their worshippers.  “The flocks lie down in the midst thereof:  the cormorant and bittern lodge in the temples and palaces.  Their voice sings in the windows, and desolation is in the thresholds.”

The peoples who now occupy the territories of nations extinct or exterminated have profited neither by their history nor their fate.  What was once a land occupied by nations superstitious and sensual is now inhabited by robbers and slaves.  The robbers have been expelled or slain, and the oppressed peasant is emancipated by the arms of the nation who avenged the cause of Heaven upon the degenerate Greeks, but who nevertheless have derived neither instruction nor warning from their downfall and subjugation.  The Nile meantime, which has seen so many nations and generations rise and disappear, still flows and overflows, to distribute its fertilizing waters to the countries on its borders:  like the Good Providence, which seems unwearied in trying to overcome the ingratitude of Man by the favors of Heaven.

On my arrival at the camp, I was informed of the particulars of the progress of the victorious son of the distinguished Meheromet Ali from Wady Haifa to Meroe.  Before his march every thing had submitted or fallen.  All attempts to arrest his progress had proved as unavailing as the obstacles opposed by the savage rocks of the Cataracts of the Nile to the powerful course of that beneficent and fertilizing river.

His Excellence, as said before, set out from Wady Haifa on the 26th of Zilhadge last.  In ten days of forced march he arrived at New Dongola.  A little beyond this village, the Selictar, at the head of a detachment of about four hundred men, surprised and dispersed about fifteen hundred of the enemy, taking many of their horses and camels.  Four days’ march beyond New Dongola, the Pasha, at the head of the advance guard of the army, came up with the main body of the Shageias and their allies, strongly posted on the side of a mountain near a village called Courty, on the westerly bank of the river.  The Pasha at this juncture had with him but six hundred cavalry and some of the Abbadies mounted on dromedaries, of whom we had about five hundred with the army, but none of his cannon.  The enemy advanced to the combat with loud screams and cries, and with great fury.  The Abbadies could not withstand their charge, and were driven rearward.  At this critical instant, his Excellence gave the order, and the cavalry of the Pasha charged and poured in the fire of their carabines and pistols.  After a conflict of no long duration, the cavalry of the enemy fled in dismay, while those who fought on foot fell on their faces, throwing their shields over their heads to secure them from the tramp of the cavalry, and implored mercy.