JOURNAL

OF A

VOYAGE UP THE NILE,

MADE BETWEEN THE MONTHS OF

NOVEMBER, 1848, AND APRIL, 1849.

-His wandering step,

Obedient to high thoughts, has visited

The awful ruins of the days of old:

Athens, and Tyre, and Balbec, and the waste

Where stood Jerusalem, the fallen towers

Of Babylon, the eternal pyramids,

Memphis and Tliebes, and whatsoe'er of strange

Scupllured on alabaster obelisk,

Or jasper tomb, or mutilated sphinx,

Dark Ethiopia on her desert hills

Conceals. Among the ruined temples there,

Stupendous columns, and wild images

Of more than man, where marble demons watch

The Zodiac's brazen mystery, and dead men

Hang their mute thoughts on the mute walls around,

He lingered, poring on memorials

Of the world's youth, through the long burning day

Gazed on those speechless shapes, nor, when the moon

Filled the mysterious halls with floating shades

Suspended he that task, but ever gazed

And gazed, till meaning on his vacant mind

Flashed like strong inspiration, and he saw

The thrilling secrets of the birth of time.

Shbllbt—Alaator, or the Spirit of Solitude,

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The author of the following sheets, on his return from Egypt, a few weeks ago, found the previous pages of this book passing through the press. In repeated friendly conversations with the compiler, with whose views upon Egypt his own closely harmonize, he was able to communicate some facts of interest to him; and at his request, was induced to make the following brief narrative of a few commonplace incidents from his notes of his voyage up the Nile, and to place it at his disposal. Part of it is a mere transcript of notes made at the localities of which they speak. Under such circumstances, the writer hardly need stop to say, that the production lays no claim to the character of a finished literary work, or even of a full journal of the incidents of his travels or the objects of interest he saw. That friend has published it under the impression that a description of localities, furnished by an individual just from the Nile, would perhaps serve to impress more forcibly on the memory of readers, the more important monuments to which he has had occasion to refer, by associating them with places described in the following pages.

A word of apology is perhaps necessary for the space devoted to the temples and tombs. General descriptions of such objects are commonly little more than lumber; it was not, however, possible entirely to avoid it, and perhaps this part of the narrative may furnish a memorandum not altogether without its use to one about visiting Egypt.

Every candid student of Egyptian antiquities is aware, that too little is yet known to furnish a full proof of Scriptural chronology or history from the monuments alone; but the author is happy to add his humble testimony to the truth of the Bible, in the statement, that he has seen nothing in Egypt to shake his faith in that blessed volume: but, on the contrary, much to confirm it.

New-York, September, 1849.