and with many fhips." - Towards the termination of the fourth great empire, as broken up by the infidel hofts, "the King of the fouth". the powers fituated to the fouth of France, whether Spain, or Portugal, or Italy, fhall make an effort, though ineffectual, to oppofe the enemy; and the northern powers, Britain, and Auftria, and Ruffia, hall come against him with their fleets and armies, impetuous and irrefiftible as a whirlwind. v. 40. Nevertheless, he (the enemy) fhall enter into the countries, and fhall overflow and pafs over-fhall not only over-run Holland and Italy, and many parts of Germany, and other countries in their vicinity; but, in fpite of fo powerful a confederacy, shall pafs over from Europe into Afia and Africa. V. 41, 42. "He shall enter alfo into the glorious land”—shall make an expedition into Paleftine, and "overthrow many countries;" but chiefly the land of Egypt"-though the tribes of Arabia, for all ages invincible," fhall efcape out of his hand-even Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon." v. 43. "But he fhall have power over the treasures of gold and of filver, and over all the precious things of Egypt, and the Lybians and Ethiopians fhall be at his steps." He fhall deprive Egypt of her wealth, both by favage rapacity and infinuating addrefs, and fhall fo establish himself there, by various artifices, that he shall open a correspondence with Ethiopia and Lybia, carry on commercial projects, and ftrengthen his army by reinforcements from the natives. V. 44, 45. tidings out of the caft, and out of the north, fhall trouble him; there fore, he fhall go forth with great fury to deftroy, and utterly to make away many and he fhall plant the tabernacles of his palaces between the feas, in the glorious holy mountain; yet he fhall come to an end, and none fhall help him." These laft two verfes of the chapter (prefixed to this difcourfe) contain a prophecy, which, according to not of the commentators, remains yet to be fulfilled.

"But

Mr. Mede, and Bifhop Newton, have explained thefe verfes by conjectures, agreeable to their preconceptions of the meaning of the context-each according to his own hypothefis; the former imagining the restoration of Judah and Ifrael from the north and fouththe latter obferving Perfia and Ruffia arifing to take vengeance on the Turk.

Under the idea that one of thefe writers, widely as they differ from each other, muft be as diftant from the truth as can poilibly be, I fhall alfo endeavour to fuit my comment to my preceding illuftrations of the facred text. The conjecture, indeed, is fufficiently obvious, that the tidings out of the eaft," which " fhall trouble" the French, may be the intelligence of the bad fuccefs of their machinations in India, and that "the tidings from the north" may be the news of the fuccefs of Auftria, perhaps in conjunction with Rul. Struck by the intelligence of fuch events, the leader of the French armies in Egypt, fhall "go forth to make away many," and shall encamp on Mount Sion, or Olivet, or fome mountain of the Holy Land, fituated between the feas, the Dead fea on the east, and the Mediterranean on the weft: "" yet he fhall come to his end, and none shall deliver him; for he fhall profper only till the indignation

be

be accomplished." Irenæus intimates, that it is fafer to wait for the completion of a prophecy than to indulge in conjecture concerning it. This is fufficiently true. But when great events, fuch as are now tranfacting before our eyes, fo imperiously call to them the attention "of all nations and languages," the pious Chriftian referring them to the Almighty ruler of the world, expects to find some shadowings of them in thofe facred writings, which mark out, through ages, the ordinations of his providence, as they prefigure the empires of the earth, rifing in fucceffion and paffing away. Affured, indeed, that three of thofe empires have been long fince diffolved, and that the fourth is now in exiftence, or is but recently broken up-obferving, at this inftant, revolutions as ftriking and portentous as ever were exhibited on the face of the globe--it is impoffible to fupprefs the curiofity to enquire, whether thefe revolutions are, equally with thofe of former times, the object of prophetic delineation. Thus enquiring, and finding in the very writings which Mede calls "the great Almanac of Prophecy," a defcription regularly and completely applicable to the events in queftion, can I be judged prefumptuous in dropping fuch conjectures as I have hazarded on the fubject?-There is a potentate predicted, arbitrary and atheistical, who ball magnify him. felf above every God: fuch are the French, and fuch have they done. There is a perfonage, or nation, foretold, who shall fet at naught the matrimonial connection :-fuch do the French. There is a people foretold, who shall amafs the treasures of the vanquished, and, with pompous ceremony, devote them to the god of fortreffes :fuch has been the cafe with France. There is a nation prefigured, that, dfpifing the rights of property, fhall divide her territorial acquifitions among the conquerors-fuch have the French done in numerous instances. It is predicted, that the fouthern and northern powers; the firft but feebly-the fecond, with confiderable force, fhall refift the inroads of the enemy :-fuch has been the cafe with Spain and Portugal, and Italy, on the fouth; and with Germany and Britain on the north. It is prophefied, that this potentate shall yet prevail, for a certain period-palling from its own divifion of the world into diftant regions :-such have the French done. It is foretold, that he fall enter Egypt, and shall stretch out his band over the neighbouring countries :-fuch, too, have the French done, with the rapidity of a cloud, rufhing before the wind. And in the prophecy yet unfulfilled it is affirmed, that tidings out of the caft, and out of the north, fhail trouble him; and that, therefore, he thall go forth to make away many-that he fhall encamp on the mountains of Ifrael; and that, there, he shall meet his fate, cut off from all his friends, and a prey to defperation. If, then, the leader of the French thall really receive fuch intelligence from the caft and north, as I have already conjectured; if he really make an expedition to Jerufalem, and encamp on fome neighbouring mountain; and, if he fall there we may, I think, triumphantly conclude," that this prophetic paffage is applicable to the French, as that apoftate and infidel fpirit which is defined to overthrow the fourth and laft fcriptural empire of the world."

The Rife and Decline of the Empire of the Mameloues.

THE

BY JOSEPH MOSER, ESQ.

HE late ftupendous, though ill-conducted and ill-concerted; attempt of the French to form a fettlement on the Banks of the Nile, and revive the ancient glory of Egypt, having, upon its first promulgation, excited general aftonifhment, and, in its fubfequent operation, general curiofity, has naturally turned the eyes of the greater part of Europe, particularly the inhabitants of this king. dom, towards the coaft of the Mediterranean, in order to obferve the progrefs of a people who, elated with victories over nations dif pirited and defencelefs, and enriched by indifcriminate plunder, feemed, at the acme of their enthufiafm, to grafp the dominion of the globe.

How far phyfical and moral circumftances have contributed to fruftrate this fcheme for improving the condition of the Egyptians How far the refources of thefe rapacious invaders have been cut off by the fignal, brilliant, and decifive victory obtained by the British fleet-Whether the annihilation of their own has funk their spirits and repreffed their enthufiafin? it is not the bufinefs of this fpeculation to enquire. If I were to hazard a conjecture, to which,' perhaps, hope is the father," I should say, that the tide which feems to have floated them in blood from one fcene of devaftation, from îne system of destruction, to another, is turned; and that their veffel, like that which was impelled upon the magnetic rock,* is in danger of being totally diffevered, and the nefarious crew left without a fingle plank, to fink in the vortex of their crimes and enormities.

While the eyes of the greater part of the world are, as I have obferved, turned upon this expedition-while we are anxious for the events of a war, carried on in a province which had, for ages, been unaffiled by any European power; although the mode in which it has been conducted, on the part of the French, is exactly fimilar to their general practice, to plunder and destroy the innocent inhabitants of thofe countries that are fo unhappy as to become the objects of their cupidity; yet it has, in its progrefs, brought under obfervation opponents of characters different from those that they have hitherto met, and awakened curiofity to enquire after a people who, fatisfied with their own attainments, their own government had long repofed in fecurity, unnoticed by any, except the fcholar, in his claffical refearches; the antiquarian, in his conjectures upon their ancient mythology, and the mystery in which their original is enveloped; the ftudent, whofe genius leads him to admire, and to explore, thofe fublime veftiges of the arts, thofe fymbols of ancient magnificence, with which the country abounds; or the philofopher who, in his arduous difquifition, endeavours, from natural caufes, to account for thofe very fingular aerial and aqueous properties which

* Arabian Tales.

have, at different periods, contributed to the distraction or the fer tility of Egypt.

Within this contracted pale our knowledge of the Egyptians was circumfcribed. The events of the expedition to which I have alluded, particularly a late publication,* has made us better ac quainted with the inhabitants of a land which feems to be again emerging from obfcurity, and has induced us to enquire into the history of thofe people and their connections, particularly the Mamelours, a fet of men, who have, it is believed, with more fuccefs than the French, although they do juftice to their courage, are willing to allow, defended their country againft the incurfions of its rapacious invaders.

In the course of this expedition, concomitant circumstances have made the different cafts or tribes of the inhabitants of Egypt familiar to our ideas. With the Arabs we had long been acquainted, but even these are brought into a new point of view. Of the Bedouin: we know lefs, and of the Mameloucs, excepting when we perufed the Hiftory of Ages, which were fuppofed to be funk in ignorance, and of nations, whofe events feldom entered into the courfe of claffical enquiry, and whofe barbarity, confequently, afforded little temptation to the ftudent to deviate from the fixed and fettled rules of education, we had fcarcely heard the name.+

The appellation of Mammalukes, Mamalucs, or Mamelours, is derived from the Arabic, the fignification of which is, subject, servant, or foldier. They were a dynafty that reigned for a confiderable period of time in Egypt, and were first introduced into that country by Saladine, who, when he had it in contemplation to befiege Jerufa

*Correfpondence from the army of Buonaparte, in Egypt.

+ Dr. Johnson, (Rambler, vol. 111. P. 105.) fpeaking of Knolles, whom he obferves, in his Hiftory of the Turks, had displayed all excellencies of which narration could admit, when he has, with a little limitation, commended his style, and; unequivocally, the artful arrangement of events and defcriptions, the latter of which, he fays, are without minuteness, as the digreffions are without oftentation, concludes his praife with an opinion which I had, in fome degree, adopted before this paffage came to my recollection :

Nothing, (fays he,) could have funk this author (Knolles) into obscurity, but the remotenefs and barbarity of the people whofe hiftory he relates. It is feldom that all circumftances concur to happiness and fame. The nation that produced this great hiftorian has the grief of feeing his genius employed upon a foreign and uninterefting fubject, and that writer who might have fecured perpetuity to his name, by a hiftory of his own country, has expofed himself to oblivion, by recounting enterprizes and revolutions, of which none defire to be

informed."

Remotenefs, it must be observed, with refpect to the criticism of Dr. Johnson, is a word of pretty extenfive import and fignification; it may, in diftance, mean ten, or ten thoufand, miles. When applied to time, it may mean a year, a century, or a series of ages, reaching to the anti-deluvian world; in fact, like Barbarity, its meaning depends upon comparifon, "Quo virtus, quo ferat error?" As in the extremes of virtue and vice, it is difficult to fay where the one ftops and the other begins. Recent events have induced us to confider the people of Egypt as no longer remote, and, certainly, when compared to the French, no longer barbarians

lem,

lem, very naturally endeavoured to collect the most forcible means to accomplish fo defirable an end, and, in confequence, obferving that the ancient inhabitants of Egypt were, from their effeminate mode of education, and the quiet and tranquil habits of their lives, much fitter for thofe occupations in which they delighted, namely, the arts, merchandize, and mechanics, than military tactics and military toil, he refolved, as little as poffible, to employ or depend upon them.

This refolution ftimulating him to procure a hardier race of foldiers, he therefore commiffioned agents to treat with the Circaffians, by the Lake of Mæotis, near Tawrica Cherfonefas, whence, about the year 1176, they purchased more than a thousand flaves. Men inured to hardship, nurtured in the lap of toil and danger, and bred, from their infancy, to war, which was, to them, rather an instinct than a fcience, as the continual incurfions of the Tartars rendered felf-defence, in their fituation, absolutely neceffary.

These flaves Saladine trained to military difcipline, and, at the fame time that he made them renounce Chriftianity, had them inftructed in the Mahometan religion; and, although he prohibited them from marrying, he allowed them an unbounded licence with refpect to defultory gallantry. What progrefs they made in the doctrines of the Alcoran, whether the tenets of that facred volume effectually eradicated all their first principles, is uncertain; but it is certain that, in time, they became excellent foldiers, and that the military glory of Saladine, which was feebly fupported by the native Egyptians, expanded in the hands of the Mameloucs, who extended their conquefts on every fide, until, pervading the Holy Land, they entered in the plain of Askelon.

It confiderably raised their credit that they were abfent at the time of the fubfequent defeat of Saladine by Baldwin, being by a ftratagem which they could neither forefee nor prevent, drawn off to another part of the country; and their fame was ftill increased, by the victory which they foon after obtained near the spot on which their Monarch was defeated; a victory which obliged the Chriftians to confent to a truce, to which, perhaps, a grievous drought and famine not a little contributed.

Thefe Mameloucs, who were continually adding to their numbers, in procefs of time became naturalized to the country; and, as it has been obferved, they excelled the Egyptians in ftrength of body, in military difcipline, in their skill in horfemanship, and in courage; fo they, by the liberality of their Generals, and the plunder of cities and provinces, alfo excelled them in wealth.* In fact, their mode of education fitted them for the most dangerous and adventurous enter

In thefe advantages, particularly the latter, if we may credit Buonaparte, who entre nous, feems, like thofe iflanders mentioned in Diodorus Siculus, to have his tongue flit, i. e. a double tongue, the Mameloucs have not much degenerated; they leem, according to his account of them, to be as valiant, as alert, and, as he once faid, though he afterwards retracted, to be as rich, as formerly.

prizes,