A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

DEPARTURE. 109
contingent chances of such hap-hazard meetings,
my Cairo banker has furnished me with the
means of getting letters to him, through his
correspondents, from one or two places between
Cairo and the First Cataract; so that, between
these two resources, I think I shall manage to
keep you au courant of our adventures (should
any befall us) in our transit to the Upper coun-
try.
We embarked on the 10th, as I told you ^ve
should do, and it was with no small degree of
regret that I quitted Cairo. The kindness I
had experienced there, the number of things I
had left unseen, and the enjoyment I had de-
rived from those that I had seen, all combined
to render me unwilling to leave it so soon.
But, on the other hand, the reasons for a speedy
departure were cogent ; the northerly winds w^ere
blowing—the season for their being replaced by
the southerly ones was approaching—and, above
all, the Dahabieh and her crew w^ere hired at
a daily expense, which had commenced ; —
a
vulgar and grovelling consideration, you will
say, for the winding up of my argument — but
alas! in what circumstance in life does not the
odious " six-and-eightpenny principle " intrude
its dirty influence, forcing us to calculate wliere