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

MAHATTA. 181
our hands in the excess of their exultation at
having thus surmounted all our difficulties ; and
in less than an hour everything was replaced in
the Swift, and we were progressing towards
Mahatta, where we anchored for the night.
This is a little port close to the island of
Philse, and is the place from whence travellers
who have left their Dahabiehs at Es-souan, and
have avoided the Cataract by going round by
land, take a smaller boat for the rest of the voy-
age up the river— a plan undoubtedly involving
less risk, but which I rejoice not to have adopted,
as it would have precluded our seeing the First
Cataract, which certainly surpasses every other
part of the Nile in a picturesque point of view,
and equals in wild and rugged boldness any river
scenery that I have ever seen in any part of the
world. The Cataracts of the Danube, the famous
Eisen-Thor, are not to be compared to it, al-
though flowing through a far more romantic and
beautiful country.
Shortly after our arrival at Mahatta, a large
boat came alongside of us laden with slaves,
on their way from Kordafar and Sennaar to
Cairo. They had been taken as soi-disant pri-
soners of war, and are the property of Moham-
med Ali, to whom they are now being conveyed