CHAPTER XIV.
Alexandria--Keeping quarantine--Want of arrangement in the quarantine house--Bad water--Fumigating of the rooms--Release-- Aspect of the city--Departure by boat for Atfe--Mehemet Ali--Arrival at Atfe--Excellence of the Nile water--Good-nature of the Arab women--The Delta of the Nile--The Libyan desert--The pyramids-- Arrival at Cairo.
At first we could only perceive the tops of masts, behind which low objects seemed to be hiding as they rose from the sea.

In a little time a whole forest of masts appeared, while the objects before mentioned took the shape of houses peering forth amongst them.

At length the land itself could be distinguished from the surrounding ocean, and we discerned hills, shrubberies, and gardens in the vicinity of the town, the appearance of which is not calculated to delight the traveller, for a large desert region of sand girdles both city and gardens, giving an air of dreariness to the whole scene.
We cast anchor between the lighthouse and the new hospital.

No friendly boat was permitted to approach and carry us to the wished- for shore; we came from the land of the plague to enter another region afflicted with the same scourge, and yet we were compelled to keep quarantine, for the Egyptians asserted that the Syrian plague was more malignant than the variety of the disease raging among them.

Thus a compulsory quarantine is always enforced in these regions, a circumstance alike prejudicial to visitors, commerce, and shipping.
We waited with fear and trembling to hear how long a period of banishment in the hospital should be awarded us.