Lewis IX of France, commonly called St. Lewis, is said by some
to have, built it in the time of the croisades.: others ascribe it to
Keycfc bey, about four centuries ago. Most probably it was
erected in the time of the holy wars, and repaired, with the addition
of portholes, by Keyck. Opposite to it was another castle,
intended in conjunction with it to defend the entrance of the
Nile. The city itself is without fortifications.
In this part of Egypt we have striking evidence of the importance
of an industrious population to the fertility of the land.
All the tract between the bolbitine branch of the Nile and what
was once the canopic formerly belonged to the Delta, abounded
with people, and was by no means inferiour in fruitfulness to any
other part of this most fertile portion of . the country. War
and massacre, despotism and tyranny, fanaticism and ignorance,
thinned the numbers of the inhabitants, and palsied the industry
of those who were left. By degrees the fertile mould disappeared,
and gave way to barren sand; even the western arm of the river
itself was choked up, and converted in part into a stagnant saltwater
marsh; and the whole tract, with the land, once fruitful
likewise, that skirted it on the side of Lybia, is now almost an uninhabited
desert, two spots excepted, Rosetto and. Alexandria.
Here we still see the effects of industry amid the surrounding
waste. Such of the land near Alexandria as continues to be watered
by it’s canal retains much of it’s ancient character: and the
immediate vicinity of Rosetto, the inhabitants of which are the
least fanatic, and the least exposed to the scourge of tyranny, of
any in Egypt, is a delicious garden.