and perhaps it affords one of the strongest proofs of the radical
excellence of human nature, that these should occasionally appear
among a set of men, whose education, as well as all the circumstances
amid which they are placed, tends in almost every way
to corrupt the mind, and deprave the heart. Many of these were
born of Christian parents, and a few among them are negroes :
but all have been brought hither from a foreign country as slaves,
and purchased in the market by some bey, who was once himself
a mamaluke. Whatever the boy may have been, as soon as he
is brought into the house of the bey, he is initiated into the faith
of his master by circumcision, taught to manage a horse, and instructed
in the use of arms, chiefly the javelin and the scymetar.
To excel in these, and to pay implicit obedience to his master,
who has early made him acquainted with a vice, from the very
mention of which every one who deserves the name of man turns
with abhorrence^ are the only objects of his regard; and by their
means he may hope to reach the height of power. When of a
proper age, and sufficiently expert in his exercises, the young
mamaluke considers himself as a soldier, a title he does not allow
to the turk who fights on foot; and never appears abroad but on
horseback, a privilege confined almost to himself, for on the horse
the Christian is forbidden to ride, and even the wealthy mussul-
man merchant or priest contents himself with the ass or mule.
The mamaluke who is so fortunate as to please his master
may expect, to be soon provided with some post, whence he is
promoted in proportion to the power and interest his patron possesses,
till at length he is created a bey himself. As all power