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ANNUAL REGISTAR

and that the Russians should still persist in the exorbitancy of their demands, they may possibly find the Turkish army at their next meeting, in a very different situation from that in which they last saw it. The advantages to the Turks from so long a suspension of arms, are indeed so obvious, that it is not to be imagined it could have escaped the penetration of the Russians, and we must therefore conclude that they had sufficient motives for thinking it equally necessary to themselves.

While Ali Bey's faithful friend and ally, the Chiek Daher, was exerting the utmost industry and valour in making a conquest for him of Syria, he lost the kingdom of Egypt himself, by as sudden a revolution as that by which he 
obtained it. We have formerly hazarded an opinion, that the barbarity and treachery of the natives, together with the factious, cruel, and turbulent disposition of the great lords or princes, would probably prove as great obstacles to his establishing of a permanent government, as even the hostile opposition of the Ottoman power. The event has for this time justified the conjecture, and he owes the loss of Egypt, and the Turks the recovery of it, to his 
brother-in-law, Mahomed Bey Aboudaab.

This man, who like Ali Bey himself, and the rest of the Egyptian chiefs, had been originally a slave, owned his liberty and fortune entirely to him. It may be just 
necessary to observe here, that though the Mamaluck system with respect to the crown, was of course abolished upon the conquest of the kingdom by the Turks, it has 
notwithstanding (it is said) been preserved in its full vigour, by the great chieftains or lords of the country, none of whom, strange and unnatural as it may seem, can be succeeded by any of his children, or by any other person, who is not, or has not been, in actual slavery. The Arabian chieks, who are dispersed all over Egypt, do not come within this description, they being the natural and hereditary princes of their tribes, they are however obliged to pay a small sum of money to government, upon each renewal of the succession.

It fortuned that among a number of Georgian women who had been purchased for his seraglio, Ali Bey had discovered one of his own sisters; upon this discovery he bestowed her upon Mahomed Aboudaab, who had first been his slave, and was then become his favourite; and whom he afterwards raised to the dignity of a bey. Some jealousies having arisen between them since the late revolution, Aboudaab and some other beys were banished from court, who having retired to the Upper Egypt, began there to form a strong faction against Ali Bey.

Ayoub, the governor of Girge, and nephew to Ali Bey, commanded at that time in Upper Egypt, or what the Arabians call the province of Saydi. This governor, finding that he was not able to subdue Aboudaab by force, intended to have circumvented him by treachery; he accordingly pretended to become himself mal-content; and had several conferences with Aboudaab, whose injuries he seemed highly to resent, and exclaimed as loudly as any body against the oppression and tyranny of Ali Bey.

By these means, he hoped to have
found

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For the YEAR 1772.

found an opportunity to suprize and cut off Aboudaab; but not depending entirely upon this part of his scheme, he sent secret intelligence to his uncle of all that passed, with a requisition to send such a number of soldiers 
expeditiously and privately into the province, as would enable him, if it failed of success, to put his design in execution otherwise. The caution and sagacity of Aboudaab, was however superior to his artifices, and he fell into the trap which he had laid. That bey, having either seen through his designs, or obtained a knowledge of them by other means, invited him as usual to his camp, where he without ceremony stabbed him in his tent.

This transaction having cut off all means of reconciliation between Ali Bey and Aboudaab, and the latter now finding himself entire master of the Upper Egypt, he no longer hesitated, but marched with a considerable army towards Cairo. Ali Bey sent most of his forces, under the command of nine beys, to oppose him; but these being entirely defeated,

April 30th. 1772.

and the conqueror marching fast to Cairo, he thought proper to sly from thence with his treasures and a small retinue, and encountered the greatest dangers and difficulties, 
before he was able to gain the friendly shelter of the Chiek Daher in Syria. This new revolution caused the greatest joy in Constantinople, and a sirman was immediately dispatched to Egypt, by which Mahomed Aboudaab was appointed commander of that country. We may judge by this transaction, that Aboudaab having no strength of his own able to cope with Ali Bey, set out upon the principle of restoring the legal government, and that the natural pride and jealousy of the great lords, made many of them disposed to return to it, rather than own a submission to one of their equals.

The reception which Ali Bey received from the Chiek Daher, was such as the unfortunate, particularly fugitive princes, seldom experience. As this Arabian prince, seems to be one of the most extraordinary characters of any age, it may not be improper to take notice of some of those particularities, which same, at this distance, has reported of him. He is represented, as possessed of those great and mixed qualities, which would do honour to a hero in the most military age, and render a citizen respected and admired in the most civilized. At the age of ninety-three years, he has all the courage, activity, and vigour of five-and-twenty. It is said he was scarcely ever worsted in action, though the greater part of his life had been spent in that petty desultory kind of war, in which the erratic and barbarous tribes of those wide regions are for ever engaged; and which, though unattended with glory, is filled with action, danger, and enterprize. His fidelity, friend-ship, and firmness, are conspicuously shewn in his conduct to Ali Bey; as his great mental powers, and his military abilities are, in the long war which he has carried on merely upon their strength, being obliged to create, if we may be allowed to use the expression, both armies and resourced; and in which almost all the cities and towns of the ancient Phenicia, Palestine, and the South of Syria, have been repeatedly
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