"Ramses II. is generally regarded as the Pharaoh of the oppression, and doubtless the Israelites suffered a great deal of persecution in his reign," the commander proceeded as he closed the Bible. "But the one who proposed in the verse I have read to 'get them up out of the land, was the successor of Ramses II., 'the new king over Egypt,' Merenptah, the son ofRamses, and now believed to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus. He reigned about 1325 yearsa.d.
"The Land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, is the north-eastern part of Egypt, the whole of it lying to the east of the Damietta branch of the Nile," continued the commander, using his pointer upon the map. "Through this region then, as now, there were fresh-water canals, by which the country was made very productive, and the people were very prosperous. The city of Ramses, built by the Israelites, was doubtless the most important in Goshen. It is the ancient Tanis, the ruins of which are still to be seen. Pithom, the other city mentioned in the Scripture, is here," and the speaker pointed it out. "It is quite near the Arabian Desert, and the present fresh-water canal runs within a few miles of it.
"With the birth of Moses, and the finding of the child in the ark or basket by the daughter of Pharaoh, and her adoption of it, you are all familiar; and the story is quite as interesting as any you can find in other books than the Bible. Though of the house of Levi, he became an Egyptian for the time; but he claimed his lineage, and became the leader of the Israelites, and conducted them out of Egypt.
"A great deal of study has been given by learned men to the route by which this was accomplished. Most of them agreed that he started from Tanis, or Ramses. On that narrow strip of land between the lake and the Mediterranean, which you have seenfrom the promenade, was one of the usual roads from Egypt into Asia, and was the one which led into Palestine, the Holy Land. Where Moses and his followers crossed the Red Sea is still an open question, though hardly such to devout people who accept literally the Bible as their guide in matters of faith and fact both. These accept the belief that the crossing of the Red Sea, with the miracles attending it, was in the portion near Suez.
"Heinrich Karl Brugsch, a learned German and eminent Egyptologist, born in Berlin in 1827, has constructed a theory in relation to the exodus of the Israelites which is more ingenious than reasonable to the pious reader of the Scripture. It would be hardly profitable for us to go into the details of his reasoning, though he uses the Bible as the foundation of his statements. There were two roads from Egypt to Palestine, the one mentioned, and one farther south, not so well adapted to caravans on account of the marshy country it traverses.
"The German savant believed they departed by the northern road. In the British Museum is a letter written on papyrus over three thousand years ago, in which an Egyptian writer describes his journey from Ramses in pursuit of two runaway servants. The days of the month are given; and his stopping-places were the same as those of the Israelites. (Exodus xii. 37): 'The children of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth;' and this is the region east of Goshen. (Exodus xiii. 20): 'And they journeyed from Succoth,and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness,' or the desert.
"This was also the route of the Egyptian letter writer. Then the pilgrims were commanded to turn, and encamp at a point between Migdol and the sea, (Exodus xiv. 2.) He found the fugitives had gone towards the wall, meaning the forts by which Egypt was defended from Asiatic enemies. Following the same route, the Israelites came to the Sarbonian Lake. This is a long sheet of water on the isthmus," said the commander, as he pointed it out on the map. "It was, for it no longer exists, separated from the Mediterranean by such a strip as that which you see here by Lake Menzaleh.
"Diodorus Siculus informs us that the Sarbonian Lake was filled with a rank growth of reeds and papyrus bushes, which made it very dangerous to travellers. Strong winds blew the sands of the desert over the surface, studded with leaves, so as to hide the water; and the traveller might walk upon it and sink to his death. The same ancient writer says that an army with which Artaxerxes, King of Persia, intended to invade Egypt, being unacquainted with this treacherous lake, got into it, and was lost.
"Brugsch believes this was the lake through which the Israelites passed, and that Pharaoh's army encountered a storm, were lost, and perished as did the Persian forces. But we must drop the subject here, though it may come up again when we arrive at Suez, where others believe the six hundred thousand Israeliteswent over dry shod, while Pharaoh and his hosts perished in the closing waters."
The company had certainly been deeply interested in the subject, and the commander retired from the rostrum with a volley of applause.
Captain Ringgold was very much delighted with the success which had attended his efforts to interest his passengers; for he never lost sight of the instructive feature of the voyage. None of his party were scientists in a technical sense in the studies which occupied them, though Dr. Hawkes and Professor Giroud were such in their occupation at home; but they were all well-educated persons in the ordinary use of the term.
They were not Egyptologists, philosophers, theologians, zoölogists, biblical critics, ethnologists, or devoted to any special studies; they were ordinary seekers after knowledge in all its varieties. The everyday facts, events, and scenes, as presented to them in their present migratory existence, were the staple topics of thought and study. Though none of the party ascended to the higher flights of scientific inquiry, the commander endeavored to make use of the discoveries and conclusions of the learned men of the present and the past.
He was eminently a practical man, and practical knowledge was his aim; and he endeavored to lead the conferences in this direction. The building ofthe piers at Port Said, and the construction of the canal, as meagrely described by the magnate of the Fifth Avenue, were the kind of subjects he believed in; and he had a sort of mild contempt for one who could discourse learnedly over a polype, and did not know the difference between a sea mile and a statute mile.
"Do you believe in the explanation of that Dutchman you mentioned, Captain Ringgold?" asked Mr. Woolridge, at the close of the conference.
"What Dutchman?" inquired the commander. "I do not remember that I alluded to any Dutchman."
"I mean the man who says that Pharaoh's army perished in the lake where the weeds and papyrus grew," the magnate explained.
"Brugsch? He was not a Dutchman; he was a German."
"It is all the same thing; I have been in the habit of calling a German a Dutchman."
"If you will excuse me, Mr. Woolridge, I think it is a very bad habit," added the commander with a deprecatory smile. "A German is not a Dutchman, any more than a Dutchman is a German; and I should as soon think of calling a full-blooded American a Chinaman, as a German a Dutchman."
"Of course you are right, Captain, though I am not alone in the use of the word," replied the magnate.
"But it is more common among uneducated people than with people of even fair education. I do notaccept Brugsch's explanation, but cling to the Bible story as I learned it in my childhood. I don't think Brugsch's explanation comes under the head of what is called the 'higher criticism,' or that it places him in the column of those who represent the 'advanced thought' of the present time; for he follows the Scripture record, and does not seek to invalidate it. But we are going to run into the basin, and it is time we were moving," added the commander, as he called the first officer, and ordered the anchor to be weighed.
"Do you have to pay to go through the canal, Captain Ringgold?" asked Mrs. Belgrave, after the commander had given his orders.
"Of course we do," replied the captain; and about all the party gathered around him to hear what he had to say. "As Mr. Woolridge said, the canal is good paying stock to the holders of the shares. It cost a vast sum of money, and it is worked and kept in running order at an immense expense."
"I asked a foolish question, and I might have known better," said the lady.
"Every vessel that goes through to Suez has to pay a round sum for the privilege."
"Do all ships have to pay the same amount?"
"Certainly not; for that would be very unfair. They pay by the ton; and every vessel carries a register, in which her tonnage is given. The Guardian-Mother's is 624 tons. About everything is French in this locality; and the rate charged is ten francs a ton,or a little less than two dollars. I shall have to pay a bill of $1,248 in our money."
"That looks like an enormous price," suggested Mrs. Woolridge.
"In addition to this charge, we have to pay from ten to twenty francs for a pilot, depending upon the tonnage, and the same for each passenger. Through the greater portion of the canal the speed of steamers is limited to five miles an hour; otherwise the swash of the propeller would injure the embankments on either side. It takes steamers about sixteen hours to go through to Suez."
"But that is over six miles an hour," Uncle Moses objected.
"The three lakes, making nearly thirty miles of the distance, are wide enough and deep enough to permit steamers to go ahead at full speed, which will more than make up the difference, and include the stay at Ismaïlia. There are sometimes unavoidable delays. A vessel may get aground, and bar the passage for a day or two. The canal is not in all places wide enough for one large steamer to pass another, and there are sidings, as on a single track railroad, where it can be done, a little more than three miles apart. Posts are set up every five kilometres to indicate the distances."
"Anchor aweigh, sir," reported the first officer.
"Heave it up," replied the captain, and went to the pilot-house.
The "Big Four" had gone on board of the Maud,and she got under way at the same time. The pilot was on board of the ship, and none was taken for the little steamer, which was regarded as the tender. Captain Scott had his plan of the harbor before him, and he could have taken his craft into the basin without any assistance; but he was required to follow the ship.
Port Said owes its existence to the canal, and without that it would amount to nothing. It is located on the eastern end of an island which is a part of the narrow neck of land which divides Lake Menzaleh from the Mediterranean. It was thought when it was laid out that it would become a considerable city; but it has not yet realized this expectation, though it has now a population of over seventeen thousand. Six thousand of this number are Europeans, the French predominating. The making of the harbor, or "Grand Basin Ismail" as it is called, was another difficult task for the canal company; for it has an area of 570 acres, which had to be excavated to the depth of twenty-six feet by dredging.
The Guardian-Mother, followed by the Maud, passed through the channel, which is marked by red and green lights, to the basin, where the former was moored at one of the walls. The town could not be seen by the tourists till the ship entered the basin, and then it was found to be a place of no small importance. It contains two good hotels, where one may board at one for three dollars a day, and at the other for two and a half.
It was necessary for the steamers to coal at this point, and the party went on shore. From the deck they could see up the principal street. The French post-office, for there is also an Egyptian, was close to the wharf; and they hastened to that, for most of them had written letters to their friends at home. It was still Egypt, and the place was true to its national character; for the travellers were immediately beset by a horde of beggars, and bakshish was still a popular clamor. The shops were like those of other regions, though they did not seem to be doing a very thriving trade; for the entire surrounding country was either a desert or a morass, and there were few to go shopping.
There was really nothing to be seen there, and the passengers soon returned to the ship, impatient to proceed on the passage through the canal; but the night was coming on, and the commander decided to make an early start the next morning, for he wished his charge to see the country as they passed through it, and especially the steamers on their way to India and China. After dinner the company gathered in the music-room; but it was observed that the commander and Dr. Hawkes were absent. They had remained in the cabin, and were in conversation.
"What is the present condition of your patient, Doctor?" asked the captain as soon as they were alone.
"He is doing very well, and is in a fair way to recover in a short time," replied the surgeon.
"After we get through the Red Sea, we strike out on a voyage of ten days or more, and I am not anxious to retain this villain on board," continued the captain. "I owe him nothing, though I shall treat him with common humanity. In a word, I wish to get rid of him as soon as possible."
"There is nothing in his present condition to prevent you from putting him on shore at any time,—to-night, if you are so disposed," replied Dr. Hawkes in decided terms.
"You would oblige me very much, Doctor, by broaching this subject to him. I suppose he has money, though I know nothing about it, and he can pay his way at one of the hotels here," suggested the captain.
"We had the United States Consul with us at dinner, as you are aware, and he can inform you whether or not there is a hospital here. I will see Mazagan at once, and do as you desire. I will see you in your cabin in half an hour," said the surgeon, as he went forward to the hospital.
Captain Ringgold went to the music-room, where the consul was enjoying himself in listening to Miss Blanche, who was giving him some account of the voyage; and she had just mentioned "The Battle of Khrysoko," of which the consul wished to know more. The captain called him aside, and proceeded to question him in regard to the care of the patient in the town.
"I have a wounded man on board, and I wish to get rid of him," he began.
"Wounded in the battle of which Miss Woolridge was telling me?" asked the official.
"Precisely so; but he is not of my party, and is the biggest scoundrel that ever went unhung;" and the commander gave a brief account of his relations to Mazagan. "Is there a hospital in Port Said?"
"None, except forfellahsand other laborers. If he is a respectable man, perhaps I can find accommodations for him at the Hotel de France," answered the consul. "I will go and see the landlord at once, and report to you in half an hour."
"Come to my cabin on the upper deck."
In less than the time he had stated he came back, and reported that the hotel would take him at sixty francs a week. While he was in the cabin the doctor presented himself.
"Does this patient require a nurse?" asked the consul.
"He does not. In the last two days he has greatly improved," replied the doctor, "though we keep a man near him to prevent him from doing any mischief."
It was settled that the patient should be sent on shore that night to the hotel, and the consul returned to the music-room.
"Mazagan protests against being sent ashore here; and I have no doubt he would do the same at Ismaïlia or Suez," said Dr. Hawkes. "He insists upon seeing you, and declares that he has important business with you. If you do not seriously object, perhaps that would be the easiest way to quiet him."
"Can he walk?" asked the commander.
"As well as you can, Captain. He has a lame shoulder; but he can help himself with his left hand, and I have put his right arm in a sling, to prevent him from using it," answered Dr. Hawkes.
Captain Ringgold struck his bell, and sent for Knott to conduct the patient to his cabin. In a few minutes Mazagan was seated in the chair he had occupied once before as a prisoner.
"You wish to see me?" the commander began rather curtly.
"I do, Captain Ringgold. You talk of sending me ashore at this place. I protest against it," said the prisoner; for such he was really.
"Do you intend to remain on board of my ship for an indefinite period?"
"Until you settle my account with you," answered the pirate, as self-possessed as though he had been the victor dealing with the vanquished.
"Don't say anything more to me about your account!" added the commander, fiercely for him. "Your protest is of no consequence to me, and I shall put you ashore to-night!"
"You don't know what you are doing, Captain Ringgold," said the wounded man, with a savage scowl on his face. "The Fatimé was old and worn out, or your tender could not have crushed in her side. Let me tell you that my noble master, the Pacha, ordered a new steam-yacht of a thousand tons a year ago; and if you treat me with this inhumanity, he will follow you all over the world till he obtains his revenge."
"Knott, take this villain away." Page 201."Knott, take this villain away." Page201.
"That is enough of this nonsense!" said the captain, springing from his chair, and calling for Knott, who was at the door.
"If you pay me the two hundred thousand francs, that will be the end of the affair," added the prisoner.
"I will never pay you a centime! Knott, take this villain away, and have him conveyed to the Hotel de France at once!" said the commander.
Knott obeyed the order, taking the pirate by the left arm. Mr. Boulong was instructed to carry out the order given. In five minutes more the Moor was marched up the quay between two seamen, and handed over to the landlord. At daylight the next morning the Guardian-Mother and the Maud sailed on their way through the canal; and nothing more was seen of Captain Mazagan.
The Grand Basin Ismail, at Port Said, is only an extension in breadth of the canal, and the Guardian-Mother had only to proceed on her course by the narrow water-way through the desert. The Maud followed her closely, having nothing to fear on account of the depth of the water; and even the ship had plenty under her keel. But it is said that, by what appears to be a curious reversal of the ordinary rule, the very large steamers are in less danger of running aground than those of smaller dimensions.
When the commander stated this canal axiom to the passengers assembled before the starting on the promenade, Uncle Moses objected strenuously to its truth, and Dr. Hawkes warmly supported him. The statement did not look reasonable to them.
"Is it claimed that a vessel drawing twenty-five feet of water is in less peril than one needing only eighteen feet of water to float her?" asked the lawyer.
"The facts seem to prove this; but you will say that it is so much the worse for the facts," replied the captain, laughing at the earnestness of the non-nautical gentlemen; and even the ladies understoodthe matter well enough to be interested in the dispute.
"The affirmative side of the question must prove its position," suggested the doctor.
"Which the affirmative will be very happy to do," replied the commander very cheerfully. "If the bottom of the canal were a dead level, paved like Broadway, and the depth of the canal were just twenty-six feet in every place, with a perpendicular wall on each side, your theory would be entirely correct, and the affirmative would have nothing more to say. But the bottom is not paved, and there are no walls at the sides to secure a uniform depth."
"Then the canal is not twenty-six feet deep, as the affirmative has laid down the law," added Uncle Moses.
"That looks like a lawyer's quibble," replied the captain with a hearty laugh. "You have opened the road for the retreat of the negative."
"The facts set forth by the speakers in our conference fail to be facts," persisted the legal gentleman.
"The fact was given as a general truth that the depth of the canal is twenty-six feet; but I think that no person as reasonable as Squire Scarburn of Von Blonk Park would insist that it should be absolutely of fully that depth in every part in order to comply with the general truth of the statement. The courts don't rule in that way. I read lately of a life insurance company which refused to pay a policy onthe plea that the holder had been a drunkard; but the court ruled that the use of intoxicating liquors, or even an occasional over-indulgence, did not constitute a drunkard."
"A wise ruling," added the squire.
"We call a person a good man; but even the affirmative does not insist that he shall be absolutely without sin, stain, or fault in order to entitle him to this designation."
"There would not be a single good man in that case," laughed the doctor. "We admit the general truth that the canal is twenty-six feet deep."
"The canal has been dug out of loose sand for the most part, and it would have been impossible to make it of uniform depth. Some of the largest steamers in the world pass through the canal on their way to India, China, and Australia. The Orient Line has the Ophir, a twin-screw ship, about five hundred feet long, and others nearly as large.
"This big ditch across the isthmus has an average width of three hundred feet, or two hundred less than the length of the Ophir. She could not, therefore, get across the channel. There is a current in this water, and fierce winds sometimes blow across it, and both of these affect the inertia of the vessels. A comparatively small steamer like the Guardian-Mother can be twisted about by these causes, and her bow or her stern may catch on the sloping sides."
"You have made out your case, Captain Ringgold;and the moral is that general truths are not invariably true," said Uncle Moses good-naturedly.
"I only hope we shall not get aground," added Mrs. Belgrave.
"We are fairly started now, and we have Lake Menzaleh on one side, and a low sandy plain, once covered with water, on the other," continued the commander. "It is difficult to believe that the swamp and lagoon on the starboard were once covered with fertile fields, watered by two of the branches of the Nile, where wheat was raised in abundance, from which Rome and other countries were supplied with food."
"What vast flocks of birds!" exclaimed Mrs. Woolridge.
"Those are flamingoes, just rising from their resting-place," added the captain. "They were white just now as we looked at them; notice the color of the inside of their wings, which are of a rose-tinted pink."
"But what became of the wheat-fields that were here?" asked Mrs. Blossom, after they had observed the wild birds for a time.
"The sea broke in and covered the rich lands with sand and salt; and there are towns buried there now."
"Goodness, gracious!" almost screamed Mrs. Blossom. "There's another steamer sailing on the land!"
"It appears to be so, but is not so," replied the commander.
"It is really so," added Mrs. Woolridge; and all the party gazed with interest at the phenomenon.
"Only apparently so," the captain insisted.
"Please to explain it to us, Commodore," said Miss Blanche, who had long ago applied this title to him.
"With pleasure, Miss Woolridge. It is the mirage, from the Latinmiror, to wonder, which appears to be what you are doing just now. The steamer you see sailing along the shore is an optical illusion, a reflection, and not a reality. Refraction, which is the bending of the rays of light, produces this effect. If you look at a straight stick set up in the water, it will appear to be bent, and this is caused by refraction. The learned gentlemen present will excuse me for going back to the primer of physics."
"We are quite satisfied to have the memory refreshed," replied the doctor.
"The air around us is of different densities, which causes the rays of reflection of our ship to be bent, sending the image up on the shore. What sailors call 'looming,' often seen on our own shores, is produced in the same way; and we often see an island, or a vessel, looming up away above the water, from which it is sometimes separated by a strip of sky. The mirage is often seen in the desert, with a whole caravan up in the air, sometimes upside down.
"An object is often seen when at a considerable distance from it. In the Arctic regions ships below the horizon, or hull down as sailors phrase it, arerevealed to other ships far distant by their images in the air. From Hastings, on the English Channel, the coast of France, fifty miles distant, from Calais to Dieppe, was once seen for about three hours. In 1854 a remarkable exhibition of the mirage was witnessed in the Baltic Sea from the deck of a ship of the British navy. The whole English fleet, consisting of nineteen sail, distant thirty miles from the point of observation, were seen up in the air, upside down, as if they had been hung up there by their keels.
"The Fata Morgana is a sort of mirage seen in the Strait of Messina. A person standing on the shore sees the images of men, houses, ships, and other objects, sometimes in the air, sometimes in the water, the originals frequently magnified, passing like a panorama before the beholder. The vapory masses above the strait may cause the pictures to be surrounded by a colored line. When the peasants see it, they shout 'Morgana! Morgana!'"
"What does that word mean?" inquired Miss Blanche.
"The French from which it is derived is 'Morgaine la Fee,' from a sister of King Arthur of the Round Table, who had the reputation of being a fairy, which isfatain Italian."
"But what is that round table?" asked Mrs. Blossom very innocently.
"You must excuse me, my dear woman," replied the commander, looking at his watch. "The SuezCanal is the subject before us, and I am talking all the morning about other things."
"But it is collateral information, called out by the mirage; and the illustrations you mentioned are quite new to me, for one," added Dr. Hawkes.
"I like this kind of a conference, where the side matters are all explained," said Mrs. Belgrave. "But it is a pity the boys are not here, for they are not getting any of the cream of this conference so early in the morning."
This was enough for the commander, coming from her; and he immediately hastened to the stern of the ship, where he hailed the Maud, and ordered her to come alongside. The four sailors who had attended the party in the excursion to Cairo and up the Nile were directed to go on board of the tender, and take the places of the "Big Four." The Guardian-Mother had to go into a "siding" to permit a steamer to pass her at this point, and the transfer was easily made.
However it may have been with the others, Louis Belgrave was glad to get back to the ship, where he could sit by the side of Miss Blanche, and answer the many questions she was continually asking; for she had an inquiring mind. As she often remarked, Louis always seemed to know all about everything. Perhaps if he had been with the party all the time, he might have lost some portion of his reputation as a walking encyclopædia; for when he was to be with her on any excursion, he took extraordinary painsto post himself upon the topics likely to be considered.
"You notice that post near the siding," said Captain Ringgold when the party on the promenade had been re-enforced by the addition of the young men, and the steamer began to move again. "That is one of the five kilometre posts; and you will find them all the way to the Red Sea."
"What is a kilometre?" inquired Mrs. Woolridge.
"I have talked so much that I will ask Mr. Belgrave to explain it," replied the captain.
"It belongs to the French metrical system, which most people have come to believe is the best in the world. I suppose everybody here knows what a meridian is, for it was explained when we were talking about great circles and geographical or sea miles. A meridian is a great circle reaching around the earth, and passing through the equator and the poles. A quadrant of a meridian is the quarter of a meridian, extending from the equator to either pole. This is something that does not vary in extent. A commission of five learned men, especially in mathematics, was appointed by the French Academy, at the instance of the government, to adopt a standard, and they made it a metre, which is the ten millionth part of the quadrant of a meridian. The metre is 3.28 feet of our measure, with five more decimal places after it.
"Ten metres make a decametre, and one thousand metres make a kilometre, and ten thousand metresmake a myriametre. Without bothering with all these decimals, a kilometre is about five-eighths of a mile. Five kilometres make three miles and one-tenth, which is the distance between these posts," said Louis in conclusion.
"How came you to be so ready with your explanation, Mr. Belgrave?" asked Miss Blanche, with a pleasant smile of approval.
"Captain Scott had talked the whole thing to us on board of the Maud while he steered the steamer," replied Louis.
"But he knows five times as much about metres as I do; for I could not have explained the meridian business," interjected the captain of the Maud.
"Five miles an hour is slow travelling; but it enables us to see the country, and also to talk about it," said Dr. Hawkes.
"If you don't mean that I am talking too much, Doctor"—
"I certainly do not mean that, and I hope you will keep it up," interposed the surgeon.
"Then I will say that the canal is run on the 'block system,' except on the lakes, where the ships can go at full speed," added the commander.
"Where are the blocks? I don't see any," said Mrs. Blossom.
"They are all along the canal."
"I don't know what is meant by the block system," added Mrs. Belgrave.
"The railroads in England and the United States,or many of them, are run by this method. The whole length of the road, or canal in this case, is divided into short sections. On the railroad no train is permitted to enter a section till all other trains are out of it, and a collision is therefore impossible. The system is controlled by telegraph, by which signals are ordered at either end of the division. On the canal the director at Port Tewfik controls the movements of every ship on its passage either way. These posts mark the sections. You will learn more of it when we get to the other end of the canal."
The breakfast gong sounded at this time, and the party were not so eager for knowledge as to pass over the morning meal.
The tourists had been up long enough to be in excellent condition for breakfast; and the Asiatic breezes from the south-east were cool and refreshing, for they came from the mountains of the peninsula of Sinai, where Moses had received the law from Heaven. There was something inspiring in this thought to the minds of the more religious members of the party when the commander announced the proximity of the sacred mountain after he had asked the blessing.
"How far is Mount Sinai from where we are now?" asked Mrs. Woolridge.
"I cannot tell you just how far it is at this moment, for my charts are in my cabin," replied Captain Ringgold. "We are not so near it as we shall be later; but you will all see it after we get into the Red Sea. We will defer the subject till that time; and I should not have mentioned it if the south-east wind had not suggested it."
"I got a glance at an enormously big steamer ahead of us just as we were leaving the promenade," added Mr. Woolridge. "She looked as large as Noah's Ark, and appeared as though she was sailing over the land."
"Perhaps she was quite as large; for the pilot tells me that the Ophir is just ahead of us," added the commander.
"What is the Ophir?" asked Mrs. Belgrave.
"She is the largest of the Orient Line of steamers, and one of the finest ships in the world. I remember that in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible it says that the ark was larger than any British man-of-war; and probably the statement is still correct, though by a narrower margin than when the learned editor completed his work. The Empress of India and two other barbette ships of her class in the English navy have a displacement of 14,150 tons, and the last built Cunarder, the Lucania, exceeds 13,000 tons. The ark was 525 feet long, reducing her 300 cubits to our measure, which is about the length of the Ophir."
"I should like to go on board of one of those great British steamers that sail to the other side of the earth," said Mrs. Belgrave.
"Possibly we may have an opportunity to do so at Ismaïlia or Suez. I will ascertain when we arrive at these places," the captain replied to the lady; whose simple requests and hints were law to the gallant commander, who was a bachelor in the best possible preservation.
The company returned to the promenade without any unnecessary delay; for all of them were interested in the canal itself, and in the sights to be seen on its shores. The great steamer ahead of the Guardian-Mother was much nearer than when theparty went below, and it soon appeared that she had "taken the ground." But it proved to be only a temporary hitch, for she went ahead again before the American craft reached her.
"They are at work all the time on the canal to prevent these accidents, and several changes have already been made in the original plan of the canal," said the commander. "Monsieur Lesseps, who projected this wonderful enterprise, and whose energy and perseverance carried it through to its completion, made a voyage through the canal in the Austral, one of the largest of the Orient Line, though not so large as the one ahead of us, for the purpose of observing any defects. The result has been that several improvements have been adopted which it is expected will remove all the difficulties."
"Is Monsieur Lesseps still living, Captain?" inquired Captain Scott.
"He is at the age of eighty-seven this year. His success with the Suez Canal led him to undertake the construction of the Panama Canal. The company was formed with the prestige of the great engineer's success on this isthmus, and the shares were readily sold. The work was begun; but it was a more difficult undertaking than Suez, and the company suspended payment four years ago. Speculators and 'boodlers' had 'monkeyed' with the finances, and the vast scheme is a failure. Whether it will ever be accomplished remains a question for the future."
"The poor old man and his son were dragged intothe mire, and were even committed to prison, though they were soon released," added Mr. Woolridge. "I think he was a great man, and I was exceedingly sorry for his misfortunes."
"He will never receive the honor he deserves on our side of the Atlantic, I fear," added Captain Ringgold. "After rich and powerful potentates had rejected the scheme, Lesseps still cherished it. Over sixty years ago, when he was an employe in the office of the French consul at Tunis, he was sent to Alexandria on business. Here he was subjected to a residence of some time in quarantine. He was supplied with books by the French consul there, and among them was Lapère's Mémoire. The author was Napoleon's engineer, whose report that the level of the two seas was not uniform, had set aside the schemes to connect them by a canal. Lesseps considered his views, and some years after made the acquaintance of Lieutenant Waghorn, favorably known in connection with the Overland Route to India by the way of Egypt. The route by descending the Euphrates River to the head of the Persian Gulf was also considered. It appears, therefore, that Lesseps was cogitating his great enterprise for nearly forty years before the work was completed."
"I cannot see the immense importance of this canal as you gentlemen represent it; but I suppose it is because I am a woman," said Mrs. Belgrave.
"It is of the greatest importance to England," replied Mr. Woolridge. "Over twenty-five hundredBritish vessels went through the canal in 1888; for England has a vast empire in Asia, to say nothing of Australia and other colonies in the East. Of other nations of Europe, France sent two hundred and seventy-two ships through the canal, Holland one hundred and twenty-four, Germany one hundred and twenty-two, and others less than a hundred each."
"But how many American vessels went through?" asked Captain Scott.
"None were mentioned in the report I saw; and the number must have been very few. The canal is of vastly less importance to the United States than to England, France, Holland, and Spain, all of which have colonies in the East. Since the war, our maritime commerce has been immensely reduced, though our ships still make voyages to India, China, and various ports of the East. Then the distance saved to our vessels would be much less. Roughly estimated,—in fact, guessed at,—I should say that the distance from New York to Ceylon, near the southern cape of India, is four-fifths of that around Cape Good Hope. The heavy dues for passing through the canal are an item, and it would not pay to save two thousand five hundred miles out of twelve thousand five hundred."
"But the saving from London to Bombay is forty-four per cent," added Mr. Woolridge. "From Marseilles to the same port it is nearly sixty per cent. The United States 'is not in it'"—
"Arenot in it, papa," interposed Miss Blanche with a silvery laugh.
"No, my dear;isnot in it," returned the magnate, with a loving smile. "I know the government is said to have ruled for the plural, but I don't accept the ruling. Why, what doesE pluribus Unummean if not the singular number? For what did we fight the War of the Rebellion if not to prove that the United Statesisone government, andarenot forty-four of them at the present moment."
"But the grammar, papa?" asked Blanche.
"The grammar is all right, my child. What are the news, Blanche? The company is or are, just as you pay your money and take your choice," said the father, chucking the fair maiden under the chin.
"Our friend is quite right, and, so far as the canal is concerned, the United Statesisnot in it," added the commander, laughing at the turn the conference had taken.
"How far have we gone so far, Captain?" asked Miss Blanche.
"Ten o'clock," he replied, consulting his watch. "We have been moving at this snail's pace for five hours, and made twenty-five miles, or forty kilometres. In five more we shall come to El Kantara, where the caravan route from Egypt into Asia crosses the canal."
"Do the camels have to swim across the canal?" asked Mrs. Blossom.
"They do not; but it cost the canal company somemoney to save them the trouble of doing so," replied the captain. "El Kantara means 'the bridge;' and there used to be one across the outlet of a lake there. The bridge was removed by the company, and a ferry substituted for it."
"I suppose all vessels have to go through the canal in the daytime," said Mrs. Woolridge.
"Not at all; the system of signals is arranged for day or night. Vessels with an electric search-light or projector which will show up an object three-quarters of a mile ahead are allowed to navigate the canal at night. We could do so if so disposed; but we wish to see the country. The channel is lighted at night by illuminated buoys."
"What sort of boys?" inquired Mrs. Blossom, who was struggling to grow wise, and had a long distance to travel in that direction.
"Iron ones," answered the captain.
"Iron boys!" exclaimed the good lady. "How could they point out the way through the canal?"
"They swim in the water, and the pilots understand the language they speak," said the commander gravely.
"Iron boys that swim and speak!" ejaculated the excellent lady. "I think you must be fooling with us, Captain Ringgold."
"You have put your foot in it again!" exclaimed Mrs. Belgrave in a whisper. "Don't say another word!"
"A buoy is a floating body in the shape of two invertedcones united at their bases, made of copper or plate iron. They are used all over the world to mark the bounds of channels, sometimes with fog-bells on them, rung by the action of the waves," continued the commander. "They are moored to the bottom here as elsewhere, and have a gas-light burning on them all the time."
"A gas-light!" exclaimed Mrs. Woolridge; "where is the gas-house?"
"There are several of them on the canal, and not one for each buoy, which is filled with gas, and contains a supply that will last for six weeks. Some folks who never went to sea suppose a lighthouse is to give light on the water, when they are only to mark certain localities, and to give ranges to navigators. These buoys are for the same purpose, and not to light up the canal. But here is El Kantara."
"I think you said this place was on the road to Syria," said the magnate. "People who go to the Holy Land from Egypt, and most of them do go that way, take a steamer from Alexandria to Joppa, or Jaffa as it is now generally called, and do not go by camel-back over this road."
"They do not; but they may go over it at some time in the near future," added Professor Giroud. "The Egypto-Syrian Railroad has been projected, and it is to pass over this route."
The travellers found quite a village at El Kantara, with a hotel, and other places for the refreshment of travellers. Passengers from the steamers seldomland here. The ship proceeded on her way, and the party caught a glimpse at a boat-load of camels crossing the canal. From this place to Fort Said the course had been perfectly straight through Lake Menzaleh, which ends here.
"If you will look to the left," said the commander after a time, "you will see a considerable body of water. That is the upper part of Lake Balah, through which the canal passes. About a mile and a half distant is a lot of sandstone rocks like that of the Memnon statues. They appear to belong to an altar, and the inscription informs the visitor who can read it that they were parts of a temple erected by Seti I. in honor of his father, Ramses I., and completed by Ramses II., his son. There may have been a city here, but there are no signs of it now."
The steamer passed through the Balah Lakes; for there are several of them, containing some islands. The canal is protected by high banks of yellow sand, and beyond is the desert, with hills in the distance. Coming out of the lakes, the canal passed through a deep cutting, which was the worst place encountered in doing the work. It is the highest ground on the isthmus, averaging fifty-two feet above the sea; and a ridge of this territory is from seventy to one hundred feet high, through which the digging had to be carried. There are some curves here, the canal is the narrowest in all its course, and vessels more frequently get aground here than in any other portion. The road to Syria passed overthis elevation, which is called "the causeway" in Arabic.
The Ophir went through without sticking in the sand, and the Guardian-Mother was likely to do as well. A solitary mosque and a châlet of the Khedive were passed, and the ship was approaching Lake Timsah when the gong sounded for lunch, and the air of the desert had given the tourists an appetite which caused them to evacuate the promenade with hasty steps.
The cabin party of the Guardian-Mother were on the promenade in time to observe the entrance into Lake Timsah. It is near the seventy-five kilometre post from Port Said, or half way through the canal to the head of the Gulf of Suez, the most northern portion of the Red Sea. The city of Suez is several miles to the south-west of this point; for Lesseps, for some reason said to be political, avoided the old town, and carried the canal to the other side of the inlet, and below it.
Lake Timsah has an area of about six square miles. It is not a deep body of water, and the canal had to be built through it as through Lake Menzaleh. Its water is now of a pale blue, very pretty to look at. Before any work was done here, it was a mere pond, filled with reeds; but it has been cleaned out and made more healthy for the surrounding country.
On its northern shore is the town of Ismaïlia, having about two thousand inhabitants, which has become a place of some importance. The railroad from Cairo is extended to it by a branch, the main line following the canal to Suez. It has a couple of hotels; and its principal square, on which the bestone is situated, has the name of Place Champollion, showing that the French remember their learned men.
While the canal was in process of construction, Ismaïlia was the centre of operations. It was handsomely laid out, not unlike the city of Washington, which is one of the handsomest in the world; but, like the new places in our great West, it was built in a hurry, under the pressure of a drive of business, and the sanitary conditions were neglected. The important fresh-water canal, which is near the railroad all the way from the Nile, furnishes the only drinking-water of this town and of Suez; but the sewers of the new town had no other outlet.
Of course the town was soon invaded by fever, which caused it to be deserted; and it has never recovered its former prosperity, though not wholly for this reason, for the completion of the canal destroyed its business basis. Ismaïlia was the focal point of the great ceremonials at the opening of the canal. The Empress Eugénie of France, the Emperor Frederick of Germany, then crown-prince, and other noted persons, were present; and the celebration is said to have cost the Khedive twenty million dollars.
The town has improved somewhat of late; the viceroy's château, which had become much dilapidated, has been restored, and portions of the desert, irrigated from the canal, have been transformed into fine gardens. Though the climate is agreeable and the air dry, it is not likely to become a pleasure resort.A couple of small steamers run from this port to Port Said, while the railroad connects it with Suez.
The steamer remained a couple of hours at the station, as did the Ophir; and the commander obtained permission for the ladies to pay her a visit. She is a magnificent specimen of naval architecture. Her saloon, staterooms, drawing-room on the upper deck, were magnificent apartments, most luxuriously furnished. Her appointments for second-class passengers were extensive and very comfortable, far better than on many Atlantic steamers.
The ubiquitous donkey, and especially the donkey-boy, were here; and the "Big Four," with the exception of Louis Belgrave, who attended Miss Blanche on the visit to the Ophir, accompanied by Don, went on a frolic to the town. They made a great noise and waked up the place, but they committed no excesses. When they returned to the ship, they found Louis and Miss Blanche showing the captain and the surgeon of the big steamer over the Guardian-Mother. The beautiful young lady had evidently fascinated them, and they had been extremely polite to the party, perhaps on her account. They appeared to be interested in the steam-yacht, and expressed their belief that nothing more comfortable and elegant floated.
The steamers got under way again, and proceeded through one of the two channels through the blue lake. The ladies waved their handkerchiefs to the officers and passengers of the Ophir; and their greetingswere heartily reciprocated, for the American party had plainly made an impression upon the English people, partly perhaps by the style in which they travelled, but probably more by the beauty of the ladies, with Miss Blanche as princess, and the others were under forty and still good-looking. The lake is only five miles long, and the steamers soon passed into the cut at the south of it.
"Along this region many ruins have been found, some of them of Persian structures," said the commander after the ship had left the lake. "Pharaoh-Necho, 600b.c., built a canal from Suez to Lake Timsah, with gates, which Herodotus describes, and informs us that the vessels of the period went through it in four days."
"I wish you would tell us something about Herodotus, Captain, for his name has been frequently mentioned in Egypt," said Mrs. Woolridge.
"And about Diodorus and Strabo, also mentioned in the lectures," added the magnate. "I have forgotten all that I ever knew about these gentlemen."
"I am in the same boat, Captain," the doctor responded.
"I shall leave those subjects to the professor. But we are approaching some objects of interest, and we will defer the matter to another time," replied the commander. "Do you see a white dome on the starboard? That is the tomb of Shekh Ennedek; and it is rather a picturesque affair here in the midst of the desert."
"Was he a fighting character?" asked Mrs. Belgrave.
"Not at all; far from it. He was a wealthy Arab chief. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca, which is the duty of every faithful Mohammedan; and he seems to have been greatly impressed by it, for he gave his cattle and his lands to the poor, and spent the rest of his life on the greenish territory we have just passed through, in religious meditation."
"He was a good man if he was a Mohammedan," added the lady.
"We don't believe that all the good people in the world belong to our church," added the captain. "Do you all remember who Miriam was?"
More than half the party could not remember.
"She was the sister of Moses; and she first appears, doubtless as a young girl, watching the Nile-cradle of her infant brother. The land next south of Lake Timsah, made green by the water, is called Gebel Maryam, probably after the sister of Moses. She was a prophetess; but she found fault with the marriage of her brother, for which she was afflicted with Egyptian leprosy. As you find it in the Bible (Numbers xii.), Moses asked the Lord: 'Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again. And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days.' An Arab legend points out this spot as the place where she spent that time, and from which it gets the name of Maryam."
"That's nice, Captain Ringgold!" exclaimed Mrs.Blossom. "I wish you would tell us more Bible stories."
"Some people believe that the Mediterranean and the Red Seas were connected in some remote age of the world, or at least that the latter extended to the north as far as Lake Timsah," continued the commander, without noticing the suggestion of the amiable lady. "In proof of this supposition, certain shells found in the Mediterranean, but not in the Red Sea, have been thrown up in digging for the canal through Lake Timsah.
"We are approaching what is called the Serapeum," said the captain.
"What! more of them here? I thought we had used up all the Serapeums," said the magnate with a laugh.
"The present one is of a different sort," answered the commander. "But the ruins found in this vicinity were supposed to belong to a Serapeum such as several we have seen on the Nile; but Lepsius says they could not have been a part of a temple to Serapis, but were monuments built on the ancient canal by Darius.
"It is high ground here, comparatively speaking; and you observe that the cutting of the water-way is through a rocky formation, with rather high banks on each side. There is quite a little village above; and, as it is getting dark, we shall pass the night here in the siding-basin."
"Who is that man on the forecastle of the Maud?"asked Captain Scott as the little steamer came into the basin.
"I don't know," replied Captain Ringgold. "I had not noticed him before. He looks like an Arab, though he is taller than most of them."
A flight of steps ascended to the top of the embankment at the station of the little town. The Maud passed close to them on her way to her berth for the night. Abreast of them the Arab on the forecastle leaped ashore, but made a gesture as though the movement had given him pain. He went up the steps and disappeared.
"Who was that man, Knott?" asked the captain when the seaman came on board of the ship.
"I don't know, sir; I called upon him to give an account of himself as we were crossing Lake Timsah; but he could not understand me, pointed to his mouth, and shook his head, meaning that he could not speak English. He did not do any harm, so I let him alone; for Don was running the engine, and I did not like to call him from his duty. He kept his face covered up with a sort of veil, and would not say anything. I thought I would let him alone till we came to a stopping-place, and I could report to you."
"When did he go on board of the Maud?" asked the captain.
"I don't know, sir. The first time I saw him was on the lake. Spinner had the wheel, Don was in the engine-room, and the rest of the ship's company wereon the upper deck looking at the sights. I inquired, but no one had seen him."
"Did you ever see him before?"
"I don't think I ever did, sir. He had on what looked like a new suit of Arab togs, and he kept his face covered up, as I said."
If Captain Ringgold was not troubled, he was perplexed. He had observed the stranger distinctly as he went up the steps, but he could not identify him as a person he had ever seen before. Of course it came into his head at once that the tall Arab was Captain Mazagan, and he said as much to Scott.
"We left him at the hotel at Port Said; how could he be here?" asked the captain of the Maud.
"He must have smuggled himself on board of the little steamer when we were at Ismaïlia; for he was first seen out in the lake."
"How could he have been at Ismaïlia?" Scott inquired.
The commander went to his cabin, and looked over his "Bradshaw," in which he found that a steamer left Port Said at seven o'clock every morning, and arrived at Ismaïlia at noon. It was possible that Mazagan had come by this conveyance; and he gave Scott the information.
"Probably he stopped at the station while we were on board of the Ophir, or your party had gone to the town," said the commander. "It was easy enough for him to stow himself away in the cabin of the Maud while no one but Philip was on board of her."
"I supposed we had got to the end of the pirate when I saw him trotted on shore to the hotel," added Scott.
"So did I, though he made some huge but very indefinite threats when I saw him last," mused the commander. "But why did he go on board of the Maud, when he could have gone to Suez by the railroad?"
"I don't see," replied Scott. "He is a Moor, and must be as revengeful as his 'noble master,' as he calls him. It was the Maud that did his business for him, and I was at the wheel of her when she smashed into the side of the Fatimé. I only hope his grudge is against me and not against Louis Belgrave."
"You mention the idea I had in my mind when I asked why he went on board of the Maud, Captain Scott," said the commander. "Perhaps it is a lucky chance that I sent for the 'Big Four' so that they might hear all that was said about the scenes through which we were passing."
"You mean that it may have been a lucky chance for Louis or for me; but I believe it is a luckier chance for the pirate, for I think I should have thrown him overboard if I had seen him on our deck," said Scott.
"Then there would probably have been a fight on board of the Maud, and work made for our surgeon in your party. It may have been lucky for all that you were called on board of the ship. But we musttake care that he does not resume his voyage in the morning with us."
Captain Ringgold took all necessary precautions. A watch was kept on board of both vessels; and when they started on the remainder of the trip through the canal in the morning, nothing had been seen or heard of Mazagan. It was agreed that nothing had better be said about the matter; and when the cabin party, with the "Big Four," gathered on the promenade at five o'clock in the morning, not one of them, except the big and the little captain, suspected that an enemy was near, if the stranger really was Mazagan, of which they could not be sure.