CHAPTER VIII.
Reception at Alexandria—Inhabitants—Commerce—Fortifications—Battle of Abukír—Administration of Justice—Servants—Climate—Asses—Ruins of Old Alexandria—Lake Madiah—Passage boats—The boat with the Author and his party pursued and the passengers made prisoners—Their liberation—Bay of Abukír—Lake Edko—Porters—Rosetta—House of Signor Petrucci—Fleas and musquitoes—The town of Rosetta and environs—Sedentary habits of the Turks—Abu Mandur—Exportation of corn—Mashes, a kind of barge—Voyage up the Nile—Banks of the river—Rich soil—Villages—First sight of the Pyramids—Bulák—Cairo—Pasha and his suite—Lodgings—Lady Hester’s attire—Her visit to the Pasha—Mameluke riding—Horse-market—Opening of a mummy—French Mamelukes—Mr. Wynne—Dancing Women—The Pyramids—Narrow escape from drowning.
Reception at Alexandria—Inhabitants—Commerce—Fortifications—Battle of Abukír—Administration of Justice—Servants—Climate—Asses—Ruins of Old Alexandria—Lake Madiah—Passage boats—The boat with the Author and his party pursued and the passengers made prisoners—Their liberation—Bay of Abukír—Lake Edko—Porters—Rosetta—House of Signor Petrucci—Fleas and musquitoes—The town of Rosetta and environs—Sedentary habits of the Turks—Abu Mandur—Exportation of corn—Mashes, a kind of barge—Voyage up the Nile—Banks of the river—Rich soil—Villages—First sight of the Pyramids—Bulák—Cairo—Pasha and his suite—Lodgings—Lady Hester’s attire—Her visit to the Pasha—Mameluke riding—Horse-market—Opening of a mummy—French Mamelukes—Mr. Wynne—Dancing Women—The Pyramids—Narrow escape from drowning.
We were conducted to the Frank quarter, where Lady Hester was provided with a small house; whilst Mr. B., Mr. Pearce, and myself, were accommodated with rooms in different families. I took up my abode with Mr. Maltass, the English consul, who was anxious to have my advice on a chronic complaint to which he was subject; and I have found, in my intercourse withpeople in the Levant, that, although disinterested hospitality is a virtue which they both know and practise, still my professional services were no small recommendation in securing me a more hearty welcome. The Turkish houses are in rows as in English towns: but the Franks, for security from plague, riots, and the domiciliary visits of marching troops, inhabit quadrangular buildings, which have one strong gateway as an entrance, within which a staircase leads to the corridor on the first story, and around it each family occupies its separate apartments, the basement story being reserved for stables and warehouses.
The impression left by the short reign of the French in Egypt was still observable. The Franks assumed here more license than would be tolerated in any other place in the Turkish dominions; though still less than they did, before the failure of the last expedition of the English, which convinced the natives that the Franks were not irresistible.
Alexandria is a large maritime port, and the vast number of vessels in the harbour gave sure evidence of its commerce. At the time to which this narrative refers, the sale of corn by the Egyptian government to the English brought in an immense profit to the Pasha of Egypt, who monopolized that branch of commerce entirely; as he had done, by degrees, every branch that was lucrative. Thus the rice mills, formerly held by industrious individuals, whose separate interest excited a competition in the trade, were in 1814–15–16all taken into the hands of the pasha. It was said that the Armenians, who were at this time much employed about the person of the pasha, in the capacity of scribes, bankers, tax-gatherers, and the like, were the persons who prompted him to these measures, which in Europe would have been considered beneath the dignity of governors and viceroys, but are countenanced in Turkey by the general conduct of all persons, however exalted their rank, only excepting the sultan.
To house the grain that is brought to Alexandria, the pasha, in 1815, constructed on the strand of the western harbour a vast magazine, the dimensions of which make it an object worthy of curiosity. It is a single room, one hundred and twenty paces long by fifteen broad, and the roof is supported by one hundred and twenty shafts, surmounted by blocks of wood roughly worked into something in the shape of a capital, but with no resemblance to any of the orders of architecture, and probably not intended to imitate them.
As the pasha holds Alexandria to be the key of his dominions, he has fortified it with ramparts, which his courtiers may tell him are impregnable. In 1813, he demolished the old Saracen walls, which took in the circuit of what is called the old city, comprehending to the south-west a heap of ruins and rubbish greater in extent than the modern town itself; and, on the site of them and from their fragments, he erected a high but feeble wall, which, as it extends over a space soconsiderable as to require a large garrison to defend it, is, from its thinness, thought not to be capable of opposing a besieging army. It was reported that he likewise intended levelling all the inequalities around the city which could afford a cover for troops, so as to make a glacis down to the bed of the lake. Pompey’s Pillar and Cleopatra’s Needle have been too often mentioned to require any description.
A morning or two after our arrival, we accompanied Mr. Thurburn over the field of battle of the 21st of March, 1801, when the English made good their footing in Egypt. The plain where the battle was fought has neither ditch nor wall, nor indeed anything to impede the movements of horse or foot; and the trial between the contending armies must have been that of courage more than skill. The entrenchments, which the French threw up after the battle, and where they made a stand of some weeks, were still visible.
But the achievements of the French in Egypt, to be candid, seem to have been a series of brilliant victories, not the least of which was the last defeat of the Turks, when, under the conduct of the grand vizir, they were routed on the same ground where the English afterwards beat them.
The native Christians of Egypt (I am disposed to believe) did not like the French as masters so well as the Turks. In one respect, they made a comparison between the two nations, which, from the proverbial venality of a Turkish cadi, was truly laughable. They contrasted the promptitude and celerity in the administrationof justice by the Turks with the dilatoriness and endless forms of the French courts. For example, they said, a Turkish governor sends for a man accused of a crime, and puts him face to face with his accusers. Both parties are heard, and either the accused man is acquitted, or forthwith he is bastinadoed or beheaded, and there is an end of the matter; or he is imprisoned, and told that ten, fifteen, a hundred, or one thousand purses are required of him. The prisoner sets his friends to work, who contrive a secret interview with those who are supposed to have most influence with the governor. To one they will say, “There are a thousand piasters for you; speak a good word for our friend.” If there be some lady who is thought to have captivated the governor, she receives from an unknown hand a diamond ring, and is required to have pity on a distressed family. In this way the governor is worried right and left: he relents: half the fine, or perhaps all of it, is remitted, and the prisoner is set at liberty. But with the Europeans, they say, a suit is never ended: and how should it, when it is the interest of so many persons, notaries, procureurs, and advocates, to perpetuate it?
Our time, owing to the kindness and hospitality of Colonel Misset, passed very agreeably. The colonel, whose long residence in these parts had made him a connoisseur in the Turkish dress, was much amused with our costumes: and he might be with reason, for, as I have said above, they were very ill assorted.
What Lady Hester’s opinion of Alexandria was may be shown from a letter she wrote about this time to one of her correspondents:—
Lady Hester Stanhope to ——Alexandria, February 12, 1812.My dear ——,I have not time to write a long letter, as we leave this place to-morrow for Cairo.Colonel Misset has been very kind to us, but the person to whom we owe the most obligations is Captain Hope: nothing can have equalled his attention and good nature. What we should have done without him I know not; perhaps he will be the bearer of this, and he will then give you a full account of us and of our intentions.This place I think quite hideous, and if all Egypt is like it I shall wish to quit it as soon as possible. When I have seen the pasha, I trust my letter will contain a little amusing if not interesting matter: it would be affected in me to retail (even had I time) the news of Alexandria, as you must receive it all from higher authority. I have little more to add, at present, than my constant best wishes, and to trouble you to forward the enclosed letters; the packet to Lady Bute have the goodness to send by the first opportunity. I wish you could see the letter I received from her not long ago. She is a woman of ten thousand; so amiable herself, yet so indulgent to others, and so sincere a friend.Adieu, my dear ——,And believe me ever sincerely yours,H. L. S.Captain Hope (ChivalryHope he is to be called, for the old knights of Malta and Rhodes could not have deserved morepraise from Burke)—Chivalry Hope then has taken under his protection a box of conserves for you. Alas, they are by no means so good as those I lost, or of the various sorts chance then put me in possession of; but accept them, dear ——, as they are. Colonel Misset has allowed me to take one of his iron beds; if it could be replaced from Malta I should be very glad, as I fear he will feel the loss of it. B—— desires to be most kindly remembered to you.
Lady Hester Stanhope to ——
Alexandria, February 12, 1812.
My dear ——,
I have not time to write a long letter, as we leave this place to-morrow for Cairo.
Colonel Misset has been very kind to us, but the person to whom we owe the most obligations is Captain Hope: nothing can have equalled his attention and good nature. What we should have done without him I know not; perhaps he will be the bearer of this, and he will then give you a full account of us and of our intentions.
This place I think quite hideous, and if all Egypt is like it I shall wish to quit it as soon as possible. When I have seen the pasha, I trust my letter will contain a little amusing if not interesting matter: it would be affected in me to retail (even had I time) the news of Alexandria, as you must receive it all from higher authority. I have little more to add, at present, than my constant best wishes, and to trouble you to forward the enclosed letters; the packet to Lady Bute have the goodness to send by the first opportunity. I wish you could see the letter I received from her not long ago. She is a woman of ten thousand; so amiable herself, yet so indulgent to others, and so sincere a friend.
Adieu, my dear ——,
And believe me ever sincerely yours,
H. L. S.
Captain Hope (ChivalryHope he is to be called, for the old knights of Malta and Rhodes could not have deserved morepraise from Burke)—Chivalry Hope then has taken under his protection a box of conserves for you. Alas, they are by no means so good as those I lost, or of the various sorts chance then put me in possession of; but accept them, dear ——, as they are. Colonel Misset has allowed me to take one of his iron beds; if it could be replaced from Malta I should be very glad, as I fear he will feel the loss of it. B—— desires to be most kindly remembered to you.
Some time was necessary to replace the servants who had been dismissed at Rhodes; and our stay was also prolonged at Alexandria in order to purchase such articles as we had been unable to obtain at Smyrna: but, at the end of a fortnight, preparations were made for our departure to Cairo.
I cannot take leave of Alexandria without adverting to the common belief of the little rain and great heat that is to be met with there. I was lodged in a house which overlooked the East harbour; and it was rarely that I had to complain of the heat. There were some houses, built with lofty saloons on the same side, which did not require even the windows to be opened to keep them cool. It is true that, to any one caught in some spot where the rays of the sun have full play, and where the wind has not, the heat is intolerable: but not so to those, however, who will so far exert themselves by riding or walking as to excite a copious perspiration.
The common beasts of burden in Egypt are asses, whose easy and quick pace renders them agreeable as well as serviceable. As the Turkish soldiers pay or do not pay for riding, according to their fancy, the ass-driversteach their animals to distinguish those unwelcome guests from better paymasters; and no sooner does a soldier, whose exterior denotes the bad state of his purse, lay hold of one of them, and mount him, than the ass feigns himself ill, and neither kicks nor blows can make him move a step. Some of these asses were hired to carry the luggage down to the edge of Lake Edko, which it is necessary to cross in going to Rosetta.
Mr. Pearce and myself, accompanied by an old janissary, whom Lady Hester had brought with her from Rhodes, set off early in the morning of the 28th of February. We passed through the ruins of the old city, where a few granite columns, the brick subterraneous cisterns, and that mass of stone and bricks which covers the surface for so many feet in depth, could not fail, though so often seen, of arresting our attention. Nor does the mind want objects to dwell upon out of the walls, where the remains of foundations, fragments of marble, and a soil composed of the remnants of art, forcibly strike the beholder, and give rise to the melancholy reflection, how vast a city has fallen to decay! At the end of two leagues, we came to lake Madiah. Here a number of small barges, or flat-bottomed boats, ply for passengers; and, before embarking, much time is to be spent in bargaining for the passage, or much imposition must be submitted to. Woe to him who manifests too great an anxiety to depart! he is sure to pay for it. Nay,the mere exclamation of “How hot it is!”—“I wish we could get to a place where we could find something to eat”—or any like marks of impatience, cost some piasters more: and, as the boats are all subject to one master, there is no flying from the extortion of one to another. We at last settled the price; and, about twelve or one o’clock, got the luggage and ourselves on board.
Our crew consisted of an old man and a boy. There was no wind, and we were pushed along, as the lakes are seldom so deep that a pole cannot reach the bottom. We had proceeded about two miles on our way towards the mouth of the lake, where it enters into the bay of Abukír, when we heard a halloo; but, not supposing it to be intended for us, we paid no attention. Soon afterwards it was repeated, and we saw some persons running along the shore and hailing us. Our old helmsman then said there was something the matter, and that we must turn back. We strongly objected to this, and as fast as he pushed the boat round we altered the rudder to bring her back again. However, as he persisted, we suffered him to do as he pleased. Presently, when we were within half a mile of the shore, a boat was observed coming off to us, and a musket-shot whistled over our heads. We could distinguish that the people were armed soldiers, as well those on shore as in the boat. Mr. Pearce and myself could do nothing but wait patiently to know what was meant. The boat came alongside,the steersman directed our boatman to quicken his speed, and kept close to us as we neared the strand. When within a stone’s throw, I cried out in Turkish—“What do you want?”—upon which we saw an Albanian, who appeared to command the rest, kneel down to take aim at us. Our old janissary no sooner beheld the muzzle of the gun than he dropped down in the boat: he expected the Albanian officer (for such he proved to be) would have fired; but the people with him were evidently urging him not to do so. We reached the shore, and were immediately seized, disarmed, and a volley of oaths and imprecations was vented upon us. In vain our trembling old janissary said that we were Englishmen, belonging to a great English person, and that those who did us harm would rue it: he was not heeded.
We were marched along the dam that separates Lake Mœris from Lake Madiah, upon which there is a block-house, built, I believe, by the French: we were led into it, and told that we were prisoners. It was with difficulty that we could learn why we had been stopped, until, at last, we comprehended that there was an existing order that the passports of all persons were to be examined before embarking, for some reasons of government, and that we were accused of having endeavoured to evade the order. The soldiers treated us very roughly. At last, a circumstantial conversation having convinced the officer that he was detaining persons who might get him intotrouble, he began by ordering us coffee, and softened his expressions. But we had been too much insulted (as we thought) to be reconciled so easily; and we threatened him with punishment.
It was now about eight o’clock at night; and I proposed to the Albanian captain to let me go up to Alexandria, leaving Mr. Pearce as a hostage, to which, either from fear, or else because he thought people might advise us to give him a present and let the matter drop, he consented. Taking the janissary with me, I set off, and arrived, about eleven o’clock, at Alexandria, where my return created no small surprise. Colonel Misset, being made acquainted with our detention, immediately sent his dragoman to the Governor; and, although he had retired to his harým, a place where great Turks are never interrupted, the dragoman, by the Colonel’s order, insisted on his being called up. When the business was heard, a proper officer was sent back with me, with orders to the Albanian to set us at liberty immediately. I returned to the dam, and there I found Mr. Pearce asleep in the boat, exposed to the dew, which in Egypt falls profusely, and passing a supperless night. No sooner was the Albanian taken to task for what he had done, by the officer who had accompanied me, than he became very humble; but we accepted none of his apologies or proffers of service, and waited impatiently for morning, to be gone.
This is one of three or four disagreeable adventuresthat happened to me from contemptuous behaviour towards government officers in Turkey. Had we quietly returned to the shore, when first hailed, there could have been no plea whatever for detaining us; but our apparent wish to get away naturally irritated the guard, and brought on us the treatment we experienced, and which, perhaps, we deserved.
When it was day, we quitted the block-house and re-embarked; and, the wind blowing fresh, we soon came to an outlet, which was once the Canopic branch of the Nile, by which we got into Abukir bay; and, after coasting the shore a mile or two, entered Lake Edko, the mouth of which is, like that of Lake Madiah, a narrow opening into the sea, with little or no current. The bars of these bogàzes are not free from danger, though less so than the mouths of the Nile, where a large stream of water makes, with the opposing wind and sea, most dangerous breakers. We sailed up the lake, until we came to the village of Edko. As the water grows quite shallow near the shore, the boats generally ground as far off as one hundred yards, when immediately the porters come and take the luggage and the passengers on their shoulders, and carry them to dry ground. There cannot be a more robust race of people than those who work on the lakes of Egypt; they are often very tall and muscular: they have no other clothing than a blue smock frock, which is generally tucked up with little regard to decency.
At Edko a second bargain was to be made for thehire of our asses to Rosetta; which being effected without entering the dirty village, where all these boatmen and porters resided, we proceeded towards Rosetta. The mirage, which we saw on the sands between Edko and Rosetta, was indeed a deception most striking: for nothing but the conviction, which arose from going over the ground where the mirage appeared, could have convinced us that it was not a sheet of water. About half way, the road passed through a forest of palm-trees, where the sands were exceedingly heavy, and might be supposed to be very moveable, since numbers of these palms were buried up to their very branches.
As we entered between the brick walls of the city of Rosetta, their appearance was not calculated to excuse the defeat which the English arms met with, before that place, in 1805. We wound through several narrow but well-built streets, and arrived at last at the Frank quarter on the banks of the Nile, where our mule-driver brought us to the house allotted for us: it faced the river, commanding a prospect of the country on the opposite side, which, being entirely flat, is very little diversified. But the Nile itself is a never-ceasing source of amusement; being at all times covered with barges, crowded with men, cattle, and goods, and with pleasure-boats, not much inferior to those on the Thames. The house which we were to occupy belonged to M. Petrucci, a gentleman who had been long in the service of the English: it hadnot been inhabited for some time, and was so full of fleas that all the pains which were taken could not effect a clearance.
And it may not be out of place to observe, that, to a European, or at least to an Englishman, neither deliciousness of climate, nor the fertility of soil, nor the brilliancy of costumes, nor, finally, even the splendid remains of antiquity, which present themselves in that country, can counterbalance the distressing sensations which the fleas and musquitoes give rise to. Whatever pains he may take to keep his body free from fleas he tries in vain; in vain he repeatedly changes his linen, has his room swept, and resorts to all the measures he can think of to rid himself of these troublesome creatures. The first native who pays him a visit undoes all his labour, and he finds himself and his room filled anew. No remedy is then left him but to forego all society; which, if he resolves on, he necessarily foregoes, likewise, part of the advantages he must have proposed to himself in his travels—the study of the manners and customs of the people he is among. With respect to musquitoes, a net will certainly save a person from their sting during the night; but, in the evenings, when he would be anxious to pass an hour in reading or writing, he has the mortification to find himself assailed by a score of almost invisible enemies, whose bite does not fail to be the poison of his comfort, and obliges him to leave his studies in despair. It may seem to some persons that all this isunworthy of the consideration of a traveller; but let them know that many a one has gone from Europe to Egypt to visit its antiquities, and has perhaps never, when at Cairo, summoned courage to finish the few remaining miles to the Pyramids,because the sun was too hot: such is the effect of trifles on the success of all enterprises.
Lady Hester arrived the next day, accompanied by Mr. B. and Captain Hope. The few days we spent at Rosetta were agreeably occupied in visiting the town and its environs. Rosetta is well built, and, in the private streets, has several fine, lofty houses. It is spacious, and not to be judged of by a mere superficial view of the street facing the Nile and of the markets. The Mahometan inhabitants were not courteous to Franks; nor are they generally so, wherever I have been, excepting when, from some motive of interest, they affect a civility which is not real. Rosetta, being the thoroughfare for trade from Alexandria to Cairo, is a place of great business, as the crowded warehouses and barges loading and unloading testified; for barges alone, owing to the shallow water over the bar at the mouth of the river, enter the port. The environs of Rosetta are celebrated for their beautiful gardens, which we should rather call orchards, as containing chiefly fruit trees, with ploughed ground beneath them, which is intersected with trenches made for irrigation. Parterres of flowers, green turf, winding or strait walks, are unknownthere, and the so-called gardens present to an Englishman an appearance totally foreign to what the name imports in his own language. But the native of Egypt asks for nothing but shade and running water; where, spreading his carpet, he lights his pipe, and reclines at his ease. If you sit down and converse with him, and contrast his indolence with the pleasure of strolling through serpentine walks with an agreeable female companion, or of straying through woods with a philosophical friend, he replies that conversation can never be so pleasurable as when held without fatigue, and that the beauties of nature are as striking to the tranquil spectator as to him who hurries hastily over them. He styles the restlessness and bustle of the Franks but a fever of the mind, from which he thanks God he is free.
We visited the town of Abu Mandûr, to the south of the town, where were the head-quarters of the English army in 1805. The facility with which Rosetta was taken, and the neglect by which it was immediately lost again, were talked of very frequently by the natives, who knew not how to reconcile the failure of the latter invasion with the complete success of the former, when the successful one was against the French, the conquerors of Egypt, and the latter against the Turks, so often beaten by them.
We visited the public bath, near the Frank quarter, which exceeds in elegance the baths of Alexandria and the greater part of those of Cairo. The fertility ofEgypt was well exemplified by the vast heaps of corn of all kinds that were lying on the wharfs, ready to be shipped for Alexandria, but particularly of wheat, the exportation of which, by English transports, formed, at this time, no small part of the revenue of the viceroy: and there is no better proof of it, than the vast fortunes that were amassed by individuals from agency and brokerage only.
Lady Hester’s stay at Rosetta was no longer than was sufficient to prepare the boats necessary for conveying us up to Cairo. The Nile was at this time at its lowest ebb. Two barges of a large size were hired, one for Lady Hester and her maids, and one for Mr. B., Mr. Pearce, and myself. They are called, in Arabic,mashes, and are very commodious; they have sometimes a single lateen sail, sometimes two or three. The portion of the vessel towards the stern is covered in, like a London pleasure-barge, and the mouldings and doors are neatly carved and gilded. They have two cabins of about eight feet square; small indeed, but sufficiently large to contain a bed, to eat in, and for whatever purposes a cabin can be wanted. The sail is used when the wind is fair, and, from the windings of the river, it happens that no one wind is always unfair: if the sail will not serve, then towing is resorted to; and the sailors show no little skill in keeping the head of the barge to the stream, and in forcing her onwards. There is a fireplace in the forecastle, and every village on the banks of the riversupplies eggs, milk, and poultry: so that nothing can exceed the convenience of such a conveyance.
Having taken leave of Captain Hope, who returned to Alexandria, we left Rosetta, on the 9th of March: and, proceeding up the Nile, we sailed in company for two days, generally landing once or twice a day to walk by the river-side, keeping pace with the boats, which often ran aground, owing to the sand-banks that abound, when the water is low. Not far up the river, in conformity with a promise I had made the Mufti of Rosetta to visit his brother, shaykh of a place named Debby, abreast of which we now were, and which is about a mile from the waterside, I landed; and, accompanied by Mr. B. and Mr. Pearce, was conducted to the house of the shaykh, who was labouring under ophthalmia: I gave him a collyrium, and we took our leave. As a mark of his gratitude for this little service, he sent on board three live lambs, one hundred eggs, and a gallon of milk, having previously overwhelmed us with thanks. We re-embarked: the stream was gentle, and the motion scarcely perceptible. Celebrated as the Nile has been in all ages, it has nothing to recommend it in point of beauty, and the water is the most turbid that can be seen. The third day, our barge ran aground so firmly, that, during the time that was spent in getting her off, Lady Hester’s barge got so much the start of us as to reach Cairo one day before us: and when we arrived, on the 14th of March, the sixth day from ourdeparture, she was already settled in the house prepared for her.
During the season of the ebb of the river, the banks are so high that nothing whatever can be seen from the boat; it is necessary, therefore, to land to get a view of the country. When landed, the eye roves over an endless plain, the sameness of which is broken by groves of date-trees, and, in the midst of them, on low eminences, generally stand villages and towns. The spectator feels a kind of loneliness, and is forced to recall to his mind the productiveneness of the land—to balance the useful with the agreeable—before he can bring himself to admit that Egypt in reality equals its renown. When, however, he walks inland a few furlongs, when he beholds the richness of vegetation, the variety of grain, the indescribable fatness of the soil—the whole together, if he reflects, must forcibly strike him as an example of fertility, well worthy of all the praises that poets and historians have bestowed upon it. The miserable villages of the peasants were an assemblage of hovels, made of mud, or of mud bricks baked in the sun. As they are fearful of Bedouins, or robbers of other kinds, the village is generally shut in by a mud wall, more often rudely quadrangular than otherwise, of a height sufficient to prevent a man’s getting over. To this there is one gate. On entering, a street somewhat wide generally leads from it, and here will be found the villagers squatted on their haunches, eyeing with suspiciouslooks every stranger that enters, lest he should be some government officer, some soldier, or one of those from whom they are accustomed to experience harm or loss. If the stranger, led by the curiosity natural to a European, should endeavour to penetrate farther into the village, he finds himself, at every instant, opposed by a blind alley; or he winds through a lane which, perhaps, brings him out just where he entered: and, in some villages, we found mazes more intricate than the Cretan labyrinth is reported to have been. Then the alarm of the women running to hide themselves, and of the children scampering after them, the jealousy of the husbands, and sometimes the barking of dogs, make it altogether difficult for a European to do more than to seat himself in some open space, and limit his curiosity to the sight of what comes before him.
As a strong wind generally prevails during the heat of the day, the dust raised by it is sometimes borne in such volumes as almost to blind a person: and it is this that serves (not to generate, but once generated) to keep up the ophthalmia so common in Egypt. Eyes that have once become sore are seldom entirely cured in this country; and the soreness either terminates in blear eyes or blindness.
We were within ten or fifteen miles of Cairo, and at dinner, when we were informed that the Pyramids were in sight; we naturally rose from table, and hastened to behold these wonderful monuments: but at this distance they excited no astonishment, for thesize of their bases is so large as to render their height much less striking than it otherwise would be.
In the night of the fifth day from our departure, we arrived at Bulák, where are the warehouses and quays of Cairo. We had retired to rest, and, on waking in the morning, the crowd and bustle on the shore marked the vicinity of a metropolis. The mode of conveyance all through Egypt is on asses for short distances, and on camels for longer ones. The asses are trained to go at an amble so expeditiously and pleasantly that Indolence could not invent anything more agreeable. Their saddles were not made of leather, but of a sort of web, and stuffed, with a high pummel and low croup, to a considerable thickness. The stirrups were of bronze, and of the shape of those worn by the hussar cavalry. The bridle reins were made of silk and worsted, with gay tassels. The whole furniture of a gentleman’s ass would cost not less than from five to ten pounds. Each ass had its driver, who ran behind with a small goad, and warned the passengers to clear the road; and, as the passengers were many, and the roads generally narrow, his lungs were never at rest for a moment.
Being all mounted, and the luggage-asses loaded, we set off about nine o’clock in the morning for Cairo, which is (as far as I recollect) about a mile from the river. In entering the city from this quarter, the road passed through a large meadow in the suburbs, called the Usbekéah, on one side of which was thepalace of the pasha. He happened to be returning from a ride at the moment we were passing; and, just in the centre of the meadow, where the two main roads cut each other at right angles, he came up one as we came up the other. He was on a mule, accompanied by a numerous suite, more splendidly mounted and dressed than any retinue I had ever seen in Turkey, except in the imperial procession at Constantinople. Our ass-drivers immediately told us to get down until the pasha had passed by, which, being unaccustomed to such orders, we did not comply with. The pasha cast his eyes upon us, and naturally concluded we were strangers. His suite looked indignantly upon us, as if they waited for the word to make us dismount by force; for the liberties which the Franks think themselves entitled to in Turkish countries are always beheld with an eye of jealousy. The pasha passed on to his palace, and we entered the streets of Cairo.
As the Frank quarter is close to the Usbekéah, we soon came to it, and were shown to Lady Hester’s house through some streets hardly ten feet broad, and where the bow windows on the first floor almost touched: it was insufficient to contain all the party, and Mr. Pearce and myself had to look out lodgings for ourselves. He chose the Franciscan monastery, and I the house of a merchant, built in the flourishing times of Egypt. In some respects, it exceeded any house I afterwards saw. Every room, for thesake of coolness, was floored with marbles, variegated in mosaic work, and wooden blinds, of curious workmanship not unlike the backs of old-fashioned cane chairs, admitted a dim light into the room, and excluded the glaring rays of the sun. The inmates of the house were the merchant himself and a black slave, his mistress—a gentleman who was said to be an apostate Jew, and who had at different times been commissary in the English army, a merchant, and I know not what—an Italian merchant who had become bankrupt, and who was in lodgings until he had retrieved his affairs; and a young clerk. In Turkish towns, where Franks are established, it is not uncommon to meet with adventurers of every kind; and those quiet persons who live by honest and plain dealing would fall into poverty in this country, where chicanery is considered as admissible in all transactions.
Lady Hester’s first care was to equip herself with proper clothes to appear in before the pasha. She chose (among the costumes of Mahometans) that of the people of Barbary, I believe of the Tunisians, and purchased a sumptuous dress, beautifully embroidered, of purple velvet and gold.[18]I dressed myself in the common costume of a gentleman or an effendi.
In four or five days everything was ready for thisimportant visit, no doubt very interesting to the pasha, as he had never seen an Englishwoman of rank before. Indeed her Ladyship’s arrival in Cairo had created a wonderful curiosity in all ranks both of Turks and Christians, and everybody was ambitious of her acquaintance. The pasha sent five horses, richly caparisoned after the Mameluke fashion, on which we mounted, and were conducted to the Usbekéah palace. Much honour was shown her on the occasion: as in the number of silver sticks that walked before her; in the privilege of dismounting at the inner gate; and in other such trifles, which are, however, the scale by which the spectators measure the consequence of a person.
The pasha, rising at her entrance, received Lady Hester in a small kiosk, or pavilion, being a detached room in the garden of his harým, painted and gilded so beautifully within and without that it looked like a fairy palace. The room had a divan or sofa of scarlet velvet gorgeously embroidered with gold, on three sides, and a fountain in the centre. A delicious sherbet of a green colour was first presented in cut glass cups: the pipe was presented, but declined by her ladyship, who had not yet learned to smoke. Coffee was then served in china cups, supported ingold zerfs, ornamented with precious stones. The pasha smoked a rich pipe, and drank his coffee out of a cup equally costly: he is a small man, and was plainly though richly dressed. I do not now recollect what the conversation turned on. The visit lasted about an hour. The person who acted as interpreter on the occasion was Mr. Boghoz, a gentleman of the most courtier-like manners, and who, to a great fidelity of interpretation, of which, from his knowledge of many languages, he was perfectly capable, added an amiability that seemed to embellish the phrases he had to repeat. On taking leave, we were shown through the apartments of the harým, at that time under repair. They were in too confused a state for us to judge what they finally would be; but the ceilings which were finished had not half the taste that I afterwards observed in the arabesque gilding in some of the old houses of Cairo and Damascus.
One of our first employments in Cairo was to see the best riders of the old Mamelukes, whose reputation for horsemanship in Turkey is unrivalled. For this purpose we rose every morning with the sun; and, mounting asses, went to the open space in front of the castle, where the parades and drills are held, and where the officers of the court amuse themselves in throwing the girýd. The result of what we saw during ten or fifteen days was that a Mameluke will, in thebas airsof horsemanship, do as much as a European, but that his practice isfounded on no rules, and is derived from a cruel exercise of the power that an irresistible bit gives him over the animal, who is otherwise so overweighted with a heavy saddle and accoutrements that he cannot resist if he would.[19]The rapidity of his charge for a short distance, and the suddenness of his halt, are likewise matters of admiration. We were, however, present at Cairo at a time when the most famous of the Mamelukes no longer existed. The massacre of 1811 had destroyed or dispersed the whole of that body, and their very name and attire were enough to expose a person to suspicion.
The Place, or square before the castle, was likewise used for buying and selling horses. A common riding horse fetched about ten or twelve pounds, and a very good one about double that money. Franks, however, always seemed to have some disadvantage in purchasing, from their ignorance of the language, and their general custom of being more liberal of their money than the Turks and Christians of the country, and hence they always paid dearer.
Soon after our arrival, Monsieur Drovetti, the French consul, a Piedmontese, invited Lady Hesterto be present at the opening of a mummy. I went with her, and there we found also Mr. Milner and Mr. Calthorpe, English gentlemen on their travels. A French surgeon performed the dissecting part, which consisted in dividing a vast number of folds of fine linen or cotton which bandaged the body tight round from head to foot. When these were removed, the right hand was found to hold a papyrus. The features were not in good preservation. But M. Drovetti had in his possession the head of one so little changed that the spectator could with difficulty persuade himself of its great antiquity, as the features, hair, and teeth, still existed in good preservation. The surgeon drew a tooth from the mummy before us, which broke in the extraction, as a recent one would do.
Frequent opportunities occurred of seeing the troop of French Mamelukes, which remained in Egypt in the service of the beys after the evacuation of that country by the French army. Their complexion and look rendered them distinguishable from the other cavalry of the pasha. They were (by guess) from thirty to sixty in number; and, when the remnant of the Mamelukes fled to Nubia, they joined Mohammed Aly Pasha. As renegadoes and deserters, they would not seem to deserve our esteem; but the circumstances of the times in which they changed their religion and their masters must serve as their excuse. Certain it is that those whose sentiments we had an opportunityof knowing did not repent the change. He that was a soldier in the French army, and subject to the hardships of a soldier’s life, found himself enabled, as a Mameluke, to keep his horse, his groom, and, what most accords with a Frenchman’s ideas, to take a wife and repudiate her as often as he liked, without scandal too. And he that worshipped the Goddess of Reason, or had no religion at all, had adopted a creed at least of some sort, although the creed of an impostor. As their characters accorded but very little with those of the Egyptians, so did their manners; which, with the exception of sitting and dressing like a Turk, were as much French as ever they were. They played at billiards, drank, and gamed as heretofore, and were always to be found in the Frank quarter.
Some days after us, Mr. Henry Wynne, brother of Sir W. W. Wynne, arrived at Cairo, with a dragoman and servant, having crossed the Desert from Gaza in Syria, on camels. That servant was the means of saving the life of Lady Hester Stanhope, and two or three persons who were with her, when returning from the Pyramids. This excursion, though the Pyramids are so near to Cairo, was not then altogether free from danger, or at least strangers who were desirous of visiting them were led to believe so. Lady Hester, therefore, engaged the French Mamelukes with their captain to accompany her, and she invited Monsieur Aslyn, a French savant andlinguist, residing at Cairo, to be of the party. Mounted and armed, we left Cairo in the afternoon. Four camels carried a tent, provisions, and water. We proceeded to Old Cairo, on the east bank of the Nile, once the capital of Egypt, and now in complete ruins, where it was settled that we should sleep. Mr. Pearce and Mr. Wynne were also of the party. Lady Hester had apartments provided for her in a separate house, and, being fatigued, retired to rest almost immediately.
Not knowing how to pass the evening, we resolved to send for the dancing women. As it was late, they were not found without difficulty; at last three came, attended by their keeper, who was likewise the tabor player. Just awaked from sleep, their motions at first were sluggish; but it was suggested that liquor would animate them: the experiment was tried, and succeeded admirably: they became gay, and accompanied their dancing with such gestures as are supposed to constitute its chief excellence; but, as they were devoid of grace, not being first-rate performers, they excited disgust rather than admiration.[20]They hadcastanets on their fingers, with which they made good music. A blouse, with a girdle round the waist, was their only covering.
And here it may not be amiss to contrast with this light dress the usages of Europe with regard to the stays, bandages, collars, and other means, by which it is endeavoured to give uprightness and justness to the female shape. No race of people can be better formed than the Egyptians, who, from their infancy, scarcely wear any covering but a blue cotton shift with a girdle. They know not what stays are; yet, to see the women as they walk along, one is tempted to call them all tawny Venuses.
The next morning we ferried over the Nile; and, riding across the country for about six miles, through fields where reapers were now harvesting, we came tothe edge of the Desert, about half a mile from the Pyramids. On the top of the highest we perceived a man, who, the Mamelukes said, was planted there to give notice of the approach of Bedouins from the side of the Desert. On any alarm the peasants immediately retired with their cattle to a place of safety. The moment we could suppose he had made out what kind of persons we were, he scampered down the outside, just as if it had been a staircase; and, having met us, offered himself as a guide to conduct such as wished to mount to the top. The height is nearly 500 feet, and it was necessary to clamber, taking advantage of the receding layers of the stones that compose the vast mass, and making use of them as steps. From the summit we enjoyed a prospect, which is singular in its character, presenting on one hand a line of verdure intersected by the Nile, and of a cheerful aspect, with flocks, herds, and villages; and on the other a sandy desert, so dreary that it makes the beholder shudder merely to look across it. An English traveller, who had preceded us a short time, had acquired a temporary celebrity, by passing a night on the top of the Great Pyramid. We descended, and prepared to enter these stupendous monuments of antiquity: this was done by stripping off as much clothes as decency will permit, to save being too much oppressed by the heat within. Lady Hester, not choosing to venture in, awaited our coming out under a tent.
The first suggestions of common sense are often founded on better grounds than the parade of reasoningwill allow them to be. Every person who enters the chamber of the Great Pyramid would immediately and naturally say, when he saw the granite cist in the centre—this was a sarcophagus; and to enclose that in security from sacrilege, or for the purpose of veneration, has been the object of the builder of this vast pile.
Having carved our names over the door, and breakfasted near it, we left the spot to return, and arrived at the Nile before sunset. Here it was necessary to divide into separate parties, as the ferry-boats were of unequal sizes. Lady Hester Stanhope, Mr. B., Mr. Wynne, his servant, and myself, entered one which was both rickety and dirty, and rowed by a single man. The river at this place was broad, and the stream rapid. We had reached the middle; when, either from the strain which the old man made with his foot against the ribs of the boat, or from pure rottenness, a plank sprung in the bottom, and the water gushed in in a stream. In a moment we should have been overwhelmed. George, Mr. W.’s servant, whilst others were staring at their danger, pulled off his turban, and stuffed it into the leak; then, doubling his fist in the boatman’s face, he declared with vehemence that, if he did not pull with all his might, he would kill him. Urged by his fright, the man laboured hard, and we reached the shore. George there pulled his turban out of the hole, and the boat sunk immediately. We got to Cairo without any further danger; our horses having been ferried over in barges at the same time with ourselves.