CXXXIII.
Grand Cairo, Egypt, April 10, 1858.
I reached Malta on board of an English war steamer, in time to connect with the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s packet, with the India overland passengers. An agreeable passage of three and a half days brought us to Alexandria, and instead of taking canal and river boats as in former times, occupying four days, I proceeded by rail to this city in eight hours. The distance is about one hundred and thirty miles, and the road is to continue to Suez, across the little desert, some ninety miles more. There only remain some twenty miles to complete it, when Alexandria and its port will be in communication with the Red Sea. The Pasha has constructed this great work at his own expense, and must ultimately derive a large revenue from it, as the tax upon each passenger crossing is ten pounds or fifty dollars.
This being my third visit to Egypt, I am able to judge of the changes that have taken place, particularly since the introduction of the railway. In 1842, when I first made the ascent of the Nile to Upper Egypt, we met only four passenger boats; the past winter the number has been forty, which is much less than usual, owing to disturbed monetary relations throughout the world. Then, Alexandria was a village, surrounded with the ruins of the former city. Now, it is a place of large commerce, with a population of seventy or eighty thousand, and instead of camels to carry one’s luggage, and donkeys to ride up a miserable hotel, one finds carriages and four-horse omnibuses around the railway station. The whistle of the locomotive, and the cry of “clear the track,” is calculated to wake up the most lethargic races. When I passed through Egypt in 1855, en route from the East Indies, I was struck with the changes. We descended the Nile in a steamer from Cairo, which was a great improvement.
Pompey’s Pillar and Cleopatra’s Needle still stand, towering high, as solitary spectators of the progress of the age.
I find here some familiar faces; the Dragoman who accompanied me to Upper Egypt and crossed the desert to Palestine, meets me with a smile; Paul, who is spoken of in Stephens’s work on Egypt, I find again. I have just visited the Mausoleum of the great man Mohammed Ali, the regenerator of Egypt, with whom I once passed an evening with accompaniment of the chilbouk or pipe, sherbet and coffee, talking over the affairs of this country. He was of humble origin, but through his military prowess and energy of character rose to the throne, conquered the Bedouins of the desert, massacred the Mamelukes, dug canals, regulated the embankments of the Nile for irrigation, forced the natives into the army and into useful employments, introduced the growth of cotton, built a fleet, which was destroyed by the allied forces, erected manufactories and palaces; in a word, he was a tyrant, but a benefactor in advancing civilization.
He succeeded in creating a Dynasty for his family, and his remains now are inclosed within the walls of the new and gigantic alabaster mosque, with its pointed minarets, standing upon the citadel inclosure, within the walls of which the unfortunate Mamelukes were shot, one of whom only escaped by jumping his horse over a steep precipice.
I find here some of my countrymen, and a few English, who are returning from the Nile trip, as the season is about over and the water low. In June the rise commences. Some are making excursions to Heliopolis and to the Pyramids, others visiting the bazaars and Schrubra, the garden of the Pasha, which, with its brooks, fountains, fruit, and flowers, is well worth a visit.
The great vehicle of locomotion for the multitude is the donkey, which threads the crowded and narrow streets at a rapid rate, flogged by the boy running at his heels and keeping up the cry of “right, left, legs, arms,” in Arabic words. The veiled women ride crosswise like men. Officers in gay costumes go by on richly caparisoned horses; droves of camels laden with merchandise, and Arabs with hog skins on their backs, filled with water for sprinkling to keep down the dust in this warm climate. The smell of otto of roses and other perfumery keeps under other disagreeable odors as you ride through the bazaars. Then comes the cry of avant couriers, who run before and behind carriages, staff in hand, to make way. The Court passes in European carriages with gilded trappings, and outriders in fancy-colored Oriental costumes, the women of the Harem scrupulously veiled, only their black round the eyes being seen. Then comes a drove of goats for the supply of milk. Altogether it is a mixture, such as cannot be described, of all races, colors, variety of dress, but must be found in this city of three hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, where, particularly as the kemsing winds have just set in, custom demands that every person should appear and snuff the air. The festival continues three days, and the people are out in their best attire.
Two of our guests have just started for Jerusalem, via the desert. Their caravan consisted of twelve camels, a dragoman and servants, with camel drivers, &c., an English lord and his companion. The Arab Scheik taxed him five pounds or twenty dollars per head for the use of the animals alone. I was thankful I had not the same journey to repeat; for to be perched up sixteen or twenty days upon the back of a dromedary is no small task. Another party have left for Memphis, also to visit the monster Sphinx, the Pyramid of Cheops and others, the establishment for hatching chickens by heat, &c., I enjoy these things as souvenirs, having on a former occasion seen and mounted the great Pyramid at Gizeh, crept into the interior chambers and breathed its dust of ages and its close atmosphere. Its dimensions are seven hundred and thirty-two feet square, and four hundred and sixty feet high, and it covers some twelve acres of ground. There are many smaller ones, which are almost equal in size. Herodotus says that one hundred years were employed in constructing the two largest. Pliny says seventy-eight years, and the number of men three hundred and sixty thousand. The facilities for travel in Upper Egypt are greatly increased since my first visit; then we had to procure a boat and dragoman by the month; every article of supply, with cooking utensils, had to be purchased, and a suitable cook selected. The Reis or captain and his crew of twelve men were paid by the month; every delay was to them a profit. Now a dragoman takes upon himself the entire outfit and supplies, relieving the party from all responsibility for a stipulated sum, averaging from five to eight dollars a day per head, according to the numbers. The charges on the Peninsular and Oriental steamers are about sixteen dollars per day. The passengers are abundantly supplied, as you will see; coffee and tea early in the morning, soda water if wanted, breakfast at nine, lunch at twelve, with ale or porter, dinner at four, with four kinds of wine, tea at seven, grog or hot drinks at nine P.M. The servants form themselves into a band and play from eleven to twelve M., and from eight to nine in the evening, for which passengers contribute. The consumption of provisions on board this line is excessive. The French and Austrian steamers have two substantial meals only, and charge considerably less.
There is a general complaint throughout the East of the increased hotel charges and the expenses of life since the Crimean war. I intend returning to Alexandria, and embark via Jaffa for Beyrout. I shall probably visit Damascus, the Cedars of Lebanon, and the ruins of Balbeck from the latter place. When I was in Palestine before, the Maronites and Druses were at war, which prevented travelling in the mountains. I now hope to avail myself of the present opportunity.