Letters of Asa Gray; Vol. 2

by Asa Gray

An independent party, but arranged to keep in company, consists of Mr. and Mrs. Howland of New York, very nice people, with their servant and dragoman, in the Heron. But I must cut short these details, or I shall never come to an end. On Friday and Saturday the wind was dead ahead, and, tracking being impossible until we get out of Cairo, we were stationary, and on Saturday some of us visited the interesting museum at Boulak, made by Mariette. Sunday, wind still unfavorable, until nearly sunset, when we got up two or three miles, where we commanded a superb view. In the morning you preached to the great satisfaction of your congregation of eleven, a very appreciating audience. We established a regular liturgical service. I was installed as curate; but Mrs. Gray read the first of your university sermons.... Monday and Tuesday, and I think Wednesday also, the boat was tracked, and so we made only a few miles a day, and some of us were much on shore....

This [the temple of Abydos] was the first Egyptian structure of any consequence I had ever seen, and it is very impressive. Most of the roofing remains, and having been exhumed, for the greater part, within a very few years, the colored sculptures covering the walls are very perfect and fresh. They are in the best style, of the same age as those in the great temple at Thebes, which we have yet to see.

Yesterday we sailed along slowly, to-day still more so, luxuriating in this January weather, which is like our June at home, without any of its fitfulness. To-day we had full service, and I read your second university sermon, which all liked very much indeed, and have bespoken the third for next Sunday. Your audience consists of eight Unitarians and three Orthodox Presbyterians. By the way I was much gratified with the appreciative review of your sermons in the “Spectator,” in a number which I received at Alexandria. Thanks for the other papers you forwarded also. I think only letters are awaiting us at Thebes (Luxor), but Mr. Hale may send up papers by private opportunity. The mails taken by runners carry only letters. Our latest intelligence from the Western World is barely up to the formation of Gladstone’s ministry. I shall have a deal to read up. But here our days pass on with scarce a thought of the modern and western world, except on Christmas and New Year’s days. I wish I could give you some idea of our life here, and of all we see and enjoy, but you must imagine it. We are well supplied with books, especially relative to Egypt, are busy from morn to night in a leisurely way, and are intensely comfortable....

We had yesterday for Dendera, where the temple, as to structure, is in most complete preservation, but the architecture is of the rather debased Ptolemaic period, and the sculptures on the walls, never equal, I imagine, to those at Abydos, have been sadly defaced by the early Coptic Christians. But all was very interesting, and the ladies were all with us to enjoy it.

Evening.—We are lying eight miles below Thebes, which we expect to reach early to-morrow morning, and to receive and dispatch letters. So I must close this. We are writing at nine P.M., with almost all the cabin windows open. The day has been like one of July in England,—in one respect unusually like, for the sky has been overcast with light clouds, and the air sultry, ending as such a day might with a sudden and brief storm—of wind only, though it seemed about to rain; but it is now still, and the stars are shining out of a clear sky.

TO CHARLES WRIGHT.

Nubia, below Derr, January 21, 1869.

Let me begin a line to you from this Æthiopian region. The object is to inclose to you some fresh seeds of Ficus sycomorus, the true sycamore or fool fig,—not bad to eat. They were gathered at the first cataract of the Nile, at ancient Syene, or between it and Philæ. I think you may like to send a part to Don José, for culture in Cuba, where it will be a good thing to have. And the rest, let Guerrineau try to raise some, that we may have one in the conservatory. I shall send, along with heavy things, some nuts of the Doum palm, Hyphæne Thebaica, which branches and is picturesque. That and the date palm are the principal trees here. Besides, there is Acacia Nilotica (the sont) and one or two other acacias, and an occasional sycamore. Below, a jujube tree was not uncommon, and plenty of the fine Acacia (or Albizzia) Lebbek, with its great flat pods and large leaflets. But none in Nubia. Up here the cultivable valley of the Nile is just the slope of the banks bared as the river subsides after the inundation, making a strip of green crops from five feet to five rods wide,—all else desert, either rock or sand as the case may be. We came twenty-four hours ago within the tropics,—a new thing for me, and I thought of Cuba and you. But it is just comfortably warm, 70° in the shade as I write,—has been 76°,—the nights down to 60° or so; just nice and comfortable if you keep out of the sun, which, though seemingly not hot, has an overpowering effect I never knew at home. Our winds are steady from north and northwest, pushing us up the river steadily. About sixty miles more, or may be seventy, is the second cataract, and our limit. Then we turn our faces north again, and descend, making our principal stops by the way. For thus far, we have stopped only little or briefly, taking only such sight-seeing as came in our way or took us little out of it. Yet we have had a glance at several of the greatest things. Abou-Simbel—the great rock temples of this region, and the main thing to go up into Nubia for—we hope to reach to-morrow or day after. We should have been there now, but were delayed at Assouan by long negotiations before we could get put up the Cataracts, and afterwards lost forty-eight hours by breaking the rudder of our larger boat. No letters till we get back to Thebes (Luxor)—some weeks hence. There I trust there is something from you....

TO JOHN TORREY.

January, 1869.