Letters from Palestine / Written during a residence there in the years 1836, 7 and 8

by J. D. Paxton

We had often heard dismal accounts of the annoyances met with in the boats of the Nile; we were now to have a proof of them. On entering our boat we observed that it had recently been painted, and hoped that this betokened a deliverance from those gentry that so annoy Frank travellers. But in this we were mistaken. No sooner were our lights put out, than they came upon us from their hiding-places in such numbers, as to make it one of the most trying nights we had ever passed. And especially did they assail our children. And whether it was that they liked their young blood better, or that the children, in their sound sleep, made less resistance, I know not, but so it was, that in the morning their faces were disfigured with bites, and their eyes so swollen that they could hardly see. Fortunately, we were not doomed to spend another night in this boat. We reached Atpi during the following day, in time to transfer ourselves and baggage to a river boat, which was about leaving for Cairo. This boat was happily less infested with the gentry above referred to, and we made out pretty well as to sleeping.

Atpi is a small village at the place where the canal leaves the river. It has grown up since the canal was made. There are some stores and shops, and a number of persons who attend to the produce and goods that pass and repass from the canal to the river. We here procured a boat, and made other necessary arrangements. In all these boats we had to provide for ourselves, from the beds we slept on to the fuel with which we cooked our food. As necessary articles are not to be had at all places, and especially as the boat may not stop when you find yourself minus in some needful article, the only sure way is to keep a good stock on hand. We had our flag, as before, flying at the mast-head, and could not but feel a little national pride at the notice which it attracted.

Near Atpi, on the eastern side of the river, is a considerable town, with some pretty good buildings, and among them some occupied as factories. There was also a large building on the western side, where the red fez, now so much used throughout Turkey, are made. These manufactories are, we were told, public property. The government monopolizes all things in this land. The policy may well be questioned. Possibly in no other way could they be so soon introduced.

The average height of the banks of the Nile may be from twelve to sixteen feet. Fields of corn and sugar-cane were seen on the banks, but not in as great numbers as I had expected. This in part, however, was accounted for by the fact, that the time of the rise was at hand, and their crops were gathered off.

The productiveness of Egypt depends on the annual overflowing of the Nile. The Nile is the river, and the only river of Egypt; and beside it, it is said, there is not a brook, not a spring, of running water in Egypt. There are wells; for by digging down to nearly the level of the water in the Nile, water may be obtained at any place. There is no rain in Egypt. Near the sea coast, as at Alexandria, light showers may fall, but up in the country there are none. There may be cloudy weather during the winter, but no rain. Once every year the Nile rises so as to cover the greater part of the country. It begins in the latter part of June, and gradually continues for nearly two months, then gradually falls to its usual volume of water. The rise has now begun, but it is perceivable only to those who are acquainted with the river. The cause of this rise is supposed to be the great rains, and possibly melting of snows, in the high country in which its main stream rises; but the matter is not certain. As the Nile falls, the grain is sown on the wet ground, and produces most abundantly.

There are many canals, from four to six and eight feet deep, and wide enough to convey a considerable body of water. These pass off from the river, and from these, smaller channels pass in various directions, so as to divide much of the surface into lots or small fields. These were much more observable at some places than at others. The design of these channels, probably, was to bring the water more generally over the ground than it would otherwise come; or when the Nile did not rise high enough to cover the field, the water, by means of these small canals, would pass in so many directions through the district, as, by percolation, to moisten the ground more generally than it otherwise would do.

There were along the river a great many water-melons, cucumbers, and other vegetables. It reminded me of the complaint of Israel, in the wilderness, that they were deprived of the melons and cucumbers of Egypt. Num. xi. 5.

The Nile winds a good deal. It has many of those long sweeps that characterise the Ohio and Mississippi; and as the whole country is alluvial, the water at those turns washes away the banks against which it strikes, while, on the opposite side of the river, a shoal or a sand bank is formed. In these places, and they increased as we ascended, considerable districts lay along the edge of the water, and only a few feet above it, and on them the vegetables above named, with many others, were raised in great numbers. There was usually a small place in these garden spots built to protect a person from the rain, whose office it is to prevent pillage, and sell the vegetables to boat-men and passengers; for almost all the travelling from Alexandria to Cairo is done in boats on the Nile. It reminded me of the "cottage in a vineyard,"—"a lodge in a garden of cucumbers." A little more than half-way, from Alexandria to Cairo, on the western side of the river, we saw the end of a new and much larger canal, now being made in a more direct course to Alexandria. It will probably intersect the Mahmudieh canal, at some point south of Alexandria. The southern end is near where the sands have almost covered the district west of the Nile. Whether it will pass into the sandy district, and thus reclaim some of it, and prevent the farther encroachments of the sand, I know not. There is no doubt that tillage extended much farther to the west, in some places, formerly, than at present. The canals and means of irrigation have been neglected, and the sands have spread over considerable districts; some of these might no doubt be reclaimed, were a proper mode followed with respect to them. This will hardly be done at present, as there are large parts of Egypt now irrigated, that lie neglected; the population, with their idle habits, are not sufficient to cultivate the whole. For a considerable distance on the west of the river the sands from the desert covered the banks, and ran down to the edge of the water; it was a very white, fine sand, and easily moved by the wind.

A little below the junction of the Rosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile, which takes place twelve or fifteen miles below Cairo, the Pasha has begun a great work for the more perfect irrigation of the Delta, or the district between the rivers which is thus called. The plan is to make a strong dam across both branches of the Nile, and throw the water into a new channel, the bed of which shall be much more elevated, and thus bring the waters nearer the level of the country, and of course greatly facilitate the irrigation of the land at all seasons. The greater part of the most valuable land of Egypt lies between the rivers. This part is called the Delta from its likeness to the Greek letter of that name, which is of a triangular form. A district of land on both sides of the triangle was cultivated and productive as far as the waters of the Nile could be made to reach it; but beyond that, the long burning suns scorch up vegetation, and convert all into a waste of barren sand. At some distance in the interior, both to the east and west, water is found, and there vegetation exists, but these places are not in the valley of the Nile.