On the 29th, at seven o'clock in the morning we left Abou Seielat; about nine, we saw the palm trees at Assouan, and a quarter before ten arrived in a grove of palm-trees on the north of that city.
CHAP. XIII.
Kind reception at Assouan—Arrival at Cairo—Transactions with the Bey there—Land at Marseilles.
Without congratulating one another on their escape and safe arrival, as they had the night before at Abou Seielat, my companions with one accord ran to the Nile to drink; though they had already seen, in the course of the journey, two or three tragical instances, the consequences of intemperance in drinking water. I sat myself down under the shade of the palm-trees, to recollect myself. It was very hot, and I fell into a profound sleep. But Hagi Ismael, who was neither sleepy nor thirsty, but exceedingly hungry, had gone into the town in search of somebody that would give him food. He was not gone far before his green turban and ragged appearance struck some brethren janizaries, who met him; one of whom asked him the reason of his being there, and whence he came? Ismael, in a violent passion, and broken Arabic, said, that he was a janizary of Cairo, was last come from hell, where there was not one devil, but thousands, from a country of Kafrs that called themselves Mussulmen; that he had walked through a desert where the earth was on fire and the wind was flame, and in fear of dying every day with thirst and hunger.
The soldier who heard him talk in this disjointed, raving manner, desired him to go with him to the Aga. This was the very thing that Ismael wanted. He only desired time to acquaint his companions. "Have you companions, says the soldier, from such a country?"—"Companions! says Ismael; what the devil! do you imagine I came this journey alone?"—"If the journey, says the man, is such as you describe it, I do not think many would go with you; well, go along with my companions, and I will seek yours, but how shall I find them?"—"Go, says Ismael, to the palm-trees, and when you find the tallest man you ever saw in your life, more ragged and dirty than I am, call him Yagoube, and desire him to come along with you to the Aga."
The soldier accordingly found me still sitting at the root of the palm-tree. The servants, who had now satisfied their thirst, and were uncertain what was next to be done, were sitting together at some distance from me. They began to feel their own weariness, and were inclined to leave me to a little repose, which they hoped might enable me to overcome mine. For my own part, a dullness and insensibility, an universal relaxation of spirits which I cannot describe, a kind of stupor, or palsy of the mind, had overtaken me, almost to a deprivation of understanding. I found in myself a kind of stupidity, and want of power to reflect upon what had passed. I seemed to be, as if awakened from a dream when the senses are yet half asleep, and we only begin to doubt whether what has before passed in thoughts is real or not. The dangers that I was just now delivered from made no impression upon my mind, and what more and more convinces me I was for a time not in my perfect senses, is, that I found in myself a hard-heartedness, without the least inclination to be thankful for that signal deliverance which I had just now experienced.
From this stupor I was awakened by the arrival of the soldier, who cried out to us at some distance, "You must come to the Aga to the castle, all of you, as fast as you can, the Turk is gone before you." "It will not be very fast, if we even should do that, said I; the Turk has ridden two days on a camel, and I have walked on foot, and do not know at present if I can walk at all." I endeavoured, at the same time, to rise and stand upright, which I did not succeed in, after several attempts, without great pain and difficulty. I observed the soldier was in a prodigious astonishment at my appearance, habit, and above all, at my distress. "We shall get people in town, says he, to assist you, and if you cannot walk, the Aga will send you a mule."
The Turk and the Greeks were cloathed much in the same manner; Ismael and Michael had in their hands two monstrous blunderbusses. The whole town crowded after us while we walked to the castle, and could not satiate themselves with admiring a company of such an extraordinary appearance. The Aga was struck dumb upon our entering the room, and told me afterwards, that he thought me a full foot taller than any man he had ever seen in his life. I saw he was embarrassed whether he should desire me to sit down or not, so that I saved him the deliberation, by saying, immediately after saluting him, "Sir, you will excuse me, I must sit." He bowed, and made a sign, complacently asking me, "Are you a Turk? Are you a Mussulman?" "I am not a Turk, said I, nor am I a Mussulman; I am an Englishman, and bearer of the grand signior's firman to all his subjects, and of letters from the regency of Cairo, and from the Porte of Janizaries, to you." "Caz Dangli, says Ismael, they are the same as Turks, they came first from Anatolia, I have been at the place." Upon my mentioning the grand signior, the Aga got upon his feet, and, without heeding Ismael's speech, said, very politely, "Do you choose to have your servants sit?" "In such a disastrous journey as I have made, Sir, said I, our servants must be our companions; besides, they have a strong excuse for sitting, neither they nor I have a foot to stand upon."
Aga. "Where are those letters and firman?" Ya. "Where they may be now I know not, we left them at Saffieha with all the rest of our baggage; our camels died, our provisions and water were exhausted, we therefore left every thing behind us, and made this one effort to save our lives. It is the first favour I am to ask of you, when I shall have rested myself two days, to allow me to get fresh camels, to go in search of my letters and baggage." Aga. "God forbid I should ever suffer you to do so mad an action. You are come hither by a thousand miracles, and after this, will you tempt God and go back? we shall take it for granted what those papers contain. You will have no need of a firman between this and Cairo." Ya. "We shall leave it upon that footing for the present, allow me only to say, I am a servant of the king of England, travelling, by his order, and for my own and my countrymen's information; that I had rather risk my life twenty times, than lose the papers I have left in the desert." Aga. "Go in peace, and eat and sleep. Carry them, says he, speaking to his attendants, to the house of the Schourbatchie." Thus ended our first interview with the Aga, who put us in possession of a very good house, and it happened to be the very man to whom I was recommended by my correspondents at Cairo when I was first here, who had absolutely forgotten, but soon remembered me, as did many others, but my old friend the Aga had been changed, and was then at Cairo.