The storm lasted throughout the following day; but on the 11th we sailed again with a fair wind for Alexandria. On the 13th, before sunset, we made Pompey’s Pillar, which serves as a landmark to mariners; and, standing off for the night, we entered the west harbour of Alexandria about nine on the following morning.
Alexandria strikes the spectator, when seen from the sea, as a handsome town; and it is the same with all Turkish towns up the Levant, which have much beauty in the exterior of the buildings; but, unlike many others, Alexandria does not belie its external appearance: it was then spacious, and adorned with handsome and lofty buildings, and I have no doubt is now much more so.
Colonel Misset, the British resident, immediately sent Mr. Thurburn, his secretary, to compliment Lady Hester on her arrival.
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.
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 with people 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 1814–15–16 all 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 so considerable 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.