Having carved our names over the door, and breakfasted near it, we left the spot to return, and arrived at the Nile before sunset. Here it was necessary to divide into separate parties, as the ferry-boats were of unequal sizes. Lady Hester Stanhope, Mr. B., Mr. Wynne, his servant, and myself, entered one which was both rickety and dirty, and rowed by a single man. The river at this place was broad, and the stream rapid. We had reached the middle; when, either from the strain which the old man made with his foot against the ribs of the boat, or from pure rottenness, a plank sprung in the bottom, and the water gushed in in a stream. In a moment we should have been overwhelmed. George, Mr. W.’s servant, whilst others were staring at their danger, pulled off his turban, and stuffed it into the leak; then, doubling his fist in the boatman’s face, he declared with vehemence that, if he did not pull with all his might, he would kill him. Urged by his fright, the man laboured hard, and we reached the shore. George there pulled his turban out of the hole, and the boat sunk immediately. We got to Cairo without any further danger; our horses having been ferried over in barges at the same time with ourselves.
CHAPTER IX.
The Author returns to Alexandria, in company with Mr. Wynne and Mr. McNamara—Proceeds to Rosetta—Coast of the Delta—Deserted hamlet—Brackish water—Misery of the Peasantry—Mouth of Lake Brulos—Dews of Egypt pernicious—Brulos—Melons—Egyptian encampment—Quail-snares—Arrival at Damietta—Honours paid by the Pasha at Cairo to Lady Hester—Description of Damietta—Rice mills—Large oxen—Salt tanks—Papyrus—Literary Society—Abûna Saba—Lady Hester arrives at Damietta—Tents and baggage—Servants—Fleas, &c.—Departure from Damietta—El Usby—Sameness of scenery in Egypt—Naked children—Increase of the Delta denied—Martello towers—Iachimo hired—We sail for Syria—List of the party—French Mamelukes—Wages of servants in the Levant—Arrival at Jaffa—Customs in seaports—Costume of Egyptian women.
I had not been long at Cairo when the alarming indisposition of an English lady at Alexandria was the cause of my returning thither. She was a bride, and on the day of her marriage had fallen so ill as to induce her husband to send off to Cairo for a physician. Of those who were applied to, none chose to go without an exorbitant remuneration: and Lady Hester, feeling for the situation of the patient, asked me to take the journey. Mr. Wynne was on the point of his departure for Alexandria on his way to England; and the next morning I embarked with him on the Nile in his kanje, which is a pleasure barge, covered in with a pent roof like the others, but of a more light and elegant construction, and calculated for expedition. Mr. Wynne had likewise invited to be of his party Mr. McNamara, an English gentleman who had made a short excursion into Egypt from Malta to satisfy a rambling disposition. The passage down the Nile was very rapid; and the time passed agreeably. It was on the third day that we reached Rosetta, where we found lodgings with an Italian, named Dannese, whose house had been converted into an inn for the accommodation of travellers: but in a few hours we departed for Alexandria by the same route that I have described on a former occasion.
On arriving there, I had the happiness to place the sick lady out of all immediate danger: and having, by the end of the month, restored her to convalescence, and learning from Cairo that Lady Hester was on the point of quitting that city for Damietta to be there by the beginning of May, I lost no time, but quitted Alexandria for Rosetta, where I hired beasts of burden to proceed to Damietta, by land, across the foot of the Delta.
I had with me a Turkish servant named Mohammed, by birth an Egyptian, who had quitted his country with the French army, in which he had served several years as a drummer. He was deformed, drunken, and of a bad character. Accompanied by Mohammed and a guide, I prepared to depart the following day for Damietta, when, early in the morning, I was informed that the pasha had passed through Rosetta in the night, and that one of my horses had been pressed for his service, although, as he was expected, they had been by precaution ferried over to the opposite bank of the Nile the preceding night. This created some delay; for Mr. Lenzi, the English agent, was some time before he could find another to replace it, as almost all the cattle of the town had gone off with the suite of the pasha. It was, therefore, about ten o’clock before I left Rosetta.
Having crossed the Nile, we gained the sea-side immediately, and continued along the sands until about four in the afternoon, having on our right, between us and the interior of the Delta, a slip of waste ground in sand hillocks, within which I could figure to myself the fertile fields and meads of the Delta, although I could not see them. The date-trees grew down to the seashore. About four o’clock in the afternoon, we took a path that inclined inland, and passed for an hour through sand hillocks, barren and unsightly, among which grew scattered date-trees. It was evident, after a time, that my guide had lost his way. At last we beheld some cabins, of a sugar-loaf shape, to the number of ten or twelve, built of sunbaked bricks. We naturally expected to find in them inhabitants, and with them water, of which we and our animals were much in want: but, on coming up close, we discovered that they had been recently deserted.
It was now sunset, and there was no prospect of bettering ourselves: so my servant spread my mat, and arranged my bed as well as he could on the sand; for I objected to sleeping inside the huts through fear of vermin. In the mean time, I observed the guide scraping with both his hands, like a rabbit in the sand; and in a few minutes he called to Mohammed to bring him a cup, or whatever he had, to lade out water. On approaching the place, I found that he had made a hole of not more than five feet in depth, at the bottom of which water oozed out plentifully enough for us to water the horses with it, and to drink ourselves; but so brackish was it, that nothing but great thirst could induce a person to swallow it, and not even that could render it palatable. Thinking that its nauseous taste might be disguised by coffee, I boiled some; but, so far from benefiting by the change, it seemed as if all the saline particles were set afloat in it, and it was not possible to drink it. With bread, therefore, and such few provisions as we had brought in our knapsacks, I made a poor supper, and slept through the night. The dew was heavy, and by morning our coverings were as if dipped in water.
This hamlet (as the guide told me) had been deserted to avoid the extortions of the proprietor of the land: for it is not uncommon in Turkey to fly from the oppression of a master as the only means left of resisting his encroachments; since, if he does not wish his fields to lie waste, he is necessitated to lower his demands and recall the peasantry. These emigrations from spot to spot are easy in such a climate; and a very little provocation drives them to it, where the whole household furniture of a family is only the load of a camel or an ass.
We proceeded early next morning on our journey; and my guide, as if apprehensive of losing his road a second time, regained the seashore as soon as possible. The sameness of the prospect rendered it a very dull day; and, after twelve hours’ continued march, we arrived, after sunset, at the mouth of Lake Brulos, on the opposite side of which we observed many lights as of a village or a town. But the ferrymen, who are accustomed to ply there, were already retired to their homes; and we were obliged, after bawling a long time in vain, to look about for a place where we might pass the night. On the edge of the lake we found a fisherman’s hut, large enough to hold one or two persons: this was given up to me. There was, fortunately, in it a large jar of water, which was looked on as a treasure. The provisions were dried up by the sun, and I again made as bad a meal as I had done the preceding evening: for then, if the provisions were good, the water was brackish, and now the change in the water was counterbalanced by the bad state of the provisions.