Among the visitors to the peninsula in 1845 was Major Macdonald, who came to inspect the turquoise that was left, and who settled near the mines at Maghara in 1855, where he remained ten years. His mining was done with the help of Bedawyn labour. He took considerable interest in the great inscriptions, and it was not he, but a French engineer, who took up the work after he left, who destroyed by blasting a large number of valuable rock inscriptions, including those of King Khufu and of the Pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty. The general interest taken in the peninsula led to the sending out an expedition under General Wilson in 1868, who engaged in a survey of Sinai, i.e. the mountains of the south, under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Fund. The work was published in 1871 and contains text, maps and a number of photographic views. Among those working on the Survey was the Rev. F. W. Holland, who had previously stayed in Sinai in 1861 and 1867; and the distinguished Arabic scholar, Prof. E. H. Palmer, who made the acquaintance of Sir Richard Burton on this occasion, and who was brought into prolonged contact with the Bedawyn. Prof. Palmer published in 1871 a special account that deals with the story of the Israelites in Sinai under the title The Desert of Exodus. Another visitor to the peninsula was the Egyptologist, Prof. Ebers, who published his work Durch Gosen zum Sinai in 1872. The interest in geography now caused travellers to journey along different routes and to explore different parts of the peninsula, but, in spite of the work accomplished then or undertaken since, the central part of the peninsula is still insufficiently known.
Fig. 22.—Sulyman abu Sīlm, a Bedawy.
From these writers we gain a further insight into the state of things at the convent, and the attitude of the Bedawyn.
The number of monks at the convent remained much the same. Seetzen found twenty-five monks there and a “guardian” who acted for the absentee bishop (i. 73); Edward Robinson found twenty monks in residence (i. 131); Lepsius in 1845 found twenty-five; Ebers in 1871 found twenty-eight. In 1890 there were between twenty and thirty.
Of the property that is at present owned by the monks I fail to find a complete list. At different periods mention is made of priories in Alexandria, Jerusalem, Tripoli, Gaza, Constantinople, Crete and Cyprus, besides the house owned at Cairo.[306] Wolff, in 1839, mentioned property held by the monks at Constantinople, Cyprus, Belgrad, Bukarest, Jassy, Athens, India and Calcutta;[307] Robinson mentioned houses at Bengal, Golconda, Crete and Cyprus (p. 549). According to Burckhardt the monks received their supplies from Gaza and Cairo.
After an interregnum of eight years Constantius II ruled as archbishop from 1804 to 1859, and was succeeded by Cyrillus III (1859-67). The next archbishop, Callistratus (1867-85), was the first prelate who returned to the convent in 1872, but his installation was attended by difficulties. His successor, Porphyrius, fell out with the patriarch of Alexandria, who caused him to be expelled from Cairo. He was in residence at the convent in the winter of 1905-6.
Modern accounts give a further insight into the temper of the men of the desert.
The pilgrims of the Middle Ages generally dreaded the Bedawyn who were apt to swoop down on them, clamouring for dues, as they passed from the territory of one tribe into that of another, but we hear of few excesses committed by them. Burckhardt, Prof. Palmer and Sir Richard Burton gave an account of the different tribes.