During my first sojourn in the capital, I was naturally anxious to get to the Pyramids, and satisfy the burning curiosity I had always felt to see these extraordinary monuments. I was dissuaded, however, from paying them an immediate visit, by a promise on the part of Mr. Raven, to get up and personally conduct an expedition to explore them at leisure, and as he had assisted Colonel Vyse in opening those of Ghizeh, which had been partially explored by Belzoni, and then once more closed, I was the more ready to submit to this arrangement and profit by his experience. The rising of the Nile too, which was now rapidly filling, was an obstacle, inasmuch as the distance from Cairo to the first Pyramids is but five miles, by the ordinary route when the water is off the plain, whilst at the time of the inundation, it is twenty miles or more, and the road rendered difficult and dangerous.
I therefore contented myself with visiting such objects of interest in Cairo and its immediate neighbourhood, as were within the compass of a walk, as the mad-house, and citadel, and the royal gardens of Shoubra and Rhoda, &c.
In these little excursions, I was accompanied by a gentleman named Bell, to whom I was introduced by Dr. A., at whose house he was a visitor. He had but just returned from a long journey into Abyssinia and the Galla country, where he had met with much hardship and adventure. It happened that a certain Colonel Ashton, who had ventured into that uncivilized part of the world, had died, as was asserted, of brain-fever, but his relatives, not satisfied with this account of the unfortunate gentleman’s death, had begged Dr. A. to send off some trustworthy person to ascertain the real state of the case. Bell, who, at that moment happened to have nothing particular to do, and found time hanging heavily upon his hands, volunteered his services, which were forthwith accepted. Taking with him a sufficient escort, he disembarked at Missouah, and penetrated as far southward as the spot where the Colonel died, finding the account, in the main, perfectly correct, and satisfying his relatives that he had not met with a violent death. Some of Bell’s adventures were curious and amusing, and it is matter of considerable regret to me, that I have not preserved a more complete record of his perils and escapes. By one chief he was detained as a sort of prisoner, and was not allowed to proceed on his journey until he contrived to purchase his liberty by some well-displayed feats of arms, which completely won over the heart of the old king. On one occasion, he was called upon to play (!) a tilting match with his majesty, who, doubtless proposed to himself great sport in knocking Bell off his horse, and maybe sending a long spear through his body. My countryman, who by the way, was a powerful athletic fellow of six feet one or two, young and full of vigour, and a perfect horseman, vaulted gaily into his saddle, and acting only on the defensive, happily succeeded in parrying the strokes of his adversary’s lance which glanced harmlessly off his shield, calmly awaiting a favourable opportunity to take his turn at the opposing target. This came sooner than he anticipated, for the chief, thrown off his guard, probably by a false estimate of Bell’s skill in this sort of tactics, slacking his attention for a moment, received a well-directed lance in the very centre of his shield, which sent him rolling on the grass, to his own infinite amusement, as well as that of such of his liege subjects as witnessed the sport. The old chief, was, in fact, so well pleased with the courage and address displayed by Bell, that he presented him with the white mule, from which he had but a moment before so ignominiously parted company, and conferred a sort of knighthood upon him into the bargain, by the gift of a splendid gold-embossed shield, ornamented with the lion’s tail, which is one of the insignia of royalty.
From this moment, our friend stood high in the favour of the Court, and attended the king on several excursions against a neighbouring tribe, with whom he was then at war. On one of these occasions, Bell was severely wounded by a lance through his hip, but was carefully nursed by the chief’s family, who, although very loth to part with him, suffered him at length to continue his journey, loading him with provisions and presents, and increasing the number of his escort. Farther south, he was attacked by robbers, who plundered him of everything save his arms, and left him for dead upon the ground, with a lance through his head, which entering the nose, came out at the back of the neck, and was eventually withdrawn without doing much injury.[11]
Having accomplished the object of his mission, Bell returned to Cairo, where it was that I fell in with him very shortly afterwards. A few months subsequently, he again set out for Abyssinia in company with two other gentlemen, with the intention of reaching the source of the White Nile, by which name the main stream is distinguished. It was a totally different branch which Bruce traced to its rise, and the true position of the sources of the Nile still appears to be unauthenticated. It remains to be seen what success has attended their efforts.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] “Good, good.”
[11] These facts I give to the reader as I had them from Bell, who subsequently suffered acutely from the wounds in his head.
CHAPTER IX.
THE NILE BOAT—VOYAGE DOWN THE RIVER—DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS—SUDDEN SQUALL—NARROW ESCAPE—ALEXANDRIA—RIVAL HOTELS—LESSONS IN DONKEYSHIP—DOMESTIC COOKERY—THE “GREAT LIVERPOOL”—PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEIS.