Sand and Canvas: Narrative of adventures in Egypt with a sojourn among the artists in Rome

by Samuel Bevan

As it is not my intention to weary the reader with a description of each of my several journeyings across the Isthmus, I shall allude only to two more at the close of the year 184-, when my engagement with Messrs. Waghorn came to an end.

On one of these occasions, I had the pleasure of conducting the late lamented Baboo, (Dwarkanauth Tagore,) who was returning to India with a large retinue of friends and dependants, after a rather protracted stay in England. On our way up the Mahmoudieh, the boat of which I was in charge, encountered a very severe storm or tornado, the wind setting with extraordinary violence right in our teeth, and bringing us to a complete stand still. We lay-to whilst it lasted, for the space of half-an-hour or so, and as we had no sail, or other impediment, to offer any resistance, it passed over us without doing any injury; but its effects, on resuming our course, were very apparent. A mile farther up the Canal, we found a fine boat turned completely upside down, and floating in a sea of sesamen and grain; hen-coops and dead poultry, with half-emptied baskets of provisions, covered the surface of the now still water, whilst the banks were strewed with fragments of earthenware, and such valuables, as had been rescued from the wreck. Two little children had perished, and the distracted mother was wringing her hands and tearing her hair, in the intensity of her sorrow. Farther on, a second boat lay swamped, with a portion of the mast only out of water. A half-resuscitated English gentleman lay gasping on the bank, having been rescued by one of the boatmen, who had dived under to his assistance. A little brandy served completely to restore him, and I then recognised a Mr. L——, who had been staying for some time in Alexandria, having retired from India on a pension. We took him a mile or two with us, and then transferred him to another boat, deeply bewailing the loss of some valuable property, which the ducking would render useless.

This trip seemed destined to be replete with accident. A young cadet, who had vainly sought below for some place wherein to stow himself for the night, rolled himself up in two or three pea-jackets, and lay down to sleep on the roof. A sudden lurch pitched him over into sixteen feet of water, and had not some one who lay near him, heard the splash, and raised an alarm, it would have been all over with him, for the night was dark, and we were shooting rapidly a-head. The boat was instantly stopped, and I then bade one of our Arabs to jump in and rescue the unfortunate lad, promising him a liberal bucksheesh. No, he would not go—if it had been in the day time, a dip would have been of no consequence, but at night he was afraid. His companion was equally inexorable, so, seeing that farther delay must prove fatal to the cadet, I pushed the first in, when the other, fearing to lose a share of the bucksheesh, followed of his own accord. Then succeeded a few moments of very painful suspense, for they had a long way to swim before reaching the spot where the accident occurred, and it was probable that the cadet, encumbered as he was with three coats, had sunk at once to the bottom. Great was our relief, therefore, when the exclamations of the Arabs assured us that they had succeeded in landing him, although it was not very easily that animation was restored. As the young gentleman himself had little or nothing to offer in the shape of reward, to those who had been the means of saving him, and seemed indeed to regard his return to mother earth with perfect nonchalance, a subscription was got up among the passengers, and one of the dripping Arabs went round to collect the offerings, which were liberally showered into his greasy tarboosh. About three or four pounds were thus netted, which certainly ought, in equity, to have been divided between the two boatmen, but the glitter of the precious metals proved too strong a temptation for our worthy collector, who, as he emerged from the cabin, cast one glance towards the poop, where his companion was seated at the tiller, and then securing the cap with its contents, between his teeth, glided noiselessly over the side of the boat, and dived clear off with his booty. I afterwards learned, that he ran back to Alexandria, and invested his treasure in the purchase of a snuff and tobacco shop.

As Dwarkanauth travelled with many retainers, and there was also the usual average of Overland passengers, our party for Suez was rather a large one, and the murrain having robbed us of upwards of a score of horses during the last few weeks, there was but little accommodation in the way of carriages. The invalids, and most of the ladies, got seats, but the rest were obliged to have recourse to the donkey-chair or saddle, whilst I selected a light dromedary, and trotted along with the hindermost. We found it very difficult to keep together, and as the darkness increased, were guided only by the harsh cries of the drivers, as they urged on their unwilling animals. Every now and then some chair would come down with a run, from the unequal motion of the two donkeys attached to it, spilling the frightened occupant on to the hard sand, or, what was still worse, a portion of the wretched harness would give way, and cause the dropping of one corner of the sedan, which, if not speedily rectified, is sufficient to tire the patience of the most stoical. If the donkeys are well trained, no locomotion could be more agreeable than that of these machines, but should the foremost animal indulge in a canter, whilst his follower is not to be coaxed out of a trot, the effect is perfectly indescribable.

Our mishaps and delays were so frequent, that I at length grew weary of perpetually dismounting from my lofty perch to render assistance, and having fallen in with an interesting companion in the person of T——, of Anti-slavery celebrity, we made up our minds to push on together, the more especially as the Calcutta steamer was waiting for the Baboo and his party. At No. 5 Station, we exchanged our tired montures, for two of our van horses, which had been left by one of the foremost of the carriages, and thus, with halters of twisted straw, and without saddles, we galloped away through the darkness, very much to the amusement and satisfaction of my fellow-traveller, who declared he had seldom experienced anything so pleasurable in the way of a ride. It was certainly a glorious night, and the road, saving where an occasional stone or piece of rock, threatened to bring down our stumbling hacks, safe and pleasant. I could not, however, enter very fully into the feelings of my companion, for I was fearful that the steamer might have put to sea before we could reach Suez, and I had yet a good deal to receive from several of the passengers, who had quitted Cairo before I had collected their monies. There was nothing either to be got at the Stations in the way of provision, for the parties who preceded us, had demolished everything eatable, saving a few potatoes and onions, which we sliced up and made into soup.

By the time we reached the hotel, every one was gone to the ship, to which I also made the best of my way in a light skiff. They were raising the anchor as I gained the deck, and I had but little time to parley with such of the passengers as were on my books. With the Baboo I had no trouble, as he immediately handed me a cheque on his bankers, but with some of the others I was not so fortunate, for finding themselves in security, and the vessel almost under weigh, they would fain have taxed their bill. In this emergency, I pencilled a hasty note to our agent at Bombay, which I dropped into the letter-box on board, and having taken this precaution, quitted the ship.

I was driven back alone to Cairo in two days, staying the intervening night at No. 4 Station. As we approached No. 2, which is some twenty miles from the city, we came upon Messrs. F—— and D——, of the Peninsula and Oriental Company, making a trial of one of the new iron carriages, constructed for desert use, by the eminent builder, Andrews of Southampton. In respect of comfort and appearance, they are all that can be desired, but the account which I received of their go-a-head capabilities, was certainly not much in their favour. My two friends had quitted Cairo two days before I fell in with them, with four horses and a plentiful larder, and after countless stoppages, had at last come to a complete standstill, in the middle of a vast field of loose sand, in which the narrow iron wheels were effectually embedded, more than half way up to the axle, and still deeper they would have gone, but for the body of the carriage, which was resting on the sand. I found the two travellers and their driver lolling at great ease, over a fine ham and sundry chickens, and as they robbed my driver of two of his horses, we levied a counter contribution on them, and made free with their knives and forks. Soon after quitting them, they made another advance of half-a-mile, and then, finding the loose sand too powerful an opponent to their progress, turned their horses’ heads round, and returned to Cairo. These new carriages do not appear (to me at least,) adapted to the peculiarities of the desert, inasmuch as the wheels are too small, and the tyres not nearly broad enough, whilst the cranked axles are directly opposed to easy draught. I am not aware with whom the design originated, but it would have been wiser in my opinion, to have fairly established a fault in those already so long in use, than to have risked the expense of building half-a-dozen new ones, on a principle, which any one moderately experienced in Egyptian travelling, would have immediately condemned. The carriages used by Mr. Waghorn, in appearance, a cross between a bathing-machine and an errand-cart, are really constructed on good sound principles, and cost Raven a great amount of trouble and expense in their perfection. The wheels are six feet in diameter, and will clear a tolerably large lump of rock or stone, without breaking a spring; they are also so skilfully balanced, that when loaded, there is but little weight thrown on the shaft horse, and their motion is both easy and agreeable.

Two or three days after my return to Cairo, and during some conversation with Raven, I learnt that the affairs of the Company by whom I was employed, were likely to undergo a change, and that arrangements were about to be entered into, to dispose advantageously, of the whole concern. I should scarcely have received this information so soon, but for the kindness of Raven, who was anxious that I should be on the look out for some other mode of employing myself, as in the course of another month or two, the management would probably pass into other hands, and I should then be at loose ends in a foreign land. In the event of my wishing to remain in Egypt, he promised his best influence in my behalf with his successors, though it was not likely they would retain many English in their employ.

Thanking him very cordially, I promised to think the matter over, and proceeded once more to Alexandria, to meet the “Great Liverpool,” and make my last official trip across the desert. She arrived on the 29th of the month, and brought some thirty or more passengers, among whom were the Imaum of Muscat, and to my great satisfaction, my friend P——, with his amiable and accomplished wife, whom he was transplanting from the bogs of Ireland, to cheer his solitude in Egypt.

We reached Cairo without let or hindrance, but scarcely had we passed the tombs of the Sheiks, on the verge of the desert, than our horses began to gib, and I foresaw that a night of trouble was before us. The van in which I rode, contained rather a mixed party, in the persons of the Rev. Dr. T., a Frenchman, a Portuguese nobleman, and myself, together with two or three bottles of orgeât and eau sucrèe, and a heavy carpet bag, the property of the Hidalgo.