It was here that Napoleon I. had several thousand Arab prisoners of war shot. The great chieftain has been severely censured for this “cold-blooded murder.” I am not sure, however, but that his “cold-blooded” critics are as heartless in stabbing him with the pen, as he was in ordering those Arabs executed. He was thousands of miles from home. He had no provisions to feed, and no men to guard, the prisoners. To turn them loose was to strengthen the enemy, who already outnumbered him ten to one. In the name of Mars, I ask, what else could Napoleon do?
While in Joppa, staying with one Simon a tanner, who lived by the seaside, Peter went upon the housetop and, in a vision, saw a sheet let down from Heaven, filled with all manner of four footed beasts. There is to-day in Jaffa a tannery, by the seaside. The stone vats are exceedingly old. The most pleasant place in Jaffa is on the housetops. Standing upon the flat roof of the house in the tan-yard, I easily throw pebbles into the Sea.
Jaffa is worthy of her name. Situated in the midst of an extensive orange orchard, which slopes at first steeply, and then gently, up from the water’s edge, she may well be called, “The Beautiful.” I have eaten oranges in different countries, but nowhere have I found them so delicately and deliciously flavored as here in Jaffa. The orchard stretches itself along the seashore for two miles, or more, and extends about the same distance back towards the hill-country. Not oranges only, but figs, dates, pomegranates, pears, peaches, bananas, apricots and other tropical fruits flourish about Jaffa. This is a great summer resort for the people of Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem. And why should it not be? The sea breeze is refreshing, the foliage of the orange trees is always green, and the blossoms always fragrant. The ten thousand people who live in Jaffa walk through filthy streets, and live in sorry houses, many of them in miserable huts. They are not, however, so poverty-stricken as are their kinsmen in other portions of the country, for the showers of golden fruit are constantly bringing streams of golden coin into the Beautiful City.
THE CASTLE OF DAVID AND JAFFA GATE.
With pockets full of oranges, and hearts full of gratitude that God has graciously permitted us to traverse the Holy Land from Dan to Beersheba, and from the river to the Great Sea, we take shipping at Jaffa for the land of the Pharaohs. The voyage is rendered thoroughly uncomfortable because of a cargo of sheep. The helpless creatures are crowded together almost as if they were cut up and salted down as mutton. During a rough sea, they are so shaken up and jostled together that they, like Peter’s wife’s mother, lie sick of a fever. The fumes arising from these fevered victims have a most distressing effect upon the passengers. But for the sea breeze, we should all go crazy, or should ourselves die of the fever. Night brings no sleep to our pillows, no relief to our throbbing temples. I feel that I would almost be glad to be thrown overboard, like Jonah, and trust to some passing whale to carry me ashore. It is therefore with great pleasure that we step off of this sheep-cursed ship on Egyptian soil, in Port Said, at the mouth of the Suez Canal. Port Said, which now has five to eight thousand inhabitants, has been built since the opening of the Suez Canal which, as the reader knows, connects the Mediterranean and Red seas. It is, perhaps, according to its length, the most important stream or “connecting body” of water in the world.
Leaving Port Said on a steamer, I soon find myself gliding through this Canal, whose construction is regarded as one of the grandest triumphs of modern science. Great banks of sand rise on either side, and the blue sky stretches above our merchant ship. We are constantly passing large merchant ships going to south Africa and to India, and meeting others coming from there. Every few hundred yards, we see a dredging machine at work deepening and widening the Canal. The desert sands are ever encroaching upon it. I believe it will finally have to be walled up with rock. The Suez Canal was opened, more than twenty years ago, in the presence of representatives of nearly every civilized government. It is 110 miles long, 26 feet deep, 72 feet wide at the bottom, and 140 feet at the top, and was constructed at a cost of almost one hundred million dollars. “The great advantage of the Canal,” says the London Times, “is, of course, the decrease of the distance to be traveled between Europe and India; for, while it is about 11,200 miles from London or Hamburg, by the Cape of Good Hope, to Bombay, by the Suez it is only 6,332. This reduces the voyage by twenty-four days. From Marseilles or Genoa, a saving of thirty days is effected, and from Trieste thirty-seven.” The rates at which steamers are allowed to pass is from five to six miles per hour.
While the French furnished the brains and the money for the construction of the Canal, it is at present chiefly owned by Great Britain, Disraeli having bought up a great part of the stock, when considerably below par, for 4,000,000 pounds. Since that time, however, the value has increased to nearly 11,000,000 pounds. It was, therefore, a paying investment. Out of every one hundred vessels passing this way, seventy-five of them belong to England. The Canal is jealously guarded by English forts and English men-of-war. The British Lion has laid his paw upon Egypt, and ere long a change will come over the spirit of somebody’s dreams.
Passing through the land of Goshen, where Israel dwelt, then through a series of lakes, and finally by the town of Suez, we enter the Red Sea. There is more life in or on this sea than around its waters. Nevertheless, it is of surpassing interest to the students of sacred and profane history. The place where Moses led the children of Israel across the sea can not be determined with certainty. The authorities are about equally divided between each of two places. Pharaoh and his host were swallowed up by the sea, and no one has ever thought enough of them even to fish for their chariot wheels. A thinking man, with a devout heart in him, trembles as he stands upon the shore of this sea, and reads the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Exodus, and especially when in the vicinity of Mount Sinai he reads the nineteenth and twentieth chapters.
Returning to Suez, we find a rude contrivance, by courtesy called a train, which makes occasional trips to Cairo. It is by all odds the most uncomfortable “clap-trap” I have ever been in. It is constructed much after the order of our cattle-cars. During the trip, we encounter a sand storm and are almost suffocated. I suppose, however, I should do like other folk, and praise the bridge that brings me over safely.