Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the year 1792 to 1798

by William George Browne

Of the deep and capacious reservoirs, which preserved the water of the Nile during the annual subsidence of that river, and of which there was probably a series, continued from one to the other extremity of the city, not more than seven remain fit for use. From these the citizens are at this time supplied; and, as they are some way removed from the inhabited quarter, a few of the poorer class obtain a subsistence by drawing the water, and carrying it on camels from house to house; and for each camel’s load they receive four or five paras, about twopence. The roofs of these cisterns or reservoirs are supported by massy timber. They have probably been thus constructed at the beginning, as it is difficult to suppose that the modern Alexandrians should entirely have changed so essential a part, and have chosen to substitute wood for stone, in a place where the former is extremely scarce, and the other very abundant.

The elevation of the city above the level of the sea is small; and it seems very difficult to render it capable of offering any formidable resistance to an external enemy.

The soil, wherever a vegetable mould is discoverable, is light, and favourable to any kind of culture; but it has apparently been brought there for the purpose, as the natural soil seems wholly unfit for cultivation, being throughout either sand or stone. The orange and lemon are found in the gardens here, but not in great quantities. The dates are good, though not of the most esteemed kind. Yet they are found the most profitable article that the owner of the ground can cultivate. And accordingly these trees, with which the gardens are filled, not only relieve the eye from the dry whiteness of buildings, and the sandy soil; but well repay the owners for the trouble required to manage them, and for the space they occupy to the exclusion of almost every thing else. The greater number of esculent herbs, or roots, that are common among us, may be raised here, without any other difficulty than that of watering. The fruit trees that I have remarked as peculiar to the place, are the nebbek (Paliurus Athenæi) and the kishné (Cassia Keshta,) the latter of which is also found in the West Indies. The former bears a small fruit like the cherry in size, and having a stone of the same kind; but very different in colour and flavour, which more resemble those of the apple.

The chief monuments of antiquity remaining in any degree perfect, are the column, usually but improperly termed of Pompey[2], and the obelisk. On the former, not even so much of the inscription as Pococke copied is now to be distinguished. There is also a sarcophagus or chest of serpentine marble in the great mosque, which is used for a cistern. It is of the same kind with that so minutely described by Niebuhr, at Kallaat el Kabsh in Kahira, and seems to be almost as rich in hieroglyphics. It has the additional advantage of being entire, and little if at all injured by time. It is said, that one of those who farmed the customs some years since, on retiring from Egypt, had negociated for the removal of this precious monument of antiquity, on board of an European vessel, with the intention of carrying it as a present to the Emperor of Germany. On the night when it was to be embarked, however, the secret being disclosed, the citizens clamorously insisted that the property of the mosque was inviolable. The projected removal was accordingly relinquished, and the chest has ever since been watched with uncommon vigilance, so that it is now difficult for an European even to obtain a sight of it; which must be my excuse for not having been more minute in my description of a monument that seems not to have been particularly observed by former travellers.

The population consists of Mohammedans of various nations; Greeks in considerable number, who have a church and convent, containing only three or four religious, but agreeably situated on the highest ground among the gardens; Armenians, who have also a church; and a few Jews, who have their synagogue. The whole, perhaps, may not amount to less than twenty thousand souls[3]; which, however, the length of my residence there did not enable me to decide. The Franciscans of Terra Santa have a church and monastery, in which reside three or four of their order. The habitations of the European consuls and merchants are all near together, east of the city and close to the sea. They associate with each other, dress and live as in Europe, and, unless by their mutual animosities, are perfectly undisturbed. It is true, indeed, that the natives bear no very good character for their behaviour to strangers, but, I believe, when incivility has been experienced, it has generally first been provoked: and the natives are, perhaps, at least as often the dupes of the Frank merchants, as the latter are of the native brokers and factors, whom their commercial concerns oblige them to employ. The command of the fort, and of the few troops which are in the city, is vested in a Sardar, who is sometimes a Cashef, sometimes an inferior officer of the Beys. The internal government is in the hands of the citizens. The chief magistrate is the Cadi, an Arab, who receives his appointment from Constantinople; the others are, the Shechs of the four sects, and the Imâms of the two principal mosques. Here it may be observed, once for all, that the municipal magistrates in the east are always of the sacerdotal order.

The revenues of Alexandria, under the Ptolemies, are stated at 12,500 talents, which at 193l. 15s. the talent, is little less than two millions and an half sterling. At this time it is thought that they do not exceed four thousand five hundred purses, or 225,000l.

The commerce of Alexandria is more considerable than that of Damiatt. All exports to Europe, or imports from thence, are made at the former. The whole of the timber for house or ship building is brought from Candia, or the Archipelago. The copper, manufactured or rough, of which the consumption is large, from Constantinople. Coffee and rice, raw leather, &c. are exported to that and other places. The transit of all these keeps the inhabitants in that state of activity to which they are eminently disposed; and if various causes operate unavoidably to fetter and stagnate commerce, it cannot be said that they are in fault. The navigation from Alexandria to Rashîd is conducted in small vessels of from fifteen to fifty tons burthen, which deposit their goods at Rashîd, whence they are embarked in boats of another form, and conveyed to Kahira.

Among the articles of native produce, considerable quantities of which are taken by the Frank merchants in return for the goods of their respective countries, are saffranon, Carthamus tinctorius, which is cultivated in Egypt; and senna, which chiefly comes by way of Suez: but some portion of which is also produced in Nubia, and near the first Cataract.

The consumption of broad cloth in Egypt used to be about eight hundred bales; but it was greatly decreased when I left the country, owing to the war in Europe, which prevented a proper supply. The consequent high price constrained many to have recourse to the native manufactures. Red coral is imported from Leghorn, glass beads, &c. from Venice.

The Alexandrians are remarkable for the facility with which they acquire different languages. But their own Arabic is impure, being mingled with Turkish and other dialects.