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

by William George Browne

The road, for about two miles after leaving the gate of Rashîd, is marked by many vestiges of buildings, but nothing worth observing. There are also many date trees scattered round in the neighbourhood of the canal, and vegetation enough to serve for food for the small flocks of the city. About two miles from Abu-kîr are the ruins of a town, close to the sea, and a part of them under water. There are also some remains of columns. This is what has been remarked as the Taposiris parva of antiquity. Abu-kîr is a village, consisting of few inhabitants. There is near it, however, a small port, and on the point of land which forms it, a fortress, but of little strength. A Tsorbashi resides there, with a few soldiers. He collects a toll from those who pass the ferry near it. It is a place of no trade, and vessels that frequent it come there chiefly for the purpose of avoiding bad weather. We were eight hours and a half in reaching Rashîd, exclusively of the time taken up in crossing two ferries. The latter part of the road, from the seaside to Rashîd, has been all marked with short columns of burned brick, at certain distances from each other.

The beauty and fertility of the country round Rashîd deserves all the praise that has been given it. The eye is not, indeed, gratified with the romantic views, flowing lines, the mixture of plain and mountain, nor that universal verdure that is to be observed on the banks of the Rhine or the Danube. But his taste is poor who would reduce all kinds of picturesque beauty to one criterion. To me, after being wearied with the sandy dryness of the barren district to the west, the vegetable soil of Rashîd, filled with every production necessary for the sustenance, or flattering to the luxury of man, the rice fields covering the superficies with verdure, the orange groves exhaling aromatic odours, the date trees formed into an umbrageous roof over the head; shall I say the mosques and the tombs, which, though wholly incompatible with the rules of architecture, yet grave and simple in the structure, are adapted to fill the mind with pleasing ideas; and above all, the unruffled weight of waters of the majestic Nile, reluctantly descending to the sea, where its own vast tide, after pervading and fertilizing so long a tract, is to be lost in the general mass: these objects filled me with ideas, which, if not great or sublime, were certainly among the most soothing and tranquil that have ever affected my mind.

There are some few remains of antiquity in the neighbourhood of Rashîd, though the city itself be modern. The castle of Abu-Mandûr stands about two miles from it, higher up the Nile, in a situation very picturesque, as is seen by many drawings of it extant in Europe. Columns are frequently dug up here. My arrival at Rashîd happened in the month Ramadân, a time when it is particularly cheerful. The populace there are esteemed more quiet, and better disposed to civility than those of Alexandria or Kahira.

The city of Rashîd is built in an oblong irregular form. It has no walls nor fortress. Its population is considerable; among which are some Franks, and many Greeks. The commerce is principally the carrying trade between Kahira and Alexandria. There is a cotton manufacture, but confined to home consumption. Across the mouth of the Nile, below Rashîd, is a bar which renders navigation perilous, goods being obliged to be brought in boats of a particular form from Kahira, and embarked in others of a different description for Alexandria. Great damage is sustained by the boats striking on the banks in entering the river, in which case they are commonly overset and sunk; and it would be easy to institute an office of insurance at Kahira, for goods coming by Rashîd. One half per cent. would be a sufficient rate; but it would be necessary that a person should inspect the jerms, or boats, at Rashîd, as the boatmen are such knaves that they will overset the vessel, on purpose afterwards to get at the goods under water.

It may not be improper here to observe, that though, during the rise of the Nile, the water runs through several small canals, yet the real mouths, presenting a constant stream, are but two, those of Rashîd and Damiatt.

Rashîd is governed by an inferior officer, appointed by the Beys. All this district is under the jurisdiction of Murad Bey. Property is secure from all plunderers, except the Beys.

At Rashîd are many learned men; that is, skilled in Mohammedan theology and casuistry. These Shechs pass their lives in great tranquillity, preserving an apathy completely stoical. Their chief amusement is to sit in their gardens, on the banks of the river, smoking and conversing.

After staying five days to see the place, May 6th, I embarked with a view of proceeding to Terané. It was my intention to have gone by land, but the persons to whom I had recourse for information could not persuade themselves that there was any security in that route at the moment.

The production called Natrôn, efforts to introduce which into general use in Europe have more than once been made, was at that time becoming a considerable article of export; and I felt some curiosity to observe the production in its nascent state. Terané is the place nearest the lakes, and therefore I chose it as a point of departure. We proceeded as far as the canal of Menûf with a fair wind. Beyond this a loaded boat of any size cannot pass, except by that canal; the water having left the main channel, and now flowing through the canal, which is more in a line with the course of the river above the Delta. No want of population appears in the villages of this quarter, which are very numerous; and the land adjoining them is clean and well cultivated. An unbounded plain on both sides strikes the view, but on the West there is no great extent of arable land. The peasants wear the appearance of poverty, which, indeed, under the present abuse of government, is necessary to their personal security; but they have abundance of cattle, and the frequent return of passengers in the boats is to them a source of much gain.

In many of the villages are women for the convenience of strangers, a part of whose profits is paid to the government which tolerates them. I did not observe, however, that the nature of their calling created any external levity or indecency of behaviour. Having taken a small boat from Menûf, in six hours, the wind being either S.E. or calm, we arrived at Terané. I counted more than an hundred distinct villages and towns between Rashîd and Terané, as well on the West as the East of the Nile. Among the most considerable of those on the East is Fué, a place formerly more eminent in commerce than Rashîd; but the latter has now in a great degree superseded it, and it is diminished in size and population. It is nevertheless one of the most agreeable situations on the Nile. Deîrût is the largest town on the West. For Demenhûr, which is more populous, is not visible from the Nile, being situated near the canal that conveys water to Alexandria. At Demenhûr is a garrison of Janizaries. The course of the Nile from its mouth to Terané is, with the exception of some curves, nearly N.W. and S.E. In that space are several islands, which are continually changing in place and number. From Rashîd to Damiatt, in a direct line, is computed to be about twenty-seven leagues.