THE JOURNEY OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL
Captain Ringgold suggested to the magnate of the Fifth Avenue that he
had omitted something, as he pointed to the long piers which extended
out into the sea.
"I had it on my tongue's end to mention them; but I am not much
accustomed to speaking before an audience, and I forgot to do so,"
replied Mr. Woolridge. "But then they are engineering work, and I doubt
if this company would be interested."
"I was wondering where they obtained all the stone to build them in this
place, where there appears to be nothing but sand and mud," interposed
Mrs. Belgrave. "They must be nearly a mile long."
"They are quite a mile long," replied Mr. Woolridge.
"Did they bring the stone from the quarries away up the Nile, where they
got the material of which the pyramids are built?"
"Not at all; that would have been about as big a job as digging out the
canal."
"Hardly; for they could have brought them by water about all the way,"
said the commander. "But the material did not come from those
quarries."
"No; they made the rocks," added the magnate.
"Made them!" exclaimed Mrs. Blossom. "Do you expect us to believe that?"
"There is a great deal of such work done in the United States, and in
some of our cities there are streets paved and sidewalks built of
manufactured stone," replied Mr. Woolridge. "At the town which you see,
the piers start out about two-thirds of a mile apart, and approach each
other till they are less than a third of a mile from each other. They
were built to protect the port from the north-west winds which sometimes
blow very fresh here, and to prevent the harbor of Port Said from being
choked up with the Nile mud from the mouths of the great river.
"These piers were constructed by a French firm. The first thing was to
manufacture the artificial stone, which was composed of seven parts
sand, of which there is a plentiful supply in this vicinity, and one
part of hydraulic lime, imported from France. I suppose the latter is
something like the cement used in New York in building sewers and
drains, or other works in wet places. This concrete was mixed by
machinery, then put into immense wooden moulds, just as you make a loaf
of sponge cake, Mrs. Blossom, where it was kept for several weeks. These
blocks weighed twenty tons each."
"Goodness! They were heavier than Mrs. Grimper's sponge cake!" exclaimed
Mrs. Blossom.
"Considerably," laughed the magnate. "The solid contents of each were
thirteen and a third cubic yards. How big a cubic block would that make
in feet, young gentlemen? I hope you are not neglecting your mathematics
for geography and sight-seeing."
"About seven feet," replied Louis, after some mental figuring.
"A little more than that," added the professor.
"Seven feet is about the height of the cabin of this ship, and one of
them would just stand up in it," continued Mr. Woolridge. "They made
thirty of them every day, and twenty-five thousand were required."
"This is about as wonderful as the immense work of the ancient
Egyptians," said Mrs. Belgrave.
"But all this labor was done by machinery. The moulds were removed from
the blocks, and they were exposed to the air in order to harden them
more effectually. They were then hoisted on peculiar boats, built for
the purpose, with an inclined deck, from which they were slid into the
sea. They made a tremendous splash when they were dumped overboard; and
it was a sight worth seeing if we had happened to be here twenty-four
years ago."
"It wasn't convaynient for some of us to be here at that time," said
Felix.
"That is so, my broth of a boy; but some things happened before you were
born, as well as since."
"Sure, the pyramids were built before your honor was barn."
"True for you; some things happened before I was born, and even before
the twin cupids came into the world; for I believe they are the oldest
persons on board," replied the magnate. "They kept dropping these
tremendous blocks into the sea till they came nearly to the level, and
then they built the walls as you see them now. I suppose you have
noticed that lighthouse on the little strip of land between the sea and
Lake Menzaleh. That is also built of these artificial stones, and it is
one hundred and sixty-four feet high. It is provided with electric
lights, which are to be seen from a distance of twenty-four miles. It
is, therefore, one of the largest in the world. I believe I have covered
the ground now, and I won't say anything about Port Said till we are
moored in the grand basin."
"You have disposed of the _pierres perdues_ very nicely indeed, Mr.
Woolridge," said the professor.
"Who are they?" asked the magnate, who had forgotten all the French he
ever knew.
"Literally, 'lost stones,' as they were when they went overboard; but
that was what the French engineers called them."
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, I desire to invite you to the upper deck,
where I wish to say something to you about the Land of Goshen, and thus
finish up Egypt, except the portion we shall have in view as we continue
on our voyage," said the commander rising from his seat.
The ladies were handed down from the promenade by the gallant gentlemen,
though, unfortunately, there were not enough of the former to go round;
but no one but the captain and Louis presumed to offer his services to
Mrs. Belgrave or Miss Blanche. As the party approached the place where
the conferences had usually been held, they saw that a change had been
made in the appearance of things.
The first novelty that attracted their attention was the large map which
was suspended on a frame rigged against the mainmast. It was brilliant
with colors, with all the streams, towns, and lakes, properly labelled,
upon it. A small table stood at the left, or port side, of it, covered
with a cloth, with a Bible and a vase of flowers upon it. Chloe, the
stewardess, had provided the latter from the pots which the ladies had
kept in the cabin since their visit to Bermuda.
On the deck a large carpet had been spread out, and the thirteen
arm-chairs had been placed in a semicircle, facing the map, with one
behind the table for the speaker for the occasion. As soon as the
company had taken in this arrangement for the educational feature of the
voyage, they halted, and applauded it with right good-will.
"Please to be seated, ladies and gentlemen," said the commander, as he
handed Mrs. Belgrave to the chair on the right of the table; and at the
same time he took his place behind the table.
The party took their chairs according to their own fancies, and Mrs.
Blossom managed to get at the side of Felix. At one side stood Mr.
Gaskette and the two sailors who had assisted him in his work. They had
also arranged the meeting-place from the direction of the captain. Some
of the tourists wondered what the commander meant to do in the face of
all these preparations. It was not Sunday, or they would have come to
the conclusion that the usual religious service was to be held here; for
the Bible on the table pointed in this direction. As soon as the party
were seated the commander opened the Good Book at a marked place.
"I see that some of you are surprised at the altered appearance of our
out-door hall," Captain Ringgold began. "I regard the instructive
element of our voyage as one of the greatest importance; and if I were
to fit out the ship again for this cruise, I should provide an apartment
on this deck for our conference meetings. But I have done the best I
could under the circumstances, with the assistance of Mr. Gaskette, the
second officer of the ship.
"I see also that the map before you has challenged your attention,"
continued the commander, who proceeded to explain in what manner he had
caused the maps to be made. "Mr. Gaskette has been my right-hand man in
this work. He is not only a good navigator and a thorough seaman, but he
is a highly educated gentleman, a graduate of Harvard College, a person
of artistic tastes, as you may have learned from your intercourse with
him. The map before you is only one of three already completed, and the
work is in progress upon several others."
The company, including the ladies, received this explanation with
generous applause, and all the boys called for the subject of the
captain's remarks. He was presented to them, and thanked the commander
for his kind words, and hoped the maps would prove to be useful in the
conferences.
"I will begin what I have to say about the Land of Goshen by reading a
few verses from the first chapter of Exodus: 'And Joseph died, and all
his brethren, and all that generation. And the children of Israel were
fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding
mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there rose up a new king
over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold,
the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: come
on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to
pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our
enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their
burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Ramses.'
"Ramses II. is generally regarded as the Pharaoh of the oppression, and
doubtless the Israelites suffered a great deal of persecution in his
reign," the commander proceeded as he closed the Bible. "But the one who
proposed in the verse I have read to 'get them up out of the land, was
the successor of Ramses II., 'the new king over Egypt,' Merenptah, the
son of Ramses, and now believed to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus. He
reigned about 1325 years A.D.
"The Land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, is the north-eastern
part of Egypt, the whole of it lying to the east of the Damietta branch
of the Nile," continued the commander, using his pointer upon the map.
"Through this region then, as now, there were fresh-water canals, by
which the country was made very productive, and the people were very
prosperous. The city of Ramses, built by the Israelites, was doubtless
the most important in Goshen. It is the ancient Tanis, the ruins of
which are still to be seen. Pithom, the other city mentioned in the
Scripture, is here," and the speaker pointed it out. "It is quite near
the Arabian Desert, and the present fresh-water canal runs within a few
miles of it.
"With the birth of Moses, and the finding of the child in the ark or
basket by the daughter of Pharaoh, and her adoption of it, you are all
familiar; and the story is quite as interesting as any you can find in
other books than the Bible. Though of the house of Levi, he became an
Egyptian for the time; but he claimed his lineage, and became the leader
of the Israelites, and conducted them out of Egypt.
"A great deal of study has been given by learned men to the route by
which this was accomplished. Most of them agreed that he started from
Tanis, or Ramses. On that narrow strip of land between the lake and the
Mediterranean, which you have seen from the promenade, was one of the
usual roads from Egypt into Asia, and was the one which led into
Palestine, the Holy Land. Where Moses and his followers crossed the Red
Sea is still an open question, though hardly such to devout people who
accept literally the Bible as their guide in matters of faith and fact
both. These accept the belief that the crossing of the Red Sea, with the
miracles attending it, was in the portion near Suez.
"Heinrich Karl Brugsch, a learned German and eminent Egyptologist, born
in Berlin in 1827, has constructed a theory in relation to the exodus of
the Israelites which is more ingenious than reasonable to the pious
reader of the Scripture. It would be hardly profitable for us to go into
the details of his reasoning, though he uses the Bible as the foundation
of his statements. There were two roads from Egypt to Palestine, the one
mentioned, and one farther south, not so well adapted to caravans on
account of the marshy country it traverses.
"The German savant believed they departed by the northern road. In the
British Museum is a letter written on papyrus over three thousand years
ago, in which an Egyptian writer describes his journey from Ramses in
pursuit of two runaway servants. The days of the month are given; and
his stopping-places were the same as those of the Israelites. (Exodus
xii. 37): 'The children of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth;' and
this is the region east of Goshen. (Exodus xiii. 20): 'And they
journeyed from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the
wilderness,' or the desert.
"This was also the route of the Egyptian letter writer. Then the
pilgrims were commanded to turn, and encamp at a point between Migdol
and the sea, (Exodus xiv. 2.) He found the fugitives had gone towards
the wall, meaning the forts by which Egypt was defended from Asiatic
enemies. Following the same route, the Israelites came to the Sarbonian
Lake. This is a long sheet of water on the isthmus," said the commander,
as he pointed it out on the map. "It was, for it no longer exists,
separated from the Mediterranean by such a strip as that which you see
here by Lake Menzaleh.
"Diodorus Siculus informs us that the Sarbonian Lake was filled with a
rank growth of reeds and papyrus bushes, which made it very dangerous to
travellers. Strong winds blew the sands of the desert over the surface,
studded with leaves, so as to hide the water; and the traveller might
walk upon it and sink to his death. The same ancient writer says that an
army with which Artaxerxes, King of Persia, intended to invade Egypt,
being unacquainted with this treacherous lake, got into it, and was
lost.
"Brugsch believes this was the lake through which the Israelites passed,
and that Pharaoh's army encountered a storm, were lost, and perished as
did the Persian forces. But we must drop the subject here, though it may
come up again when we arrive at Suez, where others believe the six
hundred thousand Israelites went over dry shod, while Pharaoh and his
hosts perished in the closing waters."
The company had certainly been deeply interested in the subject, and the
commander retired from the rostrum with a volley of applause.