[p.419] plague had reached its height at Yembo, the Arab inhabitants led
in procession through the town a she-camel, thickly covered with all
sorts of ornaments, feathers, bells, &c. &c.: when they reached the
burialground, they killed it, and threw its flesh to the vultures and
the dogs. They hoped that the plague, dispersed over the town, would
hasten to take refuge in the body of the camel, and that by slaughtering
the victim, they would get rid at once of the disease. Many of the more
sensible Arabs laughed at this; but it was so far of some use, that it
inspired the lower classes with courage.
The town of Yembo is built on the northern side of a deep bay, which
affords good anchorage for ships, and is protected from the violence of
the wind by an island at its entrance. The ships lie close in shore, and
the harbour is spacious enough to contain the largest fleet. The town is
divided by a creek of the bay into two parts; the largest division is
called exclusively Yembo; the other, on the western side, bears the name
of El Kad, and is principally inhabited by seafaring people. Both
divisions have the sea in front, and are enclosed on the other sides by
a common wall, of considerable strength, better built than those of
Djidda, Tayf, and Medina. It is flanked by many towers and was erected
by the joint labour of the inhabitants themselves, as a defence against
the Wahabys, the ancient wall being ruined, and enclosing only a part of
the town. The new wall comprises an area almost double the space
occupied by habitations, leaving between it and the latter, large open
squares, which are either used as burial-grounds, encamping-places for
caravans, for the exercising of troops, or are abandoned as waste
ground. The extent of the wall would require a large garrison to defend
it at all points; the whole armed population of Yembo is inadequate to
it: but Eastern engineers always estimate the strength of a
fortification by its size; and with the same view a thick wall and deep
ditch have been lately carried along the outskirts of the old town of
Alexandria, which it would require at least twenty-five thousand men to
defend.
Yembo has two gates towards the east and north; Bab el Medina, and Bab
el Masry. The houses of the town are worse built than those
[p.420] of any other town in the Hedjaz. Their structure is so coarse,
that few of the stones with which they are built have their surfaces
hewn smooth. The stone is calcareous, full of fossils, and of a glaring
white colour, which renders the view of the town particularly
distressing to the eyes. Most of the houses have only a ground-floor.
Except three or four badly-built mosques, a few half-ruined public
khans, and the house of the governor on the sea-side, (also a mean
building), there is no large edifice in the place.
Yembo is a complete Arab town; very few foreigners are settled here: of
Indians, who have such numerous colonies at Mekka, Djidda, and Medina,
two or three individuals only are found as shopkeepers; all the
merchants being Arabs, except a few Turks, who occasionally take up a
temporary residence. Most of the inhabitants belong to the Bedouin tribe
of Djeheyne, in this neighbourhood, (which extends northward along the
sea-shore), many of whom have become settlers: several families of
Sherifs, originally from Mekka, have mixed with them. The settlers in
this town, or, as they are called, the Yembawys, continue to live and
dress like Bedouins. They wear the keffie, or green and yellow striped
silk handkerchief, on the head, and a white abba on their shoulder, with
a gown of blue linen, or coloured cotton, or silk stuff, under it, which
they tie close with a leathern girdle. Their eating, and whole mode of
living, their manners and customs, are those of Bedouins. The different
branches of the Djeheyne tribe established here have each their sheikh:
they quarrel with each other as often as they might do if encamping in
the open country, and observe the same laws in their hostilities and
their blood-revenge as the Bedouins.
The principal occupation of the Yembawys is trade and navigation. The
town possesses about forty or fifty ships, engaged in all branches of
the Red Sea trade, and navigated by natives of the town, or slaves. The
intercourse between Yembo and Egypt is very frequent. Many Yembawys are
settled at Suez and Cosseir, and some at Cairo and Kenne in Upper Egypt,
from whence they trade with their native place. Others trade with the
Bedouins of the Hedjaz, and on the shores of the Red Sea, as far
Moeyleh, and exchange in their encampments the
[p.421] provisions brought to Yembo from Egypt, for cattle, butter, and
honey, which they sell again at a great profit upon their return to the
town.
The people of Yembo are less civil, and of more rude and sometimes wild
behaviour, than those of Djidda or Mekka, but, on the other hand, their
manners are much more orderly, and they are less addicted to vice than
the latter, and enjoy, generally, over the Hedjaz, all the advantages of
a respectable name. Although there are no individuals of great wealth in
the town, every body seems to enjoy more ease and plenty than even at
Mekka. Almost all the respectable families of Yembo have a country-house
in the fruitful valley called Yembo el Nakhel, or Gara Yembo, or Yembo
el Berr, about six or seven hours distance from. hence, at the foot of
the mountains, in a N.E. direction. It is similar to the valleys of
Djedeyde [There is a road, of difficult passage, from Yembo el Nakhel to
Djedeyde, over the mountains to the north of the great road.] and
Szafra, where date-trees grow, and fields are cultivated. It extends
about seven hours in length, and contains upwards of a dozen hamlets,
scattered on the side of the mountain. The principal of these is
Soueyga, the market-place, where the great Sheikh of the Djeheyne
resides, who is acknowledged as such by the Bedouins of that tribe, as
well as by the people of Yembo.
The valley of Yembo is cultivated exclusively by Djeheyne, who have
either become settlers, and remain there the whole year, or keep a few
labourers in their plantations, while they themselves remain encamped in
the mountain, and reside in the valley only at the time of the date-
harvest, when all the Yembawys who possess gardens there, likewise
repair for a month to the same place. All kinds of fruits are cultivated
there, with which the market of Yembo is supplied. The houses, I heard,
are built of stone, and of a better appearance than those of Djedeyde.
The Yembawys consider this valley as their original place of abode, to
which the town and harbour belong as a colony. The Egyptian Hadj route
passes by Yembo el Nakhel, from whence it makes one nights journey to
Beder: this caravan, therefore, never touches the
[p.422] harbour of Yembo, although many individuals of it, in returning
from Mekka, take from Mastoura the road to Yembo, to transact some
business in the town, and rejoin the caravan at one days journey north
of Yembo.
The trade of Yembo consists chiefly in provisions: no great warehouses
of goods are found here; but, in the shops, some Indian and Egyptian
articles of dress are exposed for sale. The ship-owners are not, as at
Djidda, merchants, but merely carriers; yet they always invest their
profits in some little mercantile speculation. The transport trade to
Medina occupies many people, and all the merchants of that town have
their agents among the Arabs of Yembo. In time of peace, the caravan for
Medina starts every fortnight; lately, from the want of camels, it
departed only every month. There are often conveyances by land for
Djidda and Mekka, and sometimes for Wodjeh and Moeyleh, the fortified
stations of the Egyptian caravan on the Red Sea. The people of Yembo are
very daring smugglers, and no ship of theirs enters the harbour without
a considerable part of its cargo being sent on shore by stealth, to
elude the heavy duties. Parties of twenty or thirty men, well armed,
repair to the harbour at night, for this purpose, and if detected, often
resist the custom-house officers by open force.
The skirts of the town are entirely barren, no trees or verdure are
seen, either within or without the walls. Beyond the salt-ground, next
to the sea, the plain is covered with sand, and continues so as far as
the mountains. To the N.E. is seen a high mountain, from whence the
great chain takes a more western course towards Beder. I believe this to
be the mountain of Redoua, which the Arabian geographers often mention.
Samhoudy places it at one days journey from Yembo, and four days from
Medina. About one hour to the east of the town is a cluster of wells of
sweet water, called Aseylya, which are made to irrigate a few melon-
fields. Bedouins sometimes encamp there; at this time a corps of Turkish
cavalry had pitched their tents near these wells.
In the town are several wells of brackish water, but no cisterns. The
supply of water for drinking is obtained from some large cisterns,
[p.423] at about five minutes walk from the Medina gate, where the
rainwater is collected. Small canals have been dug across the
neighbouring plains, to convey the streams of rain-water to these
cisterns. They are spacious, well-cased, subterranean reservoirs, and
some of them large enough to supply the whole town for several weeks.
They are the property of private families, whose ancestors built them,
and who sell the water, at certain prices, fixed by the governor, who
also exacts a tax from each of them. The water is excellent, much better
than that of any other town of the Hedjaz, where the inhabitants are not
industrious enough to form similar cisterns. When the winter-rains fail,
the inhabitants of Yembo suffer severely, and are obliged to fill their
water-skins at the distant wells of Aseylya.
Yembo was formerly annexed to the government of the Sherif of Mekka, who
ought to have divided the receipts at the custom-house with the Turkish
Pasha of Djidda. Ghaleb appropriated it entirely to his own treasury,
and kept here a vizier, or governor, with a guard of about fifty or
sixty men. He appears to have had little other authority than that of
collecting the customs, while the Arabs of the town were left to the
government of their own Sheikhs, and enjoyed much greater liberty than
the people of Mekka and Djidda. The powerful tribe of Djeheyne was not
to be trifled with by the Sherif; and whenever a man of Yembo was
unjustly persecuted, he flew to his relations in the Desert, who
retorted the oppression upon some of the Sherifs people or caravans
until the matter was compromised.
When Saoud, the Wahaby chief, attacked the northern parts of the Hedjaz,
his first endeavours were to reduce the two great Bedouin tribes Beni
Harb and Beni Djeheyne to submission; which was greatly facilitated by
the hatred and animosity that had always existed between those tribes,
who were frequently at war with each other. After the Djeheyne had
surrendered, and Yembo el Nakhel had received a garrison of Wahaby
soldiers, Saoud attacked Yembo, for the first time, in 1802, with a
considerable force, which remained encamped before it for several weeks,
and repeatedly attempted to carry it by assault. After his retreat, the
Yembawys built the new strong wall round
[p.424] the town, by order of the Sherif, who made them bear the whole
expense of the work. After Sherif Ghaleb himself had submitted to the
superior power of Saoud, who took possession of Mekka, Yembo still held
out for some months; and it was not till a strong army was preparing to
attack it, and the Vizier himself had fled, that the Yembawys sent a
messenger to Saoud, and capitulated, adopting at the same time his
creed. The Wahabys did not place a garrison in the town; the Sherif
continued to keep his governor there: but the Wahaby tax-gatherers came;
and the inhabitants, who, except customhouse duties, had never before
been subject to any imposts, found the government of the Wahabys press
very heavily upon them.
In the autumn of 1811, when the Turkish army under Tousoun Pasha
effected its first landing near the town, the Yembawys were very willing
to shake off the government both of the Sherif and the Wahabys; and the
officers of Ghaleb and Saoud then in the town fled, and, after a
trifling show of resistance, the two first days, by Ghalebs commander,
who had but a few soldiers with him, and who soon saw that the spirit of
the inhabitants was wholly against fighting, the town opened its gates,
and experienced some slight injuries from the disorderly Turkish
soldiers. Since that time Yembo has been garrisoned by them, and was
made the commissariat depot of the Turkish army employed against the
enemy in the neighbourhood of Medina. The soldiers, being at a distance
from the Pasha, or his son, behaved with much more irregularity than
they dared to do either at Djidda or Mekka. Every Bimbashy, or commander
of a company, who landed here with his soldiers, assumed, during his
stay, the government of the town; while the real governor, Selym Aga,
who had but a few soldiers under him, was often reduced to a mere
cipher. Several affrays happened during my stay, and the inhabitants
were extremely exasperated. A Turkish officer shot, with his pistol, in
the open street in mid-day, a young Arab, to whom he had for some time
been making infamous proposals; he committed this murder with the
greatest composure, in revenge for his refusal, and then took refuge in
the quarters of a Bimbashy, whose soldiers were called out
[p.425] to defend him against the fury of the populace. The relations of
the Arab hastened to Medina to ask the life of the aggressor from
Mohammed Aly Pasha; I left Yembo before the affair was settled.
The Yembawys are all armed, although they seldom appear so in public,
and they carry usually a heavy bludgeon in their hand. A few of them
keep horses; the Djeheyne established at Yembo el Nakhel have good
breeds of Nedjed horses, though in small numbers. Asses are kept by
every family, to bring water to the town. The want of servants and day-
labourers is felt here still more than in the other towns of the Hedjaz.
No Yembawy will engage in any menial labour, if he has the smallest
chance of providing for his existence by other means. Egyptian peasants,
left on this coast after their pilgrimage, and obliged to earn money for
their passage home, engage themselves as porters and labourers, bring
wood, water, &c. I have seen a piastre and a half paid to a man for
carrying a load the distance of five hundred yards from the shore to a
house.
Yembo is the cheapest place in the Hedjaz with regard to provisions; and
as it possesses good water, and appears to be in a much more healthy
situation than Djidda, a residence in it might be tolerable, were it not
for the incredible quantity of flies that haunt this coast. No person
walks out without a straw fan in his hand to drive off these vermin; and
it is utterly impossible to eat, without swallowing some of them, which
enter the mouth the moment it is opened. Clouds of them are seen passing
over the town; they settle even upon the ships that sail out of the
harbour, and remain on board during the whole voyage.
[p.426]FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO.
I EMBARKED at Yembo on the morning of the 15th of May, in an open
sambouk, or large boat, bound to Cosseir, there to load with corn; the
Reys or master was the son of the owner, a native of Yembo. I had agreed
for my own and my slaves passage from hence to Cosseir at five dollars,
two dollars being the usual charge paid by hadjys, and one dollar by
poor people and servants. The government allowed the ship-owners only
half a dollar per head for the transport of soldiers. As the partner of
the commander of Yembo had a share in this boat, it was allowed to
proceed without soldiers, and the Reys had told me that there were only
a dozen Arab passengers on board. In making me pay two dollars more than
the usual fare, he had agreed to let me have a small place behind the
steerage to myself. When I came on board, however, I found that I had
been deceived; above thirty passengers, principally Syrians and
Egyptians, were crowded together in the boat, with about ten sailors.
The Reys, his younger brother, the pilot, and the steward, had
established themselves in the place behind the helm for which I had
agreed. To revisit Yembo, the abode of death, was not advisable; and as
I saw no appearance of plague on board, I submitted to my lot without
any unavailing dispute. We immediately set sail, keeping close in shore.
In the evening I saw that my situation was much worse than I had
suspected it to be when I came on board; in the hold were lying half a
dozen
[p.427] sick people, two of whom were in a violent delirium; the Reyss
young brother, who had his seat close to me, was paid to attend the
sick; one of them died on the following day, and the body was thrown
overboard. Little doubt remained of the plague being actually in the
ship, though the sailors insisted that it was a different malady. On the
third day, the boy, the Reyss brother, felt great pains in his head,
and, struck with the idea of the plague, he insisted on being set on
shore. We were then in a small bay; the Reys yielded to his entreaties,
and agreed with a Bedouin on shore to carry him back on his camel to
Yembo. He was landed, and I am ignorant of his fate. The only precaution
I could take against infection, was to place my baggage round me, so as
to form an insulated spot in which I had just room enough to sit at my
ease; but notwithstanding this, I was compelled to come in contact every
moment with the ships company. Very luckily the disease did not spread;
we had only another death, on the fifth day from our departure, though
several of the passengers were seized with the malady, which I cannot
possibly affirm to have been the plague, as I did not examine the
corpses, but every thing led me to that belief. The continual sea-
sickness and vomiting of the passengers were, perhaps, to them a
salutary operation of nature. As to myself, I was in a very low state of
health the whole of the voyage, and frequently tormented with my ague,
which was increased by the utter want of comforts on board. I had taken
a disgust to all food, excepting broths: whenever we entered a port, I
bought a sheep of the Bedouins, in order to have a dish of soup; and by
distributing the meat among the ships people, I obtained their good-
will, so that in every instance I was well treated by them; and could
command their assistance whenever I stood in need of it, either to raise
a temporary awning every morning, or to fill my water-skins on shore.
The navigation is here the same as what I have already described in my
voyage from Sowakin to Djidda. We went into a harbour every evening,
never sailing during the night, and started again at day-break. If it
was known that no small creek or harbour lay before us, near enough to
be reached before sun-set with the then existing wind, we sometimes
stopped at an anchoring-place soon after mid-day. Unfortunately,
[p.428] the ships boat had been carried away by a heavy sea, in a
preceding voyage; we therefore could seldom get on shore, excepting at
places where we found other vessels, whose boats we took, as we usually
anchored in deep water. The sailors showed as great cowardice here, as
those of Sowakin on a former occasion. Whenever it blew fresh, the sails
were taken in; the dread of a storm made them take shelter in a harbour,
and we never made longer courses than from twenty-five to thirty-five
miles per day. A large square cask of water was the only one on board,
and contained a supply for three days for the ships crew only. The
passengers had each his own water-skin; and whenever we reached a
watering-place, the Bedouins came to the beach, and sold us the contents
of their full skins. As it sometimes happens that the ships are becalmed
in a bay distant from any wells, or prevented from quitting it by
adverse winds, the crew is exposed to great sufferings from thirst, for
they have never more on board their boats than a supply for three or
four days.
For the first three days we steered along a sandy shore, here entirely
barren and uninhabited, the mountains continuing at a distance inland.
At three days journey by land and by sea from Yembo, as it is generally
computed, lies the mountain called Djebel Hassány, reaching close to the
shore; and from thence northward the lower range of the mountains are,
in the vicinity of the beach, thinly inhabited throughout by Bedouins.
The encampments of the tribe of Djeheyne extend as far as these
mountains: to the north of it, as far as the station of the Hadj called
El Wodjeh, or as it is also pronounced, El Wosh, are the dwelling-places
of the Heteym Bedouins. In front of Djebel Hassány are several islands;
and the sea is here particularly full of shoals and coral rocks, rising
nearly to the surface; from the various colours of which, the water,
when viewed from a distance, assumes all the hues of the rainbow. In
spring, after the rains, some of these little islands are inhabited by
the Bedouins of the coast, who there pasture their cattle as long as
food is found: they have small boats, and are all active fishers. They
salt the fish, and either carry it in their own boats to Yembo and
Cosseir, or sell it to the ships which pass. One of these islands,
called El Harra, belongs to
[p.429] the Beni Abs, once a powerful Bedouin tribe, but now reduced to
a few families, who live mixed with the Beni Heteym, and, like them, are
held in great disrepute by all their neighbours. Upon another island
stands the tomb of a saint, called Sheikh Hassan el Merábet, with a few
low buildings and huts round it, where a Bedouin family of the Heteym
tribe is stationary, to whom the guardianship of the tomb belongs. The
course of the Arab ships being usually close by this island, the crews
often despatch a boat with a few measures of corn to those people, or
some butter, biscuits, and coffee-beans, because they consider Sheikh
Hassan to be the patron of these seas. When we sailed by, our Reys made
a large loaf of bread, which he baked in ashes, and distributed a morsel
of it to every person on board, who eat it in honour of the saint, after
which we were treated by him with a cup of coffee.
In general, the Arab sailors are very superstitious; they hold certain
passages in great horror; not because they are more dangerous than
others, but because they believe that evil spirits dwell among the coral
rocks, and might possibly attract the ship towards the shoal, and cause
her to founder. For the same reason they observe the constant practice
of throwing, at every meal, a handful of dressed victuals into the sea,
before they sit down themselves to the repast; saying that the
inhabitants of the sea must also have their morsel, otherwise they will
impede the vessels course. Our Reys once forgot this tribute; but on
recollecting it, he ordered a fresh loaf to be baked, and threw it into
the sea.
We met every day, during this voyage, ships coming from Egypt, and often
lay in the same bay with three or four of them, in the evening. On such
occasions quarrels frequently happen about water; and ships are often
obliged to wait one or two days before the Bedouins bring a sufficient
supply down to the coast. Butter, milk, honey, sheep, goats, salt fish,
firewood, thin branches of the shrub Arak, of which the Arabians make
their tooth-brushes, and which the Bedouins collect on this coast, are
every where to be had in plenty, and are generally exchanged for corn or
tobacco. These Bedouins are daring robbers, and often swim to the ships
during the night, to watch for the opportunity
[p.430] of pilfering. The water on the whole coast is bad, except at
Wodjeh and at Dhoba. Wodjeh, which is usually reckoned at three days
journey northward from Djebel Hassány, is a castle on the Hadj route,
about three miles inland. Close by it is excellent spring water; and
there are likewise copious wells of tolerable water in the vicinity of
the small bay which serves as a harbour to the castle, and is therefore
called Mersa el Wodjeh. Some Moggrebyn soldiers garrison the castle,
which was said to be well stocked with provisions. Several of them were
married to Bedouin women, and carried on a trifling trade in provisions
with the ships that pass.
The neighbouring mountains of Wodjeh are inhabited by the Bedouin tribe
of Bily. To the north of Wodjeh, and about two days journey south of
Moeyleh, lies the anchorage of Dhoba, renowned for its excellent wells.
The anchoring-place is in a large bay, one of the best harbours on this
coast, and the wells are about half an hours distance inland, under a
grove of palm and Doum date-trees. The route of the Egyptian Hadj passes
here; and for its convenience, a birket, or reservoir, has been
constructed. The ships that sail from Cosseir to Yembo generally make
this point, and continue from thence their coasting voyage southwards.
North of Dhoba two days, lies the castle and small village of Moeyleh,
in the territory of the Howeytat and Omran Bedouins. We passed it at a
distance; but I could see considerable plantations of date-trees near
the shore. What is called the castle, appears to be a square building,
upon the plain close by the water-side. The position of Moeyleh is
distinguishable from afar by the high mountain just behind it; three
pointed summits of which, overtopping the rest, are visible sixty to
eighty miles off: I was told that in clear winter days they could be
distinguished, from Cosseir, at the moment of sun-rise. Moeyleh is the
principal position on this coast from Akaba down to Yembo. Its
inhabitants, who are for the greater part Bedouins, become settlers,
carry on a trade in cattle and fish with Tor and Yembo, and their market
is visited by numerous Bedouins of the interior of the country. It is
the only place on this coast where a regular market is kept, and where
provisions are always to be found, and thus often affords timely relief
to ships detained on their
[p.431] passage by contrary winds. Provisions being very dear in the
Hedjaz, and very cheap in Egypt, ships, on leaving the Hedjaz harbours
for Cosseir or Suez, never lay in more than is absolutely necessary; but
the passage, which is usually calculated by them at twenty days, very
often lasts a month, and sometimes even two months.
From off Moeyleh, the point of the peninsula of Sinai, called Ras Abou
Mohammed, is clearly distinguished. Ships bound from Yembo to Cosseir
generally make this promontory, or one of the islands lying before it,
and thence steer south to Cosseir. They do this, in order to take
advantage of the northerly winds that blow in these parts of the Red Sea
for nine months of the year; and they prefer the tedious, but safer mode
of a coasting voyage, during which they often enjoy a land-breeze, to
the danger and fatigue of beating up, in open sea, against the wind, or
of standing straight across from Djidda or Yembo to the African coast;
with the harbours of which, south of Cosseir, very few Red Sea pilots
are acquainted, and of the Bedouin inhabitants of which they all
entertain great fears.
On reaching Ras Mohammed, they anchor near one of the small islands, or
go into the harbour called Sherm, where they wait till a fair wind
springs up, which usually carries them to Cosseir in one or two days.
As for ourselves, we had not during the whole voyage any sort of
disagreeable occurrence, though the wind, which was seldom fair, obliged
us once to remain three days at the same anchorage; and I often expected
the vessel to be wrecked, on seeing the pilot steer among the shoals in
shore: a practice in which these people have acquired great experience,
and in which they display as much boldness as they do cowardice in the
open sea.
After twenty days voyage we reached the neighbourhood of Ras Abou
Mohammed, on the 4th of June: the boat was secured for the night with
grapplings to some coral rocks, leeward of a small island ahead of the
promontory; the pilot intending to strike across the next morning.
As I knew that Bedouins were always to be found in the harbour of Sherm,
to transport passengers by land to Tor or Suez, I wished to be set on
shore here. The road from hence to Cairo was much shorter
[p.432] than by way of Cosseir; and my low state of health rendered it
desirable to leave the vessel where I had not the slightest
accommodation, and where the fears of the plague had not yet subsided,
though no person had died on board during the last fortnight. For the
sum of four dollars given to the Reys, and one to the pilot, they were
kind enough to go a little out of their course, and on the following
morning, the 5th of June, we entered the harbour of Sherm.
Sherm is about four or five hours distant from the point called Ras Abou
Mohammed, and is a good and spacious harbour, with anchorage for large
ships; it lies at the entrance of the gulf of Akaba, and is the best
harbour on the west side of that gulf. Under the name Sherm, or Sheroum,
(the plural,) are included two harbours half a mile distant from each
other, both equally good; but the southern is the most frequented. As a
copious well is near, these harbours are often visited by ships coming
from and going to the Hedjaz; and passengers who wish to save themselves
a voyage up the Gulf of Suez, (which during the prevalence of the
northerly winds is often of long duration,) land here, and are carried
by the Bedouins upon camels to Tor and Suez. These Bedouins, living up
in the mountains, see the ships from afar, and on their arrival hasten
to the coast to offer their services. In former times, when the Pashas
of Egypt exercised but a nominal power over the neighbouring Bedouins,
the Arabs of Tor were much dreaded by the crews of ships; they enforced
from them regular tributes whenever they entered their harbours, and
conducted themselves in a very oppressive manner. At present, Mohammed
Aly, through the means of the commander at Suez, has succeeded in
overawing these Bedouins; their conduct is now very friendly, and
travelling with them is perfectly safe: but if a ship happens to be
wrecked on their coasts, or on the islands near them (no unfrequent
occurrence), they still assert their ancient right of plundering the
cargo.
In the evening a ship came in, laden with soldiers, which left Yembo six
days before us; the commander of the soldiers, and four or five of his
party, were set on shore, to proceed by land to Cairo, and both vessels
continued their voyage the next morning for Cosseir.
[p.433] There was no difficulty in obtaining camels; more than thirty
were ready to be hired; and we started, on the evening of our arrival,
in two parties, the one in advance composed of the soldiers, and the
other, at about two hours distance behind, composed of myself and
slave, and two fellow passengers, men of Damascus, who were glad of this
opportunity of shortening their journey home. We rode this evening about
one hour and a half in a valley, and then rested for the night.
On the 6th of June we continued our road in barren valleys, among steep
rocks, mostly of granite, till we halted, about noon, under a projecting
rock that afforded us some shade. The Bedouins went to fetch water from
a place up in the western mountains, called El Hamra, which proved to be
of excellent quality. A poor woman with two goats lived in the valley
quite alone. Among the Bedouins themselves the most perfect security
prevails in this district, which is interrupted only by the scandalous
behaviour of the Turkish soldiers who pass this way. I knew these men
well from repeated experience, and therefore had declined joining their
party. When we continued our route towards evening, we met on the road
one of the Bedouin boys who served as camel-drivers to the party before
us. His camel, upon which one of the soldiers was mounted, had not been
able to keep up with the others, and its rider, furious at this delay,
had drawn his sabre, and cut the animal to make it move at a quicker
pace: when the boy remonstrated and seized the halter, he also received
a cut on the shoulder; and as he persisted in keeping his hold, the
ruffian discharged his gun at him; the boy then ran off, and waited for
our coming up. At a few miles distance we heard from afar the soldiers
loud cursing, and found him walking behind the camel. As I expected an
affray, I had loaded my gun and pistols. When he saw me riding in front
of our people, he immediately ran towards me, and cried out to me in
Turkish to descend and to change camels with him. I laughed at him, and
told him in Arabic I was no fellah, to be addressed in that manner. In
the usual style of those soldiers, who think that every person who is
not a soldier must yield to their commands, he then turned towards my
slave and ordered him to alight, swearing
[p.434] that he would shoot one of us, if we did not obey. On hearing
this I took up my gun, and assured him that it was loaded with good
powder, and would send a bullet to his heart better than his would to
mine. During this altercation his camel had strayed a little into the
valley, and fearing for his baggage, he ran after it, and we rode on.
Not being able to follow us in the sands, he discharged his gun at me,
from a distance, which I immediately answered, and thus the battle
ended. Farther on we came up with his companions, who had alighted. I
told them, that their friend behind was embarrassed with his camel, upon
which they dispatched one of their Bedouins to fetch him, while I myself
rode on, and encamped that night in a side valley out of the road, where
the Bedouin boy again joined us, not wishing to be seen by the other
soldiers.
We now conducted our journey in such a manner as not to fall in again
with the soldiers; but two days after I met the man again at Tor. The
governor of Suez was then there, to whom I might have addressed my
complaints: this he was afraid of, and therefore walked up to me with a
smiling countenance, and said he hoped that no rancour subsisted between
us; that as to the shot he fired, it was merely for the purpose of
calling his companions to assist him with his camel. In reply, I assured
him that my shot had quite a different object, and that I was sorry it
had missed; upon which he laughed and went away. There are not on earth
more insolent, haughty, and at the same time vile and cowardly beings
than Turkish soldiers: wherever they expect to meet with no resistance,
they act in the most overbearing, despotic manner, and think nothing of
killing an inoffensive person, in the slightest fit of passion; but when
they meet with a firm resistance, or apprehend any bad consequences from
their conduct, there is no meanness to which they will not immediately
submit. During my journey through Egypt from Cairo to Assouan, the whole
of which was performed by land, I had several similar rencontres with
soldiers; and I must lay it down as a rule for travellers, constantly to
treat these fellows with great hauteur, as the most trifling
condescension is attributed by them to fear, and their conduct becomes
intolerable. We travelled this day about nine hours.
[p.435] June 7th. We continued our course in valleys for about two hours
and a half, when we came to a high mountain, where I was obliged to
dismount. It was with great difficulty that I could reach the summit,
for my strength was exhausted; and I had been shivering with a fever
the whole preceding night. It took us about two hours and a half to pass
the mountain, and to descend into the valley on the other side. From the
top we had a fine view of the Gulf of Akaba. The upper part of this
mountain is granite, and its lower ridges grünstein. In the afternoon we
issued from this chain into the western plain, which declines slowly
towards the sea of Suez, and encamped in it after a ride of about ten
hours.
June 8th. We reached Tor, in about three hours and a half from our
resting-place. Here we found every thing in a great bustle. The lady of
Mohammed Aly Pasha, whom I had met with at almost every station on this
journey, had arrived here from Yembo a few days before, and, as it blew
strong from the north, had come on shore, that she might proceed by land
to Suez. The governor of Suez and Mustafa Beg, her own brother, one of
the Pashas principal officers, had come to meet her, and her tents were
pitched close by the little village of Tor. From four to five hundred
camels were required to transport her suite and soldiers to Suez, and as
that number could not soon be prepared, she had already been waiting
here a whole week.
I had intended to stop at Tor a few days, merely to recover sufficient
strength for my journey to Cairo; but when I learned that the plague was
still at Suez, as well as at Cairo, I changed my plan, and determined to
wait here some weeks, till the season for the disease should be passed.
I soon found, however, that a residence at Tor was not very agreeable.
This little village is built in a sandy plain, close to the beach,
without any shelter from the sun; a few date-plantations are at some
distance behind it. The houses are miserable, and swarms of flies and
mosquitoes choke up the avenues of every dwelling. I remained at Tor for
the night; and having heard from the Bedouins that at one hours
distance was another small village, in an elevated situation, with
abundance of gardens and excellent water, I resolved to take up my
quarters there.
[p.436] It is surrounded by a half-ruined wall: the remains of a small
castle are seen, said to have been constructed by Sultan Selym I., who
fortified all the outposts of his empire. The French intended to rebuild
it, but they left Egypt before the work was begun. Two small villages,
about a mile distance, on both sides of Tor, are inhabited by Arabs,
while in Tor itself none reside but Greeks, consisting of about twenty
families, with a priest, who is under the Archbishop of Mount Sinai.
They earn their livelihood by selling provisions to the ships that
anchor here to take in water, which abounds in wells, and is of a good
quality. Provisions are here twice as dear as at Cairo; and the people
of Tor have their own small boats, in which they sail to Suez for those
provisions. Were it not for the passage of Turkish soldiers, they would
be rich, as they live very parsimoniously; but the rapacity of a few of
these men often deprives them, in a single day, of the profits they have
earned during a whole year. No garrison is kept here by the Pasha.
June 9th. In the morning I rode over the ascending plain to the above-
mentioned village, which is called El Wady, after having laid in a
sufficient stock of provisions at Tor. I easily found a lodging, and was
glad to see that my expectations of the site of this village were not
disappointed: it consists of about thirty houses, built in gardens, and
among date-trees, almost every house having its own little garden. I
hired a small half-open building, which I had covered with dateleaves,
and enjoyed the immediate vicinity of a shady pleasure-ground, where
grew palm, nebek, pomegranate, and apricot trees. A large well, in the
midst of them, afforded a supply of excellent water, and I had nothing
more to wish for at present. The people of the village, who are for the
greater part Bedouins become settlers, could not suspect any motive I
might have for residing here, as they saw that I was scarcely able to
stand upon my legs: they treated me, in consequence, kindly; and little
presents of meat and other provision, which I distributed among them,
soon insured their good-will, and I had every reason to be satisfied
with their conduct. Thus enjoying complete repose, and the good mountain
air of this village, which lies so much higher than Tor, my strength
soon returned.
[p.437] For the last four years, since I had left the society of my
friends Mr. Barker and Mr. Masseyk, and the delightful gardens of
Aleppo, I had not found myself so comfortable as I did here; and even
the first day that I passed in this retreat produced a visible
improvement in my health. As I thought that slight exercise might be
useful, I rode over to the Hammám, a warm bath, round the corner of the
mountain, situated to the north of Tor, and about half an hour distant
from El Wady. Several warm springs issue from the calcareous mountain,
the principal of which has a roof built over it, and is visited by all
the surrounding Bedouins. Some half-ruined buildings, probably as old as
the demolished castle of Tor, offered, in former times, accommodation to
the visiters. The water is of a moderate heat, and appears to be
strongly impregnated with nitre. Close by the springs are extensive
date-plantations. I have never seen a richer and more luxurious growth
of palm-trees than in this place; they form so thick a wood, that it is
difficult to find ones way through it. These plantations belong to the
Bedouins of the peninsula, who come here with their families at the
date-harvest. The largest grove, however, is the property of the Greek
priests of Mount Sinai, one of whom lives in an insulated tower in the
midst of it, like a hermit, for he is the only constant resident in the
place. The fear of the Bedouins keeps him shut up for months in this
tower the entrance to which is by a ladder; and a waterman, who provides
him every week with a supply of water, is the only individual who
approaches him. The priest is placed here as gardener of the convent;
but experience shows the inefficacy of all attempts to protect the trees
from the pilfering Bedouins, and they have therefore given up the fruit
to the first comer: so that this grove, the produce of which often
amounts to the value of four or five thousand piastres, becomes public
property.
I had some difficulty in providing myself with flesh-meat at Wady: sheep
are very scarce in the whole peninsula, and no Arab is inclined to sell
what he has. A flock had been sent from Suez to Tor, for the supply of
Mohammed Alys lady and her suite. I was obliged to pay twelve piastres
here for a small kid.
[p.438] The second weeks residence at El Wady considerably improved my
health. I was not thoroughly recovered, but only wished., at present, to
acquire sufficient strength for the journey to Cairo, where the means of
a complete cure might be found. I was the more inclined to hasten my
departure, as it was said that all the Bedouins who had camels to spare,
and had not given them up for the transport of the Pashas women, were
soon to leave this neighbourhood, with loads of coals for Cairo, when I
should find it difficult to procure beasts of transport. I had been for
eighteen months without any letters from Europe, and felt impatient to
reach Cairo, where I knew that many awaited me. I knew too, that the
plague would have nearly subsided by the time of my arrival, as about
the end of June it always yields to the influence of the hot season. I
therefore engaged two camels from hence to Cairo, for which I paid
twelve dollars.
The Arabs of these parts have established particular transport customs:
of those who inhabit this peninsula, the tribe of Sowaleha is entitled
to one half of the transport, and the other half is shared by the two
tribes of Mezeyne and Aleygat. As I wanted two camels, one was to be
furnished to me by a Sowaleha, and the other either by a Mezeyne or
Aleygat. If no individuals of those three tribes happen to be present,
the business is easily settled with one of them, and the others have no
after claim; but if several of them are on the spot, quarrels always
arise among them, and he who conducts the traveller is obliged to give
to the others a small sum of money, to silence their claims. The same
custom or law marks out certain limits, which when the traveller and his
guide have once passed, the countrymen of the latter have no more claims
for the transport. The limit from Tor, northward, is half way between
Tor and Wady. The Bedouin who had carried me from Tor to Wady passed
this limit by stealth, none of his friends knowing of it: they pursued
when they saw us on the road; but we had passed the limits before they
came up with us, and I had thus fallen to the lot of this guide; when,
on inquiring at Wady for a new guide to Cairo, I was told that no person
could take the transport upon himself, without the knowledge or
permission of the Bedouin
[p.439] who had brought me to Wady from Tor, and upon whose camel I had
once crossed the limits. The man was therefore sent for, and as his own
camels were not present, he ceded his right to another for two dollars;
and with the latter I departed. These quarrels about transport are very
curious, and sometimes very intricate to decide: in the mean while the
traveller remains completely passive, but there is not much danger of
imposition, for the amount of the hire is always publicly known, and one
dollar is the largest sum he can lose.
I left Wady on the 17th of June. Our road lay upon an elevated plain,
bounded on the east by the high summits of the Sinai mountains, and on
the west by a low ridge of calcareous hills, which separate the plain
from the sea, and run parallel with it for about five or six hours. This
plain, which is completely barren, and of a gravelly soil, is called El
Kaa, and is in bad repute with the Bedouins, from having no springs, and
being extremely hot, from the nature of its position. Thus I found it
myself. During this day we suffered much from one of the hottest winds I
ever remember to have experienced. We alighted during the mid-day hours
in the open plain, without finding any tree to afford shade. A Bedouin
cloak, fastened to four poles, was erected as a tent, barely sheltering
me from the sun, while my two guides and my slave wrapped themselves in
their mantles, and lay down and slept in the sun. Instead of causing
perspiration, the hot air of the Semoum chokes up every pore; and in the
evening I again had the ague, which continued from hence, in irregular
fits, till I arrived at Cairo. We encamped this night in El Kaa.
June 18th. We entered, in the morning, Wady Feiran, followed it down
towards the sea, and then continued along shore for the rest of the day,
till we reached the neighbourhood of the well called El Merkha, in front
of the bay which bears the name of Birket Faraoun.
June 19th. From Merkha we again proceeded along shore, then entered the
Wady Taybe, leaving to our left the mountains, which reach close to the
shore, and in the midst of which lies the bath, called Hamam Seydna
Mousa. Taybe is a valley full of trees, which were now withered for want
of rain. Having reached its top, we
[p.440] continued over a high plain, passed Wady Osayt, and slept that
night in Wady Gharendel.
June 20th. Passing by the brackish spring of Howara, we crossed a barren
plain, reached Wady Wardan at mid-day, and encamped in the evening at
Wady Seder. Our days journeys were very long, and we travelled some
hours during the night, that we might reach Suez in time to join the
caravan, which was preparing there to conduct the Pashas women to
Cairo. As I shall speak in detail of this road in the journal of my
visit to Mount Sinai, I forbear entering here into any particulars: the
remarks I now made were, besides, very superficial.
June 26th. [sic] In the morning we passed Ayoun Mousa, and reached Suez
in the afternoon. The caravan was just preparing to depart, and we
started with it in the evening. There was a strong guard, and altogether
we had about six hundred camels. We travelled the whole night without
interruption, and on the morning of
June 22nd alighted at the place called El Hamra, the Hadj station
between Cairo and Adjeroud. The ladies of the Pasha had brought two
carriages with them from the Hedjaz, in which they had travelled all the
way from Tor to Suez, the road being every where of easy passage. Two
more carriages were sent for them from Cairo to Suez, one of which, an
elegant English barouche, was drawn by four horses: they got into these
at Suez, and quitted them occasionally for splendid litters or
palanquins, carried by mules. We started again in the evening, and,
travelling the whole night, reached Birket el Hadj on the morning of the
23rd, having thus made the whole journey from Tor in six days; a forced
march which, from the heat of the season, had fatigued me extremely. At
the Birket El Hadj the caravan was met by many grandees from Cairo: the
ladies of the Pasha intended to encamp there for a few days among the
date-groves. Being unable myself, from weakness, to proceed on the same
day, (although Cairo is but four hours distant,) I slept here, and
entered the city on the morning of the 24th of June, after an absence
from thence of nearly two years and a half. I found that two letters,
which I sent
[p.441]here from Medina, had not been received, and my acquaintances had
supposed me lost. The plague had nearly subsided; some of the
Christians had already re-opened their houses; but great gloom seemed to
have overspread the town from the mortality that had taken place.
The joy I felt at my safe return to Cairo was considerably increased by
flattering and encouraging letters from England; but my state of health
was too low to admit of fully indulging in the pleasures of success. The
physicians of Cairo are of the same set of European quacks so frequently
found in other parts of the Levant: they made me swallow pounds of bark,
and thus rendered my disease worse; and it was not till two months after
that I regained my perfect health at Alexandria, whither I had gone to
pay a visit to Colonel Missett, the British resident in Egypt, who had
already laid me under so many obligations, and to whose kind attentions,
added to regular exercise on horseback, more than to any thing else, I
was indebted for my recovery. A delightful journey, in the winter
months, through Lower Egypt, and by the Lake Menzaleh, restored me to my
wonted strength, which I am happy to say has never since experienced any
abatement.
[p.443] APPENDIX.
[p.445] APPENDIX.
No. I.
Stations of the Pilgrim Caravan, called the Hadj el Kebsy, through the
mountainous country between Mekka and Sanaa in Yemen.