GRAND CAIRO, EGYPT, _Jan. 20, 1842_.
We started off all our boat furniture, supplies of cooking utensils,
provisions, &c., on camels, ourselves and Arab servants on horses and
donkeys, making quite a formidable party, bringing up the rear. On
arriving at the Mahmoudie Canal, which connects Alexandria with the
Nile, we took our boat for Atfe, a small town at the junction of the
canal with the river. We soon commenced our journey, towed by four Arab
boatmen, with ropes across their breasts; and when the wind favored,
made use of sails. This canal is considered one of the greatest works
of the age, being sixty miles in length, ninety feet in breadth, and
eighteen in depth, through a perfectly flat country. It is certainly a
remarkable work, and could only be made in a country like Egypt, where
the will of Mehemet Ali is law. Every village was ordered to furnish a
certain quota, in proportion to its population, and thus one hundred
and fifty thousand workmen were secured at once; and in one year from
its commencement, the whole excavation was completed. As a grand
stride in public improvement it was a great work, and does honor to
the energies of the Pacha; but the wanton disregard of human life that
attended it was shocking to humanity, as it proved the grave of thirty
thousand of the laborers.
On arriving at Atfe, we discharged our canal boat, and went in search
of a suitable river boat for the Upper Nile. Having succeeded in
finding one, of the class called “canziah,” and made our contract with
the reis, or captain, we were prepared to depart; but as the north
wind, which usually blows the same way for eight or nine months in the
year, making it easy to ascend the Nile, was contrary, we employed our
time in visiting an Arab village near by.
These villages are, in most instances, mere huts, built of mud, or
unburnt bricks, and so low that the inmates cannot stand erect in
them, but have a hole in front to crawl in. The Delta, stretching out
from the banks of the river, and inundated annually by the Nile, is
remarkably rich and productive. The town called Atfe, at the junction
of the canal, concentrates all the products of the upper country, and
presents a lively scene, of vessels unloading cotton and various kinds
of grain, with hundreds of men and women employed in discharging them.
The Nile here is about a mile wide, and the current tolerably strong.
After a stay of one day, the wind having changed, we started up the
river. Our boat was about fifty feet in length, manned with ten stout
Arabs, who were stretched upon the deck, or gathered around a pail of
rice, proving conclusively that fingers were made before forks; whilst
the two immense lateen sails, in the form of a triangle, were spread to
the breeze, and we went with great velocity. As the wind slackened at
night, where the banks permitted, the Arabs would twist the huge ropes
around them, wade ashore, and commence pulling the vessel against the
stream.
On the third day of our voyage to Cairo, the wind being strong against
us, my two companions having taken their guns in hand, to go in pursuit
of pigeons and other kinds of game, that are found in abundance, I
strolled along the banks of this mighty and most extraordinary and
interesting river, which rolls its waters more than a thousand miles
through a sandy desert, fertilizing a narrow strip by its inundations,
and could not be surprised that the Arabs loved, and the Egyptians
worshipped, that which produced fertility in a soil where every species
of fruit and grain grows almost spontaneously. I soon discovered an
Arab village, to which I directed my steps, through beautiful fields
of grain and groves of palm trees, which present a splendid view in
the distance; but on entering them the illusion vanishes. On gazing at
the men and women--many of whom were almost in a primitive state, with
scarcely clothing enough to cover their nakedness--I could only wonder
whether the effects of climate, or bad government, reduced them to
their abject state, in such a fruitful country.
On the morning of the fourth day, we arrived at Boulac, a populous
town by the river’s side, and in another half hour found ourselves
within the walls of Cairo; and here, several novel scenes presented
themselves. Many loaded dromedaries and camels; the dashing Arab steed,
with the Turk and glittering sabre; the Jews and Armenians, in costume;
the haughty Janizary, dashing through the crowd; the harem of some
rich Turk, the women robed in black, riding on donkeys, with two or
three black eunuchs for a guard; the swarthy Bedouin of the desert;
in fact, all characters forming a perfect masquerade, or miniature
representation of the oriental world.
Cairo has a population of two hundred thousand; its appearance from a
distance is pleasant, with its minarets, domes, and cupolas, and it
has a much cleaner and more comfortable interior than other Mahomedan
cities. The streets are narrow and dark, producing a shade which is
necessary in this climate; although they appear warmer than they are,
because of the projection of the first floors, or second stories, which
advance so far that in some of the narrowest streets they are only a
few inches distant from the houses opposite.
Among our many excursions was one to the “Valley of the Wanderings,”
or forest of Agate in the Desert, on the route to the Red Sea. After
quitting Cairo, and passing through the great Mameluke Cemetery, we
entered into the desert for about five miles, where we found immense
quantities of petrifactions of trees, in which are seen the grain of
the wood; in some places trunks from twenty to fifty feet in length lie
prostrate. Reeds and roots are also found, and quantities of shells. It
appears as if a forest had been petrified, and then thrown down by a
hurricane, or some other convulsion, and shattered to fragments in the
fall. All is conjecture as to the origin and cause of these forests.
On visiting the citadel of Cairo we were shown the place where the
unfortunate Mamelukes were slaughtered by the present Pasha, while
smoking their pipes of peace, having been invited on a visit of
friendship, and were pent up and murdered, only one escaping by leaping
his horse over the citadel walls and down an immense precipice.
Here was also the Mint, and Joseph’s Well, or the well of Saladin,
forty-five feet wide, and cut two hundred and seventy-four feet through
solid rock, to a level with the Nile.
On visiting the slave market I found perhaps five or six hundred slaves
for sale, most of them naked, except a slight covering across the
loins, and some covered with blankets. A large proportion were from
Dongola and Sennaar, and exceedingly black and ugly. The Abyssinians
have yellow complexions and good teeth; and some quite pretty are kept
separate from the mass, among whom were some well dressed, wearing
ornaments of gold and chains; two particularly good-looking caught hold
of my hand as I passed, smiling and coquetting, and seemed to express
by their gestures a desire that I would buy them, and pouted when I
left. Prices vary from one hundred dollars to two hundred and fifty
dollars; but some who were sick were offered at almost nothing, as so
much perishable goods, which the seller wanted to dispose of before it
was entirely lost.
Yesterday we went to the Pyramids, passing through a succession of
beautiful gardens of Ibrahim Pacha. We reached Old Cairo, occupying
the site of the Egyptian Babylon, on the Nile, and celebrated in
sacred history as the spot where Pharaoh’s daughter found the infant
Moses in his cradle of bulrushes. Further on we stopped to examine the
ovens for hatching chickens, in general use in Egypt. It was a large
establishment, and capable of hatching by the wholesale. The entrances
were so narrow and low as to be difficult, leading into small vaulted
chambers, connected with each other, on one side of which are ovens.
The eggs remain seventeen days, and on the eighteenth the chickens quit
the shell. Out of two thousand eggs the manager counts on one thousand
chickens. The general heat is one hundred degrees Fahrenheit during the
process.
On crossing the Nile I discovered the Pyramids in the distance, near
the margin of the desert, but they did not appear what I had imagined,
and it was only until I approached and beheld the four that I could
realize them, and not until I approached and commenced ascending, that
I could appreciate this mammoth work. The Great Pyramid, the largest
of the four, is a gigantic work, being a square of seven hundred and
forty-six feet, and its perpendicular height four hundred and sixty-one
feet, being higher than St. Peter’s at Rome, or the Cathedral at
Strasburg, and one hundred and seventeen feet higher than St. Paul’s
of London, all of which I have ascended. The quantity of stone used in
this single pyramid is estimated at six million tons, and a hundred
thousand men are said to have been employed ninety years in raising
it. The top is about thirty feet square. There are two hundred and six
layers of stone, the average height from two to four feet. They are so
arranged as to form a series of steps, so that any person may mount
with the assistance of two Arabs on the outside to aid in stepping
up. We were aided by two Arabs each, and others carrying the supplies
of provisions and water, of which we made a repast on the top. The
prospect from the summit, the rich valley of the Nile covered with
verdure, with herds of buffalo quietly feeding, caravans of camels
winding their way along the margin of the river, is very beautiful.
On the other side it is dreary and gloomy indeed, the surface only
broken by the tracks of the caravans, and no signs of vegetation. It is
estimated that this great pyramid covers eleven acres of ground. The
next largest pyramid is six hundred and eighty-four feet square, and
four hundred and fifty-six feet high. Besides the four great pyramids
there are smaller ones that appear in the distance, and also ruins of
mausoleums about the grand pyramid, which, seen from the top, look
like tombstones round a church. On entering the pyramid, knowing that
it was difficult of access and almost insufferable on account of dust,
we sent in three Arabs with candles, forbidding the others who swarmed
around to enter, but they were determined to go in, thereby hoping
to get a few _paras_ more for services. It was not until our
dragoman placed himself at the narrow passage, three and a half feet
square, with his musket in hand, and threatened to shoot the first man
who attempted to enter, that we could pass alone. We descended about
ninety feet from the opening, which is the one hundred and sixty-third
step of the pyramid, at an angle of twenty-seven degrees, then turned
and mounted several steps into a passage one hundred feet long and
five feet high. At the end is found the queen’s chamber, seventeen
feet long, fourteen wide, and twelve high, of polished granite. Above
this, ascending an inclined plane one hundred and twenty feet long, of
granite, highly wrought, is the king’s chamber, thirty-seven feet long,
seventeen wide, and twenty feet high. The slabs of stone which form
the ceiling, consisting of nine, extend from side to side. The walls
are highly polished, of red granite, and here is a sarcophagus seven
feet six inches long, three and a half feet deep, and three and a half
broad, supposed to have been the tomb of one of the greatest rulers of
the south. It was very hot and suffocating, with the glare of the light
and the abundance of dust, and I was rejoiced when I came out.
On our arrival at Cairo we discharged our boat, having suffered
considerably from fleas and other vermin, while our baggage was injured
by rats. We, however, procured another boat, with a comfortable little
cabin astern on deck, just large enough for three persons. The first
move was to sink her in the Nile, thereby destroying all the vermin.
After she was hauled out her owner, according to contract, painted our
little cabin, furnished us with glass windows, which were a novelty,
thereby making our habitation for six weeks as comfortable as possible.
She is furnished with new sails, and a crew consisting of the reis and
twelve stout Arabs. She is almost seventy feet long, with a sharp bow,
and two enormous sails, triangular in form, and attached to two tall
spars eighty or ninety feet long, heavy at the end, and tapering to a
point. These rest upon two short masts, changing their position with
the wind, playing upon pivots. Having again furnished ourselves with
supplies of provisions, this being the last place for purchasing many
articles in use by Europeans, we shall start for the upper country
to-morrow or next day, and you may not hear from me again in some time,
there being no communication by mail.