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CHAPTER XXXI.

MODERN ALEXANDRIA

Lette ville devait être la capitale du monde. Elle est située entre l'Asie Europe, à portée des Indes et de l'Europe.

NAPOLEON.

I HAVE hitherto kept up a sort of journalizing through these discursive pages, endeavoring to avoid all personal details, except such as appeared to illustrate the manners of the people amongst whom I lived, or the countries I was traversing. I have now little more to add of a personal nature, and shall then conclude this slight review of Egypt by some account of its establishments and resources; a few words concerning Mehemet Ali, and the relations of England with the country of which he has possessed himself.

Having been baffled in my hopes of reaching Abyssinia, I hastened my return to Cairo, intending to accompany the caravan of pilgrims some distance on their route towards Mecca, and then, branching off to Mount Sinai, to enter Palestine by way of Petra and the shores of the Dead Sea, if possible. However, I found the caravan had already left Cairo; and the heats, which nad now set in, added to my recent illness, rendered it impossible to undergo a journey of forty days on dromedaries, so that I was forced to proceed to Syria by way of Alexandria and Beyrout.

The day after I left Boulac the northerly wind came on to blow so heavily, that we were obliged to moor under the shelter of the bank. When the gale had a little subsided, I landed to get some shooting as the boat proceeded slowly down the stream, and soon lost myself in the immense plain of wheat and Indian corn that bordered the river. I shot a considerable number of quails, and still wandered on; now, allured to the banks by a

flight of wild fowl; now to the edge of the desert by the tracks of a wild boar. Having thus consumed some hours, I found myself on the edge of a jungle, which, suddenly ceasing, left nothing but the desert and the river round me. The day had been intensely hot, and I was suddenly overtaken with extreme fatigue, and obliged to lie down upon the sands to rest. Far as the eye could reach, there was no shelter-no, not so much as a beetle could repose in; and the only Arab who accompanied me replied to my glance with a significant "Mafeesh," and a shrug of his shoulders. Even he was panting with exhaustion, and streaming at every pore. The boat was still far away, and we had nothing for it but Islam resignation-not even a pipe.

And there ran the river-deep, bright and cool-before my dazzled eyes; and, after long hesitation, I could resist no longer, but plunged in and swam, and drank, and revelled in its waves with excessive luxury. Fever almost instantly came on, and I remember little but vague, dreamy sensations of intense suffering, until we reached the Mahmoudie canal; here I was transferred into another kandjiah, and reached Alexandria on the fourth night after my departure from Boulac.

The river-port was crowded with filthy boats, and swarmed with their crews, who seemed to live in perpetual warfare with one another. I presume we had got into a berth that we had no right to, for we were instantly assailed by every Arab within reach or hearing: some went so far as to jump on board our boat to remove her by force; but this was an indignity that a Frank could not submit to. Three days' fever did not conduce to meekness, and the mêlée that ensued was more restorative than being nurse-tended for a week there is always something reviving in a row; and there was an exciting variety in this, where the stormy moon threw an uncertain light on dark, struggling figures, and flashing eyes, and gleaming steel; and the wind roared in wild concert with the fierce vociferations of the Arabs, and the crashing spars. There was a rush, and a struggle, and loud trampling on the deck, and splashing in the water our deck was cleared, and the next moment an officer of the patrol showed his red tarboosh, and all was over. We

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were then left to sleep in such peace as the wild dogs' howling and the storm's din permitted.

Strange and African as Alexandria had appeared to me three months before, it now seemed familiar, and almost European : the streets were thronged with men in hats, and smooth chins; the cafés rustled with newspapers; the walls were placarded with announcements of the evening's opera; and, above all, the calm sea reflecting many a British flag, lay smiling before me with its old familiar face.

Where the post only comes in once a month, each packet's arrival is anxiously looked for: every European eye in Alexandria was watching eagerly the British Consul's flag-staff, whereon the hoisting of the red ensign was to announce the first appearance of the Oriental steamer. She was late by some days; and as the Syrian mail-packet waited for her arrival, I took up my quarters in the comfortable Hotel d'Orient, and found some pleasant acquaintances among the resident merchants, and the numerous passengers just arrived from Suez.

The transit across the desert is now a mere party of pleasure; and, before leaving Cairo, I had seen some ladies with reticules and lap-dogs into a well-appointed four-horse Suez mail, that would not have created much surprise in Piccadilly. There are comfortable resting-places twice on the route, and temporary establishments every ten miles: the entire distance of eighty-five miles is performed without fatigue by those who have made. arrangements before-hand, and I never heard a complaint of any of the multifarious baggage of Indian passengers being lost. On arriving at Cairo, a day or two is allowed to travellers to examine the city, and then they are forwarded to Alexandria by English steamers plying on the Nile and the Mahmoudieh canal.

Hill's hotel, at Cairo, and the whole business of the transit line from Alexandria, was until lately in English hands. By what appeared to me an adroit manœuvre of the Pasha's, an Italian, named Tibaldi, now conducts the principal, if not the entire business. He is, it is true, connected by marriage with a highly respected English merchant, but he is, nevertheless, a

mere agent of the Pasha, who supplies capital for his undertaking.

Mehemet Ali found Alexandria a nest of pirates; he has made it the most important seaport in the Levant, and restored to commerce a path to India that had been neglected for centuries.*

"Alexander," said Napoleon, "displayed his genius more in founding Alexandria, and in contemplating the transportation thither of his seat of empire, than by the most dazzling victories. This city ought to be the capital of the world; it is situated between Asia and Africa, and connects Europe with the Indies. It is the only safe anchorage for five hundred leagues of coast, extending from Tunis to Alexandretta; it is at one of the ancient mouths of the Nile. All the squadrons of the universe might find moorings there, and in the old port are safe from storms and invasion."

The Mole, which protects this important harbor, is terminated by a modern light-house, placed where the Pharos of the Ptolemies once stood. This now offers at once a warning and an invitation, a battery and a beacon. The western harbor is very deep and safe, but the eastern is protected from the sea by a sunken reef of rocks, too near the surface to permit a first-rate line of battle-ship to pass over it without taking out her guns and heavy stores. The eastern harbor is exposed and unsafe, and was the only port, until recently, allowed to Christian vessels. Mehemet Ali abolished this injurious and degrading prohibition, which had long afforded a proof of the extent to which our scruples with regard to Turkey permitted us to be bullied in the East.

The population of Alexandria amounts to about 65,000 souls, of which the crews, the workmen, the soldiers, and other imme diate dependents of the Pasha, form one-third.

Consuls of all the principal nations of Europe reside here, and, together with numerous wealthy merchants, might form a very extensive society. The influence of the habits or the

The Venetians obtained a settlement here, and carried on their energetic commerce thence to India, but the discovery of the Cape of Good Hop. passage left it again desolate

climate of the country, however, seems to prohibit this, and there is little or no domestic intercourse among the European families resident here. The climate is the worst in Egypt, the neighbor. hood the least interesting, and nothing but business or duty can induce a residence in a city that combines all the worst features of European and Asiatic life, with the least possible of their advantages.*

*In the former edition, a chapter on the agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of Egypt, was here introduced. As it seemed, however, not adapted for the general reader, it has been transferred to the Appendix.

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