The Author visits Cairo—The Mahmoudieh Canal—Fire on board the Steamer—Voyage up the Nile—Appearance of the Country—Condition of the People—Arrival at Cairo—Visit to Abbas Pacha—Palace of Schoubrah—Establishments of the Pacha—Industry of the Arabs—Visit to the Pyramids—Quit Cairo.

Things appeared to go on so smoothly at Alexandria, and anticipating no further difficulty in Syria, I took this opportunity of proceeding to Cairo, to gain as much information as I could relative to the interior of the country. The Pacha put his own steam-boat at my disposal, and sent one of his officers as interpreter; and who, I afterwards found, was likewise charged with paying the expenses of my journey. A palace in the neighbourhood of Cairo was also put at my disposition, both of which civilities I declined.

We embarked in a very tolerable boat on the 24th of January, and proceeded by the Mahmoudieh Canal to Atfeh, where it joins the Nile. The boat was dragged by horses at a good pace, and the distance, forty-eight miles, was accomplished in about seven hours. At Atfeh there is a tolerable inn, where we stopped.

According to a statement in Russell’s Egypt, this canal was begun by Mehemet Ali in October, 1819, and finished early in December of the same year. It is forty-eight miles long, eighteen feet deep, and ninety feet broad. It is said that 250,000 persons were employed in cutting it, and that 30,000 men, women, and children perished in the undertaking; but I believe this number to be much exaggerated. Before the construction of this canal, the produce of Upper Egypt was brought down the Nile in boats to Damietta, and there transhipped into sailing vessels; and, in fine weather, even open boats frequently undertook the voyage to Alexandria. This occasioned much loss of time; and as they were frequently wrecked, much destruction of life and property; for which reasons Mehemet Ali decided on undertaking the construction of this Grand Canal. Unfortunately for the inhabitants, the Pacha was anxious to see his work completed in a short space of time, and the poor Fellahs were driven in from the country like a flock of sheep, and set to work,—the greater part unprovided with tools, and all ill-fed, and unpaid; exposed on a scanty allowance of water to the heat of a broiling sun by day, and with little or no shelter from the noxious dews at night.

Under these circumstances, it cannot be wondered that the destruction of human life was immense; but the Pacha troubled himself little about their sufferings. He saw his work rapidly progressing; and the first boat started just two months after its commencement. The Mahmoudieh Canal, though certainly a grand undertaking, is, nevertheless, incomplete; there are no locks at either end to communicate with the Nile and the harbour of Alexandria; the goods are landed at the latter place, and carried by railroad to the canal close by; and when they arrive at Atfeh, are again disembarked, and transported to the Nile, which is shut out by a badly constructed barage. The Nile, in the lowest season, is below the canal; and the canal is several feet above the sea in the harbour of Alexandria. It makes a considerable circuit round the eastern end of the lake Mareotis; and, I believe, had a skilful engineer been employed, it might have been greatly shortened.

At daylight on the morning of the 25th we embarked in one of the Pacha’s steamers. I was accompanied by Mr. Larking, the English Consul, and his lady,—the former in very bad health,—by Captain Martin, Mr. Waghorn,—the active agent for the transport of goods and passengers (and indeed the first projector of the enterprise) up the Nile and across the Isthmus,—and several officers of the Carysfort. Mr. Larking has the management of a farm belonging to a relation of his, on the banks of the canal, which he conducts as nearly after the English method as the difference of the country will allow. There was a very good house on the estate, besides other extensive buildings.

Mrs. Larking was a capital caterer; and we owe to that amiable lady the good cheer we met with in our passage up the Nile. The steamer was none of the best as to speed; but her accommodations were good.

We had not proceeded many miles when she was discovered to be on fire in the coal-bunkers. We ran her alongside the bank; and Mr. Larking, who was ill, and could hardly walk, was with difficulty got on shore, together with Mrs. Larking and his child. The decks were ript up; and, notwithstanding the noise and confusion amongst the Arab crew, with the assistance of the officers, we managed to get the fire under, without materially injuring the boat. On examination, we found the beams of the vessel were too close to the chimney; and after being completely charred, they took fire, and ignited the coals. This was not a good beginning; but was attended with no other consequence than the delay of a few hours. The current was running down between two and three miles an hour; and, although the wind was generally in our favour, we made little progress, and were easily passed by the light country boats, notwithstanding their miserable equipments. The Nile in most parts is about a quarter of a mile wide; and the water not being low, was easily navigated. Boats of all sizes crowd the river, conveying to Alexandria, corn, chopped straw, cotton, and various other products of the upper country. Most of these boats were the property of the Pacha, for he monopolized the greater part of the trade, as well as most of the produce of the country; and if I may judge by their appearance, Mehemet Ali was as bad a ship’s husband, as he was an agriculturist; but he has a mania of doing every thing himself. He was rapidly making himself owner of all the land in Egypt, as well as of all the trade. It is a common custom with him, when his crops are ready, to force the Fellahs to leave their own villages to work on his property. At the same time, he seizes all the boats on the river to bring down his produce, caring very little what becomes of the property of others. This becomes peculiarly oppressive when the Nile is rapidly rising, as it often happens that the whole of their produce is swept away during the time they are employed to save the Pacha’s.

When the wind blows down the river, the passage of the boats is very slow. There is no towing path; no horses or mules; the crew land, and they manage to tug their boats along from ten to twenty miles a day, varying according to the size of the boat. The descent down, owing to the current, unless the wind is very strong, may be about fifty or sixty miles in the twenty-four hours; and considerably more when the wind is fair.

Egypt in the Delta is about 160 miles wide; but when you ascend the river, and are clear of the Delta, it narrows to from 11 to 20 miles, and is shut in by sand-hills and mountains on each side. The country is richly cultivated, and well irrigated, but in a very primitive manner. The villages are raised considerably above the plain; but, nevertheless, are sometimes much inconvenienced by a high Nile, and are of the most miserable description. The people are poorly dressed in coarse blue cotton shirts and petticoats; but their wants seemed few; and I saw no appearance of discontent or unhappiness amongst them.

At sunset on the second day, in passing round a point where there was a considerable bend in the river, the Pyramids opened to our view, apparently only a few miles off; their gigantic size gave them this appearance, though their distance could not have been less than thirty miles. We continued our route during the night, and at daylight we stopped considerably below Boulac, the Wapping, it may be called, of Cairo. From thence we decided to prosecute our journey on foot. As the vapour that hung over the river became dissipated by a brilliant sun rising over the Mokhattan hills, on one hand appeared the spires, mosques, and minarets of the City of Victory, whilst on the other its beams gilded that part of the seven wonders of the world, the gigantic relics of antiquity, the Pyramids. About an hour’s pleasant walk, under the shade of a fine avenue of sycamore trees, brought us to the comfortable hotel of Mr. Waghorn, to whose perseverance and activity we owe the comparatively easy traject across the isthmus to Suez. By the time we had dressed and breakfasted, our guide returned from the Citadel, where I had sent him to announce our arrival to Abbas Pacha, the grandson of Mehemet Ali, and the Governor of Cairo. Eleven was the hour appointed to wait upon his Excellency, who sent a brilliant cavalcade to conduct us to his palace, consisting of splendid Arab horses, proudly champing their golden bits, under a profusion of crimson velvet trappings, each led by a sais, or groom, and a tolerable coach dragged by four cream-coloured horses; the coach we consigned to the junior of the party, Captain Martin; Captain Williams and myself preferred the horses. In this manner we entered the Citadel, the scene of so many brilliant achievements, and of so many bloody deeds. Memory failed not to recall one of the most appalling of the latter that tyranny ever planned or perfidy carried into effect. The foul murder of the Mamelukes will for ever be a deep stain on the character of Mehemet Ali. It is true they were troublesome gentlemen, and had they lived would, in all probability, have destroyed the Pacha; but nothing can excuse the treacherous manner in which he accomplished his object.

Such were our feelings as we passed the gates so securely closed on that fearful occasion, and as we cast a glance on these, on the appalling height of these once blood-stained battlements, we could not help admiring the bold spirit which ventured on such a leap, and wondering how he survived to tell the tale. The place known as the Mameluke’s Leap is near the gateway, the fall between thirty and forty feet. The horse was crushed on the spot, but, strange to say, the bold rider escaped unhurt, and lived for many years afterwards at Constantinople.

Abbas Pacha, the grandson of Mehemet Ali, has long been known for his hatred to anything having the resemblance of a Frank, and this is little to be wondered at, considering the education he has received. His character is none of the best; he is devoid of talent, and much more feared than either loved or respected. However, all things considered, he received us with tolerable politeness. Pipes and coffee were produced, and we were invited to take seats on the Divan. His appearance is not much in his favour, being a dull heavy man, much more resembling a butcher than a Pacha. After a short conversation on indifferent subjects we took our leave, and were conducted through the different apartments of the Palace, which were both elegant and comfortable. From the Citadel we proceeded to the country palace and gardens of Schoubrah, which we approached under the shadow of a noble avenue of Egyptian sycamore, whose thick foliage rendered it quite impervious to the rays of the sun. The palace of Schoubrah, built a few years back by the Pacha, cost an immense sum of money, and as we strolled through the delightful gardens, and inspected the fountains and kiosks, constructed at immense expense, we could not repress a feeling of sorrow that the ruler who had raised such a structure for his own ease and convenience, had not turned more of his attention to the comforts of the poor Arabs, who are lodged in the most miserable mud huts at the very gates of the palace.

During the short period of our stay at Cairo, time did not hang heavily on our hands. The crowded and covered bazaars, the mosques, the tombs of the Caliphs and Mamelukes, together with the numerous manufactories and institutions established by the Pacha, successively occupied much of our time, and fully engaged our attention.

Had the Pacha shown a little more judgment and a little more nature in the establishment of these institutions he would have deserved more credit, but he has a mania of going ahead, and thinks that Egypt should have manufactories of her own of all sorts, and be independent of other nations; and really when we look at his founderies for cannon, his manufactory for arms, and the industry with which the Arabs work, it is quite surprising. Most of his establishments are directed by English or French men; in the musket manufactory there is an Englishman, and he assured me that the industrious manner in which the Arabs were working on the day we inspected the establishment was their usual habit; if so, I certainly never saw so much activity in any manufactory in my life. The Pacha has begun to find out that the cotton and cloth manufactories, &c., are far from profitable, and many of these establishments were shut up, and the workmen discharged.

Amongst the scientific institutions, which are nearly all under the management of Frenchmen, may be reckoned the hospital, with the schools of surgery and medicine attached to them, under the superintendence of Clot Bey; the academy of drawing, and that of mathematics; the students being all taken from the class of common Fellahs, and, like the rest of the Pacha’s subjects, compelled to work at whatever he thought fit, and toil they do from morning to night, in hopes of being one day employed as civil engineers, or draughtsmen.

The second day following our arrival we devoted to a pilgrimage, which we could not but fulfil: a visit to the Pyramids.

After traversing the fine olive grounds and gardens planted by Ibrahim, on what were formerly unsightly and huge heaps of rubbish, we crossed the Nile at the Island of Rhoda, where he has likewise carried cultivation to great perfection, and landed on the western bank, at Gezeh, famed for the action that took place between the French and the Mamelukes; the conquerors thought perhaps it would be more grand if dignified as La Bataille des Pyramids, of which it is certainly in view. Each of our party being duly accommodated with that most useful of all animals in Egypt, a little jackass, after traversing fields waving with the richest luxuriance of cultivation, we in due time reached the foot of the first of those stupendous monuments the “Pyramids,” that of Cheops; then, and not till then, were we aware of the huge mass at the foot of which we stood. But descriptions without end have been written of these stupendous works, and they rise as a memento of the folly of those who consumed so much labour and time in raising such useless fabrics. As numberless conjectures as to their purposes have been ventured by various writers, I shall not increase the list, but refer the reader to Belzoni, Wilkinson, Vyse, or fifty others.

On my return to Cairo I learned by telegraph that intelligence of importance had arrived at Alexandria, which required my immediate presence; this put an end to all the projects we had formed of further exploring this interesting country, and next morning we bad adieu to Cairo and its wonders, and soon found ourselves steaming down the broad Nile, with the current in our favour, but a strong northerly wind right in our teeth.