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 gruenstein. 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 Pasha's 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 hour's
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.
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