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. 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.
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