June 10th.—There Was Now Not A Drop Of Sweet Water In The Castle, And
All That We Could Procure Of The Well-Water Of Adjeroud Had Been
Standing In The Tank Since It Was Filled From The Well At The Time Of
The Last Pilgrimage.
The wheels of the well, which is two hundred and
fifty feet in depth, are put in motion only at that time; during the
rest of the year the building which encloses the well is shut up; and
the person who keeps the key was now at Cairo.
The water we were thus
obliged to drink was saline, putrid, and of a yellow green colour, so
that boiling produced no improvement in it, and our stomachs could not
retain it.
June 11th.—A slight shower of rain fell, which the Turk ascribed to his
prayers; but all the water we could collect in every vessel which the
castle could furnish, scarcely afforded to each of us a draught. Hamd
made a second attempt to night to go to Suez, but it being unfortunately
moonlight, he was seen and again driven back.
June 12th.—After three days blockade, I had the pleasure of descrying
the Suez caravan at a distance, on its way towards
WADY KHOUYFERA
[p.629] Cairo; we immediately got every thing ready, and when the
caravan was opposite the castle, at about twenty minutes distance, Hamd
and I hastily joined it. What became of the officer and his garrison, I
never heard. I bought of the Bedouins of the caravan a supply of water,
sufficient to last me to Cairo.
Although the passage of this desert is less dangerous than formerly, it
is impossible to protect it effectually, without establishing a small
body of horsemen or dromedaries at Adjeroud; and it is a discredit to
the government of Egypt, that this is not done. The well of Emshash
affords a seasonable supply of water to robbers, who lay in wait in the
rocky country of Montala, where one of them stationed on the top of a
hill gives notice of the approach of any enemy or object of plunder. The
castle was undoubtedly intended as a look-out post against the Arabs.
The French once had a garrison in it, and its walls have been repaired
by Mohammed Ali Pasha, but the interior is in a very ruinous state, and
few provisions are kept in the extensive store-houses within it.
On proceeding to Cairo, the caravan took, for the first stage from
Adjeroud, a route somewhat to the southward of that by which I had gone
to Sinai, and joined the latter at Dar el Hamra. Six hours and a half
from Adjeroud we passed Wady Khoeyfera [Arabic], the bed of a torrent,
with trees growing in it, a very little below the level of the
surrounding plain. Here I saw the ruins of a small stone reservoir, and
to a considerable distance round it, ruins of walls, and several wells,
some built with brick and others with stone. They appear to have been
surrounded by a wall, which now forms a circular enclosure of mounds
almost wholly covered with sands. The existence of these ruins, which I
do not remember to have seen mentioned by any traveller, confirms my
belief, that in the most ancient times regular stations
CAIRO
[p.630] were established on this road, to which we must also attribute
the date trees now found in a petrified state.
A road, called Derb el Ban [Arabic], leads from Adjeroud to Birket el
Hadj, by the north side of the mountain El Oweybe; it is the most
northern of all the routes to Suez, and is little frequented.
On the 13th of June, early in the morning, I entered Cairo; the plague
had ceased, and had been less destructive, than it was last year.
[p.631] APPENDIX.
[p.633] APPENDIX. No. I.
An Account of the Ryhanlu Turkmans.
Aleppo, May 12, 1810.
THE district inhabited by the Ryhanlu Turkmans begins at about seven
hours distance from Aleppo, to the north-westward. The intermediate
plain is stony and almost deserted, but it is in many parts susceptible
of culture, and contains a great number of villages in ruins. At five
hours march from Aleppo to the W.N.W. upon the ridge of a low hill are
some plantations of olive and fig trees; on the other side of the hill
lies a valley of an oval shape about eighteen miles in circuit, called
Khalaka [Arabic]; at the foot of the low hills which surround it, are
the following villages: Termine, Tellade, Hoesre, Tellekberoun, Bab,
Dana, and some others. The Fellahs or inhabitants of these villages live
in half ruined houses, which indicate the opulence of their ancient
possessors. The soil of the plain is a fine red mould, almost without a
stone. In March, when I visited the Ryhanlu, it was sown with wheat, but
it produces in another season the finest cotton. The whole plain is the
property of Abbas Effendi of Aleppo, the heir of Tshelebi Effendi, who
was in his time the first grandee of Aleppo[.] Having crossed the plain
of Khalaka, and the rocky calcareous hills which border it on the
western side, a very tedious passage for camels, the first Turkman tents
are met with at about six hours and a half or seven hours distance from
Aleppo. The Turkmans, who prfer living on the hills, erect their tents
on the declivities, and cultivate the valleys below them. These hills
extend in a N.W. direction, above forty miles, the mountain of St. Simon
[Arabic], is in the midst of them. Their average breadth, including the
numerous valleys which intersect them, may be estimated at fifteen or
twenty miles. They lose themselves in the plain of Antioch, which is
bounded on the opposite side by the chain of high mountains, extending
along the southern coast of the gulf of Scanderoun. The river Afrin
[Arabic] waters this plain; its course from the neighbourhood of Killis
to where it empties itself into the lake of Antioch, is fifteen or
twenty hours in length.
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