They, However, This Evening,
Fell Upon A Small Party Of Unarmed Egyptian Peasants Who Were Carrying
Corn To Suez, Stripped Them, Took Away Their Camels And Loads, And The
Poor Owners Fled Naked Into Suez.
It was afterwards learnt that they
belonged to the tribe of Omran, who live on the eastern shore of the
gulf of Akaba.
Without establishing regular patrols of the Bedouins
themselves on this road, it will never be possible to keep it free from
robbers.
At six hours and a half begins a hilly country, with a slight descent
through a narrow pass between hills, called El Montala [Arabic], a
favourite spot for robbers. At seven hours and a half we passed Adjeroud
[Arabic], about half an hour to our left; about two miles west of it is
a well in the Wady Emshash, called Bir Emshash, which yields a copious
supply of water in the winter, but dries up in the middle of summer if
rains have not been abundant; the garrison of Adjeroud, where is a well
so bitter that even camels will not drink the water, draws its supply of
drinking water from the Bir Emshash. From hence the road turns S.E. over
a slightly descending plain. At ten hours and a half is the well called
Bir Suez, a
SUEZ
[p.465] copious spring enclosed by a massive building, from whence the
water is drawn up by wheels turned by oxen, and emptied into a large
stone tank on the outside of the building. The men who take care of the
wheels and the oxen remain constantly shut up in the building for fear
of the Bedouins. The water is brackish, but it serves for drinking, and
the Arabs and Egyptian peasants travelling between Cairo and Suez, who
do not choose to pay a higher price for the sweet water of the latter
place, are in the habit of filling their water skins here, as do the
people of Suez for their cooking provision. From an inscription on the
building, it appears that it was erected in the year of the Hedjra 1018.
We reached Suez about sunset, at the end of eleven hours and a half. I
alighted with the Bedouins upon an open place between the western wall
of the town, and its houses.
April 24th. In the time of Niebuhr Suez was not enclosed; there is now a
wall on the west and south-west, which is rapidly falling to decay. The
town is in a ruinous state; and neither merchants nor artisans live in
it. Its population consists only of about a dozen agents, who receive
goods from the ports of the Red sea, and forward them to their
correspondents at Cairo, together with some shop-keepers who deal
chiefly in provisions. The Pasha keeps a garrison here of about fifty
horsemen, with an officer who commands the town, the neighbouring Arabs,
and the shipping in the harbour. As Suez is one of the few harbours in
the Red sea where ships can be repaired, some vessels are constantly
seen at the wharf; the repairs are carried on by Greek shipwrights and
smiths, in the service of the Pasha, who are let out to the shipowners
by the commanding officer.
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