Suez Has Of Late Become A Harbour Of
Secondary Importance, The Supplies Of Provisions, &C. For The Hedjaz
Being Collected Principally At Cosseir, And Shipped From Thence To Yembo
And Djidda:
But the trade in coffee and
[P.466] India goods still passes this way to Cairo. I saw numerous bales
of spices and coffee lying near the shore, and a large heap of iron,
together with packages of small wares, antimony, and Egyptian goods for
exportation to Djidda, and ultimately to Yemen and India. The merchants
complained of the want of camels to transport their goods to Cairo. The
Pasha, who owns a considerable part of the imports of coffee, has fixed
the carriage across the desert at a low price, and none of the agents
venture to offer more to the camel drivers; the consequence of which is,
that few are encouraged to come to Suez beyond the number required for
the Pasha’s merchandize. A caravan consisting of five or six hundred
camels leaves Suez for Cairo on the 10th of each lunar month,
accompanied by guards and two field-pieces; while smaller ones, composed
of twenty or thirty beasts, depart almost every four or five days; but
to these the merchants are shy of trusting their goods, because they can
never depend on the safety of the road; accidents however seldom happen
at present, so formidable is the name of Mohammed Ali.
Before the power of this Pasha was established in Egypt, and during the
whole period of the Mamelouk government, the Bedouins might be called
complete masters of Suez. Every inhabitant was obliged t[o] have his
protector, Ghafyr [Arabic], among the Bedouins of Mount Sinai, to whom
he made annual presents of money, corn, and clothes, and who ensured to
him the safe passage of his goods and person through the desert, and the
recovery of whatever was plundered by the others. At that time the rate
of freight was fixed by the Bedouins, and camels were in plenty; but,
whenever the governors of Cairo quarrelled with the Bedouins, or ill-
treated any of them at Cairo, the road was immediately interrupted, and
the Bedouins placed guards over the well of Naba [Arabic], two hours
distant from Suez, in the hills on the eastern side of the gulf, to
prevent the people of the town from drawing from thence their
[p.467] daily supply of sweet water. The difference was always settled
by presents to the Bedouins, who, however, as may readily be conceived,
often abused their power; and it not unfrequently happened that, even in
time of peace, a Bedouin girl would be found, in the morning, sitting on
the well, who refused permission to the water carriers of Suez to draw
water unless they paid her with a new shirt, which they were obliged to
do; for to strike her, or even to remove her by force, would have
brought on a war with her tribe. The authority of the Bedouins is now at
an end, though their Sheikhs receive from the Turkish governors of Suez
a yearly tribute, under the name of presents, in clothes and money; the
Pasha himself has become the Ghafyr of the people of Suez, and exacts
from every camel load that passes through the gates from two to four
dollars, for which he engages to ensure the passage through the desert;
when the caravan however was plundered in 1815, he never returned the
value of the goods to the owners.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 308 of 453
Words from 160326 to 160909
of 236498
