Notwithstanding The Ignorance Of These Monks, They Are Fond Of Seeing
Strangers In Their Wilderness; And I Met With A More Cordial Reception
Among Them Than I Did In The Convents Of Libanus, Which Are In
Possession Of All The Luxuries Of Life.
The monks of Sinai are even
generous; three years ago they furnished a Servian adventurer, who
styled himself a Knes, and pretended to be well known to the Russian
government, with sixty dollars, to pay his
[P.552] journey back to Alexandria, on his informing them of his
destitute circumstances.
At present the convent is seldom visited; a few Greeks from Cairo and
Suez, and the inhabitants of Tor who repair here every summer, and
encamp with their families in the garden, are the only persons who
venture to undertake the journey through the desert. So late as the last
century regular caravans of pilgrims used to come here from Cairo as
well as from Jerusalem; a document preserved by the monks states the
arrival in one day of eight hundred Armenians from Jerusalem; and at
another time of five hundred Copts from Cairo. I believe that from sixty
to eighty is the greatest number of visitors that can now be reckoned in
a year. In the small but neat room which I occupied, and which is
assigned to all strangers whom the prior receives with any marks of
distinction, were the names of some of the latest European travellers
who have visited the convent. The following inscriptions, written upon
pieces of paper stuck against the walls, I thought worth the trouble of
transcribing.
“Le quintidi, 5 Frimaire, l’an 9 de la République Française, 1800 de
l’ère Chrétienne, et 3ème de la conquête de l’Egypte, les Citoyens
Rozières et Coutelle, Membres de la Commission des Sciences et Arts,
sont venus visiter les lieux saints, les ports de Tor, Ras Mohammed, et
Charms, la mer de Suez et l’Accaba, l’extrémité de la presqu’île, toutes
les chaines de montagnes, et toutes les tribus Arabes entre les deux
golfes.” (Seal of the French Republic.)
M. Rozières made great mineralogical researches in these mountains,
[p.553] but he and his companion did not succeed in visiting all the
chains of mountains or all the tribes of Arabs. They never reached
Akaba, nor traversed the northern ranges of the peninsula, nor visited
the tribes of Tyaha, Heywat and Terabein. The following is the memorial
left by M. Seetzen:
“Le 9 d’Avril, 1807. U.J. Seetzen, nommé Mousa, voyageur Allemand, M.D.
et Assesseur de Collège de S. Majestè l’Empereur de toutes les Russies
dans la Seigneurie de Jever en Allemagne, est venu visiter le Couvent de
la Sainte Cathérine, les Monts d’Horeb, de Moise, et de la Sainte
Catherine, &c. après avoir parcouru toutes les provinces orientales
anciennes de la Palestine; savoir, Hauranitis, Trachonitis, Gaulonitis,
Paneas, Batanea, Decapolis, Gileaditis, Ammonitis, Amorrhitis et
Moabitis, jusqu’aux frontières de la Gebelene (Idumaea), et après avoir
fait deux fois l’entour de la mer morte, et traversé le désert de
l’Arabie Petrée, entre la ville d’Hebron et entre le Mont Sinai, par un
chemin jusqu’à ce tems-là inconnu.
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