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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 797 of 870
Words from 216749 to 217017
of 236498
