The Land of Midian (Revisited) Volume II Part 11

I need hardly say that his Highness at once saw the gist of the matter. Many concessions had been applied for, even from Australia; but the Viceroy determined that, before any could be granted, careful a.n.a.lyses of the specimens must be made, at his Highness's private expense, in London. M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, of world-wide fame, volunteered, in the most friendly way, to submit echantillons of the rocks to the Parisian Academie des Sciences, of which he is a distinguished member. The Viceroy was also pleased spontaneously to remind me of, and to renew, the verbal promise made upon my return from the first Expedition to Midian; namely, that I should be honoured with a concession, or that a royalty of five per cent. on the general produce of the mines should be the reward of discovery. The young Minister of Finance, Prince Husayn Kamil Pasha, after courteously congratulating me upon the successful result of our labours, put as usual the most pertinent of questions.

The opening of our little Exposition was delayed by sundry difficulties. The Greek Easter set in with its usual severity about later April. A general shop-shutting, a carouse unlimited, catholic, universal; and, despite stringent police orders, a bombardment of the town by squibs and crackers, were the princ.i.p.al features of the fete. The 29th was the cla.s.sical Shamm el-Nasin, or "the Smelling of the Zephyr," a local May-day religiously kept with utter idleness. Mr. W. E. Hayns and I utilized it by going a flint-hunting on the left bank of the Nile.[EN#85] Then the terrible "May coupon" gave immense trouble and annoyance to the rulers; who, so far from making merry with the lieges, had to work in person between five a.m. and midnight.

After such exertion as this, rest was of course necessary.

Subsequently, a grand review monopolized one day; another was spent by the Court in despatching the young Prince Fu'ad to Switzerland; and yet another was given to his Highness the Prince Hasan Pasha, Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian auxiliaries, who, on the conclusion of the war, had returned to Cairo en route for Europe.

Briefly, it was not before May 9th that the Khediv, accompanied by the Prince heritier, Taufik Pasha, found leisure personally to open the Exhibition--the first, by-the-by, ever honoured with the Viceregal presence. Despite all my efforts, the rooms, which should have been kept clear till his Highness had pa.s.sed through, were crowded at an early hour. The maps prepared at the Citadel by Lieutenants Amir and Yusuf, with the aid of three extra hands, were very imperfect, half finished at the last moment, and abounding in such atrocities as "Ouorh" for "El-Wijh." The engineer, M. Marie, when asked aloud, and with all publicity, by the Khediv whether he was sure that such and such specimens contained gold, shirked a direct reply, evasively declaring that "Midian is a fine mining country." He had pointed out to me the precious metal during our exploration of Umm el-Karayat; but such is the wretched result of "knowing the people," instead of telling the truth like a man. And one of the many jealous, a mild Mephisto., whispered in the Viceregal ear, "There can't be much gold there, or ces messieurs would have said more about it."

Despite these small contretemps the Exhibition[EN#86] was p.r.o.nounced a success, and served, as such things do, for a nine days' wonder. Several travellers from England and Australia took the opportunity of inspecting the rocks; and I was much encouraged to find the general opinion so highly favourable.

Locally there were dissidents, but this must be expected where interests differ.

Meanwhile his Highness kept me hard at work. I was directed to draw up a concise general description of the province; to report upon the political and other measures by which the Midian country would be benefited; and, lastly, to suggest the means which, in my humble opinion, were best calculated for successfully working the mines. In former days the Viceroy would at once have undertaken the task, and probably would have sent down five thousand men to open the diggings. Now, however, the endless trickery of European adventurers and speculators has made a wise precaution absolutely necessary. During the last audience, his Highness ably and lucidly resumed the history of the past measures, and the steps which he proposed for the future. The first Khedivial Expedition had been simply one of exploration, sent to ascertain whether the precious metals really existed. The second was intrusted with the charge of laying down the probable limits of the mining formation; and of bringing back varied specimens, in quant.i.ties sufficient for scientific a.n.a.lysis. The third and next step would be to organize a Compagnie de Recherche, with the object of beginning a serious exploitation.

The future thus settled, I was kindly and courteously dismissed, with a desire that I should take charge of the specimens, and personally superintend the work of a.s.saying. Mr. Charles Clarke received pay and leave for three months, and was ordered to convey the boxes by "long sea."

On May 10th we left Cairo in company with our friend Mr. Garwood, C.E. At Alexandria a great repose fell upon my spirit; it was like gliding into a smooth port after a storm at sea. All the petty troubles and worries of Cairo; the cancans, the intrigues, the silly reports of the envious and the jealous, with the buzz and sting of mosquitoes; the weary waiting; the visits of "friends" whose main object in life seemed to be tuer le ver; and the exigencies of my late fellow-travellers, who, after liberal pay and free living for four months, seemed determined to quarter themselves upon the Egyptian Government for the rest of their natural lives;--all these small cares, not the less annoying because they were small, disappeared like magic at the first glimpse of blue water. I had barely time to pa.s.s an afternoon at Ramleh, "the Sand-heap," with an intimate of twenty-five years'

standing, Hartley John Gisborne, an old servant of the Egyptian "Crown," for whom new men and new measures have, I regret to see, made the valley of the Nile no longer habitable.

The next Sunday placed us on board the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd's screw-steamer Austria (Capitano Rossol). As usual, the commander and officers did all they could to make their voyagers comfortable; the Company did the contrary. At this spring season, true, the migratory host of unfeathered bipeds crowds northwards; even as in autumn it accompanies the birds southwards. But when berths are full, pa.s.sengers should be refused; and if the commercial director prefers dead to live goods, travellers should be duly warned. The accommodation would have been tolerable in a second-cla.s.s or third-cla.s.s English steamer, which charges fifteen shillings to a sovereign per diem; here, however, we were paying between 2 and 3.

The Alexandrian agent had been asked to lodge us decently. My wife found herself in a cabin occupied by two nurses. I was placed in a manner of omnibus, a loose box for six, of whom one was an Armenian and two were Circa.s.sians from Daghistan--good men enough, but not pleasant as bedroom fellows. No extra service had been engaged for an extra cargo of seventy-two; that is, forty-two first, and thirty second cla.s.s. There were only three stewards, including the stewardess; and the sick were left to serve themselves. At least half a dozen were required; and, in such places as Trieste and Alexandria, a large staff of cooks and waiters can always be engaged in a few hours. On board any English ship some of the smartest and handiest seamen would have been converted into temporary attendants--here no one seemed to think of a proceeding so far out of the usual way. There was only one, instead of three or four cooks; and the unfortunate had to fill a total of one hundred and thirty-five mouths, the crew included, three times a day. The other tenant of the close and wretched little galley lay sick with spotted typhus; and, after barbarous neglect, he died on the day following our arrival at Trieste--I did not hear that the surgeon of the screw-steamer Austria had met with his deserts by summary dismissal from the service. The Austro-Hungarian Lloyd's was once famed for good living; over-economy and high dividends have now made the cuisine worse than the cheapest of tables d'hote. Provisions as well as their preparation were so bad that Sefer Pasha, an invalid, confined himself to a diet of potatoes and eggs.

Add the quasi-impossibility of obtaining a bath; the uncleanliness of the offices; the hard narrowness of the sofas; the small basins, or rather bowls, and the tiny towels like napkins; the clamorous pets of the small fry, cats and dogs; the crowding of second-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers on the quarter-deck; and the noise of the Armenian lady beating her maid, who objected to the process in truly dreadful language: throw in an engine which, despite the efforts of her energetic English engineer, Mr.

Wilkinson, managed only nine instead of eleven and a half knots an hour; an ugly north-easter off Cape Matapan, bringing tropical downfalls of rain; and a muggy Scirocco off Istria, when we breathed almost as much water as air: and I think that the short entry in my journal, "horridly uncomfortable," was to a certain extent justified by the conduct of the poor Austria. Yet the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd's boasts a dividend of seven per cent. She shall see no more of my money: until she mend her ways I shall prefer the Genoese Rubattino.

But, as the Persian poet has it, in niz bug'zared--"Even these things pa.s.s away." At Corfu we were cheered by once more meeting Sir Charles Sebright, who looked hale and hearty as of yore. When we reached Trieste, his Excellency Baron Pino von Friendenthall, accompanied by the most amiable of "better halves," came off in his galley, happily unconscious of typhus; and carried us away without the usual troubles and delays of landing in harbour b.u.mboats. Friendly faces smiled a welcome; and, after an absence of some seven months, I found myself once more in the good town which has given us a home during the last five years.

At Trieste I was delayed for some time, awaiting the report that the specimens collected by the Expedition had arrived at their destination, the warehouses of the London Docks. Mr. Clarke met with obstacles at Suez; and, consequently, did not reach England till June 20th, after twenty-three rough days. As her Majesty's Foreign Office had been pleased to accord me two months of leave to England, I determined to make the voyage by "long sea." Both suffering from the same complaint, want of rest and of roast-beef, as opposed to rosbif, we resolved to ship on board the English steamer Hecla, of the B. and N. A. R. M. S. P.

Company, the old Cunard line, famous for never having lost a life, a ship, or a letter. We left Trieste on July 7, 1878, in charge of our excellent commander, Captain James Brown; and, after a cruise of twenty days, via Venice, Palermo, and Gibraltar--a comfortable, cheery, hygienic cruise in charming weather over summer seas--we found ourselves once more (July 26th) in the city of the Liver.

Appendix I.

DATES OF THE THREE JOURNEYS (Northern, Central, and Southern) made by the Second Khedivial Expedition.

First Journey.

(December 19, 1877, to February 13, 1878.)

December 6, 1877, left Cairo.

10 1877, left Suez.

14 1877, reached El-Muwaylah (Sharm Yaharr) on the "Day of 'Arafat."

December 19, 1877, landed at El-Muwaylah.

21 1877, marched upon Wady Tiryam.

22 1877, marched upon Wady Sharma.

23 1877, marched upon Jebel el-Abyaz.

30 1877, returned to Wady Sharma.

January 7, 1878, marched upon 'Aynunah.

8 1878, halted at 'Aynunah.

9 1878, halted at Wady el-'Usaylah.

10 1878, reached Maghair Shu'ayb.

25 1878, marched upon Makna.

February 3 1878, embarked for the Marsa Dahab in the Sinaitic Peninsula.

4 1878, to the anchorage of El-Nuwaybi'.

5 1878, anch.o.r.ed at Pharaoh's Island.

6 1878, halted at Pharaoh's Island.

7 1878, steamed to El-'Akabah town.

8 1878, ran down Gulf el-'Akabah.

9 1878, anch.o.r.ed under Tiran Island.

10 1878, halted at Tiran Island.

February 11, 1878, ran from wrecking to Sinafir Island.

12 1878, halted at Sinafir Island.

13 1878, returned to El-Muwaylah (Sharm Yaharr).

Second Journey.

(February 17, 1878, to March 8,1878.)

February 17, 1878 walked to ruins of Abu Hawawit.

18 ,, marched upon the Safh Jebel Malih in the Wady Surr.

19 ,, camped in the Sayl Wady el-Jimm.

20 ,, marched upon El-Nagwah.

21 ,, reached the head of the Wady Sadr.

23 ,, camped below the Col, "El-Khuraytah."

24 ,, reached the Hisma.

25 ,, descended the two Pa.s.ses and camped in the "Jayb el-Khuraytah."

26 ,, marched upon the Majra el-Ruways.

27 ,, ,, ,, ,, Wady Damah.

28 ,, ,, ,, ,, ruins of Shuwak.

March 1 ,, halted at the ruins of Shuwak.

2 ,, visited the ruins of s.h.a.ghab and camped at the Majra el-Waghir.

3 ,, visited the ruins El-Khandaki and camped at the plain El-Kutayyifah.

4 ,, marched down the Wady Salma and camped at the Ma el-Badiah.

5 ,, reached Ziba town.