With Abercrombie and
Moore in Egypt

A Hot March

ON the 23rd of April we marched and crossed the lake Maadie near the blockhouse which with some guns defends the entrance ; there is a stockade and battery on the other side. We crossed on a large raft drawn from one side to the other with ropes fixed on supports of wood and pulled hand over hand by about twenty sturdy Arabs nearly naked and making a great noise in their own language. When we got over we travelled on a causeway composed of large blocks of stone built as a dyke to keep the sea back and answer the purposes of a road. We soon left this hard road and marched through the sand, sinking every step to the calf of the leg, until we came to the entrance of lake Elko.

By this time it was dark. We got into flat bottomed boats belonging to the fleet and landed on the other side, at the caravansery, a hind of Turkish inn for travellers which the French had converted into a fort for the protection of this passage. We stuck our bayonets into the ground and slept sound after the fatiguing hot day's march. 24th to Etko a fine village but very dirty; here we made ourselves booths of the date trees, as their long branches made a good shelter from the sun and dew. The inhabitants came among us in a friendly manner selling bread, fried fish, eggs, fruit, etc. We found good water here and the Arabs came round with it in skins selling it to us. Lord Hutchinson left for El Hamet.

This being the first town I was in in this country I was curious in examining it. It stands very high, and has had a line wall round it which is now tumbling into decay. The Iake is close by the south and east of it; the bay about four or five miles to the north; and nothing is to be seen growing but date trees, the only thriving article I have seen in this country. With others I visited a school and looked attentively at some boys receiving instruction from one of the lower mufti or clergy, a fine fatherly looking man.

He showed us the books they were using, but we could make nothing of them, we supposed they might be some parts of the Koran. In writing, this was unaccountable to us, they began the line to the right and wrote towards the left to the end of the line, then began at the right again and so on; they used small reed or cane pens. The teacher was at great pains to explain things to us, and in return for his civility I showed him as I best could how we wrote and our method of teaching from a book I had in my pocket He seemed to understand me and we parted good friends.

We then visited the mosque or place of worship. It contained no furniture except some stone benches round the walls, The pulpit which was not unlike those used at home, stood in the centre; on it lay a large book which we took to be the Alcoran. In the passage were some large stone baths filled with water, as we thought for the Turks washing before going into prayers. This place of worship was small with a lofty spire or minaret shaped on the top like a turban, but with no clock or bell, indeed I saw none of these in the country. (The Mohammedan religion prohibited the use of bells.)

These minarets have balustrades round them in which men are posted night and day; their duty is to call the people to prayers, proclaim the hours, and give notice of any accident that may occur. We next visited a weaver's shop; the weaver was weaving linen but not the fine linen of Egypt, for it was coarse enough. We then left this dirty village and its swarms of flies which had been buzzing about us all the time we were in it. We noticed that many of the people had sore eyes.

On Monday, 25th, we marched by the side of the lake on which some of our armed boats were sailing. Many Arabs came with pitchers of water selling a drink for a para. Some stout fellows among them would carry eight or ten men's knapsacks a whole day's march for ten or twelve paras. We now began to get clear of the sand and glad we were to get our feet on cultivated ground once more.

We got among fields of grass and corn and encamped at El Hamet where we joined the brigade under Sir John Doyle, which consisted of the 1st Royals, 30th, 50th, and 92nd regiments. General Doyle was a true, hearty Irishman, and well fitted to hive command of men. He had none of that pride and sullenness which too often attend those in authority.

He was ever attentive to our wants and his affability and kindness can never be forgotten any soldier in the bngade. And it was the same wherever he had the command. The men that mounted his guard seldom went without a glass of rum in the morning from his own hand. General Craddock's brigade consisted of 2nd or Queen's, 8th, 18th Royal Irish, and 58th regiments. The four flank companies of the 40th and the Corsican Rangers were under Colonel Spencer. The cavalry were the 11th, 12th, and 26th regiments, General Finch. There were three brigades of artillery. The cavalry got all mounted on good horses and some of our artillery was drawn by bullocks, and other pieces were carried on camel's backs and covered with tarpaulin to prevent the heat of the sun from rendering the wheels and carriages unfit for service.

A bridge of boats was formed across the Nile and the 89th regiment, Colonel Lord Blaney with other troops chiefly Turks, crossed over to advance on the Delta side of the river. The Grand Bashaw arrived with the Turkish armed flotilla; he acted as Admiral and General and had his flag hoisted on one of the largest of his vessels. Captain Stephenson, R.N., had command of the British armed boats and was a more useful man for the service than the Great Turk.

This camp was about a mile and a half from Rosetta which is the chief trading town on this branch of the Nile. It has some good brick houses whitewashed over with latticed windows without glass, streets narrow and dusty and swarming with flies. The Greeks had followed us in their boats and were the chief retailers here also. A great trade seemed to be carried on in grain, and many germs or country boats are here loaded with it. The entrance into the mouth of the river below the town is difficult on account of the Boghaz or bar and the sand shifting from one side of the nver to the other, and in a strong westerly wind it is nearly choked up; some of our armed launches had to wait some days before they could pass.

The river at this place is about 200 yards broad with a steep bank and a blue clay bottom, runs smooth, and is very muddy, yet it is the only good water in the country, is very wholesome, and is even said to be nourishing for the body. I have known some of our men drink from ten to twelve quarts of it in the course of a day's march, just as it was lifted out of the river and never heard that it hurt any one.

The heat was very oppressive and I have seen us while on the march during a halt, wringing our clothes and buff belts, they being as wet with sweat as if they had been soaked in water; they soon dried in the sun and we were never a whit the worse. This part of the country is intersected with deep canals with high banks; they were all dry at this season of the year, but when the Nile rises to its height the water flows in; the mouths of the canals are closed up and the water retained and this serves for watering the fields. No tillage is required for the first crop ; when the river retires within its banks the seed is thrown among the mud and slime left behind and little else is done to produce a plentiful crop. When a second or third crop is required the land is tilled with the plough, drawn by oxen. Wheat is the chief grain raised, but I have seen plenty of barley and all other grain except oats; and at this season, standing on one of the raised banks and looking east over the river across the Delta which is level as far as the eye can reach, to see the fields bringing forth their yellow treasure is a very pleasant sight it being nigh harvest; this made us repeat the saying 'There is corn in Egypt.' We enjoyed the sight all the more from having seen little but sea and sand for a long time back.

The villages on the banks of the Nile are numerous and well inhabited; they are generally built on mounds of earth and are surrounded with a high bank to prevent the river as we thought, rom sweeping them away in the flood when it overflows. Most of the towns have a wall of bricks or mud built round to protect the inhabitants from the Bedouin Arabs, who sometimes make a rush from the desert and carry off the people and property of the village. There are no houses outside of these walls for want of security, yet their grain lies outside in heaps in the open air beside their threshing floors, where it is trodden out by oxen and other animals, and winnowed much the same as I have seen in Scotland.

The heaps are divided from each other by a row of bricks or a piece of wood; they lie till a merchant is found, when the grain is carried in baskets to the boats on the river. I have taken great pleasure in sitting by the river side and seeing these mountains of corn disappearing; most of the people of the villages seemed to be employed in their embarkation; they looked poor but happy. There are many hungry looking dogs about these small towns which are turned out at night, when they make a great noise barking and howling. The Turks here do little but sit and smoke and drink coffee. The Copts, the ancient Egyptians, and the Arabs do all the servile work. The Mamelukes are gentlemen soldiers commanded by their own officers who rule the country as tyrants under the Turkish Governor who resides at Cairo.

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