Notes from Egypt

My dear E

Knowing my wish to leave Damietta as quickly as possible for Syria, Signor Filliponi agreed with the captain of a boat lying ready to sail for Jaffa with a cargo of rice, the staple of this part of Egypt, to take myself and Saad as passengers for 116 piastres (too much by a great deal however), to that port. The bargain was struck, and the money paid immediately after my return from Lake Menzaleh, July 18th. But alas ! two great obstacles stood in the way of our speedy escape from my dilapidated quarters at Damietta: namely, Ramadan, and the Bougaz; the latter, the more annoying and provoking of the two, from its perpetual disappointment of my hopes day after day, and from its being an unexpected impediment. Its very existence was to me unknown, until my arrival at Damietta brought me acquainted with this capricious and most vexatious hindrance to our egress from the land of Ham, and arrival in the regions of Shem: a transit which I was of course extremely anxious to accomplish after so much loss of time.

The Damietta mouth of the Nile is greatly contracted at its point of embouchure w T ith the Mediterranean, by a narrow sandy strip of land on either side, and a small island; the centre alone of the channel being always covered with water; but even in this part, so great is the deposit of mud and sand by the Nile, that the water when the river is in flood, or at the height of the inundation, is scarcely above three feet deep on the bar known as the Bougaz, — an Arabic corruption, I suspect of the Italian boccas, applied to the mouths or narrow passes between rocks at the entrance of so many rivers or lakes, as that in the Gulf of Paria at Trinidad, well known to English sailors as the Bocusses. Certain favourable combinations of wind and tide, are indispensable for enabling even the flat bottomed craft of the country, to pass over the Bougaz, and this necessary union of circumstances is commonly of very transient duration; and if the lucky moment is not taken advantage of, the Bougaz is closed, as it is termed, for perhaps that day, a week, or even longer, during which time vessels even of the lightest burden, can neither go out nor come in. At low Nile, and for many weeks before and afterwards, there is not water enough on the bar for boats to pass in any weather, and the foreign trade of Damietta is totally suspended. During the rest of the year, that is to say, whilst the Nile is rising as at present, and especially at the period of high Nile, which happens about the middle of September, and for a certain term during its subsidence, the Bougaz has sufficient depth of water on it to allow of vessels passing over the bar: but, even then, only under a delicately balanced combination of circumstances, can a passage be accomplished with safety. First, the wind must be favourable both in its direction, and degree of force; for if at all exceeding a moderate breeze in strength, it raises a surf over the bar which causes the bottoms of vessels to beat violently against the sand beneath, in passing through a body of water at all times but little exceeding in depth that required for the draught of very shallow built boats. If the wind be, as is often the case, due north, then it is more than a match for the current of the Nile flowing sea-wards, and of course vessels cannot be carried over the Bougaz, by the stream in opposition to the breeze; besides, the surf raised by the mutual contention of the wind and water, would itself oppose an insuperable obstacle to the passage at such moments. However calm it may be, or however favourable the wind on the inner, or land side of the Bougaz, a heavy swell existing in the sea without, effectually bars all egress while it lasts, which may be for many days together. It so happens, that throughout June, July, and a great part of August, the breeze blows strongly from N.N.E. to N.N.W. (usually with the westerly tendency), with the force and regularity of a trade wind, imparting a delightful freshness to the whole coast line of Egypt, and even to the valley of the Nile considerably above Cairo. This wind commonly falls to a calm, or lulls very considerably at least, before sun-rise, and for a few hours afterwards; freshening gradually as the day advances, and sometimes falling again at night. It is chiefly during the morning that the passage of the Bougaz is attempted; the wind being in general too strong for the remainder of the day, and the lull at night cannot be taken advantage of, as it is then too dark to venture amongst the surf, of which there is always more than is wished for at the best of times.

You will thus be better able to understand the reason of the continual disappointment and deferred hope of getting away from a most disagreeable situation, which awaited me from the 22nd of July to the 5th of the present month (August).

During the few remaining days of the Ramadan* which ended on the 26th y the reis pretended that there was no practicable Bougaz, although the weather appeared most propitious for passing the barrier, and his boat lying at the quay of Damietta, had taken in her cargo of rice, and was ready to join the larger vessel (a brig) at anchor outside the Bougaz, in which we were to sail for Jaffa. The truth was, as Signor Filliponi told me, the reis had no mind to stir till after the festival following on Ramadan, at which all good Mussulmen are anxious to be present.

On the 27th the reis announced that the weather being favourable, he intended starting for the Bougaz, (about six or eight miles below the city) at day-break next morning, and I congratulated myself on the prospect of being delivered from the united attacks of mosquitoes and all other insects in my forlorn and ruinous apartment in Damietta.

Well, the next morning at sun-rise, away we went, floating gaily down the stream in company with several other vessels, and my disasters seemed in a fair Avay of ending in a propitious and rapid passage to Jaffa; but upon nearing the Bougaz, the whole merchant fleet made fast to the shore, and on enquiry, I found that there was not water enough on the bar for vessels to pass, and in short, that there was no Bougaz. After waiting a little while, we all made sail, and put back, not to Damietta, but to a miserable village, a mile or two above the bar, called El Esbeh, where is a quarantine, and a large Turkish fort. On landing the chief of the Lazaretto asked me the ominous question in Italian, whether I wished to sleep there: I supposed at first, he only meant taking a siesta, but he soon undeceived me by telling me that there was no chance of a Bougaz that day, and that perhaps I might have to remain at El Esbeh two, three, four days, even a week, or more; so, accepting his offer to house me in the interval, in preference to lying in an open boat every night amongst rice bags and dirty Arabs, he shewed me into a solitary square building, having no second story, and which appeared not to have been opened for a length of time. There was no furniture, only a framework of wooden panels about three feet high, like a shop's counter, all round the room, called a divan, or deewarij on which cushions are put for people to sit, smoke, or sleep upon; but the cushions were taken away, and it seemed to me probable, that the house had been deserted, as too damp and unwholesome to be dwelt in; for the floor, which as usual was only the bare ground, was absolutely saturated with moisture, the house standing almost at the water's edge of the now fast rising Nile, and the whole vicinity being a marsh, half salt, and half fresh, and with stagnant rice fields at the very door. Visions of rheumatism, if not of ague, and the still worse form of intermittent fever, rose immediately before my ej^es on opening the door: however there was no help for it, so we got our things in, and spreading our mattrasses on the divan, eschewed as much as possible all contact with the floor; but even the woodwork on which we sat and slept, was by no means dry in every part. Here we were obliged to stop four entire days, the wind blowing far too strongly, and the sea outside being much too high to make the Bougaz practicable.

I really believe that had we remained in this place much longer, both Saad and myself would have fallen ill. I became quite fretful at the delay, and loss of time, and could not bring myself to read, write, or do anything, but wander about in the marshes looking for plants, of which however, I found very few that were new to me. The vegetation is extremely monotonous, and, though abundant, is composed of but few species, and those of a singularly northern type: our Hampshire coast-wise marsh-lands are infinitely richer, and exhibit much more blossom. The absence of what dabblers in botany are wont to call "wild flowers," is a marked character in Egyptian vegetation from Damietta to Assouan: its Flora is eminently what these fastidious dilettanti call a weedy." However, I got one or two curious little things here, and at Damietta, and gathered in plenty both the white and blue water lilies of the Nile ( Nyrnphaea Lotus, and N. coerulea), the former is in no respect superior to our own white water lily, ( N. alba) in size or beauty, and indeed I think it is rather inferior in these respects; the latter is a more graceful and delicate plant, its white petals suffused with a charming tint of lovely purplish blue, verging on skyblue, but quite diluted.

Poor Saad complained of constant head ache, and I had the same occasionally, with want of appetite: we had nothing indeed eatable in the shape of meat, only lean poultry, as usual, with eggs, and a scanty supply of milk morning and evening served in the ordinary filthy vessels, by filthy hands. This, it is true, I had long been used to; still, loss of appetite is not regained by unclean and unsavoury viands. Saad had, of course, no other resource when not engaged in my service in cooking &c. but to smoke and sleep away the time. However I thank God, there were circumstances that made our sojourn at El Esbeh both safer, and more tolerable than it might have been. First, the wind blew strongly and constantly from the west and north west over the river and open sea behind the neck of sandy desert that intervenes between the Nile and the Mediterranean, carrying the malaria of the marshes and rice grounds away inland, and keeping up so cool a temperature by day and night, that I could scarcely believe myself to be under an Egyptian summer sky; the weather was like that of the south of England in August, very cool, breezy, and moist, more so than even at Damietta. The cloudy mornings and evenings, with the now rich sun-sets, and floating masses of white cloud in the mid-day sky, bring back European associations which are quite dispelled by the clear pale blue monotony of the Cairene heavens. — Secondly, I had the pleasure whilst at El Esbeh, of enjoying the occasional society of M. Arnault, a French engineer, in the service of the government, a person full of information and very obliging. He lived on board a very pretty , and comfortably fitted up boat, in which he visits professionally the various forts and harbours between Damietta and Alexandria , mooring his floating habitation to the shore during the day. He had been at the head of an expedition sent by government up the White Nile, and into Abyssinia as far as the fourth degree of latitude or twelve to the southward of Khartoun, our own Point Turnagain, last spring. He told me that when Louis IX of France, was confined a prisoner at Damietta at the time of the last crusade, the present bed of Lake Menzaleh was a cultivated plain with towns and villages, the remains of which are still to be seen beneath its shallow waters. He further informed me that the intermittent fever was frequent at El Esbeh, but was of a mild type, and usually gave way to one or two doses of quinine, and removal to a purer air; but that at Damietta the same species of fever assumed a severer, and even a malignant form, so that 1 may think myselt and Saad fortunate in having escaped without an attack during our continual exposure in open boats to damp and night air at Matereeh, on the Lake Menzaleh, and canal of Moez, as well as in our damp quarters at El Esbeh.

On the morning of the 1st or 2nd of this month (August) I forget which, the rets of the Bougaz announced that the bar would be passable, and all the vessels lying at El Esbeh got under weigh as quickly as possible, and we were soon at the edge of the fitful and capricious barrier; but only to experience another disappointment, as the wind freshened too much on our arriving, to let us assay the passage, so we all made sail back again to El Esbeh, with the disagreeable prospect of being detained perhaps a week longer.

I now began seriously to think of returning to Damietta and of taking camels at San, and proceeding by way of the desert to Jerusalem; but reflecting, that I had paid my passage money to Jaffa, and that the chances were about equal of our being released, or not, from Egyptian bondage every day; besides which it would take me at least twelve days to accomplish my other plan; — I resolved to await with patience the opening of the Bougaz, not in our former damp and unhealthy abode on shore, but on board the small boat in which we proceeded down the river, and into which of course our luggage, and travelling culinary apparatus, stock of provisions &c. had been carried, and which it was very troublesome to move in and out, besides the risk of breakage, and other mishaps. So I ordered Saad to spread our rugs and mattresses in the pits or cavities between the rice bags, where we contrived to nestle in tolerable comfort, though in a somewhat cramped position from the narrowness of the space, and the strange concavities to which it was necessary to mould the bedding.

In this way, well wrapped up, and in onr clothes, which we never took off while at El Esbeh, we slept pretty comfortably every night, under the open sky, in spite of the dew, and happily, undisturbed by mosquitoes, which the brisk wind from the river kept, together with the malaria, at a respectful distance. The rice bags we lay amongst on board the boat were clean; the only nuisance was the close proximity of other boats, the dirty Arabs, and squalid wretchedness on shore, to which we were closely moored. In this state we remained till the morning of the 5th) when the reis of the Bougaz again marshalled the boats, and we dropped down once more to our former position, mooring to the sand bank in a manner to me very ominous of our return to El Esbeh, for the third time; but in the present case, there was not wind enough to carry us over the bar, which obliged us to wait till it freshened sufficiently, and an anxious time it was to me. However, about noon we made sail, and the reis of the Bougaz, leading the way, conveyed us in gallant style, with about a dozen other vessels, over the vexatious impediment, and we reached the brig in safety that was lying in readiness to take us to Syria, most thankful and happy to escape at last from damp, dirt, bad air, and vermin: of the last however we had not much cause to complain, as neither the boat nor the brig were over-run with the usual insect tormentors, and were for Arab craft, in very fair condition as to cleanliness.

About 2 p. m. our brig got her anchor up, and we were on our way to Jaffa. Soon the palm trees of the Delta sunk beneath the horizon, and I took my farewell of the land of Egypt, right glad to have traversed that wondrous and mystic land from its extremest limits north and south: but quite satisfied to have finished an undertaking which I have no desire to renew. Egypt is well worth seeing once, and once only. I have spent many delightful hours and days on her classical soil, and under her ever-shining sun; but there is a vast deal it is painful to contemplate in her, and disagreeable to encounter.

We soon discovered that our bark was a dreadfully dull sailor, besides that she was deeply laden with rice; and the wind that during our imprisonment had blown from the very best quarter for wafting us to Jaffa, began to fail us, and it was not till mid-day on the 8th that we accomplished a voyage which under ordinary favourable circumstances, requires only from 24 to 30 hours.

I occupied the long boat on deck, in the bottom of which was spread my mattrass, on which I sat and took my meals, read &c, having the cloth of the tent spread across the boat at night.

There were three or four passengers who slept about the deck at night with the crew, and amongst them was a poor Hungarian, driven from his country by the late disturbances, and roaming about the world in search of employment. He is going up to Jerusalem on foot, and from thence thinks of proceeding to Damascus, where I find it quite true that General Guyon is residing, as I was told in England. The Hungarian speaks his own language badly, as he does German, and a little English, and is my daily guest at dinner, for the poor man is absolutely penniless, the Arabs having some time since stolen his little kit, and what money he had in it. I intend giving him what cash I can spare to carry him on his way through Syria; but my long detention in Egypt has increased my expenses, and nearly exhausted the stock of provisions laid in at Cairo, so that I must buy many things afresh that should have lasted till I got to Beyrout.

From your always affectionate Brother, William Arnold Bromfield.