EGYPT AND ITS BETRAYAL 
 
By Hon. Elbert E. Fakman, LL.D. 
 
 Along the Nile 
 
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 (Carriage Extra) 
 
 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 Large 12mo, 376 pages; Illustrated; $2.50 net 
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 I 
 
EGYPT 
 AND ITS BETRAYAL 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRY DURING 
 THE PERIODS OF ISMAf L AND TEWFIK 
 PASHAS, AND OF HOW ENGLAND 
 ACQUIRED A NEW EMPIRE 
 
 BY 
 
 ELBERT E. FARMAN, LL.D. 
 
 Formerly United States Consul General at Cairo 
 Author of "Along the Nile," etc. 
 
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 THE GRAFTON PRESS 
 
 PUBLISHERS NEW YORK 
 
LIBRARY of CON»iiv': S3 
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 Copyright rgo8 by 
 THE GRAFTON PRESS 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Egypt has been, through all historic periods, a fruitful sub- 
 ject for writers. Interest in this small country, from the time 
 of the "father of history" to the present day, seems never to 
 have waned. J Recently, a large amount of very incorrect in- 
 formation has been given to the pubUc concerning its people 
 and Government. This has been to a large extent for political 
 reasons; in the interest of and by the inspiration of a Govern- 
 ment whose ideal policy is the extension of its sway over all 
 countries from which substantial revenues can be derived. 
 
 With a powerful press and a great number of able writers 
 at its command, constantly waging a campaign as studied and 
 often as unjust as any of our Presidential contests, with no 
 counter campaign working against it, only success could be 
 expected. Articles thus inspired and published form the basis 
 for others often written by conscientious but misled authors. 
 
 Having held a diplomatic position in Egypt during its modern 
 crucial period, I was in a position to learn the real facts. It 
 is thought necessary by those in power to excuse or in some 
 manner justify the imposition upon this people of the grossly 
 unjust burdens they are compelled by military force to sustain. 
 The old story of carrying the Bible under the left arm and the 
 eword in the right hand to Christianize heathen people would 
 not fit the case. The impression of service rendered in some 
 other manner must be given. 
 
 An illustration of this manner of justification appeared in 
 a late number of a magazine issued by an honorable publish- 
 
vi Preface 
 
 ing house of New York. The article is entitled, "The Story of 
 Lord Cromer in Egypt." Lord Cromer was educated for the 
 military service and reached the rank of major before going 
 to Egypt. He is a man of rare administrative ability, and his 
 work in Egypt from an English standpoint, that is, with a view 
 to "English interests," cannot be too highly praised, and from 
 this standpoint there is no need of misrepresentation, and cer- 
 tainly not of gross misrepresentation. 
 
 The article is not only extravagantly laudatory, but, to add 
 to its interest and increase the effect of its praises, is profusely 
 illustrated. Among these illustrations is one representing a 
 palanquin borne by two gaudily decorated camels. These are 
 standing, and two women are looking from the windows of the 
 palanquin waiting for the work of the photographer, a scene 
 not at all Egyptian. Respectable Egyptian women would not 
 thus publicly exhibit themselves. In the background appear 
 the tombs of the Khalifs. Under this illustration is printed, 
 "Egyptian Transportation as Lord Cromer found it." 
 
 On the same page is an illustration of a railroad, having be- 
 neath it the inscription: "Transportation in Egypt as Lord 
 Cromer left it." 
 
 The meaning intended to be conveyed by these illustrations 
 and the accompanying inscriptions, and the. only one that 
 could be conveyed to those not acquainted with the facts, is 
 that the palanquin was, on the advent of Lord Cromer in Egypt 
 as its real ruler, an ordinary means of transportation, and that 
 the introduction of the railroads, that have taken the place of 
 this primitive mode of conveyance, is one of his Lordship's 
 "great works." This wonderful transformation, if true, of the 
 Christian, altruistic, English rule would naturally redoimd to 
 the glory of the governing power. 
 
 What are the facts? 
 
 I resided in Egypt for eight years preceding the arrival of 
 
Preface 
 
 Vll 
 
 Lord Cromer as its real Governor; five years in its principal 
 city, Cairo, and three years in its emporium, Alexandria. I 
 visited all of its cities and places of commerce, most of them 
 many times, traveled on all of its railroads and made a special 
 study of the country and its people. Yet I never saw a palan- 
 quin, nor anything resembUng one except the Mahmal. This 
 is a litter carried on a camel in the caravan that leaves Cairo 
 annually on the pilgrimage to Mecca, and described in this 
 work on page forty-nine. No one, however, is ever carried in it. 
 During my residence in Cairo, I was informed that the palanquin 
 had formerly been used sometimes in the often fantastic cere- 
 mony of conveying the bride to the home of the bridegroom. 
 I have seen many of these processions, but in none of them was 
 there a palanquin. The bride on all of these occasions was 
 carried in a closely covered carriage, or walked under a canopy 
 carried by four men by means of poles under each corner, the 
 canopy having curtains coming to the ground. 
 
 There is still the question of the railroads, that Lord Cromer 
 is represented as having substituted for this alleged primitive 
 mode of conveyance that had had no existence for many years 
 before his arrival. There were in Egypt, on the accession of 
 Ismail Pasha to its Government, over two hundred miles of rail- 
 way. During the next twelve years Ismail added about nine 
 hundred miles. There was thus in Egypt over a thousand miles 
 of railroads, ten years previous to the advent of Lord Cromer's 
 administration. If anyone had substituted the railway for the 
 supposed primitive mode of conveyance, it was the much 
 slandered Ismail Pasha. Years before the end of his reign 
 Egypt was covered with a network of railroads connecting all 
 its cities and places of commerce. Egypt then had all the rail- 
 roads that it has to-day that are of any substantial value to 
 its people. Besides the railroads in Lower Egypt, there was 
 one extending up the Nile to Assiut, two hundred and forty 
 
Vlll 
 
 Preface 
 
 miles above Cairo. Above Assitit the valley is very narrow, 
 only from one to ten miles wide, on either side of which are high 
 desert hills and mountains. For this narrow strip of land the 
 great river is by far the least expensive highway for its com- 
 merce. 
 
 The extension of the railroad above this point was for military 
 purposes, to enable the English to reconquer the Sudan that 
 had been lost to Egypt through the interference of France and 
 England in its affairs. The reconquest was made at the ex- 
 pense of Egypt, but the territory became an English province 
 or, as they delight to call it, ''The New British Empire of the 
 Sudan." All the railroads built since the reign of Ismail Pasha 
 have been constructed with Egypt's money for the advance- 
 ment of ''English interests." 
 
 The illustration of the palanquin was the work of an enter- 
 prising photographer. He had an old palanquin mounted and 
 the camels gaudily decorated to make a salable photograph. 
 This was innocent enough, but on its being purchased with 
 others for the illustrations, the writer of the article or the 
 illustrator added the inscriptions by which the reader is de- 
 ceived. 
 
 Others of the illustrations taken, with their inscriptions, are 
 equally deceptive. A picture of the Barrage near Cairo has 
 printed under it, "One of the great irrigation works of Lord 
 Cromer's administration." The Barrage was commenced in 
 the reign of Mohammed Ali, in 1835, and has been one of the 
 "sights" visited by travelers for the last fifty years. It is true 
 that, owing to the treacherous nature of the soil, its foundations 
 became in time insecure; and during the financial pressure in 
 Egypt from 1867 they were neglected and the Barrage became 
 of little or no value as an aid to irrigation. The original structure 
 is a grand and imposing work, until recently the largest weir 
 in the world. This structure has been strengthened by an Eng- 
 
Barrage near Cairo. 
 From a Photograph Taken about 1875 during the Eeign of 
 
 Ismail Pasha. 
 
I 
 
Preface 
 
 IX 
 
 lish engineer, Colonel Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff. He successfully 
 accomplished a difficult task, but the Barrage can in no sense 
 be called one of the works of Lord Cromer. 
 
 There is an illustration of an encampment of wandering Arabs, 
 such as frequently pitch their tents on the deserts border- 
 ing on Egypt. Under it is printed, "Dirt, poverty and mis- 
 ery "... "Lord Cromer's Problem." It is well known that 
 the people of Egypt have not lived in tents for centuries, though 
 the rude dweUings of the laboring classes are not much better 
 and they have not been improved during Lord Cromer's ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 Under a view of Cairo taken from the Citadel we read: "The 
 Egypt of Lord Cromer's administration." "The modern sani- 
 tary, orderly city of Cairo — Lord Cromer's solution." To my 
 personal knowledge Cairo was a sanitary and orderly city under 
 Ismail Pasha. One could then wander anywhere about the 
 city, night or day, in perfect safety, which could not then and 
 cannot now be done in any city of its size in Europe or the 
 United States. 
 
 There is also an illustration of fellahin raising water by means 
 of shadufs, entitled "Primitive irrigation as Lord Cromer found 
 it." On the next page is the picture of the Assuan dam, with 
 the inscription, "Irrigation in Egypt under Lord Cromer." It 
 is thus intended to say that the dam has taken the place of the 
 shaduf. 
 
 If the writer of the article will make the voyage of the Nile 
 in the month of March of the present year, he will find in use 
 as many shadufs as at any time in the past. He does not tell 
 us that the great dam that is causing the destruction of all the 
 grand and marvelous monuments of antiquity above the First 
 Cataract, and has added $800,000 a year for thirty years to the 
 burdens of the poor Egyptians, has proved a great disappoint- 
 ment to its sanguine promoters; and that now it is proposed to 
 
X Preface 
 
 increase its height twenty-three feet, at what further cost to 
 Egypt we are not informed. 
 
 The only illustrations of the article that are intended to 
 represent improvement in Egypt under its present government, 
 that are not misleading, are those of the marching and drilling 
 of the Egyptian soldiers who have been or are being disciplined 
 by their English officers, as are the soldiers in India, to keep 
 their own people in servile subjection. 
 
 The article will not bear any closer examination of its state- 
 ments relative to changed conditions of Egypt than the illus- 
 trations. The writer even has the temerity, in his attempted 
 justification of a continuance under mifitary force of the "spoil- 
 ing of the Egyptians" commenced many years ago by the 
 Jewish bankers of Paris and London, to compare the English 
 occupation with that of Cuba by the United States. It will be 
 news to many Americans that Lord Cromer, however meritorious 
 his rule, left no native mourners in Egypt outside the official 
 group and a small favored class. The English, however, well 
 understand the facts. They accuse the natives of being un- 
 grateful for all they have done for them, and even of hating 
 their benefactors! 
 
 I am fully aware that the preparation and publication of 
 any statements of the wrongs suffered by a people already 
 " bound hand and foot," and under a close military surveillance 
 from which they can never escape, is a thankless task. How- 
 ever, writings that are constantly appearing of the character 
 of those I have mentioned have induced me to include in this 
 work a number of chapters that would not otherwise have ap- 
 peared. I have been urged to adopt this course not only by 
 Americans, but by loyal Englishmen. 
 
 A large part of the work relates to personal experiences from 
 which it is hoped the reader, who has not had better means of 
 procuring information, may obtain a general knowledge of the 
 
Preface 
 
 XI 
 
 country, its inhabitants, their occupations, modes of life, religion 
 and character. This is followed by chapters descriptive of the 
 manner and means by which the people have been and are 
 being ''spoiled" for the benefit of Europeans, a narration of 
 the facts relative to the riots of Alexandria, the bombardment 
 and burning of tha tcity, and the subjugation and military oc- 
 cupation of the country. 
 
 E. E. Farman. 
 New York, February, 1908. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Arrival in Egypt — First impressions — Island of Pharos — First 
 view of the Pyramids — Cairo — Dogs of the Orient — Street 
 scenes — Garden of Ezbekiyeh 1-7 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Visit to the Khedive — Palace of Gezlreh — Physical characteristics 
 of the Khedive — His remarkable intelligence — Firman from the 
 Sultan — Letter of credence — Official reception — Bakshish. . 8-18 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The surprises of Egypt — A great oasis — The Nile — Its sources — 
 Cause of its annual rise — The seasons — Irrigation — Dikes — 
 Canals — Deposits — Cleaning canals — Corvee — Manner of raising 
 water — Labor required — Price of labor 19-32 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Superstitions — Festivities of the rise of the Nile — ^Tear of Isis — 
 Canal el-Khallg — Cutting of its dam — Old Cairo — Island of 
 Roda — ^The Nilometer — Mysteries of its measurements. . . 33-43 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 The Mecca pilgrimage — ^The month of feasts — The sacred carpet — 
 Departure of pilgrims — Route of the pilgrims — Arrival at Mecca 
 — Mount Arafat — Sacrifice of the lamb — Universal Mohamme- 
 dan festivities — The tomb of Mohammed — Return of pilgrims — 
 Rejoicing and festivities 44-55 
 
xiv Contents 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Dosseh — Arranging of the devotees — Riding over their bodies 
 by the sheik — ^The wounded — Moslem belief — Discontinuance of 
 Dosseh — Origin of Dosseh — The dervishes 56-64 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Journey to Mount Sinai — Suez — Springs of Moses — On the Red 
 Sea — Tor — The caravan — Desert of Kda — Camp in the moun- 
 tains — Ascent on camels — "Mosquito houses" — Mt. Serbal — 
 Camping on the desert — Food of camels — Arabs of Sinai penin- 
 sula — Desolate mountain passes 65-78 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Mount Sinai — First view of the sacred mountain — Mount of the 
 Willow — Mount of Moses — Encampment of the Israelites — Con- 
 vent of St. Catherine — Encampment in its garden — Thunder- 
 storm — Hermits — The Burning Bush — Fortress of Justinian — 
 Convent buildings — The church and library — Ghastly charnel- 
 house 79-86 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Ascent of Mount Sinai — "Fountain of Moses" — Chapel of the Vir- 
 gin — Chapels of Elijah and Elisha — Mount of Moses — The "cleft 
 of the rock"— The "Mount of the Law"— Plain El-Raha— 
 The " highest point" — A hazardous adventure. . . . 87-95 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Return to the sea — "Miraculous Spring" — Oasis of Fer^n — Arabs 
 weaving — Mount Serbal — Scene of the battle of the Amalekites — 
 Oases — Turquoise mines — Wonderful rock formations — Arrival 
 at the sea — The cameleers disappear — Disagreeable experiences 
 on the sea — Character of Arabs — How v/ere the Israelites sus- 
 tained? 96-109 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Lake Menzaleh — Mans<irah — Damietta — Sailing on Lake Menza- 
 leh — Fish and fishermen — Paradise of water-fowl — Modes of 
 their capture — Effect of winds on shallow waters — Old bed of the 
 Tanitic branch of the Nile. . 110-120 
 
Contents xv 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 PAGB 
 
 On donkeys to San — Papyrus — Ruins of Zoan — Wonders wrought 
 in the ancient city — Works of the Israelites — Land of Goshen — 
 Return to Damietta. 121-129 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Route of the Exodus — Ramses — Succoth — Etham — Pelusium — 
 Lake Sirbonis — ^The gulfs or pits — Loss of armies — Sea of Weeds 
 — Shallow coast lakes — The "east wind" — "The waters were a 
 wall" — The chariots "drave heavily" — ^Wilderness of Shur — 
 Pi-tum or Pithom 130-141 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Cleopatra's Needle — Origin of the idea of securing the obelisk — 
 Correspondence with Department of State — Mr. Dixon's letter — 
 Advice of General Grant — Matter brought to notice of Khedive — 
 Khedive decides to present an obelisk — Opposition of Europeans. 142-153 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Gift of the obelisk — Dismissal of Americans in military service — 
 
 Interview with Mr. Evarts — New Ministry — Desire of Khedive * 
 
 to make the gift — Acquiescence of Nubar Pasha — Obelisk of Alex- 
 andria selected — Opposition of Marriette Bey — Antiquities taken 
 by him to Paris — Difficulties of the European Ministers — Resig- 
 nation of Nubar Pasha — New Ministry formed — Coup d'etat of 
 Khedive — New Ministry with Cherif Pasha at its head — Com- 
 pletion of the gift — Official correspondence — Obelisk given City 
 of New York — Claims of Europeans that the obelisks of Paris 
 and London were given on account of favors and presents — Duty 
 of conservation of the obelisk 154-167 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Removal of obelisk — Its size and weight— Time required for re- 
 moval — Date of erection at Alexandria — Inscriptions on bronze 
 crab — Masonic emblems. 168-177 
 
xvi Contents 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 PAQB 
 
 Time of original erection of obelisk — Thiltmosis III — Art of his 
 period — Obelisks erected by him — Heliopolis, city of obelisks — 
 Destruction of Heliopolis by Persians — Usertesen I — Periods 
 through which New York obelisk has passed — Its hieroglyphic 
 inscriptions 178-192 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 What Egypt has done for England — Abyssinian War — General 
 Loring — Object of Campaign — Result of defeat — Cost of cam- 
 paign — Financial embarrassment — England's opportunity — Se- 
 cret sale of Suez Canal shares — Cost of canal — Award of Napo- 
 leon III — Cost of canal to Egypt — Labor furnished — Corvee — 
 Extraordinary and unjust demands of canal company — Cause of 
 phenomenal rise in value of stock — England's great gain — 
 Egypt's first loan 193-212 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Tragedy of Ismail Sadik Pasha — Arrival in Egypt of Messrs. Go- 
 schen and Joubert — Demand of seven per cent interest — Egypt's 
 indebtedness result of usury — Sadik Pasha, Minister of Finance 
 — His cruelty — Accused of attempted insurrection — His resig- 
 nation — Anger of Khedive — Sadik Pasha's mysterious disap- 
 pearance — Secret trial — Banishment — Order of Sultan — Official 
 death — Suppositions as to manner of execution — English Consul- 
 General's despatches — Wealth of Mufcttish — His palaces, lands 
 and slaves — Confiscation — Execution, imprisonment and flog- 
 ging of natives by the English. 213-233 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 Reign of the bondholders — Appointment of controllers — Condition 
 of the country — Amount taken for interest — Vast landed estates 
 of the Khedive — Indebtedness incurred in their acquisition — 
 One million acres of crops per annum — Sugar-factories and rail- 
 ways — Gift to the Government — Rothschild's loan — Discontent 
 of people — Incipient rebellion — Ineffectual opposition of English 
 and French Consuls-General to plans of European Ministers — 
 New demands of Ministers — Moukabalah — Land-tax to be raised 
 
Contents xvii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 — Repudiation of Government indebtedness to natives — Refusal 
 of Khedive to sanction these demands — Cowp d'etat — New Min- 
 istry 234-246 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 Dethronement of Ismail Pasha — Failure of foreign Ministry — 
 Famine in Upper Egypt — Its causes — Deficit in payment of in- 
 terest — Sale of growing crops — Troops for Turco-Russian War — 
 England's preponderance in Egypt — Difference in policy of Eng- 
 lish and French — Dual Government — Germany enters upon the 
 Bcene— England's acquiescence in the scheme of France for de- 
 thronement — Vain attempts to secure voluntary abdication — 
 Halim Pasha — Mohammedan law of succession — Mohammed Ali 
 and suzerainty of Sultan — Removal of Khedive — Despatch to 
 ex-Khedive Ismail Pasha — Prejudice against communicating 
 unpleasant information — Cherif Pasha — Effect on the Khedive 
 — ^Tewfik Pasha becomes Khedive — Meeting of father and son — 
 Father salutes son as his lord, 247-263 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Installation of Tewfik Pasha — Ismail consents to accession of his 
 son — Notice of installation — Assembling of Diplomatic Corps and 
 all the notables of Cairo — Accompanying Tewfik Pasha to Cita- 
 del — Views of Cairo — The Mamelukes — Their slaughter by 
 Mohammed Ali — The Citadel — Reading of the Imperial message 
 — Reception of the Diplomatic Corps — The judges and notables — 
 Homage of the new sovereign — Visit to Ismail Pasha — His ban- 
 ishment — Parting of father and son — Homage of people to their 
 dethroned sovereign — ^The ex-Khedive, the princes and their 
 families sail from Alexandria — Meeting the Khedive in Naples, 
 Milan and Paris — His death at Constantinople and burial in the 
 Khedivial mausoleum 264-273 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Ismail Pasha and his reign — Excessive laudation and shameful 
 calumniation — Safety of Christians — Results of removing a 
 strong ruler — Improvement under his Highness in education and 
 in all departments of modern civilization — Railroads — ^Telegraph 
 
xviii Contents 
 
 / 
 
 PAGE 
 
 — Increase of tillable land — Harbors — Docks — Lighthouses — 
 Steamboats — Increase of territory — Abolition of slave-trade — 
 Schools — Personal character — Difference between Egypt and 
 rest of Ottoman Empire — Sir Wilfred Lawson — Cause of finan- 
 cial embarrassment — Entertainments on opening of Suez Canal 
 — High price of cotton — ^Troops for the Hedjaz and Crete — 
 Personal supervision of extended enterprises — Real cause of 
 financial failure — Want of information by the English people. 274-291 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 Mixed tribunals — Jurisdiction of the courts — Foreign and native 
 judges — Extraterritorial jurisdiction in non-Christian countries 
 — Christian foreigners governed through consuls — Peculiarities 
 of judicial proceedings — Language of the courts — Independence 
 of courts — Extraordinary revenues — Testimony — No dissenting 
 opinions— Organization of Tribunals — Code Napoleon — Ap- 
 pointment as judge. ......... 292-300 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 Riots of Alexandria — Opposition to financial burdens imposed by 
 foreign rule — Arabi Pasha — The Khedive — English and French 
 fleets sent to Alexandria — Greek men-of-war — Commencement 
 of the riots by a Maltese — The Greeks — Soldiers from the forts — 
 Number of killed — Incorrect accounts for political effect — 
 Alarm thus created — Futile attempt to show Arabi Pasha re- 
 sponsible for riots — Arming of English and Greeks — Cause of 
 bloody character of riots — Disappointment of French — ^War 
 vessels in the harbor. ........ 301-313 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 Bombardment of Alexandria — Twenty-four hours' notice given — 
 Moving of fleets from the harbor — Anchored opposite the city — 
 Morning of bombardment — Commencement of action — Bursting 
 of shells and explosion of powder magazines — Old fortifications 
 — Bravery of Egyptians — Burning of the city — Landing of 
 Americans — Condition of burning city — The forts — Losses of 
 English and Egyptians — Previous preparations for invasion of 
 Egypt — Reasons given for bombardment 314-324 
 
Contents xix 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Return of the refugees — Shells falling in the city — First alarm of 
 the inhabitants — Their flight — Return of Khedive — Interviews 
 — Ordered Arabi not to permit the English to land — His High- 
 ness' remarkable proclamation — Return of refugees — Fortifying 
 Tell el-Kebir — Treachery of officer in command — Battle of Tell 
 el-Kebtr — Number of killed — March to Cairo — Effort to have 
 Arabi hung — Military occupation of English — Return of Khe- 
 dive to Cairo — Commission of Indemnities — Manner of proceed- 
 ing — Amount allowed on claims 325-336 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 The future of Egypt — Control of Suez Canal by England — Why 
 England does not make Egypt an English province — Ruling 
 through the Khedive — His Highness' allowances — Extraterri- 
 torial rights — Sovereignty of the Sultan — Future condition of 
 the people — Debt of Egypt — Dam of Assuan — Burdens of the 
 people — Lord Cromer — Egyptians prefer native rulers — Manner 
 of governing English non-Christian colonies — Government of 
 India — The army a privileged class — Taxation and famines — 
 Little hope of bettering the condition of the laboring class in 
 Egypt 337-349 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Great Nile Bridge, Cairo frontzspiecb 
 
 Barrage, near Cairo viii 
 
 The Two Hassans 4 
 
 Banyan Trees 6 
 
 Ismail Pasha 10 
 
 Raising Water with Shadufs 30 
 
 The Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) 36 
 
 Valley of the Upper Nile at Time of Low Water . . 42 
 
 The Dosseh 58 
 
 Springs of Moses 68 
 
 Plowing 110 
 
 Port Said and Suez Canal with Lake Menzaleh in the Distance 130 
 
 Map of Egypt 136 
 
 Obelisk of Ramses II at Luxor 148 
 
 Cleopatra's Needle as it Stood at Alexandria . . . 162 
 
 Loading the Obelisk at Alexandria 168 
 
 Cyclopean Walls, Baalbec, Syria 172 
 
 Part of One of the Crabs that Supported Cleopatra's Needle . 174 
 
 Obelisk in Central Park, New York 184 
 
 Hieroglyphics of the Four Sides of the New York Obelisk . 190 
 
 Threshing Machine 228 
 
 Tewfik Pasha 262 
 
 Cairo 266 
 
 Place Mohammed Ali, Alexandria, After the Bombardment . 320 
 
 Fort Ada, Alexandria, After the Bombardment . . . 322 
 
EGYPT AND ITS BETRAYAL 
 
EGYPT and its BETRAYAL 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EGYPT 
 
 After a passage of six days from Marseilles on one of the 
 steamers of the Messageries Maritimes, I arrived, at early dawn 
 of a May morning, off Alexandria. The noise of lifting trunks 
 and boxes from their place of storage announced to the passen- 
 gers that they were approaching their destination. All were 
 quickly on deck to catch the first view of the land of the Nile. 
 
 The low coast is treeless and without any background of 
 highlands. A light yellow line of sandy beach is first discerned 
 through the morning haze. Beyond, farther to the east, soon 
 appear the lighthouse, Pompey's Pillar, some fortified points, 
 the masts of numerous ships in the harbor, and many wind- 
 mills along the coast. 
 
 We passed Point Marabout and, a little further on, Bab 
 el-' Arab (Gate of the Bedouin), an ancient canal a mile in length 
 which crosses the belt of land separating Lake Mareotis from 
 the sea. Along this belt, from Marabout to the harbor, were 
 fortifications, which gave no signs of hostility, but which, six 
 years later, I was to behold enshrouded in the smoke of battle, 
 amid the din of bursting shells and the roar of cannon. 
 
 Near Bab el-' Arab is Mex and the ruins of the summer chateau 
 of Said Pasha with its picturesque domes and towers. An Arab 
 pilot having been taken on board, we continued our course 
 eastward in a tortuous and difficult channel near a line of forti- 
 
2 J^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 fications. Passing on our left the lighthouse, erected on what 
 was once the eastern end of the historic Island of Pharos, we 
 entered the capacious ''Old Harbor of Alexandria" and dropped 
 our anchor opposite Ras et-Tin (Cape of Figs) the summer 
 palace of the Khedive. Here was the first scene of that pano- 
 rama of Oriental life which was to be constantly unrolled be- 
 fore me during a series of years, often grotesque but always 
 charming. 
 
 At that time there were no docks for large steamers and we 
 were a mile from the place of landing. As soon as we were at 
 anchor, the water around us was covered with small boats 
 manned with turbaned Arabs in flowing robes ready to serve 
 the passengers. And such a bedlam ! A hundred animated and 
 apparently angry voices were shouting the jargon of an un- 
 known language. Rival boats were pulling and pushing desper- 
 ately for a position near the landing-stairway. Several Arabs 
 pounced upon the hand baggage of the first passenger who 
 descended, and a fierce struggle followed which was only settled 
 by actual blows from some one in authority. Such was my 
 introduction to the Arabs of Egypt, whom, in the end, I was 
 to find a submissive and easily governed people. 
 
 The Governor of the city had sent for me his private boat 
 manned with soldiers, to which all the other boats quickly 
 yielded their places. I was thus saved the annoyance of this 
 :apparent mob of Arabs, who, from the first twilight of the 
 inorning, had awaited our coming. Eight well- trained oarsmen 
 brought our light boat quickly to the landing at the arsenal 
 instead of to the usual landing at the custom-house. 
 
 The arsenal is on the neck of land connecting the ancient I 
 Island of Pharos with the site of the original city. This island, 
 previous to the time of the Ptolemies, was a mile from the 
 mainland. It is said that Alexander the Great, floating out of 
 the Canopic branch of the Nile, followed the coast and ran in 
 
First Impressions of Egypt 3 
 
 behind the island. It was the only shelter for ships on the 
 coast of Egypt. Seeing its natural advantages, he ordered a 
 city to be laid out and built. There was then on the mainland 
 a village of fishermen called Rhakotis. 
 
 Ptolemy Soter, or his son Philadelphus, connected the island 
 with the mainland by an embankment called, from its length, 
 the Heptastadium, seven stadia (about three-fourths of a mile). 
 Through it were bridged passages for boats. These were long 
 since filled by the debris of the city and the natural deposits of 
 the sea, and the Heptastadium, now over half a mile in width, 
 constitutes a considerable part of the Arab quarter of the city. 
 
 On my way to my hotel in the European quarter I caught 
 glimpses of those fascinating Oriental street scenes which never 
 fail to delight the traveler. Some time afterwards, an American 
 lady on her first visit to Egypt, whom I was accompanying from 
 a steamer to the same hotel, exclaimed, on beholding one of the 
 scenes of an Arab market day, ''This alone is worth a trip from 
 America." 
 
 I found at Alexandria the U. S. Vice-Consul-General, who had 
 come from Cairo to meet me, with Hassan, one of the consular 
 guards or kavasses. 
 
 Hassan had already held his position eighteen years. He was 
 an honest, faithful Arab, proud of his place, which was regarded 
 as far above that of the common fellahin. He wore a showy, 
 blue cloth costume trimmed with gold braid and carried a curved 
 sword. On first seeing him with the Vice-Consul-General I was 
 not aware of his precise position and duties. 
 
 Having occasion to remain some time in my room at the hotel, 
 I found him, when at last I went out, seated in the hall at my 
 door. I probably, by look or word, expressed surprise, for he 
 said, ''I am always with you." No words could better express 
 the facts. At the office in the city, on my numerous excursions — 
 up the Nile, to Palestine, to Mt. Sinai— everywhere, he was 
 
4 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 ^'always with me," my faithful and invaluable servant, guard, 
 and, with the Arabs outside of Cairo, my interpreter. In my 
 drives he acted as footman, sat on the box beside the driver and 
 carried a staff or baton surmounted by an eagle. 
 
 His long experience, natural capacity, and absolute devotion 
 to his duties, made him very useful. He had already gained a 
 good name and had been frequently mentioned in the published 
 writings of travelers. He had watched over two Consuls-General 
 in their last hours and been faithful to all he had served. He had 
 accompanied Consul-General Butler on his trip to Khartum with 
 General Stanton, acting as generalissimo of a caravan of forty 
 camels in a fourteen days' journey across the deserts, during 
 which time water was found only once.^ 
 
 After taking a drive through the city, visiting Cleopatra's 
 Needle, which is now in New York, and Pompey's Pillar, which 
 marks the site of the Serapeum, we left for Cairo on the afternoon 
 train, reserving the further study of Alexandria for a future day. 
 
 The distance to Cairo is one hundred and thirty miles. It was 
 a hot, dusty ride, since it was the time of the low Nile, the most 
 uninteresting part of the year. In this latitude the days are 
 never long, and, while we were in time to get a distant view of 
 the Pyramids at the setting of the sun, it was dark on my arrival 
 at the ''Grand New Hotel." 
 
 Though I was w^eary with a journey of nearly a month, my 
 first night in Egypt was sleepless. The sudden change from the 
 cool air of the sea intensified the effect of the tropical heat. The 
 music in the gardens across the street, first European, and then 
 Arab (or rather those discordant, grating sounds, both instru- 
 
 1 This was at a period when the Khedive frequently entertained visitors in 
 Toyal splendor. The journey was made at the expense of his Highness, Is- 
 mail Pasha, in special steamers to the first and second cataracts of the Nile, 
 thence by camels across the desert to Berber and again by steamer to Khartum. 
 The distance traveled going and returning was nearly four thousand miles. 
 The time then required for the journey was one month each way. 
 
The Two Hassans. 
 
I 
 
First Impressions of Egypt 5 
 
 mental and vocal, which the Arabs call music), did not cease 
 until a late hour. Afterwards, the barking of dogs and the sing- 
 ing and screaming of youthful Arabs — the gamins of Cairo whose 
 only homes are the streets — continued until dawn. It did not 
 require many nights, however, to become accustomed to these 
 strange noises. They were then no more the enemies of sleep 
 than the winds and waves of the sea, or the ticking of the clock 
 in the bedchamber. 
 
 Dogs in Cairo, as in Constantinople and other Oriental Moslem 
 cities, have no owners. They are called ''wild" simply because 
 they are not domestic. They live in groups. Each group re- 
 mains in its own well-defined quarter, and woe to the unfortunate 
 cur who trespasses upon the grounds of another group than his 
 own. The moment he crosses the line, he is unmercifully at- 
 tacked by the united forces of the invaded territory. In these 
 cities where the garbage is emptied into the streets or upon un- 
 occupied grounds, the dogs become the city scavengers, Hke the 
 turkey buzzards of Vera Cruz, and often dispute with the street 
 beggars the choice morsels from improvident kitchens. 
 
 The morning gave me my first view of Cairo. The hotel, an 
 immense building, was then the private property of the Khe- 
 dive. It was constructed to give ample accommodations to the 
 guests at the celebration of the opening of the Suez Canal. It 
 had a marble-floored terrace upon which its guests, protected 
 from the sun by a canopy, could sit and view, while breathing 
 the salubrious air of a delightful cUmate, passing scenes of un- 
 speakable charm. Indeed, a visitor with leisure might spend 
 hours and days there intently watching a constantly unfolding, 
 never ending picture. 
 
 The streets are thronged with passers-by. They resound with 
 the continual and hurried tramp of a motley multitude. There 
 are donkeys carrying travelers or the black-robed and closely 
 veiled women of the lower middle class, which the hammars, or 
 
6 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 donkey-boys, follow on a full run, urging them with loud cries and 
 frequent applications of the whip. There are groups of camels 
 loaded with grain; others, more fleet, bearing Bedouins; carriages 
 with the thinly veiled beauties of the Khedivial harem attended 
 by their eunuchs; other turnouts, less pretentious, with more 
 conservative women (the wives and daughters of Beys and 
 Pashas), also accompanied by their eunuchs. 
 
 The sakka, or water-carrier, bearing his goatskin of water, is 
 sprinkling the street, or giving drinks in brass cups to the 
 passers-by, crying, ''May God recompense me!" in the hope of 
 receiving a pittance. Consuls-General and Pashas pass in showy 
 equipages preceded by picturesque and fleet seis, and the Khedive, 
 with his guard of outriders and his seis crying, ''Clear the way!" 
 There are soldiers escorted by bands of music, squalid beggars, 
 jugglers, a continual tramp of Jew, Copt, Mohammedan and 
 Christian, of Arab, Turk, Syrian, Armenian, Persian and Euro- 
 pean, each in his characteristic costume. Such are the daily 
 views of the endless panorama of enchanting street scenes in 
 Cairo. 
 
 On each side of the hotel terrace are gardens filled with tropi- 
 cal trees and plants. Across the street in the heart of the Euro- 
 pean quarter is the garden of Ezbekiyeh, with its lake, fountains, 
 artificial mounds and grottoes, covering twenty or more acres. 
 It has fine walks, and numerous rare shrubs and trees, many 
 of which were brought from India. Among the trees are sev- 
 eral banyans whose branches have dropped to the ground, and . 
 their shoots taken root and formed new stocks. Ducks chatter 
 in the artificial streams, black and white swans sail gracefully 
 on the lakes, and little pleasure boats ply the waters for the 
 amusement of the children. In the afternoon and evening, the { 
 middle and lower class Cairenes swarm in this garden to enjoy i 
 music and jugglery, thereby giving the stranger an admirable 
 opportunity to see at its best the medley of people of all shades 
 
First Impressions of Egypt 7 
 
 of color and of many religions and nationalities who make up 
 the population of Cairo. Fine buildings, among them the Opera 
 House and the large school of the American Mission, surround 
 the garden on all sides. 
 
 A short morning walk gave me a pleasant impression of my 
 temporary home and a promise, which was to be fully realized, 
 of a pleasant sojourn in the capital city of the Khedive. 
 
8 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 RECEPTION BY HIS HIGHNESS THE KHEDIVE 
 
 My first duty in Cairo was a visit to the Khedive, Ismail Pasha. 
 This was made at the palace of Gezireh, the ^' Palace of the Is- 
 land," on the west side of the Nile opposite the city. His High- 
 ness had been notified of my arrival through Cherif Pasha, his 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs, and had fixed the time and place of 
 my informal and unofficial reception. 
 
 I crossed the Nile, by the Great Bridge, to a long oval island 
 and turned to the right into a broad avenue, between which and 
 the river were many stately palms. On the other side, to the 
 left, were botanical and zoological gardens, the latter then con- 
 taining a variety of African and Asiatic animals, among them a 
 small herd of elephants attended by their Indian keepers. These 
 elephants were afterwards, on the advice of General Stone, sent 
 to the upper Nile regions to perform carrier-service. 
 
 At the end of this avenue was Gezireh, a comparatively small 
 but magnificent palatial residence, which was commenced during 
 our War of Secession, when Egypt was giddy with its suddenly 
 acquired wealth, resulting from the high price of cotton. It 
 was designed as a residence of pleasure only for a portion of the 
 year. Adjoining it were large and beautiful gardens, in which 
 was a kiosk decorated in Moorish style, and, at some distance 
 from the palace, a building for the harem. 
 
 This palace was occupied at the time of the celebration of the 
 opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, first, by the Empress Eugenie, 
 and, later, by Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria. It was sub- 
 
Reception by the Khedive 9 
 
 sequently occupied by other distinguished people, including the 
 Prince of Wales. The property has been sold and transformed 
 into a hotel largely patronized by English officers. The island 
 is such only at the time of the high Nile, the western branch of 
 the river being at other times dry. 
 
 I entered the palace and was escorted by the Master of Cere- 
 monies up a grand stairway of Carrara marble, and received by 
 the Khedive in a magnificent reception room. His Highness met 
 me at the door with a cordial welcome. After the introductions 
 and the usual salutations, I took a seat at one end of a divan and 
 the Khedive at the other, his feet drawn under him in Turkish 
 style. Our conversation was of a very general character. His 
 Highness welcomed me to his country, asked me if I was pleased 
 with it and inquired as to the health of the President and the 
 prosperity of my country. He hoped I would enjoy my residence 
 at his Court and expressed himself as desirous of doing anything 
 in his power to make it agreeable. As he did not speak English, 
 our conversation was in French, a language which he spoke 
 fluently. 
 
 Physically, he was not prepossessing. He was then about 
 forty-seven years old, short in stature, broad-shouldered, stocky 
 and corpulent, his complexion slightly darker than that of Euro- 
 peans. His eyeUds drooped — the left more than the right. When 
 his features were in repose, his dark eyes seemed half closed. 
 His eyebrows were dark, coarse, thick and projecting, and his 
 dark brown beard was cut short. His ears were large and ill- 
 shaped. He wore a black European suit, except that his coat 
 was a stamboul, that is, a single breasted coat with a low standing 
 collar. He wore also the red tarboosh. 
 
 The Turks never appear with their heads uncovered. To do 
 so would be a mark of the greatest disrespect. A young man, 
 whose father had been one of the Sultan's Cabinet, and who was 
 himself employed in one of the departments at Cairo, told me 
 
lo Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 that he had never, not even in his early childhood, appeared 
 before his father with his head uncovered, that he would not 
 dare to do such a thing, since he could not offer his parent a 
 greater indignity. Riaz Pasha, afterwards the Khedive's Prime 
 Minister, speaking of his first visit to Europe, told me of his aston- 
 ishment at being requested to take off his tarboosh by the sexton 
 of a church in Germany, which he was visiting. If a Mussulman 
 should enter a mosque with his head uncovered, he would be 
 ejected forthwith, and, if not with such force as to cause him 
 bodily harm, he would be very fortunate. 
 
 The fez, tarboosh, or turban is worn in the mosque, at public 
 and private receptions, at meals, everywhere in fact that the 
 Turk or Moslem goes. A woman who appears on the street must 
 not only be veiled, but must have her entire head covered. It 
 would be as unpardonable a breach of decorum to show the back 
 of the head as the face. To do either would mean disgrace for 
 life. 
 
 The Khedive had the habit of talking with one eye closed, 
 while, with the penetrating gaze of the other, he scrutinized, in 
 the minutest details, the movements, the manner and almost 
 the thoughts of those with whom he conversed. 
 
 With all his peculiarities and physical disadvantages, he was 
 a delightful conversationalist, frequently smiling, always affable 
 and interesting. His voice was low and pleasant, his words, 
 well chosen and expressive. He had remarkable intelligence and ' 
 accurate knowledge, even of the details, of all that pertained to 
 his Government and his very extensive private affairs. The 
 keen and intelUgent glances of his eyes (when once they w^re ., 
 fairly opened by animated conversation), his quick and apt !l 
 responses, and his information regarding subjects with which 
 he would naturally be supposed to be unacquainted, showed him, 
 to all who had the pleasure of conversing with him, to be a 
 man of no ordinary ability. 
 
Ismail Pasha. 
 
Reception by the Khedive ii 
 
 According to the custom of the country no American could be 
 presented to the Khedive except by his diplomatic representa- 
 tive. I had occasion during my five years' residence in Cairo to 
 perform this duty frequently, and it often happened that the 
 visitor was astonished at the Khedive's remarkable intelligence. 
 On the occasion of the presentation of the commander of one of 
 our war vessels, the Khedive, after having asked him a series of 
 questions relative to his ship, some of which he could not answer, 
 entered into a detailed account of the same particulars upon his 
 own ships. The captain and other officers who accompanied 
 him expressed their great astonishment, after leaving his High- 
 ness, at his knowledge of a man-of-war. It was the same in other 
 matters. Soldier and civiUan were equally surprised by his de- 
 tailed information. He had, furthermore, the rare faculty of 
 gaining the confidence of his visitor by relieving him of all em- 
 barrassment, and putting him completely at his ease. 
 
 My official reception was long delayed on account of the non- 
 arrival of the necessary papers from Constantinople. Nominally, 
 the Khedive is the subject of the Sultan and, therefore, before a 
 representative of a foreign government can be officially recog- 
 nized in Egypt, the consent or order of the Sultan must be ob- 
 tained. This is done through the minister of the government to 
 be represented. The Government of the Sultan communicates 
 with the Government of the Khedive to ascertain whether the 
 appointee is satisfactory, whether he is a "persona grata." 
 
 The work of the bureaucracy at Constantinople is notoriously 
 slow, the slowest, perhaps, of that of any government in the 
 world, and the murder of the Sultan, Abdul Aziz, which occurred 
 two weeks after my arrival, added to the delay in the arrival of 
 the required official documents. The death of Toussoum Pasha, 
 Minister of the Marine and husband of the Princess Fatma 
 Hanoum, the second and favorite daughter of the Khedive, 
 also intervened and caused further delay. 
 
12 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 The papers sent from Constantinople by Hon. Horace May- 
 nard, then our Minister at the ''Sublime Porte," consisted of a 
 firman, addressed to the Khedive, and a herat, addressed to me, 
 specifying my official prerogatives. They were in the Turkish 
 language, written in an ornamental style in large characters, 
 the alternate lines being in different colors. They are now among 
 my many souvenirs of Egypt. I insert a translation of the fir- 
 man. It is a curious illustration of Orientalism. 
 
 "To my noble Minister and high Khedive, the model of the world, the wise 
 director of the affairs of State, the prudent provider of humanity, founder of 
 the edifice of happiness and glory; you who fortify the columns of happiness 
 and salvation, the favorite of the grace of God, Khedive of Egypt, decorated 
 with the orders of the Osmanieh and Medjidieh of the first class; my Vizier, 
 Ismail Pasha, glorious and mighty Emir, chosen by the grace of God. 
 
 " On the receipt of the present be it known to you, that the United States 
 Legation, residing at my gate of happiness, has made a 'takrir' informing me 
 of the death of Mr. Beardsley, who was Consul-General of the United States 
 in Egypt, and attended to the business of the merchants of the United States, 
 going and coming in that country, and also informing me of the appointment 
 of Mr. Elbert E. Farman, who has been supplied with my imperial berat, which 
 is given to this Consul-General to be kept by him. My imperial command is, 
 that he must be empowered to attend to the business of the citizens and mer- 
 chants of the United States, who frequent that place, and that also, without 
 any hindrance from any outsider, he be treated and assisted according to the 
 terms of the existing treaties. A new firman has been given to him, and you 
 will also treat him personally in accordance with the treaties. You, who are 
 the aforesaid Khedive, will act according to the prescriptions of the said berat, 
 and allow him to collect the consular duties on the imports and exports by 
 American merchants, and you will see that no interference of any kind be 
 allowed in his consular prerogatives. 
 
 "This 2nd day of Djemaziul Ahir, 1293. 
 
 "Seal of the Sultan, 
 
 " by the Grand Vizier. 
 
 The Porte omitted any mention in the herat of the diplomatic 
 functions of a Consul-General to Egypt. The duties of the Agent 
 and Consul-General of the United States to Egypt are both dip- 
 lomatic and consular, but principally the former. The Agents 
 
Reception by the Khedive 13 
 
 and Consuls-General of the Great Powers of Europe, which have 
 consuls to perform the consular duties, are wholly diplomatic 
 These exclusively diplomatic representatives are recognized 
 by the Porte, however, only as Consuls-General, and their rank 
 at the Court of the Khedive is the same as that of the other 
 Agents and Consuls-General. 
 
 At the official reception, which took place at the palace of 
 Abdin, I presented personally to the Khedive, in accordance 
 with my instructions, the letter of credence of the President, 
 General Grant, a copy of which, furnished by the State Depart- 
 ment at Washington for that purpose, had been previously 
 delivered to Cherif Pasha. 
 
 This letter was as follows: 
 
 "Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States of America, 
 "To his Highness, the Khedive of Egypt. 
 "Great and Good Friend: 
 
 "I have made choice of Elbert E. Farman, a citizen of the United 
 States, as Agent and Consul-General of the United States of America to Egypt, 
 to reside at Cairo, to watch over our interests, and by all honorable means to 
 cultivate and to maintain the harmony and good will between us. 
 
 "Therefore, I request your Highness to receive him in that character, to 
 cause him to be duly respected, to give full credit to what he shall represent 
 from his government, more especially when he shall assure your Highness of 
 our cordial friendship, 
 
 "Written at Washington the 13th day of April in the year of our Lord, one 
 thousand eight hundred and seventy-six. 
 
 " Your Good Friend, 
 
 " U. S. Grant. 
 "By the President, 
 
 "J. L. Cadwalader, 
 
 " Acting Secretary of State." 
 
 Before the presentation of this letter, following the custom, 
 I made a short address, in which I assured his Highness of the 
 cordial friendship of the President and his desire to continue the 
 
14 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 relations of amity existing between the Government of Egypt 
 and that of the United States. 
 
 The Khedive replied in Frenc'h, affirming his appreciation of 
 the ^'friendly words," as he termed them, that had been spoken 
 in the name of our Government and country, and requesting me 
 to convey his sentiments of friendship to his Excellency General 
 Grant. 
 
 He also expressed a desire, not only to continue, but to 
 strengthen the cordial relations which had always existed be- 
 tween the United States of America and Egypt, and assured me 
 that, under all circumstances, he would be disposed to aid me in 
 the mission which had been confided to me by my Government. 
 
 On this visit, I was accompanied, according to usage, by my 
 Vice-Consul-General, my secretary and my four dragomans. 
 The positions of the dragomans were simply honorary, as they 
 only served on public, official occasions. They were persons of 
 influence and, generally, of wealth, who rendered the occasional 
 small services demanded of them in return for the protection 
 given them. Being attaches of the Consulate-General, they were 
 entitled to the rights and privileges of American citizens, and 
 were thus frequently saved from the extortionate demands of 
 the governors and other local officials of an autocratic govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The Ottoman Government, in pursuance of an old custom, 
 permits four dragomans to each Consul-General. Theoretically, 
 they form a part of the Consul-General's suite and act as secre- 
 taries, interpreters and aids to him. There was also a regular 
 employee of the office, who acted as Arab interpreter. 
 
 After the presentation of the letter of credence, those present, 
 including some Egyptian officials among whom was Cherif Pasha, 
 were seated on Turkish divans. Pipes with long stems set with 
 diamonds were presented, the bowls resting on silver plates 
 placed on the floor. The stems were sufficiently long to permit 
 
Reception by the Khedive 15 
 
 of the convenient use of the pipes in this manner. A few whiffs 
 were taken, Turkish coffee was served, and, after a short con- 
 versation between the Khedive and myself, his Highness arose 
 and accompanied me to the door of the reception room. As I 
 was about taking final leave, he expressed his regret that cir- 
 cumstances had prevented him from receiving me in the custo- 
 mary manner, adding that he would have the pleasure of so 
 doing at a future time. 
 
 I had supposed that this reception was to take the place of 
 the more ceremonious one which I knew was customary in Egypt. 
 The usual forty days of mourning had not elapsed since the death 
 of Toussoum Pasha, and, in the letter fixing the place and date 
 of the reception, we had been notified that the reception would 
 be ^'without ceremony." 
 
 At the time appointed for the final reception, Zecchi Pasha, 
 then Master of Ceremonies, came to my residence, as the repre- 
 sentative of the Khedive, with two coaches. One of these, in- 
 tended solely for the Pasha and m.yself, was the royal gala coach, 
 gilded as gaudily as a Barnum band-wagon, drawn by richly 
 caparisoned white horses and accompanied by footmen and 
 outriders. The other was for the consular suite. The Pasha 
 was also attended by a body of cavalry mounted on white and 
 gray horses, which escorted us to the palace. There a regiment 
 of infantry was drawn up on either side of a large square in front 
 of the main entrance. As we approached, firing of cannon from 
 the Citadel commenced, and the soldiers saluted as we passed. 
 
 At the palace entrance, we were met by Tonino Bey, the As- 
 sistant Master of Ceremonies, and others of the Khedive's attend- 
 ants. Ascending the grand stairway, we were received at its 
 head by the Khedive and conducted into the reception room. 
 After a few complimentary words between his Highness and 
 myself, we were all seated, and pipes and coffee were served as 
 on the previous occasion. When I took my leave, the Khedive 
 
1 6 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 presented to me, as an emblem of my authority in his country, 
 a curved sword with a Damascus blade and a scabbard with gold 
 mountings. On quitting the palace we passed between the lines 
 of soldiers, who again saluted us, and were conducted to our 
 residence in the same manner, and with the same escort that had 
 accompanied us to the palace. Official visits were then ex- 
 changed, according to usage, with Cherif Pasha, with the sons 
 of the Khedive and with certain other leading personages. 
 
 The next morning, as a sequel to the reception, the coachmen, 
 footmen and other servants of the Khedive, the Master of Cere- 
 monies and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had had the 
 good fortune to be present at the ceremonies, came for the bak- 
 shish (gifts) to which, according to the usage of such occasions, 
 they were entitled. Custom had regulated the amounts to be 
 given, which were as follows: Khedivial coachman, six pounds 
 sterHng; second coachman, four pounds; footmen, four pounds; 
 guards of Master of Ceremonies, five pounds; guards of Minister 
 of Foreign Affairs, ten pounds; coachman of Minister, footmen 
 and servants, five pounds; consular guards, one pound twelve 
 shillings — a total of thirty-five pounds, twelve shillings sterling, 
 or one hundred and seventy-three dollars. 
 
 The Khedive gave our kavass, Hassan, sixteen napoleons 
 (a little over sixty dollars) to be used in buying the new uniform 
 which he was supposed to need on entering the employ of a new 
 Agent and Consul-General. It was then the custom for the Khe- 
 dive, on the occasion of the official reception of a newly arrived 
 Consul-General, to present to him a fine horse, saddled and 
 bridled in the most costly Oriental style — the large saddle cloth 
 wrought with gold and all the other trappings ornamented with 
 corresponding richness. 
 
 This present had been accepted by the Consuls-General of all 
 the Powers, including those of the United States, with the excep- 
 tion of my immediate predecessor who had been instructed not 
 
Reception by the Khedive 17 
 
 to receive it. This prohibition was repeated in my instructions. 
 As it was known that the horse could not be accepted, it was 
 not offered to me. Cherif Pasha had previously asked me, how- 
 ever, in a conversation on the subject, what right the United 
 States had to interfere with their ancient customs and had in- 
 timated that he should offer the horse, leaving it to me to re- 
 fuse the gift. 
 
 The Khedive's groom, who would have followed me from the 
 palace leading the horse had it been given and accepted, did not 
 fail to come for his share of the bakshish. Why should he? It 
 was not his fault that the Government of the United States, after 
 permitting the acceptance of the horse for a long period, had come 
 to the conclusion that it was unconstitutional. 
 
 The custom of giving the horse was an old one which originated 
 when there were no carriage-roads in Egypt, not even in the large 
 cities of Alexandria and Cairo, and when a riding horse was a 
 necessity for a person of position. At the time of my arrival, 
 there were no carriage-roads outside of these two cities and their 
 immediate vicinities, and there are very few now. The longest 
 one of which I have any knowledge is that from Cairo to the 
 Pyramids, a distance of about nine miles. 
 
 Previous to my final official reception, I had frequently visited 
 the Khedive and, thanks to his amiable, sociable character, I al- 
 ready felt quite well acquainted with his Highness. I frequently 
 had to perform the unpleasant duty of requesting unofficially, but 
 with polite persistence, the payment of American claims against 
 the Egyptian Government. While this was generally done before 
 the Minister of Foreign Affairs, or the Minister of Finance, it 
 was sometimes necessary to press the matter personally before 
 the Khedive. The Egyptian Government v/as then in great 
 financial embarrassment, and the mere mention of a pecuniary 
 claim must have been annoying. With this exception, however, 
 I had nothing to ask, while the European representatives had 
 
1 8 -^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 not only to make constant pecuniary demands, but to further 
 political projects, which were of vital importance to the Khedive 
 and, in the end, lost him his throne. When my arrival at 
 the palace was announced, he had no fear of an unjust demand 
 or of a pohtical intrigue on the part of my Government, and 
 could receive me with sincere cordiality without fear of jeopard- 
 izing his interests. In fact, at that time the United States and 
 Russia were the only Great Powers that did not have some 
 political ambition, direct or indirect, relative to Egypt. This 
 state of affairs was of much aid in securing the payment of 
 American claims, which were finally all satisfactorily adjusted, 
 being paid in full. For this result I was greatly indebted to the 
 friendliness of the Khedive. 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 19 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MYSTERIES OF THE NILE AND IRRIGATION 
 
 Egypt is a land of surprises and Cairo is one of the most fasci- 
 nating cities in the world. No other city is so picturesque. No 
 other country is so marvelously novel in its scenes; no other has 
 so much which interests both the seeker after pleasure and the 
 seeker after knowledge. At every turn in both city and country 
 there is a fresh surprise, a new pleasure. The mosques, the tomb- 
 mosques of the Mameluke Khalifs, the tombs of the present 
 dynasty, the Arab cemetery, the old palaces, the narrow streets 
 with their surging masses and overhanging Arabian architecture, 
 the wonderful bazaars, filled with gorgeous. Oriental trappings, 
 the collection of Pharaonic antiquities, the Citadel with its pal- 
 aces, the alabaster Mosque of Mohammed Ali, the glorious views, 
 the deserts, the petrified forests, the white fossiliferous rocks of 
 the Mokattam Hills, the Pyramids, the Sphinx and the marvelous 
 ancient tombs, the Nile and the fields of its valley, the varied 
 costumes and habits of the people, — all these combine to produce 
 an effect not equaled anywhere else upon the planet. 
 
 These scenes are so indelibly engraved upon the memory, that 
 after many years of the prosaic, commonplace scenes of life, one, 
 "who has once drunk of the waters of the Nile," longs again to 
 bask in Egypt's genial atmosphere and re-enjoy the delights 
 that in the retrospect seem only the dream of a mysterious land, 
 lighted by the transforming rays of Aladdin's lamp. 
 
 Twenty- three hundred and fifty years ago, Herodotus, 'Hhe 
 
2 ^^^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 father of history," in speaking of Egypt said, ''It possessed more 
 wonders than any other country and exhibited works greater 
 than could be described, in comparison with all other regions." * 
 Since that date, it has never ceased to excite the admiration of the 
 traveler, the historian, the lover of the marvelous, the beautiful, 
 the grand. Geographically, it is simply an oasis surrounded, 
 except on the north, by vast deserts. By the ancients it was 
 called the ''Black Land" from its dark alluvial deposits, "the 
 gift of the Nile," ^ which produce a marked contrast with the 
 yellow sands of the desert. 
 
 From the earliest times, it has been the garden and the grain 
 field of that section of the Orient, its one reliable source of food. 
 It supplies its own people (formerly more numerous than at 
 present) and the nomadic tribes of the adjoining deserts, and 
 furnishes large amounts of grain, sugar and cotton for exporta- 
 tion. Thirty-six centuries ago, Jacob said unto his sons, "I 
 have heard that there is corn in Egypt, get ye down thither and 
 buy for us from thence, that we may Uve and not die." Since 
 that day, with few exceptions, Egypt has not failed to bring 
 forth abundant annual and semi-annual harvests. 
 
 In 1880 it contained only about five million acres of productive 
 land, an area less than one-sixth of that of the state of New York. 
 Small as it is, it has never ceased (either in ancient or modern 
 times) to attract the cupidity of foreigners. It has suffered many 
 conquests, and to-day the very riches of its soil subject its people 
 to burdens and sufferings from which those dwelling in moun- 
 tainous and sterile regions happily escape. The mysterious Nile, 
 the "issue of Osiris," is the source of its fertility and wealth. 
 
 In the small oases, water is taken from the wells and springs, 
 and a small amount of land is thus irrigated and cultivated. In 
 the valley and delta of the Nile, water is taken from the river 
 for the same purpose. There are no rains of any practical im- 
 
 1 Her. II, 35. ^ Her. II, 5. 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 2 i 
 
 portance. The Nile sustains all vegetation, and the inhabitants 
 of Egypt and their herds drink only of its waters. It is to this 
 country the source of Ufe, animal and vegetable. Its waters, 
 if too abundant, produce great destruction, if too scanty, famine. 
 Should it cease to flow, every plant, shrul) and tree would wither 
 and die. In less than three months, the whole country would 
 be as arid, as desolate and uninhabitable as the Great Sahara. 
 The millions of native inhabitants, who have never drunk any 
 other water, await its accustomed annual rise with more solici- 
 tude than a northern farmer awaits the return of spring. 
 
 To the ancient Egyptians the Nile was a deity, whose mys- 
 teries were the most sacred secrets. Its sources, the cause of its 
 annual overflow in the heat and dryness of summer, its decline 
 in winter, and its Hfe-giving properties were, to them, like the 
 attributes of other deities, phenomena beyond the ken of mor- 
 tals and too sacred for their investigation. 
 
 Many wise men of other nations speculated and wrote upon 
 these subjects and generally advanced the most absurd theories. 
 Herodotus relates that, of all the Egyptians, Lybians or Grecians 
 with whom he conversed, the only man who pretended to know 
 anything about the sources of the Nile was the registrar of the 
 treasury of Minerva at Sais in Egypt. His account was as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 ''There are two mountains rising in a sharp peak, situated 
 between the city of Syene in Thebias and Elephantine. . . . The 
 sources of the Nile, which is bottomless, flow from between the 
 mountains; the half of the water flows over Egypt to the north, 
 the other half over Ethiopa to the south." ^ 
 
 This account fixes the sources of the Nile at the First Cataract, 
 a point which Herodotus afterwards visited, learning the in- 
 
 1 Her. II, 28. 
 
2 2 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 correctness of his information, but without obtaining any knowl- 
 edge of the real facts. 
 
 The Greek philosopher and mathematician Thales, one of the 
 ^' seven wise men/' who went to Egypt about 600 b. c, gave his 
 opinion of the cause of the rise of the Nile as follows : 
 
 ''The Etesian winds that beat fiercely upon the mouth of the 
 river, give a check and stop to the current, and so hinder it from 
 flowing into the sea, from which cause, the river swelUng and its 
 channel filled with water, at length overflows the country which 
 is low." 
 
 The philosopher Anaxagoras '' ascribed the rise to the melting 
 of snow in Ethiopia." 
 His pupil Euripides, has left us these lines : 
 
 ''The river Nile .... which, flowing from the Negro's parched 
 land, swells big when the melting snow to the river takes." 
 
 Ephorus says : 
 
 "The whole land of Egypt is cast up from the river, and the 
 soil is of a loose and spongy nature, and has in it many large 
 cliffs and hollow places, wherein are abundance of water, which 
 in the winter time is frozen up, and in the summer issues out on 
 every side, Hke sweat from the pores, which occasions the rise 
 of the Nile." 
 
 There are other equally absurd and, to us, amusing theories, 
 brought forth with much labor by ancient Greek sages. When 
 we read of the winds stopping the flow of a mighty river, causing 
 it for months to inundate the country, or of waters frozen up in 
 a country of perpetual summer and coming forth in abundance 
 in the excessive heat, we wonder if two thousand years hence 
 much of the wisdom of the sages of the nineteenth century will 
 appear equally absurd and childish. 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 23 
 
 Homer, though he knew nothing of the facts, was correct in 
 calling the Nile '^ heaven descended" in the line ^' Back to Egypt's 
 heaven descended stream." ^ 
 
 Simple as they now appear, it required more than two thousand 
 years to solve the mysteries of the sources and the annual over- 
 flow of the Nile. It was only in the present generation that the 
 facts were fully known and the phenomena satisfactorily ex- 
 plained, though the problem had long ceased to be other than a 
 geographical one. 
 
 With a full knowledge of the wonderful provisions of nature 
 for the supply of the waters, and the regulation of their flow, 
 admiration took the place of idolatry. The Arab of to-day, 
 without the blindness begotten by superstition, can spread his 
 carpet and, turning toward Mecca, bow in silent prayer to Allah, 
 offering devout thanks for the rise of the waters that are to give 
 him green fields and an abundant harvest. 
 
 There are two seasons in Egypt, a long, hot summer and a 
 short winter. In the latter, the temperature descends to the 
 freezing point only once in a score of years, producing a little 
 white frost. In the month of June, the heat becomes excessively 
 oppressive, the soil, dried and parched, opening in great seams. 
 The plants are withered, the foliage drooping, and the whole 
 face of the country scorched and seared. Then the Nile, which 
 has sunk deep in its bed, having reached its lowest point, sud- 
 denly begins to rise. Without a cloud in the heavens, and in 
 spite of the augmenting heat, it continues to increase in volume 
 until September, sometimes until October, when it overflows all 
 the lands not protected by dikes. 
 
 The regions whence came the great river were, so far as they 
 were known to the ancient Egyptians, hke their own country, 
 without rain. It is not surprising that they should have re- 
 garded phenomena which they were unable to explain with 
 
 1 Od. IV, 581. 
 
24 Kgvpt aiul its Betrayal 
 
 superstitious :i\\t.\ niul ascribocl to the rivor tlio Htlributo^ of 
 IVity. 
 
 The Nile has its sources in the Albert and Victoria Nyanzas, 
 great lakes of Central Africa, the latter eight hundred miles in 
 circumference. These lakes are the recipients of the rainfall of 
 a large surrounding country. They are in great basins of moun 
 tainous regions Nvhere it rains almost continually for more than 
 six months of the year, during uhich the \'ictoria Nyanza is said 
 to rise more than three t'eet. This lake is the unfailing source — 
 nature's vast reservoir which, with great regularity, supplies 
 the Nile. 
 
 The waters of the \'ictoria Nyanza flow into the Albert Ny- 
 miza, and the outlet of Albert Nyanza is, strictly speaking, the 
 eonunencement of the Nile. There are large tracts of low coun- 
 try below this outlet which are overflowed during the rainy 
 season, adding largely to the amount of storage. 
 
 The annual rise of the river and the consequent inundations 
 are the result of the rains in the mountainous districts of Occiden- 
 tal Abyssinia, which form the Blue Nile and the iVtbara. The 
 former makes its junctit^n with the \Mute Nile at Khartum, and 
 the latter empties into the Nile two hundred miles below. These 
 two tributaries supply the sand and soil which make the Nile 
 a muddy stream, as the Yellowstone does the Missouri. In the 
 dry season they are small rivei*s, especially the Atbara, which 
 nearly ceases its flow. In many places it then presents only a 
 dry lx\i of rocks and sand with an occasional deep pool — the 
 home of the crocodile and the hippopotamus. To these pools, 
 the rhinoceros, the elephant, the tiger, the lion and the wild boar 
 come to slake their thirst. In the rainy season it becomes a 
 raging river, deep, broad and rapid, bringing down inmiense ] 
 quantities of earth, sand and trees. 1 
 
 Below the Atbara, the Nile has no tributary, not even a ri-viilet, 
 in its eoiu^e of sixteen lumihred miles to the sea. Consequently 
 
iMysterics of the Nile 25 
 
 it does not, like other rivers, constantly increase in volume in its 
 onward flow. On i\\(t contrary, as it passes through the desert 
 regions of Sudan, its waters are continually diminished by ab- 
 sorption and evaporation, and, in Kgypt, by their abundant use 
 for irrigation . Yet they reach the sea through two great branches, 
 each large enough to constitute a magnificent river, carrying 
 with them immense alluvial deposits. 
 
 From a very early period man has employed his skill in utiliz- 
 ing the waters thus munificently and providentially furn- 
 ished. 
 
 Strabo says : 
 
 "The attention and care bestowed upon the Nile is so great as 
 to cause industry to triumph over nature. The ground by nature, 
 and still more by being supplied with water, produces a great 
 abundance of fruits. By nature also a greater rise of the river ir- 
 rigatfis a larger tract of land; but industry has completely suc- 
 ceeded in rectifying the deficiency of nature, so that, in seasons 
 when the rise of the river has been less than usual, as large a 
 portion of the country is irrigated by means of canals and em- 
 bankments, as in seasons when the rise of the river has been 
 greater." ^ 
 
 This gives us the conditions at the beginning of the Christian 
 era; but Egypt's system of irrigation did not originate with the 
 Romans, nor with their immediate predecessors, the Greeks. It 
 dates far back, to a time earlier, perhaps, than the dawn of Pha- 
 raonic history. 
 
 The luxuriance of the agricultural products of Egypt is not 
 surpassed by that of any country. The labor required is pro- 
 portionately great. No one, who has not made a special study of 
 the subject, has more than the vaguest conception of the amount 
 of labor necessary to raise, conduct and distribute the waters 
 
 1 Strabo, XVII, 3. 
 
2 6 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 of the great river, at precisely the right time, and in the required 
 quantities, upon every acre of cultivated land. 
 
 The processes of flooding, plowing, sowing and harvesting are 
 often carried on simultaneously in adjoining fields. It is neces- 
 sary to irrigate the lands several times before the maturity of 
 the crop, the quantity of water depending upon the kind of 
 produce. Rice and sugar-cane require large amounts of water; 
 wheat, oats and rye, much less. 
 
 There are in Egypt eight thousand five hundred miles of large 
 irrigating canals, of which two thousand miles are navigable. 
 These form the great system of arteries for the conveying of 
 water to all parts of the country, while forty-five thousand miles 
 of small canals, or ditches, serve to distribute the water upon the 
 lands and to faciUtate the drainage. 
 
 There are also great dikes, twenty and thirty feet high, and 
 two to three times as many feet in breadth, on either side of 
 the river and its branches in the Delta — to keep the waters in 
 their beds during the high Nile. 
 
 In Upper Egypt there are hundreds of miles of collateral 
 embankments of the same character as the Delta dikes, and 
 others of serpentine form running across the valley. There are 
 also numerous small dikes throughout the country. All of these 
 serve some important purpose in this great system of irrigation. 
 Whether we look upon that part which nature has done, or that 
 which has been the work of man, it is a system of water supply 
 that in its perfection and magnitude has no equal. It furnishes 
 all the water, and that of the best quaUty, used by eight millions 
 of people and their animals. It irrigates and fertilizes all the 
 land. Without it, not a cask of sugar, a bushel of wheat, nor a 
 pound of cotton could be produced. 
 
 Earth is a good disinfectant and the waters of the Nile below 
 the Blue Nile and the Atbara are filled with soil. When this is 
 removed by filtration, or even by allowing the waters to settle, 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 27 
 
 they are both palatable and wholesome. No water is more 
 healthy or more agreeable to the taste. The same is true of the 
 waters of the Missouri, and for the same reasons. In both cases, 
 a current of three miles or upward per hour causes the water to 
 float constantly a large quantity of earth, thus continuing and 
 perfecting the process of disinfection. 
 
 The deposits, which are distributed upon the land by repeated 
 irrigations, contain a large percentage of carbonate of lime, oxide 
 of iron, and carbonate of magnesia. They are generally sufficient 
 to maintain its fertihty, though land that is also otherwise 
 fertilized produces much more luxuriantly. The amount of 
 deposits is large, rendering the frequent cleaning of the canals 
 necessary. This requires, for the large canals, the labor of at 
 least two hundred thousand people six months in each year. 
 
 The high waters injure the dikes, carrying away large amounts 
 of earth and thus necessitating frequent repairs. When the 
 waters are the lowest, in April, May and June, the people are 
 seen in throngs repairing the damaged embankments, and clean- 
 ing the canals. This work was done until recently by a system 
 of enforced labor, known as the corvee,'^ which had existed in 
 Egypt since the days of the Pharaohs. It was a '' levee en massed 
 All the people (men, women and children) were taken from the 
 rural villages, often to a considerable distance, and kept without 
 pay, twenty, thirty, or more days, according to the requirements 
 of the service. Within a space of three or four miles as many 
 thousand people could be seen working on the embankments or 
 cleaning the canals. These works Uterally swarmed with human 
 beings. Under their overseers, who stood by, whip in hand, they 
 were as busy as ants. The adult men dug up the earth with rude 
 
 1 In 1890, the corvee was nominally abolished, and the fellahin now receive 
 compensation for their labor, which is paid from the tax receipts; but they 
 must continue to perform the required service as formerly, if reasonable con- 
 tracts for the work cannot be made. 
 
2 8 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 mattocks and filled baskets, which were carried by the women 
 and children, on their heads, up the steep embankments of the 
 dikes and canals. 
 
 At the time of the digging of the Suez Canal, these corvee 
 slaves did not always have the luxury of baskets. They impro- 
 vised baskets by clasping their arms over their backs. They 
 climbed the high embankments with bended forms and straight- 
 ened themselves at the top, permitting their loads to fall. Many 
 thousands died while engaged in this great work. 
 
 When the corvee system was in force, the overseer was not only 
 always ready, but quick, to chastise the laggard, old or young, 
 male or female; and, if the work did not progress with sufficient 
 rapidity to satisfy the governor of the province or his agents? 
 the overseer himself was whipped in his turn, as in the days of 
 Moses. ^'And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pha- 
 raoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten." ^ 
 
 The overseers were generally the sheiks (chiefs) of the vil- 
 lages in which these people resided, and were held responsible 
 both for their taxes and for the performance of their allotted 
 share of public work. 
 
 The traveler who remains in Egypt till May and June can 
 witness the novel scenes presented by these dense masses of 
 laborers, of both sexes and all ages, with their peculiar dress 
 (or, frequently, lack of dress) and their mode of work. 
 
 They sleep upon the ground at the place of their labors, 
 literally covering it with a mass of humanity. If there is a dry 
 sand bank in the vicinity, it is a great luxury. It is soft, fits the 
 tired, aching body that has borne the toil and heat of the day 
 and, in the warm nights of summer, makes a most enjoyable 
 bed. Besides, the atmosphere is dry and invigorating. With 
 the always clear, deep, blue vault of heaven lit by myriads of 
 celestial lamps for their canopy, they rest from their toils, sleep- 
 
 1 Ex. V, 14. 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 29 
 
 ing as soundly as the more favored sons of man. For covering, 
 they have whatever they have worn during the day, and, some- 
 times, a blanket. They are awakened at the early dawn. No 
 time is required for the making of toilets. A piece of coarse 
 bread and a draught of Nile water suffice for the breakfast. 
 After these summary preliminaries, they are hurried to their 
 tasks. 
 
 The canals that are thus cleaned by public service are the main 
 arteries conducting the waters from the river to the vicinity 
 of the lands to be irrigated, and it is at this point that the great 
 work of the proprietors of the land begins. 
 
 During the continuance of the high waters irrigation is not 
 difficult, though the constructing of sluices and dikes, the digging 
 of ditches, the cleaning and repairing, and the distributing of 
 the waters requires a very large amount of labor. 
 
 At the time of the high Nile, the whole country would be 
 flooded were it not for the dikes. In a considerable part of Upper 
 Egypt and a portion of the Delta, this is still permitted. The 
 country then assumes in many places the appearance of a great 
 lake dotted with numerous islands, the latter being formed by 
 the fellah-villages with their ever-accompanying groups of palm- 
 trees. These village-islands are often connected with each other 
 by the dikes or by high embankments along the canals formed 
 by the earth accumulated from the cleanings of long periods. 
 
 The waters slowly recede, the lands are prepared, often with 
 much labor, and are sowed or planted. The grain quickly sprouts 
 in the warm, moist soil and sends forth its young blades. The 
 fields are clothed in the rich, dark green of spring, though it is 
 really late fall or the beginning of winter. Soon, more water is 
 needed. If the river or canals are still full, it is let upon the 
 lands, as in the first irrigation. If they are too low, it must be 
 raised by pumping or in some other manner. 
 
 In much of the Delta the water is kept, by means of the canals, 
 
30 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 on a higher level than the lands for the larger part of the year. 
 But the raising of the water by pumping, or otherwise, com- 
 mences in some parts of the country within one or two months 
 after the high waters and continues till the rise of the river the 
 following summer. For the second crop, which is quite generally 
 produced, the larger part of the water must be thus raised. 
 
 The fall of the river from its highest rise is, at Cairo, twenty- 
 five feet, at Thebes, thirty-eight feet, at Assuan, forty-seven 
 feet. At the time of the lowest waters, the river is in some 
 places thirty or forty feet below the top of the bank, and the 
 water, when it has not been brought by canals from points higher 
 up the river, must be raised this distance for purposes of irriga- 
 tion. 
 
 Dipping, drawing and pumping are continued in some sections 
 the greater part of the year and more than half of the lands are 
 irrigated a portion of the time by some of these means. If the 
 water is required to be raised twenty feet up the banks of the 
 river, as in Upper Egypt during the winter months, it is generally 
 done by the shaduf . This is a rude appliance resembling the old 
 well-sweep, with a basket-shaped bucket attached to one end 
 by palmsticks, and a mud-weight, to act as a balance, at the 
 other. The bucket is made of matting, leather or woolen stuff, 
 fastened to a hoop, which forms the rim. The sweep is short and 
 rests upon a horizontal bar supported by two posts set in the 
 ground. By this means water can be raised about eight feet 
 with great rapidity. 
 
 When the Nile is very low, it sometimes requires four or five 
 shadufs, one above the other, to raise the water to the level of 
 the lands to be irrigated. The mean height during the season, 
 in Upper Egypt, would be about twenty-five feet. The water 
 is ordinarily raised this distance by the use of five shadufs, one 
 worked singly and the others in pairs. By the first shaduf, a 
 man near the river raises the water four or five feet, emptying 
 
Eaising Water with Shadufs for Irrigating Eice Fields. 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 3 i 
 
 it into a basin made in the side of the bank. From this point, 
 two men, each with a shaduf, lift it to a second basin, then two 
 more to a third basin and so on till the required height is at- 
 tained. It is then conducted onto the land, sometimes a mile 
 or more distant, by earth-sluices constructed on the top of low 
 embankments. 
 
 If the water is to be raised twenty-five feet, the constant work- 
 ing of five shadufs for forty-eight hours would be required to irri- 
 gate one feddan (acre). In other words, by changing once in six 
 hours, ten men would work twenty-four hours each to water 
 one acre. The process must be repeated at least three times for 
 each crop. Thus the labor required for the irrigation of one acre 
 would be seventy-two days of ten hours each. 
 
 Crops requiring a large amount of water, such as cotton, rice 
 and sugar-cane, are generally produced where the labor of irri- 
 gation is less. On some of the larger estates steam pumps are 
 used, but the fuel (coal) is brought from England, and is too 
 expensive for general use, where labor is so cheap. There were 
 in 1880 about four hundred steam pumps employed. 
 
 When water is raised by the shaduf, or other hand process, 
 the minimum labor per acre is fifteen days, and the maximum 
 not less than one hundred ; yet, so cheap is labor, large areas of 
 land are thus irrigated. 
 
 In 1873, according to official records, there were in four prov- 
 inces of Egypt eighty thousand five hundred and thirty-six com- 
 mon field-laborers, whose average pay was five and three-eighths 
 to seven and a half cents a day. In only two provinces did it 
 exceed ten cents a day, and the average price of all the labor of 
 this class was seven and a half cents a day. It must not be under- 
 stood that the laborer was furnished with food, as is generally 
 the case on farms in the United States. This he furnished him- 
 self. Hence, the prices above named were the full cost of the 
 labor. 
 
32 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 Even at these low prices the laborer did not find constant 
 employment. He was only hired by the day at such times as 
 his services were required. He was also subject to a personal 
 tax, which, though small, represented from ten to twenty-five 
 days' labor a year. The present average price of labor is ten to 
 fifteen cents a day, but the price of food has been proportionately 
 increased. 
 
 Of the means of irrigation other than those above mentioned, 
 the Sakiyeh is the most employed. The Sakiyeh is in common 
 use in the Delta where there are said to be over fifty thousand 
 of them. It is a rude machine on the principle of the endless 
 chain. It is propelled by oxen, cows and horses, sometimes, 
 by camels and donkeys, and raises the water by means of earthen 
 jars attached to an endless rope-chain passing over a vertical 
 wheel. This machine is generally used in raising water from 
 large wells having openings into canals. Throughout the Delta 
 the water generally stands in the soil on a level with the waters 
 of the river in the same locality. A large well, having no direct 
 connection with a canal or the river, will generally yield a goodly 
 amount of water, but only sufficient to irrigate a small parcel of 
 land. 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 MYSTERIES OF THE NILE 
 
 At the time of my residence in Cairo, there were many festiv- 
 ities and ceremonies connected with the rise of the Nile, which 
 had their origin in periods when the river was still a solemn 
 mystery and an object of awe and veneration. On the night of 
 the 17th of Jmie, according to the belief of the ancient Egyptians, 
 a tear of Isis dropped from the heavens into the river, causing 
 the rise, which was supposed to commence at that date. It is, 
 as a matter of fact, at about this date that the annual rise com- 
 mences. This night, though less observed than formerly, was 
 still celebrated in the seventies by those living on the banks of 
 the river and such friends as chose to join them, with various 
 superstitious ceremonies. 
 
 Soon after this date, the rise of the waters becomes perceptible 
 to the anxious watchers along the river, and, each morning, 
 criers in different parts of the city pass along the narrow, 
 crowded streets, announcing in a loud voice the amount of 
 rise, or the point to which the waters have attained according 
 to the official statement of the sheik in charge of the Nilometer. 
 
 One of the most interesting ceremonies I witnessed was the 
 cutting of the dam, built each year at the time of the low water, 
 across the canal El-Khalig, which, previous to the construction 
 during the reign of Ismail Pasha of an admirable system of water 
 works, furnished the water for the city of Cairo. Until a very 
 recent date it supplied a large number of native inhabitants, 
 
34 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 who preferred the old system, erroneously believing it more con- 
 ducive to health. 
 
 The canal was deep and ran from a point in Old Cairo, opposite 
 the Island of Roda, to and through the native or old part of the 
 present city. It is said to have been made by Amru, Khalif 
 Omar's General, after his conquest of Egypt in a. d. 641, for the 
 purpose of connecting the Nile with the Red Sea. He continued 
 it to a point near Bubastis, where it joined with an old canal 
 running to the Bitter Lakes and probably thence to the Red Sea. 
 It has long been filled up, except that part running through 
 Cairo, which emptied, immediately after leaving the city, into 
 the great canal constructed to convey fresh water to the Suez 
 Canal at Ismailiya and thence to Suez. 
 
 This short canal, supplying the city of Cairo, was kept open 
 by frequent cleanings. It was dry for several months each year. 
 At the time of the high water, large cisterns along its line were 
 filled and from these the water was taken throughout the year 
 and carried in skins to the consumers. 
 
 Water-carriers are constantly seen in the streets selling water, 
 and also furnishing it to the thirsty passers-by gratuitously, or 
 for such pittance as they may choose to give. It is usually sold 
 from skins, but sometimes from earthen vessels. In either case, 
 the water is served in small brass cups, which the carrier con- 
 stantly strikes one against another, calling attention to his 
 vocation by their sharp ring. 
 
 Previous to my departure for Europe, during my first summer 
 in Cairo, I was invited by the Governor of the city to be present 
 at the ceremonies of the cutting of the dam. This took place 
 near the middle of August, when the Nile had reached a height 
 which gave promise of sufficient water to insure a plentiful 
 harvest. It was an event which was then celebrated with real 
 joy and, as might be expected from the nature and habits of the 
 Arabs of the lower classes, with noisy festivities. 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 35 
 
 The principal ceremony took place in the early morning at the 
 head of the canal in Old Cairo. All Cairo was alive soon after 
 dawn. Boys carrying flags attended the criers, who announced 
 with unusual emphasis the glad tidings of an abundant flow of 
 the Nile. A ride of about three miles over a road of deep, fine 
 sand, through a then sparsely built quarter, brought me to the 
 dam, at the entrance of Old Cairo. 
 
 What is now known as Old Cairo is a small town built on and 
 around the site of the ^'Babylon in Egypt" of the Romans. 
 This was an immense fortress, in which were stationed the Roman 
 soldiers who aided in holding Egypt in subjection first to Rome 
 and then to the Byzantine emperors, until it was taken by Amru 
 after a long siege. The place was known in the early Mohamme- 
 dan period as Fostat. The ruined walls of the fortress still exist 
 and within them is the principal part of the present town, includ- 
 ing a number of old, interesting, Coptic convents and churches. 
 
 On my arrival at the dam, I found a throng of many thou- 
 sands of people, mostly of the lower classes, many of whom had 
 been there throughout the night. There were tents along the 
 banks of the Nile and the canal and boats loaded with people 
 on the small branch of the river separating the Island of Roda 
 from the mainland. The tent of the Governor, to which I was 
 invited, was on the bank of the canal directly above the dam, and 
 in its front was a platform built out even with the edge of the 
 water. 
 
 The tent was guarded by soldiers, who had accompanied the 
 Governor, and was occupied by his Excellency, his assistants 
 and a number of Europeans. From the platform' was a view on 
 the west of the river, of the Island of Roda with its high surround- 
 ing walls, its beautiful gardens, palm trees and Nilometer. Be- 
 yond, a few miles distant on the other side of the valley, were 
 the Pyramids. In front was the high wall of the ruined aque- 
 duct of Saladin, rebuilt in 1518, obstructing the view of the domes 
 
2 6 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 and minarets of the mosques, the towers of the Coptic churches, 
 and the prison-Hke walls of the convents of Old Cairo. 
 
 The booths of the sellers of bonbons, fruits, bread and other 
 edibles, who are always in evidence on festive occasions, were 
 surrounded by crowds. The clinking of the cups of the ever- 
 present water-carriers, the discordant sounds of native music, 
 the cries of the Cairene gamins and the general noise of the multi- 
 tude were, I doubt not, manifestations of sufficient joyousness 
 to satisfy even an Arab's love of the tumultuous, though scarcely 
 surpassing in this respect an American Fourth of July. 
 
 The dam was a thick, high bank of earth and the waters on its 
 upper side reached nearly to its top. A large number of men had 
 been at work during the night digging down this bank, on the 
 lower side, and carrying the earth out in baskets. 
 
 The men were still at work, but cautiously and ready to move 
 at a moment's warning. We had not long to wait. The waters 
 burst through, quickly sweeping away the balance of the embank- 
 ment and, moving with great force down the canal, soon filled 
 it nearly to the level of the river. 
 
 The Governor then appeared at the front of the platform and 
 commenced sowing newly coined piastres broadcast on the waters. 
 These are of the value of five cents, nominally of silver, but much 
 alloyed. At the same moment many Arabs, each slipping off 
 his single garment, plunged into the waters in search of the treas- 
 ures. Some were unable to stem the current, and others with 
 the agility of fish dove and scoured the bottom bringing up the 
 shining pieces. In a few moments the canal was filled with men 
 swimming, grappling and struggling with each other for a place 
 in this amphibious throng. 
 
 At the cutting of the dam, Arabs were sometimes carried 
 away by the current and drowned, although many of them are 
 expert swimmers. The throwing of the silver into the waters 
 was an old custom which had probably succeeded other customs. 
 
The Great Pyramid of Khiifu or Cheops. 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 37 
 
 It was continued to satisfy the superstition of the people who 
 had come to believe that it had some influence in producing the 
 rise of the river. 
 
 In a conversation with the Governor, on a subsequent similar 
 occasion, he told me that the question of discontinuing the throw- 
 ing of silver into the waters had been considered, but that no 
 Governor had been willing to assume the responsibility of the 
 omission, knowing that, should it be followed by a low Nile, he 
 would be looked upon by many as the cause and suffer in reputa- 
 tion and influence among a large class. The canal El-Khalig has 
 recently been filled and the ceremonies of cutting the dam will 
 henceforth exist only in history. 
 
 According to Moslem tradition, the Coptic Christians, previous 
 to the conquest of Omar, sacrificed at this place every year to 
 the God of the Nile a beautiful virgin, whom they dressed in 
 bridal robes and cast into the river. This tradition has not been 
 authenticated. According to some writers, an image, instead 
 of the virgin, has in recent times, even within a few years, been 
 thrown into the waters, but nothing of the kind took place on 
 the occasions when I was present at these ceremonies. 
 
 As soon as the canal was sufficiently filled, boats, gorgeously 
 pavilioned, sailed in from the river, the Governor and his escort 
 retired and the people commenced dispersing. 
 
 I have already mentioned the Island of Roda as lying near the 
 canal just described. It is now principally visited on account 
 of its famous Nilometer. An Arab tradition that it was among 
 the flags on its shore that Moses was found by the daughter of 
 Pharaoh lends it an additional attraction. It also possesses the 
 ^Hree of Moses" and the ^'tree of Saint Mandura," a venerable 
 millenarian planted by Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed. 
 This tree has survived many generations, is still vigorous, and 
 is beUeved to have the miraculous power of healing the sick, 
 making the lame walk, and the blind see. 
 
38 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 It is true that not all of the devout pilgrims who spread their 
 garments on its branches are relieved of their infirmities, but this 
 fact does not injure the reputation of the ''Great Physician." 
 Only one in many thousands of the devout Catholics who visit 
 the shrines of Lourdes claims to be benefited. This does not 
 prevent an annual pilgrimage of several hundred thousand be- 
 lievers to this sacred place, where, as they believe, the Holy 
 Virgin appeared in 1858 to the shepherd girl, Bernadette Soubi- 
 rous. If the most enlightened people of this enlightened age 
 have such faith in holy places, who can deny to the poor Arab 
 the solace of a like superstition? 
 
 The Island of Roda is in the form of an elongated eUipse, two 
 miles long by nearly a half mile broad in its centre. It is sur- 
 rounded by a high wall and was once fortified. It was here that 
 the Copts took refuge on losing the fortress of Babylon with 
 which it was connected by a bridge of boats. After this retreat 
 they opened negotiations with the victorious Amru and finally 
 capitulated. They were humanely treated and were allowed to 
 retain their property. In fact, many of them welcomed the fol- 
 lowers of the Prophet as a means of relief from their Byzantine 
 oppressors. 
 
 The island was formerly a summer resort, on account of its 
 cool breezes, for the families of a few Cairene Pashas who owned 
 the property. It is covered with beautiful gardens replete with 
 tropical trees and plants, among which are the orange, the lemon, 
 the banana, the henna, and, towering high above them, the date- 
 palm. Henna is a shrub, from the leaves of which is made a 
 paste long used by the Egyptians in dyeing their nails and the 
 palms of their hands. 
 
 The Nilometer is at the upper end of the island. Crossing from 
 the mainland in a small boat, I mounted a long flight of stone 
 steps to the top of the wall and entered a garden whose walks 
 were paved with small stones in ornamental designs. After a 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 39 
 
 short stroll among the shrubs and flowers, I was conducted by 
 the custodian to the mysterious measurer of the rise and fall of 
 the Nile. But what can there be of mystery in a simple device 
 for determining the depth of water? It is only a large rectangular 
 well with cut-stone walls, each of its sides measuring about five 
 yards. In the centre is an octagonal column on which are Kufic 
 inscriptions. A passage leads from its bottom to the river. It 
 is true that very few, even among the most learned Arabic 
 scholars, can read the Kufic. The only person I found in Egypt 
 who could read the inscriptions on my Kufic coins was an Eng- 
 lishman, who had devoted many years to the study of early 
 Mohammedan coinage. But the mystery is not in the inscrip- 
 tions on the column and the sides of the well, many of which 
 are only quotations from the Koran. Strange as it may seem 
 there are few people in Cairo who know or can ascertain the 
 exact rise of the river. 
 
 The unprecedented low Nile of 1877 gave just grounds for 
 fears of the most serious consequences, the highest point attained 
 being only seventeen pics and three karets. According to the 
 official statements for the fifty-two preceding years, which was 
 as far back as they could be obtained, this was three feet and 
 three inches less than that of the lowest rise during that period, 
 and nearly ten feet lower than the medium rise. 
 
 It was estimated by competent judges that five hundred and 
 fifty thousand acres of land, one-fourth of all Upper Egypt, could 
 not be irrigated, and, consequently, must remain uncultivated. 
 I had been informed that the official statements did not give 
 correct measurements. Wishing to make a correct report to 
 Mr. Evarts, then Secretary of State, of so important an event, I 
 undertook to ascertain the exact facts. 
 
 I first applied to General Stone, who, as chief of the staff of 
 the Khedive, was at the head of the military department at 
 Cairo and had kept a record of the rise and fall of the Nile for 
 
40 F'gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 a number of years, taking his figures from the statements which 
 were published in the daily official paper. He had had prepared 
 for reference in military affairs altitudinal charts, based on the 
 data thus obtained, which showed the heights of the water during 
 each month for a number of years. I found that he knew noth- 
 ing of the measurement, except that the Nile-pic was about 
 twenty-one inches, and he supposed that all the statements 
 given were based upon these figures. 
 
 I next applied ofhcially to the Governor of Cairo to whose juris- 
 diction the Nilometer belonged. He replied that, personally, 
 he had no knowledge of the manner of taking the measurements 
 of the rise of the river, nor of the exact length of the Nile-pic; 
 that these were secrets known only to the family having charge 
 of the Nilometer. In a conversation with Cherif Pasha, then 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs, I found that he was equally ignorant 
 upon the subject. 
 
 The Nilometer of the Island of Roda was first constructed, 
 according to some writers, a. d. 716, according to others, nearly 
 a century later. The present system of measurement may be 
 of a much earlier period. It has been long transmitted from 
 father to son or to the lawful successor in the family which, by 
 hereditary right, is charged with the duty of measuring the rise 
 and fall of the river. Each sheik on assuming these duties is 
 sworn to secrecy. 
 
 After much inquiry and search, my interpreter found an old 
 Arabic book, containing a statement of the facts, which I after- 
 wards verified. The book was published a hundred years ago, 
 soon after the French scientific expedition to Egypt which first 
 discovered the fraud that was being practiced upon the people. 
 
 Theoretically, land which cannot be irrigated by the natural 
 overflow of the Nile, or by means of the canals at the time of the 
 highest waters, is not taxed. But the decision as to what land 
 is taxable is not left to the taxpayer nor to the lower local au- j 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 41 
 
 thorities. The question is determined by the ofRcial statements 
 of the rise of the river. In cases of partial or insufficient over- 
 flow, the proportionate amount of the tax is fixed in the same 
 manner. 
 
 During the reign of the Pharaohs, there was a Nilometer at 
 Memphis, and others at different points on the river. The regis- 
 ters kept of the rise of the Nile were always factors in determining 
 the amount of taxes at that period, as in modern times. The 
 priests then formed the educated class, were supposed to be the 
 depositaries of all knowledge, and were often more powerful 
 than the king. They kept the Nile-records and decreed the 
 amount of taxes to which the king was entitled. That he and 
 the priests counselled together and took into consideration the 
 necessities of the exchequer is highly probable, but the motives 
 for secrecy can easily be seen. If an Arab should be admitted 
 to a view of the Nilometer, he would be no wiser for what he saw. 
 If anyone capable of reading the record, except an authorized 
 custodian, is allowed to do so, even now, it is an innovation of 
 recent date. 
 
 The facts, as I ascertained them, are, that a Nile-pic is a meas- 
 ure of twenty-one and one-fourth inches; that the zero of the 
 Nilometer is seven pics below the mean low- water mark; that in 
 giving the height of the waters from zero to and including the 
 sixteenth pic, the measure of the pic is twenty-one and one- 
 fourth inches ; that from this point to the twenty-second pic, in- 
 clusive, the measure of the pic is just half of this amount, ten and 
 five-eighths inches, and, above this point, again twenty-one and 
 one-fourth inches. A karet is the twenty-fourth part of a pic, 
 whether the pic be short or long. After having deducted from 
 the published statements of the height of the Nile the seven pics 
 that are below mean low-water mark, and reduced the balance 
 to inches according to the foregoing rule, it is still necessary to 
 deduct seven inches to obtain the real rise of the river. 
 
42 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 One explanation, or defense, of this system is, that when the 
 Nile has risen at Cairo to sixteen pics, which is nine pics above 
 the mean low-water mark, the people become anxious concern- 
 ing the necessary additional rise. To quiet their fears, a half 
 pic is counted as a whole, thus giving an apparent rapid increase. 
 When the point of twenty-three pics is reached, there is the 
 amount of water necessary for an abundant harvest. If the 
 river continues to rise, there is fear of too much water, of the 
 breaking of the dikes and the consequent damage, and, there- 
 fore, the full pic of twenty-one and a fourth inches is again used. 
 This is in accordance with the common habit of the people of 
 saying to you whatever they believe will best suit your wishes. 
 
 The real original reason for the practice of varying the pic 
 was that relating to taxes, and the secret continuance of this 
 practice and the mystery with which the whole subject was 
 surrounded, so far as the mass of the taxpayers was concerned, 
 could have had no other object. To understand how such a 
 state of ignorance can exist, on a subject so vital to the interest 
 of everyone, it is necessary to remember that very few of the 
 people can read or write; that in an autocratic government, 
 those who can read and write seldom take any interest in, or 
 in any way meddle with matters that are supposed to be the 
 special prerogatives of the sovereign, or of those he places in 
 authority. 
 
 The Nile-pic is an obsolete measure and should you ask every 
 educated man in Egypt what measure it represented, not one 
 in two thousand could tell you, though they are constantly 
 talking about the number of pics of the rise and fall of the river. 
 They only know that what is published as twenty-three pics is 
 necessary for abundant crops, and the rise most to be desired. 
 
 The rise in 1877 was, in reality, only about five feet below the 
 mean rise, and twenty inches below the lowest rise for the fifty- 
 two preceding years. The year of the next lowest rise during 
 
Valley of the Upper Nile at Time of Low Water, Showing a 
 Traveler's Dhahabiyeh and the Shadufs along the Banks. 
 
i 
 
Mysteries of the Nile 43 
 
 that time was 1833. The disastrous results of the low rise of 1877 
 show the inestimable importance of a normal rise of the river. 
 
 Herodotus, in speaking of the Nile, says: ''Unless the river 
 rises sixteen cubits or fifteen, at least, it does not overflow the 
 country." ^ He has reference to the measurements made at 
 Memphis, ten miles above the Island of Roda. 
 
 Five and six hundred years later, in the time of the Roman 
 reign in Egypt, the same height was required. Among numerous 
 other designs on Egyptian coins of that period, that of Nilus, 
 the God of the Nile, is very frequent. He is represented as lying 
 on the ground and holding a cornucopia, or a branch of a vine. 
 Near by there is generally a crocodile or a hippopotamus. These 
 coins, when struck in a year in which the Nile reached sixteen 
 cubits, had, in addition to their other usual characters, the 
 Greek letters IS, representing sixteen, showing that it was a 
 year of abundance. It is probable that the measurement then 
 commenced at mean low-water mark, and that the ell was an 
 equivalent of the present Nile-pic. If so, the height of water 
 required to flood the Delta is about the same as formerly. 
 
 1 Her. II, 13. 
 
44 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 FASTS AND THE MECCA PILGRIMAGE 
 
 No scenes in Cairo are more interesting to the stranger than 
 those connected with the annual pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina 
 — the departure of the caravan, its return and the subsequent 
 festivities, formerly ending with the Dosseh. The holy month 
 of Ramadan immediately precedes that in which the departure 
 of the pilgrims takes place and is most opportune for their prepa- 
 ration for this sacred duty. Ramadan is the ninth month of 
 the Moslem year, always has thirty days and is devoted by 
 Mohammedans to fasting. 
 
 However lax the Moslem may be in obeying the other cardinal 
 precepts of his reUgion, he is very rigid in the observance of the 
 prescribed fasts. He may cease to give alms, neglect to make 
 his pilgrimage or to wage war against imbelievers, and not always 
 remember to repeat in their fixed time his five daily prayers; 
 but he will strictly observe the fasts of Ramadan. He believes 
 that on the night of the 27th of this month the Koran was sent 
 down to Mohammed. The gates of heaven are that day opened. 
 God especially devotes Himself during this month to listening 
 to the prayers of the penitent and granting them pardon for 
 their sins. This is the month in which God made His '' revelation 
 to Abraham," delivered the ''laws to Moses" and revealed the 
 ''Gospel of Christ." 
 
 The Moslem year consists of twelve lunar months of three 
 hundred and fifty-four days, with three leap years in thirty, 
 
 1 
 
The Mecca Pilgrimage 45 
 
 each adding one day. Consequently, any fixed Moslem date 
 will occur, according to our calendar, ten to twelve, generally 
 eleven, days earlier each year than the next preceding year, the 
 date making the circuit of the year three times in a century. 
 
 The Coptic year is different from the Moslem. The Julian 
 year, still used by the Greeks, commences on our 12th day of 
 January. As if this did not already complicate sufficiently the 
 question of dates in Egypt, the Government, at the time of the 
 institution of the Mixed Tribunals (1875), adopted the Gregorian 
 calendar. This is used only by the Department of Finance, 
 the Mixed Tribunals and the Europeans. All of these systems 
 are used by different individuals, according to their nationality 
 or religion. 
 
 The Moslem day begins at sunset, and the month with the 
 new moon. To fix the date of the commencement of Ramadan, 
 the moon must actually have been seen, and the fact of its ap- 
 pearance a little after sunset must have been judicially deter- 
 mined by the Kadi. This is not difficult in the ever clear at- 
 mosphere of Cairo. Men are sent out upon the high hills just 
 beyond the Citadel. Having obtained a view of the expected 
 crescent above the Lybian mountains, they return. Their evi- 
 dence is reduced to writing and a decision is made and announced 
 to the numerous dignitaries who assemble on this occasion at 
 the house of the Kadi. Cannon are immediately fired from the 
 Citadel and processions are formed which, escorted by bands 
 of music, march through the city proclaiming that the month of 
 fasting has commenced. At the dawn of the next day, the dis- 
 trict ''messenger of the morning" announces the fast, and, just 
 as the sun begins to appear, the cry is heard from the minarets 
 of all the mosques of Cairo, ''Hearken, the fast has begun!" 
 
 Mohammedan fasting consists in abstaining from food, drink 
 and tobacco, between sunrise and sunset, during the period of 
 the fast. No one is exempt from its strict observance except 
 
46 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 soldiers in battle and the sick. By reason of the short Egyptian 
 winters, Ramadan falls for many years in succession in the warm 
 season. The abstinence from food and drink during the long, 
 hot, dry and dusty days of summer for an entire month is no 
 inconsiderable sacrifice. It often produces upon the physical 
 condition of the people an effect, which is marked by an indis- 
 position to labor, peevishness and ill-humor, frequently resulting 
 in misdemeanors. 
 
 The fasting of the day is, in a measure, compensated by the 
 feasting of the night. It is sometimes painful to see the people 
 toward the close of a long, hot day watching the slowly descend- 
 ing sun. As the weary hours are about to end they listen in 
 breathless silence for the report of the cannon fired from the 
 Citadel, announcing that the day's fast has ended. Then cigar- 
 ettes are quickly lighted, dates and other fruits are ready, and 
 the water-bearer is in great demand. Thirst is the first appetite 
 to be appeased. The laborer drops his rude tools, the coachman 
 jumps from his carriage and the cameleer from his camel, and 
 each waits with nervous impatience his turn to seize a cup of the 
 sacred water of the Nile. Then comes the feasting in which each 
 person indulges according to his means. 
 
 Other branches of business are dull or suspended during 
 Ramadan, but that of the caf^s and restaurants is then at its 
 height. There are bright illuminations, native or European 
 music, song and story-telling until an hour before dawn, when 
 the cry from the minarets, ''Arise and prepare for the fast!" is 
 heard. Then comes the early morning meal, the principal one 
 during Ramadan, wholly contrary to the habits of the Orient, 
 where usually but little and very light food is taken in the morn- 
 ing. 
 
 It is a long thirty days, but the cannon at the Citadel finally 
 announce the end. On the morrow (the first day of Shawwal, 
 the tenth month), the three days' festival known as the Little 
 
The Mecca Pilgrimage 47 
 
 Beiram commences. It is a general time of visits, receptions, 
 rejoicing, making presents to servants and children and putting 
 on new clothes. 
 
 The Khedive gives a reception, beginning at six o'clock in the 
 morning, when the officers of the army are received. Afterwards 
 come the various classes in a prearranged order, heads of de- 
 partments, high officials, sheiks of religious orders, judges of 
 native courts, representative merchants, notable civilians and 
 dignitaries of all classes, judges of the Mixed Tribunals, and 
 lastly, at eleven o'clock, the diplomatic representatives. The 
 last-named are the only visitors honored by being seated. They 
 are served with cofTee, smoke the shibuk, and have a short con- 
 versation with his Highness in which they present and receive 
 congratulations. 
 
 Immediately after this festival, in which religious rites have 
 not been neglected, preparations commence for the departure 
 of the pilgrim-caravan, which takes place on the twenty-third 
 of the month. Each year, the caravan carries a new Kisweh, 
 usually called ^Hhe carpet," a rich covering for the outer wall 
 of the Kaaba. The Kaaba is a small building situate in the 
 interior of the temple, or mosque, at Mecca, containing the sacred 
 black stone. The Kisweh is of black brocade, wrought with 
 gold, and covered with inscriptions from the Koran. It is made 
 at Cairo, and some idea of its magnificence may be formed from 
 the fact that its cost to the Egyptian Government is $23,000. 
 The annual expense of the pilgrimage to the Government is 
 over $330,000, a sum nearly double that appropriated for schools 
 under European control. 
 
 The Kisweh is first made in small pieces, which, soon after 
 the Little Beiram, are taken to the mosque of Hasanen and there 
 sewn together. When the body of the Kisweh has been com- 
 pleted, a broad, rich border and a veil or portiere for the door of 
 the Kaaba are attached. The caravan also takes another orna- 
 
48 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 merited cloth to serve as a covering for the tomb of Abraham, 
 and still another of green material wrought with gold and various 
 colored silks for the inside of the Kaaba. 
 
 A covering for the tomb of Mohammed, at Medina, is brought 
 by the caravan that is organized at Damascus. A third caravan 
 comes from Bagdad. The three leave their respective cities at 
 about the same time, enter the great Arabian desert, after a few 
 days' travel, and, continuing southward, arrive at Mecca in 
 about forty days. 
 
 There is little difference in the general character of the scenes 
 and ceremonies each year on the departure of the pilgrim-caravan 
 from Cairo. The foreign representatives receive official invi- 
 tations to be present. I will write only of what I saw on one 
 occasion. 
 
 The invited guests arrived early in the morning at the Place 
 Mohammed Ali near the Citadel, whence the caravan takes its 
 departure. Bodies of different classes of troops were already 
 assembled there and, in the vicinity, various religious organiza- 
 tions were being formed into a procession. A gorgeous tent of 
 red velvet and gold had been erected for the Khedive or his 
 representative, and for the ministers, kadi, mufti and other 
 military, civil and religious dignitaries. His Highness, Tewfik | 
 Pasha, then Crown Prince, represented the Khedive. 
 
 The Khedive, Ismail Pasha, did not attend pubHc religious 
 ceremonies, but was represented by his son Tewfik, who was 
 regarded by the faithful as the more devout Moslem. Tewfik, 
 after he became Khedive, continued to be present on all occa- 
 sions of this character. When his Highness arrived, he was 
 seated in the center of the tent, surrounded by the officials and 
 invited guests. Soon afterwards, that section of the procession 
 in which the Mahmal was carried advanced, and the camel carry- 
 ing it was halted in front of the Khedivial tent. His Highness 
 stepped forth, took the camel by the halter and handed the halter 
 
The Mecca Pilgrimage 49 
 
 to the sheik who was to be the leader of the pilgrims. By this 
 act, he entrusted him with the caravan and gave him authority 
 over all who accompanied it. 
 
 The Mahmal is a magnificent litter with a highly ornamental 
 pyramidal top. It is covered with cloth wrought in gold and 
 two copies of the Koran are suspended from it, one on either side. 
 This litter is now carried only as an emblem of royalty, but it, 
 or the litter it represents, was formerly designed for the wives of 
 the Khalifs, who made the pilgrimage. It is said that the Mahmal 
 had its origin in the time of the beautiful and wise Sultana, 
 Shegeret ed-Durr, who made the pilgrimage (a. d. 1250) in a 
 magnificent litter carried between two camels. It has accom- 
 panied the pilgrims annually to Mecca for centuries and is re- 
 garded as sacred by the simple devotees of Islam, who eagerly 
 force their way through the throng to touch it and thereby be 
 blessed. The camel that bears it is richly decorated, leads the 
 caravan when on the desert, and becomes to such an extent holy 
 that it is not customary to use him afterwards for any other 
 purpose, though he continues to carry the Mahmal on the pil- 
 grimages as long as he is able. 
 
 Near the Mahmal followed the grotesque sheik of the camels, 
 who every year accompanies the pilgrims. He was a burly, 
 almost herculean Arab, with long, matted hair and naked down 
 to the loins. Mounted on his camel, he swayed backwards and 
 forwards, his eyes closed, as if in religious ecstasy. Then followed 
 pilgrims mounted on camels (in some instances whole families), 
 with their baggage, tents, and other articles necessary for the 
 desert journey. The camels were dressed in gaudy trappings and 
 decorated with palm-branches, and, if their long, coarse hair 
 had become too much whitened by the sun, its natural tawny 
 color was restored by a free use of henna. 
 
 The main part of the procession, which was to honor the pil- 
 grims by escorting them out of the city, had been the first formed, 
 
50 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 and was well in advance, pushing its way through the narrow 
 streets of the native part of the town toward Bab en-Nasr/ the 
 gate of exit, two miles distant. I did not wait to see the sheik of 
 the cats, who is generally near the rear. He goes half naked like 
 the sheik of the camels, and is quite as rough and grotesque in 
 appearance. Mounted on his high, humpbacked animal, he is 
 surrounded with baskets filled with tribes of cats, which thus 
 make the sacred pilgrimage. They look out upon the multitude, 
 receiving its applause, fully realizing and enjoying, apparently, 
 the distinction which places them above the rest of the feline 
 race. 
 
 All business had been suspended for the day. Shops, stalls and 
 stores remained closed and the many thousands who had been 
 on the streets in their best attire, since early morning, were now 
 massed along the line of the route of the pilgrims, even the women 
 mingling in the crowds. Our seis, preceding us, cleared the way 
 for our carriage and we entered and continued for some distance 
 in the current of this stream of humanity. 
 
 This native part of Cairo, with its narrow streets and quaint 
 arabesque architecture, was always attractive, but at no other 
 time was it so interesting and picturesque as when it donned its 
 holiday dress for the pilgrim procession. Its buildings were 
 gorgeously decorated. Besides the traditional palm-branches, 
 there were flags, streamers and banners of various colors and 
 devices in superabundance. The roofs and windows were filled 
 with throngs of both sexes and of all classes and ages eager to 
 obtain a view of the passing pageant. The scene on either side, 
 to us, as we passed, was a panorama of a mass of joyous, festive, 
 enraptured human faces, surrounded with and embedded in the 
 deep, rich colors of Oriental costumes, drapery and bunting. 
 
 Leaving the route of the pilgrims, we passed to a side street 
 and hurried on to the outer gate in order to obtain a view of that 
 
 ^ Gate of Victory. 
 
The Mecca Pilgrimage 51 
 
 part of the procession which had preceded us. Companies of 
 soldiers, infantry and cavalry had already passed, and were 
 moving toward a desert camping ground near by. Each section 
 of the procession was preceded by a native band of music, some 
 of the bands being mounted on camels. There were court offi- 
 cials, military, civil and religious, other high dignitaries, with 
 rich uniforms, decorations and abundance of gold lace. Many 
 of them were accompanied by their guards or kavasses in equally 
 showy dress. There were companies of dervishes, each order with 
 a different colored turban (blue, green, white and red) and with 
 fiags and banners to be equalled in richness of decoration only 
 in the Orient. Some, engaged in their peculiar form of worship, 
 were saying their prayers and whirling and throwing themselves 
 into a religious frenzy. Others were eating serpents, swallowing 
 pieces of broken glass and walking on the sharp edges of swords. 
 Still others had spikes passing through their cheeks from one side 
 of the face to the other. And all these things, it should be re- 
 membered, were done under the guise of rehgion and with a pre- 
 tense of being miraculously preserved from harm. 
 
 There were half-naked swordsmen, civic orders or guilds with 
 various devices, people on horses and donkeys, desert Arabs 
 on camels with spears, shields and all their wild fanciful cos- 
 tumes and trappings, interspersed with bodies of regular troops. 
 Such were some of the features of the long train of believers in 
 the Prophet which required more than two hours for its passage 
 through Bab en-Nasr. 
 
 Those who were to make the pilgrimage and various orders 
 of dervishes went into camp in the desert just outside of the city. 
 Here, two or three days were spent in further preparations and 
 religious festivities. The Whirling, Dancing and Howling der- 
 vishes continued nightly their pecuUar devotions. They thus 
 aroused a religious frenzy which stimulated and encouraged 
 those who were about to undertake, in fulfilment of a pious duty 
 
5 2 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 for which no sacrifice is too great for the true Moslem, the long 
 and perilous journey to the Holy City. And this pilgrimage is a 
 real sacrifice. Exposed to the contagious diseases that fre- 
 quently prevail at Mecca and to the privations of ninety days on 
 the deserts, many of the pilgrims fail to return. Mecca and the 
 sands of the deserts along the routes thereto are strewed with 
 the bones and ashes of generations of the faithful. 
 
 The first day's journey is to the Birket el-Hagg — Lake of the 
 Pilgrims — about ten miles distant. The dervishes accompany 
 the caravan to this place, where there is one more night of devo- 
 tion. Then come the farewells to families and friends and the 
 departure. 
 
 On leaving Cairo, going east, one immediately enters and 
 continues in the desert. The Derb el-Hagg — ^Route of the Pil- 
 grims — crosses the Suez Canal near the ruins of the ^^ ancient 
 Arsinoe," ten miles north of Suez, and thence continues a little 
 south of east across the Sinai peninsula to the head of the Gulf 
 of Akabah. It then runs near the coast of the gulf and of the 
 Red Sea, until it reaches Mecca. The whole distance traveled 
 is a continuous waste of rocky, sandy deserts, with only rare, 
 small, verdant spots. At Mecca, the three caravans meet the 
 great mass of the pilgrims who have journeyed, by way of the 
 Red Sea, from Persia, India, Turkey, and the northern states 
 of Africa, including Egypt, and have landed at Jeddah, two 
 short days' journey from the Holy City. The whole number 
 assembled is often a hundred thousand. 
 
 After the performance at Mecca of the customary religious 
 rites, the splendor of which is said to be unsurpassed, the pil- 
 grimage is continued eastward, six hours, to Mount Arafat. 
 Here, according to Mohammedan tradition, Abraham prepared 
 for the sacrifice of his son, not Isaac, but Ishmael, whom they 
 regard as the father of the Arabic race. The pilgrims ascend 
 the mountain, or hill, as it really is, and remain there during 
 
The Mecca Pilgrimage 53 
 
 the night. The next day, the tenth of the twelfth month, they 
 sacrifice a lamb in commemoration of the sacrifice made by the 
 prophet, Ibrahim,^ as they term him, in obedience to the com- 
 mand of God. That night, at the foot of Arafat there is a great 
 slaughter of lambs, and feasting is universal throughout the 
 Moslem world. Those who are unable to procure a lamb or the 
 meat of some pure animal are supplied by their more fortunate 
 neighbors.^ It is the Id el-Kebir, the Kurban Beiram, the time 
 of giving alms to the poor and gratuities to servants, of providing 
 new garments for children, of official and private receptions, of 
 congratulations and general feasting and rejoicing — in a word, 
 for festive observances similar to those at the close of Ramadan. 
 
 The caravan occupies sixty days in returning. It travels 
 slowly, going by Medina to visit the tomb of Mohammed, and 
 passes a considerable time in quarantine near Suez. It arrives 
 in the vicinity of Cairo, the last of Safar, the second month of 
 the new year. 
 
 The pilgrims are met at some distance from the city by rela- 
 tives, friends and dervishes with music and loud demonstra- 
 tions of joy. But, mingled with the din of kettle-drums and 
 other harsh native instruments of music, and the firing of guns, 
 are to be heard the agonizing cries and lamentations of wives 
 and children, who, coming out to welcome husband and father, 
 find only his vacant place in the procession. After remaining 
 encamped outside the city until the arrival of the date for the 
 closing ceremonies, the caravan enters the town with the same 
 pomp and display with which it departed. 
 
 The Kisweh and the other coverings which have been replaced 
 by new ones are brought back, cut into the original pieces of 
 
 ^ It was this prophet who, according to Moslem belief, first established the 
 true religion. 
 
 ^ More than fifty thousand sheep are slaughtered at Mecca for this festival, 
 which continues three days. 
 
54 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 which they were formed and given to the mosques and reUgious 
 sheiks as holy relics. The entrance into the city is made at the 
 beginning of the religious festivities that are held in honor of 
 the birth of Mohammed, the second day of Rabi el-Awwel, the 
 third month of the Moslem year. There is, on this occasion, a 
 great assemblage of different religious organizations, mostly 
 dervishes, from various parts of Egypt. Cairo again puts on its 
 festive, picturesque garb. The celebration continues until the 
 eleventh of the month, ending, at the time of which I am writing, 
 with the Dosseh. 
 
 The streets were filled with natives in their gayest costumes, 
 with a sparse sprinkling of European residents and travelers. 
 There were long lines of booths with candy-toys, bread, cakes, 
 coffee, stalks of sugar-cane, gourds, melons and other fruits and 
 edibles of the country. Native amusements abounded; music 
 and the story-teller (at the coffee-booth), the swing, the see-saw, 
 the Egyptian Punch and Judy, the merry-go-round. Companies 
 of soldiers and frequent processions of dervishes with their 
 music, gay flags and banners were passing. 
 
 After the heat of the day came the soft, dry, agreeable atmos- 
 sphere of the evening. Apparently everyone was on the streets, 
 and the festive scenes were at the height of their gayety. The 
 booths were brilliantly, often fantastically, illuminated. Min- 
 strels and bands of music were heard at every turn. The dervish 
 processions carried colored lamps. Harem carriages passed rap- 
 idly, preceded by flashing torches borne by torch-bearers, their 
 outrunners loudly crying, ''Clear the way!" 
 
 A spacious field had been appropriated for an encampment 
 in which each religious order had its large and gorgeous tent, f 
 Throughout the day and night, dense masses of people were 
 wandering over the grounds. The Dancing or Whirling der- 
 vishes and those popularly known as the ''Howlers" continued 
 incessantly their accustomed devotions, edifying the Mussul- 
 
The Mecca Pilgrimage 55 
 
 man and amusing the Christian or arousing in him feelings of 
 pity. 
 
 During the last three nights, there were extensive fireworks, 
 an artifice in which the Arabs excel. The animation of the mov- 
 ing masses, the brightly lighted tents with their canvas Ufted 
 on one side, exposing the dervishes in all their rhythmic move- 
 ments, the festoons of light made by lamps suspended to ropes 
 of various lengths and heights, each order having its own color, 
 combined with the display of Roman candles, rockets and other 
 beautiful or fantastic fireworks to produce a magnificent spec- 
 tacle. All classes were present. The Crown Prince was in his 
 tent, surrounded with high officials and male members of his 
 family. Numerous carriages passed containing richly dressed, 
 thinly veiled inmates of the harems of the Khedive and pashas 
 or European residents. Peasants mingled with the laborers and 
 artisans of the town, the rich with the poor. The ubiquitous 
 traveler appeared on his donkey, afoot, or in his carriage, accord- 
 ing to his tastes or the size of his purse. 
 
 From the beginning to the end of this long celebration of the 
 birthday of the Prophet, there seemed to be no decrease of en- 
 thusiasm. There was to be a fmal act, however, changing the 
 long and pleasing drama into a disgraceful, sickening tragedy, 
 and leaving a lasting impression both upon the Moslem and the 
 Christian, but for very different reasons. 
 
56 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE DOSSEH AND DERVISHES 
 
 The word Dosseh, literally translated, means "a stepping," 
 or "treading upon," and conveys, in its original language, the 
 idea of crushing under the feet. The ceremony consists of a 
 sheik of the Saadiyeh dervishes riding, on horseback, over a 
 large number of devotees. These prostrate themselves upon the 
 ground, lying upon their faces, packed closely together. 
 
 In the forenoon of the eleventh of the month, the Rifa'i der- 
 vishes, of which the Saadiyeh is one of the orders, assembled 
 near the mosque of Hasanen. Others of the more fanatical 
 dervishes joined them, and a procession of several thousand 
 was formed. The Sheik of the Saadiyeh, having passed the night 
 in fasting and religious ceremonies in preparation for the miracle 
 of the day, came to this mosque for his midday prayer. When it 
 was finished, he mounted a medium-sized stallion, joined the 
 procession in the rear and rode with it to the encampment, 
 where, since ten o'clock, an immense mass of people, fifty thou- 
 sand or more, had been anxiously awaiting their coming. 
 
 On one side of the field, to the left of the entrance, was a long 
 row of tents. The most distant tent was that of the Sheik of 
 the reUgious orders taking part in the Dosseh, the next, that of 
 the Khedive, was occupied by his Highness Tewfik Pasha and 
 his friends; the third, by prominent Europeans; and the others, 
 by dervishes. A space about thirty feet wide in front of these 
 tents was kept open for the entrance of the procession. Soldiers 
 
The Dosseh and Dervishes 57 
 
 were stationed in front of the tents to keep back the pressing 
 crowds. 
 
 Those who had been selected or had volunteered as martyrs 
 for the occasion marched down the open space in front of the 
 tents accompanied by an equal number of dervishes, so that each 
 man had his attendant. When the head of the column had 
 arrived in front of the tent of the Sheik of the dervishes, it 
 halted, and the men along the Hne, about four hundred in all, 
 prostrated themselves upon the ground at a right angle to their 
 line of march with their heads toward the tents. They were 
 packed as closely together as possible. 
 
 They were dressed in the ordinary manner of the poorest 
 classes and were undoubtedly from the lowest and most fanatical 
 elements of the people. They wore only loose garments, fastened 
 at the waist with a sash or cord, their feet and limbs being bare. 
 The attendant remained sitting at the head of each man during 
 the passage of the horse. 
 
 The placing of the men and the other preliminary arrange- 
 ments occupied from half to three-quarters of an hour after the 
 arrival of the procession. During this time the men were lying 
 on their faces and the pressing masses of people, each eager for 
 a place in the front rank, were kept back by the soldiers. I was 
 in the tent next to that occupied by the Crown Prince and had 
 a good opportunity to observe what took place. Opposite, across 
 the line, were a large number of carriages, those of the harems 
 in the front rank, and, back of them, those of strangers and 
 foreign residents who were obliged to stand on the carriage 
 seats to see what was happening. Among and beyond the latter 
 was a seething mass of people who could not approach, and could 
 only obtain a view of the Sheik, above the heads of those in 
 front, as he rode down the line. 
 
 The bodies of the deluded devotees, when arranged and packed, 
 formed a kind of corduroy road for the triumphal march of the 
 
58 EgyP^ ^^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 holy Sheik, so holy that the Prophet miraculously protected 
 from harm those who prostrated themselves to be trampled 
 upon by his horse. If perchance it became known that some one 
 had been harmed, it was attributed to want of faith. 
 
 At a certain signal, the attendants along the Une and the 
 thousands of faithful among the people commenced crying, 
 ^* Allah" (God), ^^Allah-la-la-la-la-lah-lah," emphasizing and 
 prolonging the last syllable of the word so that nothing else 
 could be heard. At the other end of the line, two men side by 
 side were seen walking on the bodies, carrying green ^ flags, the 
 staffs of which were surmounted by spear heads. 
 
 Close behind followed the Sheik, mounted on a horse led by 
 two men. They came hurriedly down the line, amid the cries of 
 '^ Allah-la-la-la," ^' Allah-la-la-la," which gradually deepened 
 and, mingling with the excited clamor of the great multitude, 
 became a continuous, deafening roar unlike any sounds to be 
 heard except among the dervishes. The Sheik was apparently 
 a large man. He wore a green turban and a brownish-yellow 
 burnoose fastened at the waist by a sash. His eyes were closed 
 and he swayed one way and another, yielding to the motion of 
 the horse, according to the usual manner of those in a state of 
 religious ecstasy. Two men walked near him, one on either side, 
 with their hands upon his robes to prevent him from falling. 
 
 The men on the ground made no movement. Their faith 
 was strengthened by the continued invocation of Allah, whose 
 Prophet was to protect them and thus show His power to all un- 
 behevers. As the horse moved along the line, there was a general 
 rush and the crowd quickly closed in behind him the moment he 
 had passed. Whether this was prearranged by the managers, or 
 whether it was because the people could no longer be restrained, 
 I do not know. The result was to prevent the obtaining of much 
 information as to what had taken place. 
 
 ^ Green is the color of the order of the Saadiyeh. 
 
The Dosseh and Dervishes 59 
 
 The space in front of our tent had been kept clear of people. 
 As the horse approached, I obtained a position next to the at- 
 tendants seated at the heads of the men. Horses in the East are 
 used mostly under the saddle and this one, according to custom, 
 had been taught to amble. He was shod in the Oriental style, 
 with a flat circular shoe covering the whole lower surface of the 
 hoof. He passed quickly with a shuffling, nervous, unsteady 
 gait, between a walk and a pace, his feet sometimes sliding down 
 between the prostrate men, sometimes striking with much force 
 directly upon their bodies and at other times upon their limbs. 
 As the people closed in behind him, the men were hurriedly 
 assisted to their feet by their attendants or carried away by 
 them to the dervish tents near by. In less than a minute, not 
 a person was to be seen lying on the ground, and the facts as to 
 injuries were as far as possible concealed. 
 
 On two occasions I forced myself quickly, but with much 
 difficulty, into the crowd immediately after the passage of the 
 horse. On the first occasion I saw a young man arise apparently 
 uninjured and laughing as if it had been a play. Another man, 
 however, was carried away in a seemingly helpless state with 
 blood running from his nose and mouth. In the crowding and 
 scrambling, this was all the information I could obtain. On the 
 second occasion I saw some getting up unhurt; but one man was 
 unable to conceal his agony, caused by some wound, and another 
 was carried away without the power of moving his limbs, ap- 
 parently almost lifeless. I thought at the time that his spinal 
 column had been dislocated or otherwise injured, but the rapidity 
 with which all these people were moved away left little oppor- 
 tunity for observation. 
 
 By some, it was boldly maintained that no one was injured, 
 that they were all miraculously protected by the Prophet. This 
 was undoubtedly the belief of the greater part of the Moslem 
 population. By others, it was affirmed that there was a large 
 
6o -^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 number wounded each year, and among them some whose in- 
 juries were fatal. A local paper, published by Europeans, 
 claimed that in 1879, when the number of believers who pros- 
 trated themselves was greater than usual, there were three hun- 
 dred and forty wounded. This was undoubtedly a random and 
 much exaggerated statement. Even an approximate number 
 of those injured could not have been obtained. 
 
 The bodies were packed so closely together that a single body 
 occupied but a small space and the steps of the horse, in the 
 manner he moved, were very long. I estimated, at the time, 
 that he did not touch more than one in every three or four 
 persons. In any event, the results were sufficiently horrible and 
 sickening to condemn the Dosseh and to class it among the most 
 barbarous relics of religious superstition that have been be- 
 queathed to this generation. That it should have survived until 
 the last quarter of the nineteenth century is a remarkable com- 
 mentary upon human nature, as well as upon the fanaticism still 
 existing in the hirnian family. 
 
 Soon after one of these scenes, wishing to ascertain the real 
 belief of the Moslems, I questioned Hassan, than whom there 
 was no truer believer in the Prophet. He frankly informed me 
 that no one was injured on these occasions, that it was a miracle, j 
 that he would have no fear of throwing himself before the horse, 
 since he would not be injured. I told him he was mistaken, and 
 related to him what I had seen. He was somewhat startled, 
 having great confidence in what I said, but I could see that his 
 faith, though a Uttle weakened, was still strong. 
 
 The next day Hassan asked to speak with me. He said that 
 he had come to tell me that he had been to see a high sheik of 
 his religion, in whom he had great confidence. The sheik had 
 informed him that there were people injured at the Dosseh and 
 sometimes killed, but that the Dosseh was no part of the Moham- 
 medan religion. He had explained that the Dosseh was an old 
 
The Dosseh and Dervishes 6i 
 
 practice of certain fanatical dervishes which disgraced their 
 religion and had affirmed that he would be glad to have it, as 
 well as many other practices of certain orders of the dervishes, 
 discontinued. This was the opinion entertained by all the better 
 classes, including the professors of el-Azhar, the great university 
 of Cairo. This institution is the central point of Moslem educa- 
 tion, and the fountain head whence flow the true doctrines of 
 El-Islam to all parts of the Mohammedan world. This religion 
 embraces more devotees than any other and its numbers are 
 constantly increasing. 
 
 Happily, the Dosseh now exists, at least in Cairo, only in his- 
 tory. This marvelous city will henceforth have one less memor- 
 able entertainment for the traveler. The lover of barbarous pub- 
 lic spectacles must content himself with the bull fights of Spain. 
 
 In February, 1880, I witnessed the last exhibition of the 
 Dosseh. At the urgent request of the Khedive, the sheiks 
 having control of these ceremonies discontinued them along with 
 certain other practices, such as the public eating of snakes and 
 glass, marching with needles and spikes apparently piercing the 
 cheeks, the nose, the arms, and the flesh of various parts of the 
 body and walking on the edges of sharp swords. These were 
 mostly acts of jugglery, sometimes indecent, which had been 
 up to this time common scenes in religious processions and had 
 been considered by fanatical devotees as miracles. 
 
 His Highness, Tewfik Pasha, then Khedive, and the members 
 of his Ministry were certainly entitled to much credit for the 
 suppression of these practices. The fact that the change was 
 made without serious opposition was an indication of an advanc- 
 ing moral sentiment. The Khedive had wished to abolish the 
 Dosseh. His Ministers, the Ulema and the Sheik of Islam, how- 
 ever, while all agreeing with him that it was no part of their re- 
 ligion and was, in principle, contrary to the doctrines of the Koran, 
 did not dare to take the responsibihty of so radical a measure. 
 
62 -^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 In the year 1880 several incidents occurred to aid the Khedive. 
 During this year, Allah kindly removed to the Moslems' Paradise 
 the fanatical Sheik el-Bekri, who was at the head of the der- 
 vishes, and the sheik who rode the horse, both of whom were 
 bitterly opposed to any interference with the old religious cus- 
 toms. The old horse, also, which had long served to trample 
 upon the devotees, became very sick a little before the time to 
 celebrate the Prophet's birthday. The superstitious leaders 
 interpreted these incidents as an augury in favor of the proposi- 
 tion of the Khedive and, without further opposition, consented 
 to the discontinuance of the ceremony. 
 
 Nothing definite is known as to the origin of the Dosseh. 
 While in Cairo, I heard an oral tradition to the effect that about 
 the tenth century a religious sheik, on returning to Cairo from 
 his Mecca pilgrimage, was kept outside the walls of the city for 
 the alleged reason that he had not given any proofs of such piety, 
 holiness and divine favor as to entitle him to the position he 
 occupied. It was said: ^'If he is worthy of being such a religious 
 sheik, let him give evidence of it." Irritated by these imputa- 
 tions, he caused a large number of glass bottles to be placed close 
 together on the ground, mounted his horse and rode over them 
 without breaking one. 
 
 Among the people present to witness this trial of the sheik's 
 power were many women, who, in the enthusiasm inspired by 
 the miracle they had witnessed, threw their children before him. 
 He rode over these also without injuring them. The gates of 
 the city were then opened, and, as he entered, the people threw 
 themselves down before him and he rode over them. No one 
 was harmed, and the same miracle was afterwards repeated each 
 year, until the Dosseh became a recognized part of the religious 
 ceremonies immediately following the return of the pilgrims from 
 Mecca. 
 
 It is believed by many, however, that the Dosseh was a con- 
 
The Dosseh and Dervishes 63 
 
 tinuation or an imitation of some usage of a far earlier period, 
 perhaps of Indian origin. Mohammedanism is a strange mixture 
 of all religions known to Mohammed. In it, Judaism, Christi- 
 anity and paganism are skilfully blended together, forming a 
 system well adapted to the people among whom it was to be 
 propagated, and the miraculous was one of its most essential 
 elements. Pagan customs that were not forbidden by the Koran 
 were continued. 
 
 No religious leader could obtain great renown without the aid 
 of a popular belief in his power to work miracles. Any ceremony 
 of the character of the Dosseh, that was grounded in the religious 
 habits of a people who became Mohammedans, would have 
 been readily accepted and adopted by the fanatical devotees of 
 the Prophet. 
 
 Mohammedanism is better than the paganism it supplanted, 
 and is still supplanting, and its adherents are no more super- 
 stitious than large numbers of certain branches of the Christian 
 church; but even in its greatest purity it has many elements of 
 barbarism, and its manifestations of superstition are of a grosser 
 character than those of the Christian religion. Its wonderful 
 hold upon the people of the Orient is shown by the number and 
 the unwavering faithfulness of its adherents. 
 
 There is a fanatical element in all religions, and this is repre- 
 sented among the Mohammedans by the dervishes, who number 
 many thousands. They are the monks of the Orient, but only 
 a small part of their numerous orders make religion their sole 
 business. They are mostly married men, artisans, tradesmen and 
 fellahin, who take part in religious ceremonies at stated times, 
 generally on Friday, the Moslem Sunday, and during the great 
 festivals. Some, however, are mendicants and make it their 
 business to attend religious ceremonies and funerals. These are 
 the performers and miracle workers in the processions. 
 
 The religious exercises of the dervishes are called zikrs. They 
 
^4 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 are a continued rhythmic invocation of Allah, accompanied by 
 some motion, the whole company present joining in both the 
 invocation and motion. This is sometimes kept up for hours 
 without change or rest, but generally not more than twenty-five 
 or thirty minutes. The motion of some orders is whirling, and 
 these are consequently called Wliirling or Dancing dervishes. 
 They become very proficient in this exercise. They turn on the 
 left foot and propel themselves by touching the floor with the 
 right, making from fifty to sixty rotations in a minute with a 
 graceful pose of the body, arms and hands, scarcely excelled by 
 the best dancers. 
 
 The motion of some orders is a movement of the head from 
 right to left or up and down, in the form of a nod or bow. Some- 
 times, there is a movement of the upper part of the body back- 
 wards and forwards, to the full extent of its bending capacity. 
 The head is brought forward and down to the knees, and thrown 
 back until it nearly touches the lower part of the body. The 
 whole company keep time in this motion, and shout in concert 
 their prayers, in which the principal sounds are those of ''Allah- 
 la-la-la." These dervishes and others whose zikrs are of a similar 
 character are called by strangers the Howling dervishes. 
 
 Some make their invocations sitting, and some reclining or 
 lying on their breasts; but all continue their prayers in concert, 
 in a fixed measure of time and with frequent cadences, and pro- 
 longations of the ''la." Their eyes are closed, and they often 
 reach such a state of religious ecstasy that they fall into con- 
 vulsions. It must not be inferred that the dervishes are not 
 sincere in their devotions. They are faithful believers in the 
 Koran, genuine and devout disciples of the Prophet. 
 
A Journey to Mount Sinai 65 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 A JOURNEY TO MOUNT SINAI 
 
 The peninsula of Sinai is a part of the territory of Egypt. 
 Only an occasional traveler visits the sacred mountains. The 
 trip is ordinarily made on camels starting from Suez. For those 
 who have no special official aid, this is the only practical route. 
 The journey requires three weeks, sixteen days of the time being 
 occupied in traversing the deserts. If the dragomen and camels 
 are hired by the day, without limit as to time, several days more 
 will probably be needed. 
 
 Food must be taken for the whole trip — except bread, a poor 
 quahty of which can be procured at the Sinai-convent. In case 
 of necessity, rice, lentils and dates are sometimes furnished by 
 the monks, but at the time of our visit nothing could be obtained 
 but coarse bread. In the dry season, palatable water will be 
 found only in two or three places on the route, and supplies must 
 be taken from these points. To insure admission to the convent, 
 letters from the monastery of the Sinaites at Cairo are required. 
 
 Instead of taking the ordinary route, our party went by sea 
 from Suez to Tor, one hundred and sixty miles, thence to Sinai 
 by camels; an arrangement by which our desert travel was re- 
 duced to eight days — going from and returning to the sea. We 
 had letters from Cherif Pasha to the Governor of Suez, asking 
 him to aid us in securing passages, and to the Governor of Tor, 
 to procure camels for our party. Without these letters, it would 
 have been difficult to procure either on reasonable terms, es- 
 
66 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 pecially the camels. The company consisted of General Loring, 
 an ex-Confederate officer; the consular clerk, Mr. Edward A. 
 VanDyke; the consular kavass, Hassan; a cook and a colored 
 servant. We took two tents, beds, blankets, canned meats, 
 fruits and necessary arms and personal effects with us by railway 
 to Suez. 
 
 When we left Cairo, we expected that passage to Tor would 
 be obtained on a steamer that had been fitted out by the Govern- 
 ment to transport Captain Burton and a company of laborers and 
 soldiers to the "land of Midian," on the east coast of the Gulf of 
 Akabah, in search of gold. The Captain had represented to the 
 Khedive, that he had found gold in that country, on the route to 
 Mecca, and had claimed that it was the real Ophir of the Bible. 
 He had thus induced the Khedive to fit out for him an Argonautic 
 expedition. This was one of the many cases in which his High- 
 ness, Ismail Pasha, was imposed upon by Europeans. Specimens 
 of iron pyrites and a little copper were the only results of this 
 expensive expedition. 
 
 There was a delay in the starting of the steamer, which made 
 it necessary for us to obtain a boat for our excursion. After the 
 usual long negotiations, inevitable in deaUng with Arabs, an 
 arrangement was made for an open twenty-five ton sailing vessel. 
 Two days would be required, it was claimed, to prepare for the 
 voyage. We utilized a part of this time in making a visit to the 
 Springs of Moses, Ain Musa, which are on the regular camel 
 route to Sinai, not far from the sea, and about three hours distant 
 from Suez. 
 
 We were taken across the shallow waters and the Suez Canal 
 in a small native boat, and thence by donkeys. After crossing 
 the Canal, we were in Asia and on the border of a vast desert. 
 East and south, there was an extended view of plains, hills and 
 mountains of sand, gravel, earth and rock, without vegetation, 
 and of a dull, monotonous yellow tint. It was the last of Novem- 
 
A Journey to Mount Sinai 67 
 
 ber. The long, dry, hot summer had parched and burned up all 
 vegetation, and a brisk north wind enveloped us in a continuous 
 cloud of dust. 
 
 On our right was the Red Sea, or more correctly speaking 
 that arm of it which is known as the Gulf of Suez. It is only a 
 few miles in width at this point, but deep, and as blue as the sky 
 it reflects. Beyond it, rising from near the water line, are the 
 mountains of Ataka, nearly three thousand feet in height, and 
 wholly destitute of vegetation. On our left was only the desert, 
 bordered by the mountains in the distance. 
 
 The Springs of Moses consist of a number of small basins of 
 brackish water, some on the surface of the ground, and others 
 on the tops of mounds in the form of truncated cones. The 
 largest of the springs forms a pool about fifteen feet across, and 
 was surrounded, at the time of our visit, by a garden with a few 
 palm- and acacia-trees, thus making a little oasis. These are 
 the springs, according to tradition, the waters of which were 
 made sweet by casting into them the branch of a tree shown to 
 Moses by the Lord. 
 
 There were several mud huts occupied by Arabs who irrigated 
 and cultivated a small plot of ground. Most of the mounds with 
 their basins of water were but little above the desert. One of 
 them was remarkable for its size and altitude, rising, according 
 to our estimate, to a height of thirty feet. It was very regular in 
 form and had on its top a basin of shallow water, five or six feet 
 in diameter, whence a very little water ran over the rim and down 
 the sides. Standing on the top, I looked about the country to 
 discover a higher point that might be the source of the water that 
 fed the spring, but I could see nothing nearer than the Raha 
 mountains, ten to twenty miles to the east. The desert gradually 
 descended westward to the sea, distant one or two miles. 
 
 The mound was a solid mass of rock — a coarse sandstone. 
 The water contained lime or some other element which cemented 
 
68 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 together the drifting sands. The mound being thus commenced, 
 the water that ran over its sides united the particles of sand blown 
 into it, thus continuing its growth. 
 
 A geologist, who has lately examined the mound, asserts that 
 the cementing element is the calcareous integuments of a small 
 transparent insect, the water flea, of which he found myriads in 
 the water of the basin. Whatever it may be that unites the sand 
 and soUdifies it into solid rock, it is evident that the mound was 
 formed and is still forming in the manner stated. 
 
 According to tradition, this is the point of the assembling of 
 the Israelites after their passage ^Hhrough the sea," the place 
 where ''Moses and the children of Israel sang their songs of tri- 
 umph, and Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a 
 timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with 
 timbrels and with dances." 
 
 We were to have sailed from Suez on the morning of the third 
 day after the making of our contract. As usual with the Arabs, 
 there was delay and, before all was ready, the last rays of the 
 evening twilight had disappeared. There was a strong north 
 wind, which is the prevailing wind on the Red Sea at that 
 season of the year. Our tent and our provisions for two weeks, 
 including casks of Nile water, the only good water in Egypt, were 
 on board, and the last tardy sailor had made his appearance. 
 Our Consular Agent at Suez, with some friends, had come to see 
 us off; but, when we were seemingly ready to sail, the captam 
 came to me to say that we would do better to wait till morning, 
 that he thought the wind would increase and that we should have 
 a disagreeable night. 
 
 This was what I had expected. In Egypt it is always "to- 
 morrow," ''bookra." After much talk, we moved out of the 
 harbor. There was a splendid sailing wind and the stars shone 
 brightly, but there was no moon and it was damp and chilly. 
 The tall Atakas soon shut off half the western sky and increased 
 
72 
 
 
 :Z2 
 
A Journey to Mount Sinai 69 
 
 the darkness. The wind, hugging the sea between the mountain 
 ranges, gathered strength. We were making good time, but the 
 boat pitched and rolled badly. Exposed to the wind and spray 
 in an open boat, the prospects for the night were not very promis- 
 ing either for comfort or sleep. 
 
 At that season, bad storms were unusual, but the Red Sea, on 
 account of the numerous coral reefs along its shores, is regarded 
 as so dangerous for large saihng vessels, that those bound for 
 India and other Oriental countries go around the Cape of Good 
 Hope. This part of the sea is narrow, and, as we were on the 
 direct track of the great number of ocean steamers that pass 
 through the Suez Canal, a good lookout was kept. Thanks to the 
 wind and the movement of the boat, there was little danger of 
 the men sleeping on their watch. 
 
 The Arabs are cautious and timid sailors and take as little risk 
 as possible. With their small vessels, they generally follow the 
 coasts and, when a safe landing-place can be found, pass the night 
 on the shore. This sea has been the highway of Oriental com- 
 merce through all historic periods, its vessels competing, up to 
 the present age of steam, with the camels, '^ the ships of the des- 
 erts," on the overland routes. The boat we were in was probably 
 no better than the boats sent out by Solomon with the servants 
 of Huram in the expeditions to Tarshish for gold, silver, ivory, 
 incense and precious stones; ^ nor than those sent by Queen 
 Hatshepsu in her famous expedition to the land of Punt ; nor than 
 those afterwards used by the later Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, 
 the Romans and the Arabs, whose craft have successively plowed 
 these waters. 
 
 We had a disagreeable night, but the next morning found us 
 well on our voyage. Our boat was light, the lateen sails large, 
 and the north wind still strong. Not a cloud was to be seen and 
 the sun rose over the Wuta mountains, bright and warm, and 
 
 lllChronicles, IX, 21. 
 
70 ^SyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 gave us the first day-view of the crew. The captain and sailors 
 were barefooted and barelegged, with long blue cotton shirts 
 fastened tightly with a girdle about the waist, as outside gar- 
 ments. They wore the ordinary skullcap and turban. 
 
 The warm sun soon took the moisture out of our blankets and 
 garments, and a cup of coffee, made on a camp stove we had 
 brought, relieved our fatigue and restored our natural amiability. 
 During the day, mountain ranges were seen on either side, 
 steamers were occasionally met or passed us. A little before 
 sunset, the village of Tor, with its groves of palms, appeared 
 and we were soon at anchor in its harbor. 
 
 From Suez to Tor, on either side of the sea, are only waterless 
 deserts without vegetation, except the few winter-plants. There 
 are no habitations nor inhabitants. One shipwrecked on these 
 shores would not find a morsel of food nor a drink of fresh water 
 in the whole distance. 
 
 While our tents were being pitched and dinner prepared, I 
 called on the Governor, presented our letter from Cherif Pasha 
 and informed him of our wishes. He said that there were two 
 encampments of Arabs then not far from the town and that he 
 would send a messenger asking them to bring in the requisite 
 number of camels. 
 
 Tor is a natural harbor, well protected by coral reefs, and fur- 
 nishes the only safe anchorage for ships in this gulf, except the 
 port of Suez. It is a small village of mud huts used chiefly as a 
 quarantine station for pilgrims on their return from Jeddah, 
 the seaport of Mecca. Every good Moslem is bound to under- 
 take, once in his life, a pilgrimage to this holy city. The great 
 mass of the population on the southern and eastern coasts of 
 the Mediterranean, from Morocco to Turkey inclusive, are of 
 the Mohammedan faith and the annual nmnber of pilgrims is 
 very large. Most of these pilgrims, to avoid the long desert trip, 
 make the journey by water. 
 
A Journey to Mount Sinai 71 
 
 It has many times happened, that the pilgrims from India and 
 Persia have brought with them to Mecca cholera and other dan- 
 gerous, contagious diseases, which have thus been introduced 
 into Egypt and Europe with fearful results. For this reason, 
 the pilgrims have, in recent years, been stopped in Tor for ex- 
 amination and retained in quarantine there as long as the health 
 officers have thought necessary. 
 
 Except when used for this purpose. Tor is only a very small, 
 dead village. On the return of the pilgrims from Mecca, vessels 
 are anchored in the harbor, and large numbers of tents are seen 
 on the deserts near the sea. These are occupied by thousands 
 of Moors, Arabs and Turks, from Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Trip- 
 oli, Egypt, Syria and Turkey, and are guarded by Egyptian 
 soldiers. These different nationalities and various tribes wear 
 the burnoose — a flowing robe — and the turban; but, in the 
 color and other characteristics of their dress, there are often 
 striking differences which add to the picturesqueness of the 
 scene. 
 
 The Sinai monks have a small convent at this place, occupied 
 by several of their members, who receive and forward supplies 
 of provisions to Sinai and have charge of some small palm-groves 
 near the village, which belong to the order. Here also are large 
 springs of good water from which the gardens are irrigated, but 
 the supply is not sufficient for the pilgrims. The deficiency was 
 formerly made up by water brought from Suez. It is now pro- 
 vided for by distillation. 
 
 The next morning, on coming -from my tent, I found a group 
 of Bedouins with their camels awaiting us. Nearly the whole 
 day was spent in examining and trying the animals, choosing 
 such as we thought the best, in bargaining and in various prepara- 
 tions. The camels of the desert are of a different race from those 
 usually employed in Egypt. They are lighter, fleeter, and have 
 an easier pace; but they must be carefully selected, since the 
 
72 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 comfort of a desert trip depends very much on having an easy 
 riding camel. 
 
 During the day, we found time for a stroll along the shore, 
 where we gathered a quantity of shells and coral which we placed 
 on board our boat. The Red Sea furnishes many species of 
 beautiful shells and some that are very large. At about four 
 o'clock, we moved out of town. We had nine camels and one 
 donkey, each camel being accompanied by a cameleer, on foot, 
 and the donkey by a donkey-boy, who, in this case, was a full- 
 grown man. The tents with their poles, pegs and other appur- 
 tenances, our folding iron beds, our bedding, camp chairs, cook- 
 ing utensils, personal effects and provisions (including crates of 
 live chickens and other fowls) were all loaded upon the camels. 
 Four of them carried only baggage; the others, both passengers 
 and baggage. 
 
 On account of the prevailing north wind and the consequent 
 difficulty of returning by sea, directions had been given to have 
 the boat taken back as far as Ras Abu Zenimeh, about half way 
 to Suez, there to await us. Ras means cape, or headland, and 
 Ras Abu Zenimeh is a point south of which vessels can lie, pro- 
 tected from the north winds. The boat would have about 
 twelve days to reach this place, but, if we failed to find it on our 
 arrival, we were to continue by camels to Suez. It was conse- 
 quently necessary to provide provisions sufficient for over two 
 weeks. 
 
 Our camels advanced in Indian file with such distances be- 
 tween them as to give our party the appearance, on the desert, 
 of a fair sized caravan. We only rode out to Umm Saad, a little 
 over an hour in a northeast direction, and encamped for the 
 night. There are here a spring of fresh water, a few palm-trees, 
 and a small piece of cultivated land irrigated by the water of 
 the spring. It was the last green spot we were to see before 
 arriving at the gardens of Sinai. 
 
A Journey to Mount Sinai 73 
 
 We were under way at an early hour the next morning, with 
 the addition to our effects of goatskins of water attached to and 
 swung under the camels' necks so as to rest against their breasts. 
 We had also small sacks of drinking water which we had brought 
 from the boat. Desert springs rarely furnish palatable water. 
 It is generally charged with salts which give it a saline and 
 disagreeable flavor. 
 
 We now commenced a long, weary, monotonous ride diagon- 
 ally across the slightly ascending desert of el-Ka'a. This desert 
 plain, which runs in behind the coast mountains of el-Araba, ex- 
 tends northward from Tor, forty miles, and southward, along 
 the coast, forty-five miles to the southern point of the Sinai 
 peninsula. Opposite Tor it is twenty miles wide. On the east, 
 it is bounded by the Sinai mountains. After a short distance of 
 sand, we found the desert covered with small stones which gradu- 
 ally increased in size, becoming very large at the foot of the 
 mountain range. 
 
 In 1863, Abbas Pasha, then Viceroy of Egypt, visited Sinai 
 and conceived the intention of constructing a road from Tor to 
 the holy mountain. He was assassinated the following year and 
 little was accomplished, except the clearing of the stone from 
 the route we were traveling across the desert of el-Ka'a. This 
 was an important improvement, as the stone so covered the 
 ground in many places, that passage even with camels was diffi- 
 cult. Geologically speaking, this desert is of the cretaceous, 
 tertiary formation. 
 
 After leaving the immediate vicinity of the coast, we saw 
 neither animal nor vegetable life. It had not rained in eight 
 months and the very few plants which grow on the desert had 
 either disappeared or were dried and withered. Not an animal, 
 not a bird, not an insect, not a leaf relieved the absolute desola- 
 tion. The north wind was not strong enough to raise the sand; 
 but the heat of the sun, its glare reflected from the desert, the 
 
74 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 continuous plain covered with stone which had been reddened 
 and blackened by the heat of centuries, the seeming remoteness 
 of the yellow-tinted mountain range, the foot of which was the 
 goal of our day's journey, all contributed to make the day tire- 
 some and long. Pack-camels travel only two to two and a half 
 miles an hour. 
 
 I had been instructed how to avoid the excessive fatigue caused 
 by the irregular motion of the slow-walking camel, which throws 
 the body of the rider incessantly backwards and forwards with 
 a jerking movement both disagreeable and tiresome. Light 
 packages were placed upon each side of the saddle and covered 
 with blankets and wraps, making a broad, flat seat. This enabled 
 the rider to sit in any position and change as often as desired. 
 If I felt fatigued, I urged the camel into a trot, and, when at a 
 sufficient distance in advance of the caravan, dismounted and 
 rested till the others arrived. In contradiction to what is said 
 by some writers, I found the trotting of the camel easy and its 
 walking unpleasant. 
 
 We reached the base of the mountains some time before night 
 and continued our journey for about two hours up a deep, 
 narrow, rocky ravine, Wadi Hebran, finding a camping place by 
 a spring, which ordinarily had an abundance of water. It was 
 then well-nigh dry. It contained the only water found on our 
 route to Sinai. Near it were a few stunted palms. The gorge 
 was narrow, only wide enough for a passage, and the granite 
 rocks on either side rose precipitously to a great height. 
 
 The journey was resumed at a rather late hour the next morn- 
 ing and continued in this defile until some time in the afternoon. 
 It was a constant and in some places a very steep cUmb. The 
 path led over large masses of granite, in which places had been 
 cut for the camels' broad feet. Over these rough, steep passes, 
 the trusty animals moved as quietly and securely as a cat. At 
 some points, the height of the rider on their backs increased the 
 
 i 
 
A Journey to Mount Sinai 75 
 
 real or apparent danger, but there was no mishap. A little after 
 noon, we espied a small bird, the only living creature seen on 
 the whole route. There are several species of animals in these 
 mountains. The hare, the jackal, the wild goat, the hyena and 
 the leopard are said to live here, but they are rare and are seldom 
 seen. 
 
 Some time in the afternoon we passed into the Wadi, or valley 
 el-Ejjawi, whence, soon afterwards, we entered the Wadi Solaf 
 on one of the ordinary camel routes from Suez. Near the junc- 
 tion of these two routes were a number of very ancient, beehive- 
 shaped stone huts, of an unknown origin. They are called na- 
 wamis, ^'mosquito houses," by the Bedouins and it was in them, 
 according to tradition, that the rebellious Israelites took refuge 
 from the plague of mosquitoes sent, as a punishment, by the 
 Lord. The nawamis were in the form of an irregular circle and 
 from twelve to fifteen feet in diameter. They were constructed 
 in the following manner: a thick wall was built up perpendicu- 
 larly about three feet and then gradually drawn in until a circu- 
 lar roof was formed, with a hole in the center which was covered 
 with a flat stone. 
 
 At this point we were over three thousand feet above the desert 
 of el-Ka'a. Cliffs and mountain peaks were seen on every side. 
 To the west, directly in our rear, towered Mt. Serbal, high above 
 all the others, nearly seven thousand feet above the sea. Serbal 
 was originally identified by the early Christians as the Sinai of 
 the Bible. Many learned men are still of the opinion, that its 
 claim to be considered the ''Holy Mountain" is sustained by the 
 stronger proofs. 
 
 We found an ideal camping ground for the night on a sandy 
 plateau where there were a number of small thorn trees and many 
 dried desert plants. The camels were relieved of their burdens 
 and allowed to browse. Our tents were hastily pitched and 
 dinner prepared. Dried plants, dead trees and roots, sufficient 
 
76 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 for a fire during the night, were collected and branches of thorn 
 trees were brought in and cut up finely, with large knives re- 
 sembling butchers' cleavers, for the camels on their return to 
 camp. Our table was spread in the larger tent. There was served 
 a dinner, as sumptuous as could be desired, which we ate with 
 unsurpassed relish, thanks to the wearisome day's journey and 
 the clear, cool, mountain air. 
 
 A large camp-fire was built and the camels were brought in 
 and made to crouch in a circle around the fire, with their heads 
 inward, and their legs folded under them after the manner of 
 their race. Each was given a handful of beans brought from 
 Suez and, afterwards, some of the chopped thorn tree branches. 
 The Arabs had partaken of their scanty meal of coarse bread, 
 a few cooked lentils, and the fragments from our table. Their 
 day's work being ended and all preparations made for the night, 
 these simple sons of the desert were seated, Turkish style, on 
 the sand in an inner circle next to the fire. 
 
 Some of the more gifted of their number commenced the narra- 
 tion of wild tales resembling those Arabian stories which ever 
 delight childhood. The auditors were certainly interested, for, 
 till late into the night, I heard their warm applause, the pro- 
 longed '' Aah ! Aah ! Aah ! Allah ! Allah ! Allah ! " The fire was well 
 kept, but weariness finally came and one after another fell 
 asleep. Only toward the morning hours did the hum of voices 
 cease and leave the travelers in their tents, just outside this 
 charmed circle, to the solitude, the fearful stillness of a night 
 on the desert. 
 
 These solitudes produce peculiar emotions. They remind one 
 of the old patriarchs, who, in their desert homes, far removed 
 from the scenes of busy multitudes, surrounded only by their 
 families and their flocks, seem, by reason of this isolation from 
 the world, to have held a closer communion with nature and with 
 God. 
 
A Journey to Mount Sinai 77 
 
 There are about five thousand Bedouins inhabiting the Sinai 
 peninsula, and they are known under the name of Tawarah 
 (people of Tor). The ancient name of the peninsula was Tute, 
 whence the name Tur or Tor, as it is more generally written. 
 These Arabs live upon the scanty products of their oases, the milk 
 of their camels, goats and sheep, and upon what they receive for 
 furnishing travelers with camels, transporting supplies from 
 Suez and Tor to the convent at Sinai, and conveying millstone 
 and other articles to Egypt. They are sometimes employed 
 with their camels on the borders of the Delta and occasionally 
 sell one of these animals. They have a very few sheep and 
 goats, neither of which are often sold. They live in tents, ex- 
 cept that there are a few huts near Tor and on the oasis of Feran 
 through which we shall pass on our return to the sea. In these 
 places, there are small parcels of cultivated land and a few date- 
 palms, the ownership of the latter being divided between many 
 persons not habitually dwelling there. A Bedouin often owns but 
 a single tree. These people have the reputation of being very 
 honest. It is said that no one ever partakes of the dates of an 
 absent owner. 
 
 The different tribes of the Tawarah have for centuries served 
 or protected the Sinai monks. The monks, in turn, are very kind 
 to these children of the desert, feeding each day, just outside 
 their gates, those who from age, decrepitude, or sickness are 
 unable to sustain themselves. 
 
 On our arrival at the camping place I have just mentioned, 
 Hassan was very ill with a high fever. I gave him aconite for a 
 few hours, and the next morning he had so nearly recovered that 
 we continued our journey. He ever afterwards had the strongest 
 faith in my medical abilities. 
 
 The camp-breakfast was ready as soon as we were prepared 
 for it. It was hastily eaten, the tents were taken down and the 
 beds were carefully sacked to keep them free from the insects 
 
78 l^gypt '^^^^^ its Betrayal 
 
 that are always found in an Arab camp. Then there was the 
 bustle of packing, the kneeling of the camels, the loading and 
 mounting, and the caravan was again under way. These are 
 some of the usual incidents of the nightly camp on the desert. 
 
 Our route led, for some time, along the base of the mountains. 
 During the forenoon, we left the Wadi Solaf, and, taking our last 
 (hstant view on this route of Mt. Serbrd, we entered the defile of 
 Nugb el Hawa (Pass of the Wind). We then had a rise of about 
 two thousand feet in a distance of five miles. The scene in this 
 winding gorge was indescribably wild and desolate. The granite 
 mountains rose, on either side, in precipitous shattered cliffs 
 eight hundred to two thousand feet. The narrow and difficult 
 pass, the bed of a deep, swift, winter torrent, was lined by mas- 
 sive pieces of rock, which had been detached from the towering 
 cliffs. These rocks nearly blocked the way, leaving in many 
 places but a scanty space for the loaded camel. There was an 
 occasional stunted tree and a very little vegetation, but these 
 in no way relieved the desolate grandeur of this high, rugged 
 mountain pass. 
 
 The difficult work of clearing the camel path among these great 
 blocks of stone was done by the early Christians. Some of the 
 rocks were moved, the path was made to wind in and out among 
 others and, in some cases, a way was made over immovable 
 masses by laying other rocks beside them. This was the shorter 
 of the only two passes through the mountain barrier, which rose 
 in some places nearly seven thousand feet above the sea and 
 was only a few miles distant, on the northwest of Sinai. 
 
 For two and a half hours the camels, carefully placing their 
 feet, slowly mounted with their burdens. On reaching the sum- 
 mit, we were a mile above the sea, and at the entrance of the 
 plain of Er-Raha (Rest). 
 
Mount Sinai 79 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MOUNT SINAI 
 
 Suddenly and unexpectedly we had before us a scene of im- 
 posing grandeur. In front was a plain, from one-fourth to a half 
 mile in width and nearly two miles in length. It descended 
 gently to the base of Pv,as Sufsafeh (Mount of the Willow), a wall 
 of naked rock which rose abruptly directly before us, nearly two 
 thousand feet. Behind it, nearly a thousand feet higher, was 
 Jebel Miisa, the ''Mount of Moses." These two mountains con- 
 stitute the principal part of the Sinai group, their summits being 
 nearly two miles apart. 
 
 On the left of this group, is the Wadi ed-Der, at the base of 
 which is the convent of St. Catherine with its high walls, trees 
 and gardens. Opposite the convent, on the other side of the 
 narrow valley, is another mountain group of about the same 
 extent and nearly as high as that of Sinai. To the left of the 
 plain of Er Ptaha, is Mount el-Eskiif, and to the right. Mount 
 el-Ghabsheh. All these mountains are mere masses of angular, 
 naked, igneous rock, composed mostly of granites and syenites. 
 
 The high, desolate, sandy plateau lying at our feet, amid the 
 surrounding mountain walls, was the supposed place of the en- 
 campment of the Israelites before the "Holy Mountain." That 
 mountain, rising before us, was the scene of the glory and power 
 of God, of the delivery of the tablets of the law, of thunders and 
 lightnings, of the ''strong wind that rent the mountains and 
 broke in pieces the rocks, before the Lord." It was the spot 
 
8o EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 where came to Elijah, after the wind, the earthquake, and the 
 fire, the '^ still small voice." ^ 
 
 On our arrival at the convent, we presented our letters, were 
 kindly received and, by invitation, pitched our tents in the gar- 
 dens, which were surrounded by high walls. The camels and 
 Arabs remained outside, camping in the desert until the time of 
 our departure. The gardens contain but a few acres and are 
 irrigated during the long rainless summer by waters from a reser- 
 voir which is filled in the winter. They are at the base of the 
 mountain slope, and a high retaining wall has been built on the 
 upper side to protect them from the torrents caused by the winter 
 rains. They form a small oasis, the fragrance of which is refresh- 
 ing and delightful to one who has been traveling for days on 
 the desert. They produce a variety of vegetables and among 
 their fruits are the orange, quince, almond, peach, olive, fig and 
 pomegranate. Vines climb the walls and a number of tall cypress 
 trees lend, during the hot summer, their grateful shade. 
 
 It had been hazy during the latter part of the day and, after 
 the setting of the sun, the heavens were completely obscured. 
 In the evening, a monk came to our tent to say that the Prior 
 sent us an invitation to come into the convent for the night, 
 adding that he thought it would rain before morning. This 
 change would require the removal of all our beds and effects, as 
 only empty uninviting rooms could be furnished or rooms with 
 beds we did not care to occupy. So, after consultation, we con- 
 cluded to remain in our tents and sent our thanks to the prelate 
 for his thoughtful kindness. 
 
 At about two o'clock, we were awakened by a sharp report of 
 thunder. This was soon succeeded by another and then peal on 
 peal quickly followed and reverberated from mountain to moun- 
 tain, the sound being heightened, sharpened and quickened by 
 its confinement between the lofty surrounding cHffs. Our tent 
 
 ^ I Kings, XIX, 12. 
 
Mount Sinai 8i 
 
 was intermittently as light as day. On going outside, we wit- 
 nessed one of the grandest displays of nature. The heavens were 
 ablaze. Piercing, dazzling lines of fire darted in every direction 
 among the overhanging rocks, hghting up mountains and valleys. 
 These were followed by sharp, deafening peals, that made the 
 mountains tremble, as if they were rent asunder. The reverbera- 
 tion, at first sharp, quick and loud, slowly died away in the 
 distance, like a roar of falling fragments crashing down the 
 mountain sides. 
 
 Fierce thunder-storms are always impressive, and especially 
 in childhood. The lightning, the thunder, the wind, the rain of 
 such wild scenes remain vivid in the memory. But I have 
 never witnessed anything approaching in its fierceness, its power, 
 its awful grandeur, the thunders of Sinai. Their sharp crashing 
 peals echoed from mountain to mountain, as if tearing away 
 the summits and scattering the fragments in the surrounding 
 valleys. I was reminded of the graphic Biblical account of the 
 scene in the same place, thirty-two hundred years before, when 
 " there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the 
 mount, and the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke 
 thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole moun- 
 tain quaked greatly." 
 
 Wind and rain immediately followed and soon we heard the 
 roar of the torrents coming down the mountain side. The ground, 
 covered with water, was softening and our tent though doubly 
 secured began yielding to the force of the storm. Hassan and 
 the gardener were on the outside with mallets vainly trying to 
 fasten the stakes and hold the tent in place. It was three o'clock 
 and the convent bells were calling the monks to the chapel for 
 prayers. 
 
 We were already well drenched, and the little protection we 
 had seemed about to be removed. We began to consider whether 
 we would not have done better to accept the invitation to enter 
 
82 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 the convent. General Loring with a soldier's tenacity still 
 strongly insisted upon remaining outside. The prelate had not 
 forgotten us. He sent a monk to renew the invitation, and to say 
 that there was danger of the falling of the high retaining wall 
 under which we were encamped. This settled the question, and 
 we removed, as best we could, through a driving storm into the 
 convent. 
 
 In the morning, all the momi tains were white with a thin layer 
 of snow. Thus suddenly had the long, dry summer changed to 
 winter. We remained at the convent during our first day at 
 Sinai, resting and viewing the objects of interest. 
 
 The mountains of the Sinai peninsula were regarded as sacred 
 long before the time of Moses and have continued to be so re- 
 garded until the present time by a large number of people. 
 
 Early in the Christian period, perhaps in the first century, 
 anchorites commenced locating in the mountains and glens of 
 this remote desert region. They erected small stone structures, 
 cut rooms in the rocks, or sought out natural caves in which 
 to lead hermit lives. Their numbers increased and, at one 
 time in the Middle Ages, it is said that there were no less than six 
 thousand of these religious people among the mountains, either 
 as hermits (anchorites), or in congregations (cenobites). They 
 were frequently robbed and murdered and were sometimes 
 massacred in large numbers by the Arabs. 
 
 Their sufferings and persecutions did not diminish their re- 
 ligious fervor, nor prevent their places from being filled by new 
 converts. In many cases, they fled from persecution in their own 
 country; but more often they were actuated by the religious idea, 
 still very prevalent in various European countries, of leading a 
 holy life in solitude. These wild mountain deserts, with their 
 sacred historical associations, were naturally a favorite resort for 
 persons disposed to indulge in this peculiar religious manifesta- 
 tion. Their number has been for a long time diminishing, and 
 
Mount Sinai 83 
 
 to-day there are no hermits and probably not more than forty 
 monks dwelling on the peninsula. 
 
 There are chapels and convents in ruins and many grottoes, 
 once inhabited, in various places among the mountains. These 
 are generally in high valleys, but sometimes in almost inaccessi- 
 ble chffs. At a very early period many anchorites settled in 
 the vicinity of Mount Sinai and claimed it as the real ''Horeb," 
 the ^' Mount of the Law." In a. d. 530, the Emperor Justinian 
 built at Sinai a church surrounded by a fortress for the protec- 
 tion of the monks who had previously lived isolated in natural 
 or artificial caves and rude stone huts. The Empress Helena 
 constructed about 326, on the site of the ''Burning Bush," a 
 tower and a chapel, which were included within the walls of 
 the fortress. The true site of the ''Burning Bush" was a long 
 time in doubt, but the exact place was finally revealed by a 
 pious monk to whom the Angel of the Lord had appeared in a 
 dream. 
 
 The fortress of Justinian is said to be the present convent. It 
 encloses a little over an acre of land, which is now covered with 
 the convent buildings and their courts. On its high, thick, 
 granite walls, are picturesque towers and covered promenades 
 which provide the monks with a cool summer resort. Ancient 
 loop-holes are still seen and, on the battlements, are a few old, 
 useless cannon. Arabs have never been allowed within the walls 
 and, until a recent date, visitors were admitted only by a door 
 about thirty feet from the ground to which they were drawn by 
 a windlass. There was at the time of our visit a very narrow 
 side door opening from the gardens, through which entrance 
 was made by a narrow stairway leading up to the level of the 
 buildings. There was also, formerly, a well protected under- 
 ground passage from the convent to the gardens. 
 
 Some of the convent buildings have been several times de- 
 stroyed by fire and all of them have been restored or rebuilt 
 
84 ^gyp^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 with changes and additions to meet the necessities of the times 
 or the caprices of the prelates. The whole interior is now a con- 
 fused mass of buildings, connected by a labyrinth of small pas- 
 sages, through which the traveler is conducted. The buildings 
 and their contents are interesting, but not very remarkable in 
 comparison with those of other similar institutions. 
 
 The church, which was built at the same epoch as the fortress 
 in the form of the Roman basilica, is massive and grand and has 
 rows of granite columns between its aisles. It has chapels, 
 altars, numerous paintings, mosaics of the seventh or eighth 
 century, swinging candelabra, a hundred lamps, and many rich 
 presents, including those of the Empress Catherine of Russia, 
 and Alexander II. It has also many holy relics, among them, 
 the skull and hand of St. Catherine, the philosopher, who was 
 executed at Alexandria a. d. 312, and whose body was carried 
 by angels, three hundred years after her martyrdom, from that 
 city to the top of Mount Katarina. As a proof of the fact, the 
 monks point to a depression in the floor of an old chapel on the 
 summit of that mountain, which they affirm was miraculously 
 made by the body at the place in which it was found. An 
 account of the miracles performed in the holy mountains would 
 fill volumes. 
 
 In the chapel of the ^^ Burning Bush," a silver plate indicates 
 the place where the bush stood, as shown by the angel to the 
 monk. Over it is an altar with suspended lamps, which are kept 
 constantly burning. On entering this chapel from the church, 
 a descent of several steps is made, indicating that the chapel has 
 been maintained in its original place and that the church and 
 other buildings are higher than the earhest constructions. It 
 is claimed that the chapel is the oldest building in the convent, 
 some being of the opinion that it dates from the time of the 
 Empress Helena. 
 
 Before entering, you are required, as Moses was, to take off 
 
Mount Sinai 85 
 
 your shoes/ but the monks have thoughtfully covered the floor 
 with rich carpets. The silver plate was removed for us, as a 
 special favor, leaving an opening in the floor, that we might see 
 the exact place where the bush stood. ^'And the angel of the 
 Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of 
 the bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, 
 and the bush was not consumed." ^ 
 
 There is a small mosque near the church, said to have been 
 built by the monks to prevent the destruction of the convent, 
 at the time of the conquest of Egypt by Selim, the Ottoman 
 Emperor. It has one minaret but contains nothing of interest. 
 
 The convent library is a valuable collection. It contains many 
 hundreds of ancient manuscripts, in Greek, Arabic, Persian, 
 Syrian and other languages, some of them beautifully illumi- 
 nated. It is particularly celebrated for having contained the 
 famous Codex Sinaiticus, a nearly complete fourth century copy 
 of the Bible, second in age and importance only to the Codex 
 Vaticanus. This manuscript is now in St. Petersburg, having 
 been purchased by the Emperor of Russia, Alexander II. 
 
 Near the middle of the gardens, and connected with the con- 
 vent by dark underground passages, are the vaults in which rest 
 the remains of the monks and priests who have died at Sinai. 
 There are two vaults and a small chapel. One vault contains 
 the remains of the lay brothers, the ordinary monks — a mass of 
 bones, the skulls in one heap, and the other bones in another. 
 The other vault contains the remains of the priests, bishops and 
 saints, in rude coffins. A few ghastly skeletons are placed against 
 the walls, and that of St. Stephen, the porter, who died in 580, 
 is sitting by the door of the priests' vault, with a violet velvet 
 skull-cap on his head and his mantle wTapped around him. 
 
 The convent had at the time of our visit about thirty inmates, 
 monks and priests. The former did the work of the establish- 
 1 Ex. Ill, 5. 2 Id. 2. 
 
86 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 ment — the cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. — ^made the clothing 
 and kept the buildings in repair. They also served as guides 
 to the occasional travelers who visit this remote region. Their 
 lives are those of ascetics. Their principal food is coarse bread, 
 vegetables and fruits. They partake of neither meat nor wine, 
 and, during their long fasts, use neither milk nor oils. They 
 belong to the Greek church and have services, mass or long 
 rituals, eight times during each twenty-four hours. Every monk 
 is required to be present at two, at least, of these services during 
 the day, and at the same number during the night. 
 
 It is difficult to comprehend the reUgious enthusiasm or devo- 
 tion that causes strong men to leave their homes and kindred in 
 order to spend their lives in this remote and desolate place. 
 They submit here to a discipline and confinement nearly as strict 
 as that of a prison. They have no luxuries, no comforts even, 
 and, from a secular point of view, no prospects. They can hope 
 for nothing more than passing a monotonous physical existence 
 and adding their bones to the heaps already accumulated in the 
 ghastly charnel-house of Sinai. 
 
 Their hardships, to-day, are slight in comparison with those 
 of the periods when these mountain sides were covered with 
 hermit dwellings. Then, as now, sufferings and loss of life, in- 
 stead of deterring others, only acted as a stimulant, inciting them 
 to take the places of the fallen and to assume, as a self-imposed 
 duty, the same burdens and endure the same privations as their 
 predecessors. 
 
Ascent of Mount Sinai 87 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 ASCENT OF MOUNT SINAI 
 
 The next day, we made the ascent of Jebel Musa, designated 
 by the monks the "Mount of the Law." In the rear of the con- 
 vent, there is a path up the mountain known as the "Pilgrims' 
 Steps." Rough, irregular blocks of granite, of various sizes, are 
 arranged to make a stairway. In the steeper parts of the ascent, 
 they are sometimes two feet in height, making it necessary to 
 climb or scramble over them. This is as fatiguing as the ascent 
 of the Great Pyramid, and the rise is four times as great. Three 
 hours of severe labor, by a good mountain traveler, is required 
 to reach the summit. This route is said to have been constructed 
 in the sixth or seventh century and, though in a bad condition, 
 is still used. It leads diagonally up the mountain side and, in 
 half an hour, we reach a cool, never failing spring, issuing from 
 under a large granite bowlder. 
 
 According to the Arabs, this is where Moses watered the flocks 
 of Jethro, and they have given it the name of the "Fountain of 
 Moses." The monks, however, claim that the waters came forth 
 in answer to the prayers of a holy abbot, at a time when the 
 springs at the convent had failed, and that the real "Spring of 
 Moses," where Jethro's flocks were watered, is at the convent. 
 As there have been no revelations made to any pious monk, nor 
 any edict of the church settling this important question, the 
 traveler is allowed to choose between the Moslem and the 
 Christian claims. The spring furnishes excellent water and has a 
 
88 -^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 right to be proud of the distinction of having supplied, in 
 this desert region, either Moses, Jethro's cattle, or the holy 
 monks. 
 
 Having rested a few minutes and partaken of the waters of 
 this venerable spring, we continued our slow march, or rather 
 climb, up the path that had been traveled by pilgrims for many 
 centuries. There was no lack of convenient resting places. In 
 a very short time, we were at a chapel dedicated to the Virgin 
 Mary, a small building of rough stone. There is no dispute re- 
 garding the miracle, the memory of which is here perpetuated. 
 All the books and traditions agree and we have no alternative 
 but to accept the version given. At a time in the dim, distant 
 past, the plague of fleas became so intolerable at the convent, 
 that the good monks formed the hardy and solemn resolution to 
 leave their cells and flee to the mountains. At this precise spot, 
 the mournful procession was met by the Holy Virgin, who or- 
 dered them to return and promised relief. They obeyed like 
 good Christians and, on their return, they found that their tor- 
 mentors had disappeared. Whether the fleas remained away 
 I am unable to give evidence, as we slept in our own beds and 
 took ample precaution against annoying intruders. 
 
 Continuing our ascent, we soon came to a narrow pass, over 
 which there was a rude arch forming a gateway and, a little fur- 
 ther on, a second. Here, in the days of numerous pilgrims, 
 priests were stationed to receive confessions and administer 
 the sacrament. We next reached a small level place, green in its 
 season, having a single gigantic cypress and near by a spring. 
 It was surrounded with reddish granite rock, rising in masses 
 and pinnacles. After climbing over a few more large blocks we 
 reached a small stone building, in which are the two chapels of 
 Elijah and Elisha, and the grotto where the former dwelt when 
 he fled from Jezebel. "And he rose and did eat and drink, and 
 went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights 
 
Ascent of Mount Sinai 89 
 
 unto Horeb, the Mount of God. And he came thither unto a cave, 
 and lodged there." ^ 
 
 We had been chmbing the mountain side over two hours. 
 General Loring had the aid of his colored servant, but was nearly 
 exhausted and some distance in the rear. With his one arm and 
 his years, this climbing and scrambling over the granite blocks 
 were too much, both for his limbs and temper. I fear that the 
 spirits of the departed monks, still Hngering in these holy places, 
 were much disturbed. Hassan, corpulent, unaccustomed in his 
 hot chmate to much exercise, and handicapped by his cumber- 
 some Oriental dress, came struggling up, puffing and wheezing, 
 vexed and disgusted, on account of the lassitude he was unable 
 to conceal. 
 
 We had now reached a height which enabled us to obtain fine 
 views of the surrounding mountains. We were at the base of 
 the peak, Jebel Musa, which for the first time had come into full 
 view. Its summit was yet an hour distant, directly south of us. 
 A little to its right, several miles away, on the other side of Wadi 
 el-Leja, was St. Katarina, the highest point on the Sinai penin- 
 sula, eight thousand five hundred feet above the sea. Near by 
 to the west was a long ridge connecting Jebel Musa with Ras 
 Sufsafeh. Continuing our ascent of the "Mount of Moses," we 
 were shown near its summit a small depression in the granite 
 rock, which, according to Moslem tradition, was the track of 
 the camel Mohammed rode on the occasion of his miraculous 
 visit to Sinai. On the summit was another small chapel and a 
 mosque built on the ruins of an ancient convent. 
 
 A cave beneath the mosque is the traditional place of Moses' 
 sojourn on the Mount. ''And Moses went into the midst of a 
 cloud, and got him up into the mount, and Moses was in the 
 mount forty days and forty nights." ^ A cleft in the rock near 
 the chapel was shown as the place where the great lawgiver 
 1 I Kings, XIX, 8. 2E3,xXIV, 18. 
 
go EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 stood when the Lord passed by. "And it shall come to pass 
 while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the 
 rocks, and will cover thee with mine hand, while I pass by." ^ 
 
 The day was clear, but cold for that latitude. The mountains 
 were still white with snow, except the steep cliffs where there was 
 no place for it to lodge. The whole scene was wild and desolate, 
 bleak momitain ranges rising one above another at nearly every 
 point of the compass. In the immediate vicinity there was no 
 visible valley, the valley views all being shut off by the lower 
 projections of the mountain group. 
 
 On the east side of Jebel Miisa there was a precipitate descent 
 of one thousand feet, but no place where an assembled host, like 
 the great body of the Israelites, could have encamped, and from 
 or near their camp have witnessed the scenes described in the 
 Biblical narrative. Our descent was made leisurely, in order to 
 enjoy the fine mountain views on the north and west. 
 
 The next morning. General Loring concluded that he had had 
 enough of mountain climbing, and decided to remain at the con- 
 vent. Mr. VanDyke wished to visit Mt. Katarina, and asked 
 that Hassan might accompany him. They were fitted out and 
 left at an early hour. 
 
 Mounted on a camel with a monk for a guide, I set out for Ras 
 Sufsafeh. The monk was a Greek, about thirty years old, over 
 six feet in height and, in form and strength, a real Hercules. 
 We went southeasterly up Wadi Shu'aib, which is a continua- 
 tion from the convent of Wadi ed-Der and, turning gradually 
 first toward the southwest and then west, crossed our track of 
 the previous day at the small plain of the cypress. 
 
 Here, the camel was sent back to the convent with the came- 
 leer. We continued on foot, following a difficult path on the 
 northern slope of the rocky ridge that connects the two mountain 
 peaks. We passed the remains of the ancient chapel of St. John 
 
 1 Ex. XXXIII, 22. 
 
Ascent of Mount Sinai 91 
 
 the Baptist, several grottoes once occupied by hermits, and an 
 old cistern. Descending slightly, we came to the chapel of the 
 ^'Sacred Girdle of the Virgin." There were here a few trees, 
 among which was the willow that has given its name to the 
 mountain (Sufsafeh). 
 
 There is a tradition that it was from this venerable willow 
 that Moses cut his miraculous rod. Neither the age of the tree, 
 nor the fact that the tradition does not accord with the Biblical 
 narrative seem to weaken in the least the blind faith of the simple 
 believer. Through some mishap, the rod, which might have 
 been used as confirmatory evidence, has not been preserved. 
 We shall, however, see later the rock it smote and this may cure 
 us of our infidelity. 
 
 We had been over three hours in coming from the convent and 
 had before us only a short, but difficult, ascent to the summit of 
 Sufsafeh. At first, we found steps, but afterwards we were 
 obHged to scramble up the steep side of the mountain. On 
 reaching the summit, we obtained our views, standing in a broad 
 cleft of a rock closed above by a well-formed, natural arch. 
 Nearly two thousand feet below us was the plain of Er-Raha, 
 through which we had passed on the day of our arrival. We had 
 then looked up to this towering mountain with its almost per- 
 pendicular face. Now the plain was in full view far below us, 
 with lofty mountains on either side. 
 
 Every historical question or association apart, the scene was 
 one of the grandest and most imposing. The historical questions 
 are: Was this the real ''Mount of the Law"? Were the valley 
 and plains lying before us once covered with the encampments 
 of the Israelites, who, looking up to the place where we were 
 standing, saw the ''glory of the Lord like a devouring fire on the 
 top of the mount"? Many learned theologians beUeve this to 
 be, contrary to monkish tradition, the "Mount of the Law." 
 It is not my intention to discuss or give an opinion upon any 
 
92 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 of the theories or beliefs regarding Mt. Sinai that have from 
 time to time occupied the attention of Christian people. I will 
 simply insert the words of one, who, like many others, believed 
 this place to have been the theater of the scenes described in 
 the book of Exodus. 
 
 ''Here is a plain sufficient for the encampment of the whole 
 people; there is the mountain rising up from it, which the care- 
 less, or the daring might approach and touch; and here, too, is 
 the commanding peak, where dark clouds and lightning flashes 
 would be visible to all. . . . All around are nature's own un- 
 changing features. There are the mountains, and there the 
 vales, that the Israelites gazed upon; there are the very peaks 
 that were once shadowed by the clouds, that hid the Almighty 
 from the view of His astonished people; that were once lit up 
 by the lurid glare of the lightnings; and that once gave back in 
 their echoes the awful voice of heaven's trumpet when it pro- 
 claimed the advent of heaven's King." 
 
 A little to the south of the place where we were standing was 
 a circular elevation, a knoll of reddish gray granite, rising two 
 hundred feet above us. On its summit was a small conical pile 
 of loose stone, showing that some one had visited the place. I 
 saw no way of approach, but was prompted to attempt the 
 ascent by the very natural desire of reaching the highest point. 
 
 My Greek guide spoke no language that I understood, except 
 that he knew a very few words of French. I succeeded in learn- 
 ing from him that the pile of stone had been placed there by 
 an Englishman, Captain Palmer. As to whether we could make 
 the ascent, he answered by a nod of the head. He also used the 
 words ^'daine Americaine,'' and, by gesture, gave me to under- 
 stand that he had made the ascent with her. Thus encouraged, 
 notwithstanding the cold, strong wind and the snow still lying 
 in many places on the mountain, I also undertook to reach this 
 summit, not apprehending any danger nor serious difficulty. 
 
Ascent of Mount Sinai 93 
 
 We scrambled for some time on the side of a dividing ridge to 
 near its top. Here the monk sat down, took off his shoes, and 
 indicated by a motion that I should also take off mine. Leaving 
 our shoes we continued our ascent, he barefooted, and I in my 
 stockings. 
 
 The monks are accustomed, like the natives, to going bare- 
 footed. They sometimes wear sandals and, for mountain travel, 
 shoes, but they are much more at ease without any pedal en- 
 cumbrances. In this condition, they are certainly very sure- 
 footed and able to climb among the cliffs with perfect safety. 
 The change in my case was of doubtful utility. The monk led 
 the way and I followed as best I could over the rough, sharp, 
 angular granite, limping and trying to maintain my equiUbrium, 
 but without cognizance of what was around me or where I was 
 going. 
 
 On passing over the ridge we were on the outer and western 
 side of the mountain. We soon came to a kind of shelf or pro- 
 jection, not more than twelve or fourteen inches wide, that ran 
 along the side of the cliff. My guide took my hand and, without 
 stopping, or giving me a moment to view the awful chasm below, 
 led me about thirty feet along this projection to its end, where 
 there was an elevation of about four feet. With the agility and 
 sure-footedness of a chamois, he mounted and drew me after 
 him and we were upon the granite knoll I had seen from below, 
 but some hundreds of feet from its summit. The way was still 
 steep, but presented no serious difficulty. 
 
 It was at this moment that I first fully realized my position. 
 Below the narrow shelf along which we had passed, there was a 
 descent, almost perpendicular in reality and quite so in appear- 
 ance, of fifteen hundred feet. The wind was blowing with such 
 force that, on further ascending towards the summit, we were 
 obliged to stand still or sit down during the stronger gusts. The 
 least misstep or loss of balance, while threading our narrow path 
 
94 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 along the side of the cUff, would have thrown us from these lofty 
 heights into the abyss below. The rock above the shelf was also 
 nearly perpendicular, and the only path by which it was possible 
 to pass to the elevation above was the one by which we had 
 mounted. 
 
 We proceeded to the summit, the place of the pile of stone. 
 The views were no better than those I had already passed, and, 
 had they been, I should not have fully enjoyed them. I was 
 seriously considering how I should descend the steep decUne to 
 the edge of the precipice, and there, on the very face of the cliff, 
 slip down to the narrow shelf. I knew by experience that climb- 
 ing the sides of steep rocks was much easier and less dangerous 
 than descending. In descending, you must go down backwards, 
 without being able to see where to place your feet, and, in this 
 case, there was nothing by which to hold with the hands. 
 
 I again resorted to pantomime to ascertain whether there was 
 any other way of descent and received, in answer, a shake of the 
 head. As we re-approached the edge of the cliff, the slant of 
 the rock became so much steeper that I commenced slipping and 
 was obliged to sit down and, in this position, approach the 
 dreaded place. The monk had preceded me and had slipped 
 down with the confidence and ease of a cat upon the narrow 
 rock projection, where he stood ready to aid me. As I ap- 
 proached him I commenced sliding and was only held back by 
 his taking hold of me. But get down I could not. 
 
 The valley of El-Leja and the plain of Er-Raha were lying 
 stretched out before us, nearly two thousand feet below, and I 
 was sitting on the edge of the cliff, as helpless as an infant, held 
 in my position by a Greek monk. I need not say that I was 
 frightened, that shudders ran over me and that lumps filled my 
 throat. Many years have now passed, but my situation at that 
 moment on the edge of the precipitous cliff, with the deep, broad 
 valley below, and the surrounding mountains, still remains a 
 
Ascent of Mount Sinai 95 
 
 vivid picture in my memory. I never think of it without a 
 shudder, and even while I now write a strange feeling passes over 
 me. 
 
 The monk tried to reassure me and to aid me to descend to 
 the narrow shelf on the side of the rocks, but I could do nothing. 
 Finally, he drew me towards him, took me in his arms, walked 
 steadily along the shelf to the other end, carrying me as he would 
 a child, and the peril was over. 
 
 Under all the circumstances, it was an athletic feat of no or- 
 dinary character, although my weight was not more than one 
 hundred and fifty-fiVe pounds. If he had conducted me into this 
 place with any waggish mischievousness, he certainly took me 
 out with a coolness and heroism deserving much praise. 
 
 Satisfied with the day's climbing and adventure, we sought 
 our shoes and descended the mountain directly to Wadi ed-Der. 
 It was a rough and difficult path, but one giving us many in- 
 teresting views of wild, fantastic rock formations. Mr. Van 
 Dyke and Hassan returned late from the difficult ascent of Mt. 
 Katarina. 
 
96 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 OASIS OF FERAN AND RETURN TO THE SEA 
 
 The weather continued unsettled and threatening and, as the 
 season was far advanced (the commencement of December), we 
 concluded to prepare for our return. Unexpected difficulties 
 arose. Some Arabs had arrived who claimed the exclusive right 
 of taking us back to the sea by the northern route. It appeared 
 that the territory had been divided and that certain Arabs had 
 the monopoly of the carrying trade in the northern, and others 
 in the southern, part of the peninsula. After much loud talk and 
 quarreling among the Arabs, in which General Loring took a 
 vigorous part with his cane, a compromise was effected by which 
 we retained our best riding camels, while the other camels were 
 exchanged. Having made the usual donation to the convent, 
 we bade adieu to the pious monks, not without regretting that 
 we could not remain longer and make a more thorough study 
 of the places which have been, according to the belief of many 
 millions, the scenes of some of the most important events in the 
 history of the Christian religion. 
 
 Retaining for the forenoon our faithful monk-guide, we sent 
 our pack-camels on into the Wadi esh-Shekh, which unites with 
 the valley by which we had come about a mile west of the con- 
 vent. P>om the point of this junction we went in an opposite 
 direction to the base of the Ras Sufsafeh, the traditional place of 
 the assembling of the Israelites. Here, they could touch the 
 mountain and see what took place on its summit. Here it was 
 
Return to the Sea 
 
 97 
 
 that Moses descended and found the golden calf, which the 
 people had set up as their God. Here, in his anger, he cast the 
 tables of the law *' out of his hands and brake them beneath the 
 mount." Various places, which tradition connects with Biblical 
 history, were pointed out to us by the monk, among them, the 
 hole in the rock which served as a mould for the casting of the 
 ** molten image." 
 
 As we approached this point, I could see by looking up the 
 face of the rocks almost directly over us, in the dizzy heights 
 of the cliff, the place of my adventure of the previous day and 
 the cleft in the rock, covered by the natural arch. Following 
 the valley for some distance around the base of the mountain, 
 we came to the rock of the "Miraculous Spring," the ''Rock of 
 Horeb." It is a reddish granite block, about ten feet in height, 
 that has been detached and lias fallen from the overhanging cliffs. 
 Running through it diagonally is a vein of feldspar, in which 
 are the horizontal crevices made by the rod when Moses smote 
 it, and from which the water issued. Our knowledge of this 
 miracle comes, as is said, through a Jewish tradition. The monks 
 affirm that the rock accompanied the Israelites in their wan- 
 derings and afterwards returned to its place at the foot of the 
 "Holy Mountain." "For they drank of that spiritual rock tliat 
 followed them: and that rock was Christ." ^ 
 
 In this vicinity, as in several other places through which we 
 had passed, there were many old Sinaitic inscriptions on the 
 rocLs. Retracing our steps and dlscliarging our guide, we fol- 
 lowed on the track of the pack-cameLs, overtaking them in the 
 afternoon. We first traveled northeast and north Um miles, 
 and then, turning to the west through the narrow pass of El 
 Watiyeh, continued in that direction. 
 
 We followed the same valley for nearly two days, constantly, 
 but slowly, descending. There were generally mountains on 
 
 1 I Cor. X, 4. 
 
98 Egyp^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 either side, some of them rising in precipitous, wild cliffs. Sacred 
 places were pointed out, and occasionally there was a scanty 
 vegetation. A considerable stream had been formed on the 
 night of the storm, and the subsiding waters had left many 
 slippery places. 
 
 Camels are sure-footed and very rarely fall, either among the 
 rocks or on the sandy desert; but where there is slipperiness, 
 especially that slipperiness arising from the sediment of muddy 
 waters, the feet of the camel often slide from under him, and he 
 falls with startling quickness and great force. During the first 
 two days of our return journey, we had some experiences of this 
 kind, in which riders and packs were left in a ludicrous position 
 in the mud. Poor corpulent Hassan, on one of these occasions, 
 became very much mixed up in his roll, with camel, boxes and 
 tent poles. 
 
 We found a dry, sandy place for our camp and the next day 
 at noon were approaching the oasis of Feran, situated in a deep 
 valley with high mountains on either side. Here we passed 
 through a section covered with the Tarfah (tamarisk), the manna- 
 producing shrub, a few of the specimens of which were the size 
 of small trees. They are found in no other place. Very small 
 holes are bored by an insect in the bark of the twigs, whence 
 issue, from March to June, drops of sap, which fall and harden 
 in the sand, forming a gum. The monks at Sinai keep this gum 
 for sale put up in small tin boxes. It is claimed that it has cer- 
 tain medicinal qualities. 
 
 It was not much after midday when we arrived at Feran. I 
 had heard and read much concerning the fertility of this oasis 
 and anticipated finding a real Eden, but was much disappointed. 
 Though our visit was at the end of a long, dry season and not 
 at a time to see it in its verdure, I was inclined to believe that 
 its reputation arose chiefly from its contrast with the surround- 
 ing deserts. 
 
Return to the Sea 
 
 99 
 
 An oasis, however small the green spot, even a single palm or 
 a tuft of grasses, is ever welcome to the thirsty traveler. By 
 this he knows he is in the vicinity of water, and even the odor of 
 vegetation is to him a real joy. 
 
 Travelers in Palestine have often wondered that such a dry, 
 rough, rugged, rocky and what to us would be a barren land, 
 should ever have been called a ''land of milk and honey." Some 
 writers have ventured the opinion that the country was formerly 
 more fertile than at present. It was undoubtedly better culti- 
 vated at some periods than at others, but, from its physical 
 condition, it could not have been naturally more productive 
 in the olden time than to-day. Whatever was obtained from 
 the soil, except scanty pasturage, was then, as now, the result 
 of much labor and, in many places, of artificial irrigation. All 
 things are relative; and, to the thirsty wanderers of the deserts, 
 to a whole generation who had never breathed other than the 
 desert air, whose eyes had never rested upon fertile, green fields, 
 it was in reality "' a land flowing with milk and honey." 
 
 When in Palestine, I visited the Jordan, and stood upon its 
 banks at the point where the Israelites are supposed to have 
 entered the country. The river, as I saw it in the month of 
 April, the ''harvest time" of the Bible, was a swollen, angry 
 stream and could not have been forded, or otherwise easily 
 crossed. Recalling the Biblical narrative, I could readily under- 
 stand how this people, as they appeared on the high eastern 
 bank of the river, and looked across the broad valley upon the 
 walls of Jericho, at the foot of the bluff lands on the other side, 
 and, beyond, upon the green hills of Judea, must have felt that 
 they were about to enter upon the fulfilment of the long deferred 
 promise of Jehovah. 
 
 To them, the land when possessed was a real fulfilment of this 
 promise, both figuratively and literally. Figuratively, it was 
 all that their imaginations could have pictured. Literally, it was 
 
loo Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 a ^'land of milk and honey." The hills and valleys furnished 
 pasturage for their flocks and herds, and thus gave them milk, of 
 which they could have had very httle on the desert. In the 
 rocky ledges of the country were many wild bees to furnish 
 them with honey. With their habits and their ideas of luxurious 
 living, what more could they have asked? It was to them a very 
 paradise. 
 
 One has only to pass a few days upon the desert to under- 
 stand the real joy with which they entered upon their promised 
 inheritance. It will be remembered that the manna ceased the 
 day after they crossed the Jordan and, perhaps, this people, a 
 whole generation of which had been born and reared on the 
 desert, ate then for the first time of grown products, the ^'old 
 corn" of the land. 
 
 Feran is considered a large oasis, but there are not over two 
 hundred acres of land that can be cultivated. It is a deep, narrow 
 valley, three hundred yards wide, with high mountains on either 
 side and a perennial brook running through it and then dis- 
 appearing among the rocks. This brook, at the time of the very 
 rare, heavy winter rains, has its source at the base of Mt. Sinai, 
 and follows the route by which we had come, sometimes flooding 
 the valley for a few hours. At other times, whatever water there 
 is rises about five miles from the place at which it disappears. 
 The rain is not sufficiently frequent to be of any importance in 
 the cultivation of the land, which is irrigated by water dipped or 
 drawn by shadufs from the stream. There are in the valley a 
 large number of palm-trees, which produce an excellent qual- 
 ity of dates, many of them being owned, as I have stated, by 
 wandering Arabs, who only occasionally come to Feran. 
 
 We saw at this place an Arab, assisted by his wife, weaving 
 tent cloth in the most primitive manner. The piece when fin- 
 ished would not be more than ten or twelve feet in length. The 
 warp was fastened, at each end, to small stakes or pins driven 
 
Return to the Sea loi 
 
 into the ground. The filling was wound on a stick and passed 
 between the threads of the warp, which were separated by a rude 
 harness moved by the hand, after the putting in of each thread 
 of the filling. The filling was drawn together with a hook made 
 of bone. 
 
 There were at Feran a few hovels and a number of Bedouin 
 tents. We tried to buy a lamb, or some chickens, but were un- 
 able to obtain anything in the way of food. One Arab woman 
 said she had a chicken she would sell, but on searching she was 
 unable to find it. 
 
 The surrounding scenery is indescribably grand. The barren, 
 naked mountains with their never ending variety of rock forma- 
 tions, the lofty pinnacles of the elongated summit of Mt. Serbal 
 apparently almost overhanging the narrow valley, though several 
 miles distant, present a scene, the picturesqueness and grandeur 
 of which are not surpassed at Mt. Sinai. The rocks were mostly 
 composed of beautiful red granite and gray gneiss, with numer- 
 ous veins of porphyry of nearly every color (green, black, flesh 
 tint, blood-red) glistening with crystals of quartz, abbite and 
 other minerals. 
 
 There are in this vicinity many ruins of ancient convents and 
 numerous inscriptions on the rocks. This arises from the fact 
 that Mt. Serbal was originally believed to be the Sinai of the 
 Bible. Until the fifth century, the oasis of Feran was the central 
 place of influence in the Christian Church on the Sinai peninsula 
 and the seat of an Episcopal see. Hermit cells were nowhere 
 more numerous than about these mountains. 
 
 Feran was the city of the Amalekites, and it is claimed that it 
 was in this valley that they fought the people of Moses. They 
 came out to meet the hordes of Israel in defense of this little spot 
 of tillable land and its never failing water, in the midst of their 
 mountain deserts. 
 
 Oases are often called islands of the desert. They do not re- 
 
I02 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 semble islands in the sense of rising above the surrounding 
 deserts, as islands rise above the waters. They are always in a 
 valley, or in a deep depression in the desert, where there is suffi- 
 cient moisture to sustain the date-palm, which, when the soil 
 permits, sends its roots down twenty and thirty feet in search 
 of aliment; and where water can be obtained sufficient to water 
 flocks and irrigate a small piece of land. Sometimes, the water 
 is taken from wells, often very deep, sometimes from springs, 
 and occasionally from streams running a short distance and 
 then disappearing as at Feran. 
 
 Neither are deserts what might be inferred from the definition, 
 "vast sandy plains," that has often been given of the word. 
 They generally consist of hills and valleys, high rolling table- 
 lands, deep gorges, and lofty mountain ranges. They are deserts 
 simply because in these regions there is no rain, or not sufficient 
 to sustain vegetation. 
 
 To plainly understand what they are, it is only necessary to 
 consider what the condition of our own country would be with- 
 out rain. Should there be no rain for a number of years, all 
 vegetation would cease. The springs and the streams, even the 
 great rivers, would be dried up. All vegetable matter would 
 disappear. The mountain tops would become denuded. The 
 naked rock of the mountains, the bowlders and pebbles of the 
 valley and plain would be blackened, or assume a dark brown 
 color, from the effect of the constantly burning rays of the sun. 
 Only in sandy regions would there be drifting sands, but every- 
 where there would be treeless, barren, desert wastes. 
 
 Dr. Schweinfurth, a great traveler, who has spent years on 
 the deserts of northeastern and Central Africa in his favorite 
 study of the botany of desert plants, informed me that he had 
 never seen a ''vast sandy plain." There are such plains, how- 
 ever, south of Algiers. 
 
 Having passed a few hours at Feran, we continued our journey 
 
Return to the Sea 103 
 
 a short distance and camped near El-Hesweh, the name given to 
 the first cultivated spot met in approaching Feran from the west. 
 The next afternoon we reached the ancient turquoise mines of 
 Magharah, in the Wadi Magharah, the Valley of the Cave. We 
 had traveled during the day in deep, wild, desolate valleys, 
 with numerous interesting rock formations, of various colors, 
 and often of fantastic forms. In some places, the precipitate 
 sides of the mountains were seamed in such a manner as to pre- 
 sent the appearance of dilapidated walls, ready to fall. 
 
 Our only relief, during the day's journey, from the wild soli- 
 tude of these desolate mountains and valleys was two Arab tents. 
 Here, we tried again without success to buy a lamb. The Arabs 
 claimed to have been visited the night before by a leopard, which 
 had carried off a small goat. 
 
 The mines of Magharah are not now worked. We did not 
 find a hovel, a tent, or a living being in this once busy place. 
 From hieroglyphic inscriptions on the rocks, it appears that 
 the mines were worked by the Pharaohs six thousand years ago. 
 The oldest inscriptions are those of Snofru, who was the first 
 great king of the Fourth Dynasty, and of Cheops, the builder of 
 the Great Pyramid. Subsequent Pharaohs continued or, from 
 time to time, renewed the work for twenty-five hundred years. 
 The extensive heaps of rubble and the shafts indicate a large 
 amount of mining. 
 
 Condemned criminals, slaves and prisoners of war were com- 
 pelled to work here and the treasures were taken to Memphis 
 and Thebes to enrich or adorn the Pharaohs and their favorites. 
 
 The rock is partly granite and partly brick-red sandstone. In 
 the red sandstone are many small turquoises, mostly soft and 
 of little value, but occasionally small hard crystals are found 
 which prove, when the crust is scaled off, to be beautiful bright 
 blue turquoises of fine quality. They are easily detached from 
 the rock with a knife. I saw many blue spots, but all the tur- 
 
I04 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 quoises I examined were soft and worthless, except for cabinet 
 purposes. 
 
 That night, we camped not far from the mines. Some Arabs, 
 old men, came to our tents with turquoises, and I bought what 
 they had that appeared to be of any value. Among them were 
 several pieces which I afterwards had cut and which proved to 
 be fine specimens. They were set and worn as ornaments, and 
 are highly prized in the family as souvenirs. There has been 
 no change in their beautiful, deep-blue color. The others I 
 placed in my cabinet of minerals. Copper and malachite were 
 also successfully mined in this place and carried to Egypt during 
 the time of the Pharaohs. There are on the rocks here, besides 
 the Egyptian inscriptions, many Sinaitic inscriptions, similar 
 to those found elsewhere on the peninsula. There are also, in 
 the vicinity, ruins of ancient origin in which tools made of flint 
 have been found. 
 
 The next morning, we continued our journey to the sea in a 
 slightly ascending valley enclosed by rocks of red granite. There 
 had been no rain since the terrible storm on the mountain, the 
 night of our arrival at Sinai. We were about twelve hundred 
 feet above the sea, the weather was pleasant, warm during the 
 day, and not disagreeable in the camp at night. It was about 
 ten in the forenoon, when we arrived at a commanding summit 
 and suddenly had before us the wild pass of Nugb et-Buderah 
 (Pass of the Sword's Point), through which we were to descend 
 to the sea and, beyond, in the far distance to the north, Ras 
 Abu Zenimeh, where we expected to find our boat. We tried 
 to extend our vision so as to see it, but could only perceive the 
 low sandy point stretching far into the sea. Two hours of de- 
 scent would bring us to a sandy and stony plain near the sea. 
 Two hours on this plain, and two hours more along the sandy 
 beach of the coast and we should be at our objective point. 
 
 On our descent toward the sea we witnessed a new series of 
 
Return to the Sea 105 
 
 geological formations of the most interesting character. We had 
 left the granite region, and the pass we were in was of variegated 
 sandstone. The descent was rapid and, as we passed from valley 
 to valley, we had a series of views of rocks of fantastic forms and 
 colors. 
 
 At some period, probably when the granite mountains of the 
 Sinai group were thrown up from the furnaces of the earth, 
 broad fissures, ten, fifteen, twenty and more feet wide, were 
 opened in the primitive rock of this region. These were filled 
 with melted lava, which, when it cooled, formed various kinds 
 of igneous rock. Much of it, blackened by the sun, resembles 
 volcanic slag. These formations generally run north and south 
 and are harder than the sandstone. In the course of time the 
 latter has been worn away, leaving the more enduring rock stand- 
 ing in relief. These projecting veins are sometimes twenty and 
 thirty feet high. They run for miles, as far as the vision can reach, 
 into and across the valleys and over low rounded mountains, 
 appearing precisely like massive walls. There were not only 
 two or three, but a great number of these formations. In places, 
 they took the form of castles and battlements, and it was 
 difficult not to believe we had in view some gigantic works of 
 man. 
 
 There were also cliffs and pinnacles of grotesque form, and rocks 
 of a great variety of colors. These colors, which are often bril- 
 liant and beautiful, have been produced by the mineral sub- 
 stances contained in the sandstone and by the different degrees 
 of heat to which it has been subjected. The fact that rocks 
 of such varied characteristics, composition, form and color, and 
 of such vast extent, are all naked, makes this region a field of 
 rare interest to the practical geologist and of enchantment to 
 the traveler. The same facilities for observation and study 
 exist in nearly all the mountainous districts of this peninsula. 
 
 Our file of camels, ten in number, accompanied by the same 
 
io6 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 number of cameleers 6n foot, moved slowly down the mountain 
 passes, across the sandy and rocky plain, along the coast, and, 
 just as the sun was about to disappear behind the mountains on 
 the western side of the sea, we reached Ras Abu Zenimeh. Here, 
 our boat was anchored and the Arab sailors were awaiting our 
 arrival. This is the traditional point of the encampment of the 
 IsraeHtes ''by the sea." ^ 
 
 A hasty council was held to determine whether we should con- 
 tinue by camels, four days, to Suez, or take the boat. The wind 
 had continued in the north, and the sailors had been eight days 
 in reaching this place. But the captain informed us that there 
 were generally land breezes at night and that, in his opinion, we 
 could reach Suez sooner by boat than by camels. There was not 
 a house, perhaps not a tent and, at that season of the year, no 
 palatable water in the whole distance. It was a monotonous 
 wearisome route along the coast, to be avoided if possible, and 
 we determined to again trust ourselves to the sea and our Arab 
 sailors. 
 
 The cameleers, having unloaded their camels and received 
 their pay, immediately departed for their desert homes, and in a 
 few minutes disappeared into the darkness that had already 
 closed around us. The fire had been prepared, and after dinner 
 we went on board with our effects and set sail. The sea was not 
 rough and the weather was apparently propitious, but as soon 
 as we passed beyond the point we found a strong north wind and 
 waves sufficiently high to make it exceedingly disagreeable in 
 our small open boat. 
 
 We continued across the sea, sailing into the wind as much as 
 possible, till about two in the morning when, being near the 
 western shore, we tacked and headed northeastward, expecting 
 to be able to run behind a point ten miles north of that from 
 which we had sailed. 
 
 1 Numbers, XXIII, 10. 
 
Return to the Sea 107 
 
 We buffeted the waves, tossed and rolled all night with the 
 spray and water coming into our boat and over us and found 
 ourselves at dawn some distance south of our intended haven, 
 near a wall of high rocks, where there was no approach to the 
 shore. The wind grew stronger as the morning advanced and 
 we had no other alternative but to run before it. 
 
 In time for a late breakfast we rounded the point and anchored 
 at the place whence we had set sail the previous evening. Had 
 our camels then been within reach, we should have abandoned 
 the sea and re-embarked on the "ships of the desert." 
 
 At the end of three more days and nights, after various ex- 
 periences with the winds and waves, we arrived at Suez. Modern 
 rigged vessels would have had little difficulty in beating against 
 the wind where there was such an amount of sea room; but with 
 a bark belonging to the period of St. Paul the task was not an 
 easy one. 
 
 Although we arrived safely and without having to be put upon 
 short rations, we unanimously decided that we would not again 
 undertake a voyage on the Red Sea in an open Arab boat. The 
 trip to Sinai, as a whole, had been most enjoyable and instruc- 
 tive. We had had sufficient desert travel to learn the character 
 of these vast wastes, and something of the mode of life of their 
 nomadic inhabitants. 
 
 We had seen nothing of that wild, savage life on the desert, 
 which has often been the theme of romance and of travelers 
 who delight in recounting marvelous tales. In fact the reckless, 
 lawless Arab exists principally in books. I have been assured 
 by those who have made extensive desert excursions and who 
 have lived with Arabs for months at a time, alone or accom- 
 panied by only a single servant, that they were in no more 
 danger than that to which they would have been subject in 
 European countries. They added that they never made a dis- 
 play of dress nor of money that would excite cupidity, as there 
 
io8 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 were bad Arabs, as well as bad Christians, who might be tempted 
 to rob or steal. 
 
 There are occasional tribal wars to avenge thefts and other 
 wrongs, and in certain localities there are marauding bands, 
 who live by plundering peaceable Arabs and strangers if they 
 happen to meet them unprotected. These, however, are the 
 exceptions; and even these are no worse than our western high- 
 way robbers and are quite as merciful as the burglars of our 
 eastern cities. 
 
 Generally speaking, the Arabs are a quiet, timid people, living 
 in extreme poverty, in a state of semi-starvation. Like hungry 
 dogs, they seize with avidity the smallest crust or bone left on 
 the sands by the traveler. A full meal is to them a rare joy. 
 
 The five thousand Arabs of the peninsula of Sinai would 
 scarcely be able to live by the cultivation of every acre of land 
 that can be irrigated by the water of a brook, spring or well, and 
 by the products of such animals as can be kept in the mountains, 
 were it not for the food brought from Egypt. This consists of 
 beans and dura (sorghum vulgare), sometimes called Egyptian 
 maize. 
 
 The question arises, how the Israelites were sustained during 
 their sojourn in this country, if it was not by food miraculously 
 furnished. There is no evidence that the physical conditions of 
 the country have materially changed during the last five thou- 
 sand years. Arabia is, and for an indefinite period must have 
 been, a land of rock, gravel and sand, without sufficient rain to 
 make it other than a continuous desert. According to the Bibli- 
 cal account, the Israelites numbered over two millions. It is 
 difficult to understand how even a himdredth part of this num- 
 ber could have subsisted upon the products of the country. 
 During the dry season, the supply of water for so great a body 
 of people would certainly have been wholly inadequate. If even 
 two thousand people should to-day enter the peninsula, and be 
 
Return to the Sea 109 
 
 cut off from supplies from Egypt and other outside countries, 
 as the Israelites were, it is probable that the greater part of them 
 would die of starvation. For those who do not adopt the con- 
 clusion of the interposition of Providence, the whole question 
 of the Exodus is still involved in mystery. 
 
no Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 LAKE MENZALEH, PARADISE OF AQUATIC BIRDS 
 
 It was in the heat of summer, the last of May, that I undertook 
 a long delayed trip by the way of Lake Menzaleh to San, the site 
 of the Zoan of the Bible and the Tanis of the Greeks. It is a 
 trip rarely made by travelers on account of the time required and 
 the difficulties of reaching this out-of-the-way place. There were 
 a number of routes, all of which required an outfit of tents, pro- 
 visions, an interpreter and camels or boats. I chose the route 
 via Mansiirah, Damietta and Lake Menzaleh. I went from 
 Alexandria to Mansurah, about one hundred and fifty miles, by 
 railway. This route, for nearly two-thirds of the distance, as 
 far as Tantah, is the same as that to Cairo. From Tantah to 
 Mansurah it passes through a section of the richest lands in 
 Egypt. 
 
 It was at the time of the low Nile and the country, except 
 where recently irrigated, was parched by the dry, hot, south 
 winds and the tropical sun. Clouds of dust accompanied every 
 moving train. The cars were in such a state of dilapidation that, 
 with the windows as closely shut as possible, there was no want 
 of ventilation and after a few hours' ride it was difficult to deter- 
 mine the natural color of the traveler. Notwithstanding this 
 annoyance and the flies, which are an ever present plague, and 
 divers other tormenting insects, there is always the greatest 
 pleasure in traveling by railway in this unique country. The 
 landscape is a continuous plain, but in the foreground are con- 
 
Lake Menzaleh 
 
 III 
 
 stantly varying scenes of Egyptian peasant life that never lose 
 their enchantment. 
 
 It was nearly sunset when I arrived at Mansurah, wearied by 
 the heat and dust and by constantly viewing the panorama of 
 the day. The station was on the opposite side of the river from 
 the city. The only way of crossing was by a small boat, although 
 as early as the thirteenth century, at the time of the crusades, 
 there was a fortified bridge at this place. I found comfortable 
 lodgings at the house of the U. S. Consular Agent, Mr. Ibrahim 
 Doud. 
 
 Mansurah, though a city of thirty thousand inhabitants, then 
 had no hotel. It is on the right bank of the Damietta branch 
 of the Nile and sixty miles from its mouth. It is a town of medi- 
 aeval origin, historically noted for being the scene of one of the 
 important battles of St. Louis (Louis IX) of France. It was here 
 that this real hero of the Middle Ages gained at great sacrifice 
 of life, in 1250, an important victory over the Saracens. The 
 Crusaders were soon afterwards defeated at the same place and 
 St. Louis taken prisoner. It is this Saracen victory that is said 
 to have given to the place the name of Mansurah, " the victori- 
 ous" or, as it has sometimes been rendered, ''field of victory." 
 
 The next morning, a guide, tent, provisions and other articles 
 necessary for the excursion were procured, the river recrossed 
 and the journey continued by rail to Damietta, five miles from 
 the sea and near Lake Menzaleh. 
 
 Damietta, once a prosperous town and one of the principal 
 seaports of Egypt, is now in its decay. 
 
 Sand-bars have been formed at the mouth of the river to such 
 an extent that only vessels of light draught can enter and its 
 commerce has been principally transferred to Alexandria and 
 Port Said. The numerous minarets and imposing domes of its 
 mosques and the high buildings along the bank of the river still 
 give to the city an appearance of much importance. The archi- 
 
112 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 lecture of its crumbling buildings attests its former prosperity 
 and wealth. It still has a population of about forty thousand 
 and is visited annually by several hundred small vessels, many 
 of which come from Greece and Syria. It has interesting and 
 well-stocked bazaars and a lucrative, though limited, trade in 
 the rice produced in that part of Egypt and the fish of the neigh- 
 boring lake. 
 
 I had now to obtain a boat, captain and sailors for a trip of 
 forty miles on Lake Menzaleh. There was no scarcity of boats 
 nor of men, but I knew by experience that much time would be 
 required to arrange the details and get the expedition in motion. 
 It was only by securing the kind offices of the Governor, by using 
 much energy and tact and appealing to the authority of the 
 faithful Hassan that a boat was ready late the next afternoon. 
 In the meantime, I was provided with lodgings at the dwelling 
 of one of the principal inhabitants. The tent, provisions, and a 
 large yawl with its sails, to be used if needed, were put on board. 
 
 When everything was apparently in readiness and I had em- 
 barked, I saw a manifest indisposition on the part of the men to 
 set the sails and depart. There was much loud talk and many 
 menacing gestures, that would have appeared serious to anyone 
 unacquainted with the character and habits of this people. I 
 was simply informed that the men did not wish to leave until 
 the next day, "bookra" (to-morrow). 
 
 Never do to-day what can be put off till the morrow should be 
 added to the catalogue of Egyptian proverbs. As is necessary 
 in such cases, I simply insisted on sailing. After more loud talk 
 and threatening gestures, as if to provoke a fight, the difficulty 
 seemed suddenly settled and all came quietly aboard. The sails 
 were quickly spread, and we soon saw the low, sandy shore and , 
 the domes and minarets slowly receding. 
 
 My company consisted of a native gentleman from Mansurah, 
 who was acquainted with the country and spoke a little French, 
 
Lake Menzaleh 113 
 
 a cook^ Hassan, the captain and four sailors. The latter were 
 dressed like the common fellah. They were barefooted and 
 barelegged, having, as an outer garment, the blue cotton shirt 
 and on their heads the skullcap and turban. The captain had 
 the distinction of a white shirt. The turban is made by taking 
 about three yards of thin, slazy, white muslin, twisting it into 
 a roll, and then winding it three times around the head over 
 the skullcap and tucking the ends under the rolls in such a man- 
 ner that it rests closely and firmly upon the head. This rather 
 heavy but picturesque head-gear is the most important item 
 in the fellah's dress, since it protects him from the injurious 
 effects of the sun. It is the ordinary head-dress of the fellahin 
 and I never learned, while in Egypt, of a case of sunstroke. 
 
 The sun was near the western horizon when we sailed out upon 
 the lake, southeasterly, with a strong southwesterly wind. In 
 the evening it became quite dark and, as there were many low 
 islands and shoal places, we anchored for the night. Soon after- 
 wards, another vessel, of about the same size as the one I had 
 taken, came alongside and also threw out her anchor. I then 
 learned that the Governor had sent this boat to accompany us, 
 of course, at my expense. I did not understand the necessity 
 nor object of this additional vessel, but as the men proved to be 
 very useful and the charges moderate, I made no complaint. 
 The Governor, knowing the lake and the direction of the wind, 
 had concluded that more men than we had might be needed and 
 had wisely sent them. 
 
 We were again under motion at the first light of dawn, about 
 four o'clock, the next morning. There was still a strong southerly 
 wind and the boats started off as if for a race. They were open 
 boats of about thirty tons burden with flat bottoms for shallow 
 water. Thev had immense lateen sails that gave them the ap- 
 pearance in the distance of huge birds with sharply pointed 
 wings flying over the surface of the lake. 
 
114 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 It was a beautiful morning with the cloudless sky of an Egyp- 
 tian summer. The deep crimson that heralded the sun, the yel- 
 low light that accompanied it and the clear soft atmosphere, 
 free from the dust of the land, made this early morning sail most 
 enjoyable. It was the more so because there were no waves, 
 although the wind was sufficiently strong to have made an ugly 
 sea, had the water been sufficiently deep to permit an under- 
 current. 
 
 The lake is very irregular in form, but is approximately forty 
 miles in length and twenty broad and covers an area of from 
 eight hundred to a thousand square miles. It is so shallow 
 throughout its whole extent that it is said that one could wade 
 from one side to the other were it not for the miry bottom. The 
 depth of the water, as I saw it, was generally about three feet. 
 For several miles from the shores it was nmch less, and generally 
 very shallow. At the time of the high Nile it is somewhat deeper. 
 Many of the low sand-islands then disappear and the narrow 
 low sand-bar, forming the beach between the sea and the lake, 
 is nearly submerged. 
 
 The bottom of the lake is covered with a thick matting of 
 coarse grass, which in many places grows to the height of a 
 number of feet. There are some ancient ruins on the islands in 
 the middle of the lake, and it is claimed that the larger part of 
 the surface, now covered with water, was in ancient times, like 
 the bed of Lake Mareotis, rich, highly cultivated land.^ 
 
 In consequence of the shallow waters and grassy bottoms, a 
 continued strong wind, instead of forming waves, moves the 
 waters from one side or end of the lake to the other. The shallow 
 waters near the windward shore disappear, and the shore line 
 advances into the lake, returning again on the ceasing or chang- 
 ing of the winds. The difference thus made in the position of 
 the shore line is sometimes one or two miles. 
 
 1 See Strabo, Book XVII, Par. 21, pp. 240, 241. 
 
Lake Menzaleh 115 
 
 As we glided quietly but swiftly over the grassy waters, fish 
 were constantly darting from under the bow of the boat, showing 
 that they were very abundant. We passed between Matariyeh 
 (situate upon a point of land projecting from the west many 
 miles into the lake) and a group of islands opposite, on the east. 
 Here we saw men wading in the water a long distance from shore 
 and fishing with some kind of nets, their boats being anchored 
 near by. 
 
 Matariyeh is a town of fishermen. It is all fish and fishing. 
 There is no other business. The occupation of the father has 
 been transmitted to the son from generation to generation for 
 centuries, perhaps from the earliest historic periods. These 
 people, with others about the lake, form a race of fishermen. 
 They have angular faces, high cheek bones, haughty mouths, 
 small eyes and stocky forms, very different from the elegant, 
 slender form which is the national Egyptian type. 
 
 Egyptologists claim that they are of Semitic origin and some 
 are of the opinion that they are the descendants of the Hyksos or 
 Shepherds. This opinion is based upon a striking physiognomical 
 resemblance between the ancient Hyksos, as shown by the 
 Hyksos statues and other monuments found principally at San, 
 and the modern race of Menzaleh fishermen. 
 
 There is a saying in the vicinity, " once a fisherman, always a 
 fisherman." There are about four thousand men thus employed. 
 They know no other labor or business. By their situation and 
 condition, they are as closely bound to this service as the Prus- 
 sian peasants formerly were to that of the landed estates. 
 
 The right of fishing in this lake is farmed out by the Govern- 
 ment for about three hundred thousand dollars per annum. 
 The contract formerly included the forced services of the fisher- 
 men at a stipulated small percentage on the money realized from 
 the sale of the fish. It may now be claimed that this labor is 
 not "forced," but these fishermen are compelled to continue the 
 
ii6 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 same occupation, on the former basis of percentage, to sustain 
 their miserable existence. 
 
 The right of fishing in most of the other waters of Egypt is 
 also farmed out for sums varying according to the amount of 
 fish that can be taken. If fish are caught at any place where 
 there is no such contract, they must be taken immediately to 
 the proper authorities and a tax, amounting to a large percent- 
 age of the value, paid to the Government. 
 
 Lake Menzaleh is not solely celebrated for its fish. It is the 
 true paradise of the hunter. It fairly swarms with water-fowl 
 of many species. Thej^ are so numerous that it is difficult to 
 make even an approximate estimate of their quantity. This 
 lake is the first inland water reached by them, in their journey 
 from the north across the Mediterranean or along its eastern 
 extremity. The mild climate, shallow waters, abundance of fish 
 and other means of subsistence, make it an agreeable winter 
 home for all kinds of aquatic fowl, and many remain through 
 the entire year. 
 
 Tall wading birds — the flamingo, with its fire-red plumage, 
 the snow-white spoonbill, the heron, the stork and the crane — 
 indicate by their presence the more shallow waters. The great 
 Dalmatian and other pelicans, the Egyptian goose, the large 
 white-footed goose and the graceful white swan float majestic- 
 ally among the smaller birds in the deeper parts. Legions of 
 different varieties of ducks are to be found in almost every part 
 of the lake. 
 
 A competent authority says that the aquatic fowl of this lake 
 consume daily not less than sixty thousand pounds of fish, be- 
 sides their other food. They are so abundant that, during the 
 winter and until May, the water in many places is literally 
 covered with them. In the distance, they have the appearance 
 of low islands and, when they rise in mass, they fill the air and 
 cover the sky like clouds. 
 
Lake Menzaleh 117 
 
 Many years ago myriads of pigeons nested in the great forests 
 of northern New York. Every morning, as they flew away for 
 food, the sky was clouded for one or two hours by their passage 
 and the same thing happened on their return at night. I have 
 seen on a small lake just east of the city of Mexico, near the rail- 
 way running to Pueblo and Vera Cruz, ducks in such numbers 
 that they apparently covered the waters for some distance. 
 
 The gathering of large numbers of birds in uninhabited regions 
 is not uncommon. On Lake Menzaleh, this tendency of the 
 feathered tribes has a most remarkable illustration. By reason 
 of their number, their variety and the beauty of their plumage, 
 the birds of this lake afford a spectacle that is not only unique 
 but that is unsurpassed in ornithological interest. Each group 
 of these many legions has its leader, whose every movement is 
 watched and followed. No bird rises from the water as long as 
 the leader remains undisturbed. The moment he spreads his 
 wings and utters a cry, the whole flock mounts into the air. 
 
 The right of fowling, like that of fishing, is farmed out and 
 shooting from a boat is prohibited, but permission to hunt can 
 generally be obtained by foreigners. The fishermen are employed 
 in catching the fowl in nets and in various other ways, and great 
 numbers are secured. 
 
 One of the primiitive and very curious modes of capture is as 
 follows: 
 
 The native arranges for his head a casque, entirely covering it, 
 in the form of a fowl. This is sometimes made from the rind of 
 a water-melon. vSelecting a light night, usually when there is a 
 full moon, and a favorable place, he puts himself wholly under 
 water, except the head which is concealed by the casque. 
 Through an aperture, he determines which is the leader of the 
 flock, and approaches him so skilfully that he is able to seize 
 him by the legs, draw him into the water and kill him. If this is 
 done with sufficient celerity and skill to prevent the bird from 
 
1 1 8 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 screeching, the whole flock can be taken, one after another, in 
 the same manner; but on the least screech from the leader, the 
 others quickly take to their wings. ^ 
 
 Wild boars of large size and buffaloes are sometimes found in 
 the adjoining marshes. 
 
 We had been sailing swiftly all the morning, being obliged to 
 tack occasionally, as our course, after passing Matariyeh, was 
 southward and almost directly against the wind. The water had 
 for some time been growing shallower, and about ten o'clock we 
 ran aground. We were still several miles from the marshy shore 
 and from the entrance to the old bed of the Tanitic branch of the 
 Nile up which we w^ere to sail a number of miles. Through 
 Hassan I inquired what was to be done, and received the answer, 
 '* Wait for the wind to change." This was not very encouraging, 
 as the wind at this season of the year sometimes blows from the 
 south for many days in succession. To wait for a north wind 
 might mean to remain where we were for ten days. Nor did I 
 then understand how this change could aid us. 
 
 Perhaps the phenomenon, which to the natives of the lake had 
 always been an almost daily occurrence, was considered too 
 simple and well known to need an explanation. If you ask this 
 class of Arabs for facts or explanations, you rarely get correct 
 answers. There is no bad motive. They simply give you with 
 Oriental politeness such an answer as they think will please. I 
 made it known to the captain that I must be at Alexandria at a 
 certain date and suggested that he should try to work the boat 
 to the west, where I thought there was deeper water. 
 
 A sailor, with the end of a long rope in his hand and a short, 
 
 * This mode of capture seemed to the writer incredible, but it was affirmed 
 at the time of his visit to the lake that it was practiced with great success, 
 where the birds were in the habit of collecting for the night at a point having 
 water sufficiently deep. This manner of securing birds is also confirmed by 
 writers and by a recent letter received by the author from an English clergy- 
 man, residing at Port Said. 
 
Lake Menzaleh 119 
 
 light pole, went over the low bow into the water. He went for- 
 ward a few rods, pulling the rope after him, thrust the pole into 
 the soft bottom and tied the rope to it close to the ground. While 
 he remained holding the pole in place, the men on board pulled 
 at the other end of the rope, slowly moving the boat forward over 
 the grassy bottom to near the place of the pole. The man then 
 went forward again with the rope and the process was repeated, 
 but little progress was made. 
 
 The second boat had left us at an early hour in the morning 
 and gone to Matariyeh for bread for the sailors, the w^ant of 
 which, as I then learned, was the cause of the angry discussion 
 at the time of our departure. At about eleven o'clock, this boat 
 came over towards us, but further to the west, where I had 
 supposed there was deeper water. When it arrived at a point 
 opposite the one where we had first touched bottom, it also 
 grounded. The men threw out their anchor, took in their 
 sails, and, with their sacks of bread, came over to our boat. 
 No miracle was necessary to enable them to walk on the 
 waters. 
 
 With this additional force we moved a little faster. At a little 
 after noon, the men all came on board to take their luncheon of 
 coarse, dry bread. We were apparently still two miles from 
 shore. After finishing their meal, they seemed in no hurry to 
 recommence their work. It was nearly two o'clock and we had 
 probably not advanced more than a mile since running aground 
 at ten. The wind had entirely ceased before noon. Suddenly a 
 light breeze came from the north. Gradually, it grew stronger. 
 It was apparently an ordinary day sea-breeze that had come thus 
 far inland across the lake — about twenty miles. The sails were 
 set, the men went into the water, four on each side, and put their 
 shoulders to the boat. The sails filled and, by wind and man- 
 power, we commenced to move. We advanced very slowly at 
 first, but the wind increased and, within half an hour, the men. 
 
I20 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 one after another, mounted into the boat and we were soon under 
 fair motion. 
 
 In a short time we had entered the old, narrow, tortuous bed 
 of the river and were sailing up it at good speed. The water was 
 shallow and the banks so low and flat that the waves from our 
 boat washed for some distance over the marshy lands. It was 
 not long before we were aground again. The help of eight strong 
 shoulders and a brisk north wind carried us over the shoal, but 
 we very soon found the water too shallow to proceed farther with 
 the large boat. The yawl was taken out, the tent and provisions 
 were placed therein and, with sails set, we pursued our way up 
 the bed of the stream. 
 
 At about sunset, we came to a barrier— a heavy embankment 
 built across the old river bed to retain for irrigation, during the 
 dry season, the water that drained from the canals. There was 
 but little water above the embankment, and none could pass 
 either way. We pitched our tent and prepared our dinner. 
 
Ancient Zoan 121 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 ANCIENT ZOAN 
 
 We started for San at early dawn the next morning with don- 
 keys procured in a neighboring village. It was a ride of only two 
 hours. The country was low and marshy and, at the time of the 
 high Nile, flooded. These marshy lands are mostly unfit for 
 cultivation, but produce tall grasses which are of some value 
 since they constitute the only perennial pasturage in Egypt. 
 
 The papyrus, once produced in this section in great abundance, 
 has now entirely disappeared. Like its contemporaries, the 
 crocodile and the hippopotamus, it has withdrawn from Egypt 
 to the banks of the Blue and White Nile. 
 
 The manufacture of papyrus was for a long period of great 
 importance to Egypt. Commencing early in the reign of the 
 Pharaohs, it continued till the time of the Khalifs. During the 
 Greek and Roman period, Egypt supplied this invaluable article 
 to the whole civilized world and derived from it immense reve- 
 nues. The rich, wet lands of the Delta, which were once covered 
 with this plant, as with a thicket, are now largely devoted to the 
 culture of rice, indigo and cotton. As a remembrance, we have 
 derived from papyrus our word ''paper" and from the Greek 
 form, bihlos, our word " Bible." 
 
 Papyrus served for many other purposes than that of making 
 the paper on which the ancients wrote. It was used for calking 
 their vessels and for sails ^ and rope. The Egyptians, in con- 
 
 1 Herodotus II, Sec. 96. 
 
12 2 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 structing the bridge across the Hellespont for the army of Xerxes, 
 used papyrus cables.^ When the storm had broken these and 
 the white flax cables of the Phoenicians, another bridge was con- 
 structed of boats. Over these, cables were stretched from shore 
 to shore, seven-eighths of a mile, each cable being made of two 
 ropes of white flax and four of papyrus. On these cables, sup- 
 ported by the boats, was constructed the road on which Xerxes' 
 army of seventeen hundred thousand crossed the Hellespont 
 into Europe in seven days and nights.^ The lower part of the 
 papyrus plant was also used for food.^ 
 
 The sites of the ancient cities of the Delta are marked by 
 mounds of earth which rise above the surrounding country, 
 sometimes to the height of thirty and forty feet, and which are 
 filled with the potsherds of the successive generations that have 
 inhabited these places. 
 
 The mounds of ancient Zoan, or Tanis, are remarkable for 
 their comparative height and extent, covering as they do about 
 a square mile. Excavations have been made and many valu- 
 able monuments secured. The most important, historically, 
 are those of the Hyksos, the Shepherd Kings. The grounds 
 where the excavations have been made, on the site of the great 
 temple, are encircled with mounds twenty and thirty feet in 
 height. 
 
 The enclosures of the temple were once surrounded by a wall 
 thirty-four hundred feet in length, seventy feet in thickness and 
 forty-five feet in height. Looking down upon the open space we 
 now see a confused mass of ruins, large numbers of broken pieces 
 of obelisks, columns, statues, pedestals, and parts of fallen walls. 
 These ruins are mostly of red granite. There are some blocks 
 that are black or of a very dark color. There is also an occa- 
 sional piece of sandstone, but the lime-rock of which the temple 
 
 1 Herodotus VII, Sec. 34. 2 Herodotus VII, Sec. 36. 
 
 ^ Herodotus II, Sec. 92. 
 
Ancient Zoan 123 
 
 was mainly built long since found its way to the rude, native 
 lime-kiln. 
 
 No city is surrounded with more historical mystery than an- 
 cient Zoan. It was the capital of lower Egypt during the long 
 reign of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, more correctly '' Kings 
 of the Wanderers." After they had been driven out or subdued, 
 the whole of Egypt was again united under one government. 
 Still later, the great kings of the nineteenth dynasty, Seti (Se- 
 thos), his son Ramses II (Sesostris), and his grandson, Seti 
 Mineptah, the supposed "Pharaoh of the Exodus," made Zoan 
 one of their capitals, the other being at Thebes. 
 
 It was situated upon the Tanitic branch of the Nile, and in the 
 northeastern part of Egypt, not far from the eastern boundary. 
 In consequence of its position, it became a great commercial 
 city. It was also the rendezvous and starting point of the great 
 military expeditions that went out from Egypt in those days 
 and overran western Asia, bringing back as a result of their con- 
 quests, or as annual tribute, immense riches in slaves, ivory, gold, 
 silver, precious stones and domestic animals. 
 
 It was an important city with numerous monuments during 
 the reign of the Hyksos. In the time of Ramses II, it had its 
 magnificent temple, its obelisks of granite and many other 
 colossal structures of the same material. There were no less than 
 ten obelisks on the sides of the avenue leading to the great 
 temple. A number of these, now broken, and mutilated columns 
 and statues are lying upon the ground where they once stood. 
 Other relics of Zoan, among them statues and sphinxes, in a good 
 state of preservation, are now to be seen at Cairo or in the mu- 
 seums of Europe. 
 
 Even in the remote period of the nineteenth dynasty, Zoan 
 was already an ancient town, over two thousand years old. Its 
 temple, rebuilt by Ramses II, dates back at least to the sixth 
 dynasty, thirty-three hundred years before Christ. The town 
 
124 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 must have been founded soon after the reputed time of the flood, 
 and the numerous Biblical references to it increase, for all Chris- 
 tian people, its historic interest. 
 
 ''Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt." ^ 
 " Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers in the land 
 of Egypt, in the field of Zoan." ^ '' How he had wrought his signs 
 in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan." ^ ''The princes 
 of Zoan are become fools." ^ ''For the princes were in Zoan." * 
 " I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan." ^ 
 
 The Land of Goshen, also called the Land of Ramses,^ was 
 the habitation of Joseph's brothers and of their descendants. 
 They were a pastoral people and it is probable that Joseph had 
 Goshen selected for their occupation on account of its adapta- 
 tion to their mode of life and, also, because it could be occupied 
 without creating animosities on the part of the Egyptians, to 
 whom "every shepherd was an abomination." ^ 
 
 There has been much discussion as to the precise location of 
 the Land of Goshen, the habitation of the Israelites during their 
 sojourn in Egypt. Those who still adhere to the theory of their 
 actual passage through what is now a part of the Red Sea, locate 
 that part of Egypt occupied by them as far south as possible, 
 while others place it in the extreme northwestern part of the 
 country. 
 
 It is probable, from all the monumental and philological evi- 
 dence, that, when their numbers had become great, they occupied 
 the larger portion of all the territory lying in the northern part 
 of the Delta and east of the Tanitic branch of the Nile. This 
 territory included much of the most productive land of Egypt, 
 and was sufficient in extent to have sustained a million of people. 
 
 1 Numbers XIII, 22. 2 Psalms LXXVIII, 12. 
 
 3 Id. 43. * Isaiah XIX, 13. 
 
 5 Id. XXX, 4. ^ Ezekiel XXX, 14. 
 
 7 Gen. XLVII, 11. « Gen. XLVI, 34. 
 
Ancient Zoan 125 
 
 A large part of this land, once highly cultivated, is now desert 
 and marsh. 
 
 In the section bordering on Lake Menzaleh, there was much 
 low, wet land producing an abundance of coarse grasses on which 
 cattle could feed. On the east, it was bounded by the desert, 
 which produced in many places, during the winter season, plants 
 sufficient to sustain a limited number of sheep and goats. 
 
 Jacob's descendants, ''besides his sons' wives," at the time 
 they came to Egypt, numbered only ''three score and six." A 
 small parcel of good land bordering on the desert, where they 
 could pitch their tents like the Arabs of the present day, sup- 
 plemented by a portion of the wet lands near the lake, was for 
 them the most desirable selection — a very garden, in fact, in 
 comparison with the rough, rocky country from which they had 
 emigrated. It was well adapted to their shepherd-life and to the 
 maintenance of the "flocks and herds" they had brought with 
 them, but was not considered as desirable by the Egyptians. 
 
 Zoan, if not actually in the Land of Goshen, was on its border 
 and was the principal city of that part of the Delta. Ramses II 
 also gave to it his name, as appears from hieroglyphic inscriptions 
 on monuments found in its ruins. It is this monarch who is re- 
 garded as having been the most severe of all the Pharaohs in his 
 treatment of the Israelites and Zoan must have been one of the 
 principal scenes of this oppression. "Therefore they did set over 
 them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they 
 built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Ramses." ^ 
 
 A large portion of the monuments of Zoan were erected during 
 the reign of Ramses II. The immense granite blocks required in 
 this work were cut with rude tools from the quarries of Assuan, 
 transported seven hundred miles, worked, polished and placed 
 in position by the prisoners and bondsmen of Egypt. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the Israelites were employed in 
 
 1 Ex. I, n. 
 
126 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 these and a great number of similar works, as well as in lower 
 grades of labor. They went out of the country imderstanding 
 the art of sculpture-writing, as it was then practiced in Egypt, 
 and were thus capable of recording the laws of Moses on " tablets 
 of stone." Tablets of the same character, belonging to the same 
 period, may now be seen in large numbers in the museum at 
 Cairo. 
 
 They were also filled ''with the wisdom, the understanding, 
 and the knowledge of all kinds of workmanship" known to the 
 Egyptians, 'Ho devise cunning works, to work in gold and in 
 silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones to set them and in 
 carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship." * 
 Hence they were able to execute the marvelous works required 
 in the building of the tabernacle and those of its elaborate and 
 skilfully wrought furnishings. 
 
 As we look upon the broken monuments still at San, on the 
 better preserved ones in the museum of Cairo or upon the other 
 numerous magnificent works of that period, we imagine that 
 we see, in the grandeur of their forms and in the elegance of their 
 execution, the skill and handiwork of the Semitic races and the 
 result of the toil required by Pharaoh's taskmasters. 
 
 Zoan was the capital of that part of Egypt ruled by the Hyksos 
 at the time of Joseph and, probably, that city was his residence 
 during the time he served the Pharaoh of that day. If so, it 
 was there that he " made ready his chariot, and went up to meet 
 Israel, his father," ^ on the great highway leading to Syria; and 
 there that, on his return, he presented his father to the great 
 monarch. 
 
 It was "in the field of Zoan" that the Pharaoh of the Exodus, 
 
 as a sequel to his and his father's acts of oppression, saw the 
 
 wonderful works of the God of the Hebrews. It was here that 
 
 the oppressed people gathered for their journey. It was here 
 
 1 Ex. XXXI, 4, 5. 2 Qen XLYt, 29. 
 
Ancient Zoan 127 
 
 that Pharaoh manifested his weakness, giving his consent for 
 the departure, when frightened by the execution of Jehovah's 
 judgments, and withdrawing it when the danger seemed to be 
 past. It was here that they finally commenced their flight and 
 here that Pharaoh ''made ready his hundred chariots" and 
 '* pursued after them." 
 
 The Israelites resided in Egypt during its golden period, the 
 era of the erection of the greater part of its finer and more skil- 
 fully wrought monuments, the time of the Thutmosis, the Amen- 
 ophis and the earher Ramses. Immediately after the Exodus, 
 as if by divine decree, the national decline commenced. Few 
 new monuments were erected and the old ones, neglected, gradu- 
 ally became impaired, being preserved only by their inherent 
 durability and the clemency of the cUmate. Only one more great 
 warrior king, Ramses III, was added to the long roll of famous 
 sovereigns. 
 
 Most that is known of Egypt, during the seven centuries pre- 
 ceding the conquest of Cambyses, 525 b. c, and his destruction of 
 the greater part of its grand monuments, is the misfortunes, 
 defeats and dethronements of its petty sovereigns, as recorded 
 in the histories of their conquerors. 
 
 With its long and glorious history, its beauty and grandeur, 
 its mercantile and commercial importance, what is Zoan to-day? 
 The western boundary of the city was once a great river whose 
 waters were covered with sails, whose banks teemed with the 
 busthng, noisy life of commerce. Crowds of people loaded and 
 unloaded boats. Immense blocks of stone, transported from 
 Syene, were placed on its banks by the simple force of the num- 
 bers of slaves and prisoners employed. Multitudes embarked 
 and disembarked amid the awe of marshaled hosts and the pomp 
 of royalty. 
 
 It was a mighty city, proud of its elegantly wrought and colos- 
 sal monuments, haughty in its wealth, strength and power. 
 
128 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 To-day it is represented by a small, dirty, miserable village of 
 fishermen of the same race as the fishermen about Lake Menza- 
 leh. Even the sheik's dwelling, the most pretentious in the 
 village, is a miserable abode and the others floorless hovels. Its 
 river was long since filled with its own deposits and is now re- 
 placed by the sluggish waters of the draining and irrigating 
 canal, San el-Hager, which passes through marshy lands, over- 
 grown with reeds and swamp-plants. The commerce of the 
 once puissant city is represented by an occasional fisherman's 
 boat, and the life and ceaseless whirl of its former business by a 
 semi-weekly market for the sale to the neighboring peasants, 
 under the supervision of an official agent, of the scarcely edible 
 fish caught in the canals. 
 
 Its architectural grandeur, the splendor of its colossal monu- 
 ments, lie buried in its ruins. Nowhere is a deeper sense of fallen 
 greatness, of departed power and splendor experienced.^ No 
 ruin is more complete, more impressive, and none can give a 
 more vivid suggestion of the inevitable fate that awaits all the 
 
 works of man. 
 
 It was past midday when we returned to camp, and there, 
 much to our surprise, we found the large boat we had left some 
 miles down the old bed of the river the day before. On asking 
 the sailors for an explanation, we were informed that, the wind 
 having continued to blow from the north, the water had risen 
 and they had sailed up for us. On examination, the water was 
 found to be much deeper than the night before. The embank- 
 ment was such that no water could have come from above. 
 
 When all was ready, a rope was fastened to the mast high up, 
 and the eight sailors, transformed into tow-men, put their shoul- 
 ders this time to the rope and, following the bank of the stream, 
 pulled the boat after them. As we neared the lake, the channel 
 turned to the east, giving us an opportunity to take advantage 
 of the wind. The men came on board, the sails were hoisted and. 
 
Ancient Zoan 129 
 
 just at the setting of the sun, we passed out upon the lake, along 
 the very route over which we had come the day before so slowly 
 and with so much difficulty. 
 
 There was now an abundance of water. We sailed alongside 
 the anchored boat which had been left behind, put her sailors 
 aboard her and continued our journey. The next day at ten 
 o'clock, we were in sight of the low sand-beach near Damietta, 
 whence we had embarked. The wind, which we had at first sup- 
 posed to be a sea breeze, had remained in the north. It was a 
 stiff saihng breeze, but by no means a gale, and yet, where we 
 had had plenty of water for sailing on the evening of our em- 
 barkation, we were now aground. We were not more than four 
 miles from our destination, but with hard labor, towing and 
 lifting, in the same manner as on the other side of the lake, we 
 did not reach our haven until late in the afternoon. 
 
130 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ROUTE OF THE EXODUS 
 
 A MINUTE description of the trip on Lake Menzaleh has been 
 given to show the effect of the wind on a large surface of shallow 
 water, its arms and inlets, because of its possible aid in correctly 
 interpreting the BibUcal account of what has been termed the 
 passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites. 
 
 A continued strong wind off a sea or lake always raises the 
 water along the shore, but the receding and returning of a coast 
 line to a degree approaching that witnessed (except in the case 
 of tides) is probably elsewhere unknown. The cause is the 
 shallowness of the water and the grasses which prevent an under- 
 tow. The phenomenon appeared to have a strong bearing upon 
 the theory, then lately advanced by Brugsch Bey (afterwards 
 Brugsch Pasha), as to the point of departure and the route taken 
 by the Israelites at the time of the Exodus.^ 
 
 This theory fixed the point of departure at Zoan or San, which 
 has been identified by the inscriptions as Ramses and is claimed 
 to be the Ramses of the Bible. Thence, the route passed east- 
 ward, not far from Lake Menzaleh, to Succoth, Etham and a 
 point before Pi-hahiroth, opposite Avaris (Baal-Zepon), between 
 Migdol and the sea (Mediterranean). 
 
 Previous to the excavation of the Suez Canal, Lake Menzaleh 
 stretched much farther east than it does to-day. It formerly 
 
 * See Brugsch's " Egypt under the Pharaohs ", second edition, Vol. II, page 
 363. 
 

 f. 
 
 X 
 
Route of the Exodus 131 
 
 extended as far as Pelusium or Sin, fifteen miles bej^ond its pres- 
 ent eastern border, and, probably, in a narrow arm along the 
 coast to and into the ancient Lake Sirbonis. The canal was cut 
 through the sand-beach on the Mediterranean, at the point where 
 Port Said is now located, and continued south twenty-eight miles 
 through Lake Menzaleh and its marshes. This part of the lake 
 had a depth of water of from one to three feet. 
 
 The canal was excavated with dredges. Immense banks of 
 earth were formed on either side, thus cutting off the flow of the 
 Nile waters, which come into the lake from the irrigating canals. 
 Consequently, all east of the canal became a desert with occa- 
 sionally impassable marshes. There are now no inhabitants east 
 of the canal, and the sites of the ancient cities and fortified 
 places are only determined by their ruins. 
 
 Avaris (Baal-Zephon) was east of Pelusium and about twenty- 
 five miles east of the canal. Pi-hahiroth was a short distance 
 still further east, near the west end of Lake Sirbonis. This lake, 
 in ancient times, extended eastward from this point fifty miles, 
 being separated from the Mediterranean by a narrow strip of sand, 
 which was at no point more than a few hundred yards in width. 
 
 From Lake Sirbonis westward to the Damietta branch of the 
 Nile, a distance of about seventy miles, a similar narrow sand- 
 beach separated the sea from lakes and marshes up to the time 
 of the construction of the canal. West of Port Said, there is 
 still a similar sand-beach between the sea and Lake Menzaleh. 
 The great ancient highway or caravan route from Egypt to Syria 
 came from the southwest, passing Migdol and Baal-Zephon. It 
 crossed these marshes near Pi-hahiroth at the west end of Sirbonis 
 and continued eastward on the strip of land between the sea and 
 this lake, passing Mt. Casius about twenty-five miles from Pi- 
 hahiroth. All of these shallow lakes and marshes received their 
 waters from the Nile, and were filled with grasses, reeds and other 
 aquatic plants. 
 
132 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 Brugsch in his latest notes on the subject did not attempt to 
 fix the exact point of the catastrophe that befell the army of 
 Pharaoh, but indicated that it must have happened, provided his 
 theory was correct, near the western extremity of Lake Sirbonis, 
 or at some point on this lake. 
 
 Pi-hahiroth was the " place of the gulfs," or, as the word signi- 
 fies, ''the entrance to the gulfs" on the route to Syria. It was 
 near the point of crossing the marshes to or from the sea-coast. 
 This crossing and Lake Sirbonis were considered by the ancients 
 as exceedingly dangerous and, if their accounts are true, armies 
 have been lost in their treacherous bogs. 
 
 The Tanitic mouth of the Nile was a little west of the present 
 city of Port Said and the Pelusiac mouth, at Pelusium. 
 
 Strabo says: 
 
 "Between the Tanitic and Pelusiac mouths of the Nile are 
 lakes and large and continuous marshes, among which are numer- 
 ous villages. Pelusium itself has many marshes lying around it, 
 which some call Barathra, or water holes and swamps. It is 
 situated a distance of more than twenty stadia (a little over two 
 miles) from the sea. The circumference of the wall is twenty 
 stadia. It has its name from the mud (7717X01)) of the swamps. 
 In this quarter Egypt is difficult of access, i. e., from the eastern 
 side, towards Phoenicia and Judea, and on the side of Arabia 
 Nabatsea, which is contiguous, through which countries the road 
 to Egypt lies." ^ 
 
 Diodorus, speaking of the Persian King Artaxerxes Ochus' 
 €xpedition to Egypt, 349 b. c, says: 
 
 " When he came to the great lake (Sirbonis), through ignorance 
 of the places, he lost part of his army in the bogs, called Barathra. 
 But because we have before in the first book spoken of the nature 
 1 Strabo, B. XVII, C. I, Sec. 21, Casaubon, 802. 
 
Route of the Exodus 133 
 
 of this lake, and the strange things there happening, we shall 
 now forbear to repeat them. Having passed these gulfs he came 
 to Pelusium, the first mouth of the river Nile, where it enters into 
 the sea." ^ 
 
 The description Diodorus had given of this lake is as follows: 
 
 '^The parts toward the east [of Egypt] are partly secured by 
 the river [the Pelusiac branch, long since filled] and partly sur- 
 rounded by deserts, and by the marshes, called Barathra [ret 
 /3dpa9pa, Gulfs or Pits]. For there is a lake between Ccelo-Syria 
 and Egypt, very narrow, but exceedingly deep, even to a wonder, 
 two hundred furlongs in length, called Serbon [Sir bonis]. If any 
 through ignorance approach it, they are lost irrecoverably; for 
 the channel being very narrow, like a swaddling band, and com- 
 passed round with vast heaps of sand, great quantities of it are 
 cast into the lake by the continual southern winds, which so 
 cover the water, and make it to the view so like unto dry land, 
 that it cannot possibly be distinguished. And therefore many 
 unacquainted with the nature of the place, by missing their way, 
 have been there swallowed up together with whole armies. For 
 the sand being trod upon, sinks down and gives away by degrees, 
 and like a malicious cheat, deludes and decoys them that come 
 upon it, till too late. When they see the mischief they are likely 
 to fall into, they begin to support and help one another, but with- 
 out any possibility either of returning back, or escaping certain 
 ruin; for sinking into the gulf they are neither able to swim (the 
 mud preventing all motion of the body), nor in a capacity to 
 wade out, having nothing firm to support them for that purpose; 
 for sand and water being mixed together the nature of both is 
 thereby so changed that there is neither fording nor passing over 
 it by boats. Being brought therefore to this pass, without the 
 least possibility of help to be afforded them, they go together with 
 
 ^ Diodorus, Booth's Translation, Book XVI, page 118. 
 
1 34 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 the sand to the bottom of the gulf at the very brink of the bog; 
 and so the place agreeable to its nature is called Barathrum." ^ 
 
 This description is undoubtedly much exaggerated, but it 
 serves with what is written by other ancient historians to give 
 us an impression of the character of this lake and the marshes 
 and quicksands on this part of the route from Egypt to Syria. 
 Milton refers to this dangerous place in the following lines from 
 '' Paradise Lost " : 
 
 "A gulf profound as that Sirbonian bog 
 Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, 
 Where armies whole have sunk." 
 
 It is very rarely that a European has in recent times passed 
 by this route. Mr. Greville J. Chester, under the direction of 
 the Palestine Exploration Fund, made the excursion in February, 
 1880. In his report, speaking of Lake Sirbonis, he said: 
 
 '*I repeatedly tried to get near enough to the lake to dip my 
 hands in the water, but I failed on every occasion. When I got 
 near, and sometimes I got within three or four yards, the treach- 
 erous sand gave way under my weight, and I was compelled to 
 retire on pain of being engulfed in the mud beneath." ^ 
 
 In the old manuscripts of the Bible the words that have been 
 translated Red Sea were "Yam Staph," meaning the "Sea of 
 Suph." The Hebrew word "suph," as the lexicographers say, 
 means "weeds, reeds, rushes, papyrus-plant." "Yam Suph" 
 indicated a whole navigable region covered with aquatic plants, 
 like Lake Menzaleh, and, according to Brugsch Pasha, than 
 whom there is no higher philological authority on the ancient 
 languages of Egypt and its neighboring countries, was applied 
 
 ^ Diodorus, Sic. Book I, c. Ill, p. 35. 
 
 ^ Mr. Chester's report was published in the quarterly statement of the Pales- 
 tine Exploration Fund, in July, 1880. 
 
Route of the Exodus 135 
 
 to the lakes and marshes in the northeast of Egypt. The ark of 
 Moses was made of suph, that is, reeds or rushes. 
 
 The Red Sea was known at the epoch of the Exodus under the 
 name of Yuma Kot and Yuma Sekot, but at no period as Yam 
 Suph. In the German Bible of to-day the marginal reading is 
 ''Sea of Weeds." 
 
 The late Dr. VanDyke, of the American College of Beirut, 
 Syria, was one of the most learned and eminent Arabic scholars. 
 His translation of the Bible into Arabic is used in all Protestant 
 missions in Arabic speaking countries. In a conversation on this 
 subject, he informed the writer that he followed the old version, 
 translating Yam Suph into Arabic by words signifying ''Sea of 
 Weeds" or "Sea of Reeds," although at that time the question 
 of the passage of the Israelites by any other route than that of 
 the Red Sea had not been raised. 
 
 It is also well established that where the word sea alone is used 
 in the narrative it means the Mediterranean. If we take from 
 our version of the Bible narrative the words "Red Sea," there is 
 nothing left on which to base the theory of the passage of the 
 Israelites through the sea now known by that name, and we are 
 free to select such other route as the facts may indicate. The 
 Red Sea is of deep clear water without any growth of grasses, 
 weeds, reeds or rushes. 
 
 Assuming that Brugsch is correct in his location of the points 
 mentioned in the Bible, the Egyptians overtook the Israelites 
 when they were encamped beside Pi-hahiroth, the "entrance to 
 the gulfs," "between Migdol and the sea" (Mediterranean). 
 This was a little west of the western end of Lake Sirbonis and in 
 the vicinity of the "dangerous places," the gulfs or pits of the 
 ancient geographers. Even at this day, when the Nile waters 
 have been cut off many years, it is very difficult to approach the 
 ruins of the ancient Pelusium. 
 
 Mr. Chester's experiences in visiting this place, a feat rarely 
 
136 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 attempted, and his description of the extensive marshes lying 
 further east near the lake, partially confirm the statements of 
 Diodorus. He says: ^'The surface of the marsh, which extends 
 for miles, was covered with drifting sands, through which as 
 through a cake the feet went down. ... I sank nearly to my 
 knees in the mud." 
 
 The shallow lakes, as I have stated, formerly stretched all 
 along the coast and there was an arm or branch of this shallow 
 water extending eastward from Pelusium to the so-called "gulfs," 
 the only point where a passage could be made from the interior 
 to the coast of the sea. Pharaoh, learning the position of his 
 fleeing bondsmen, said, "They are entangled in the land," the 
 desert being on one side, where the army was approaching, and 
 the sea or morass on the other. 
 
 The Israelites, on being pursued, " were sore afraid " and " cried 
 out unto the Lord." "Moses stretched out his hand over the 
 sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind 
 all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were 
 divided." ^ 
 
 A strong east wind, blowing during the night, would have 
 moved the waters of this narrow arm westward and would have 
 left, where in their natural position they w^re shallow, only 
 "dry land." There was no place in the Isthmus, except along 
 the Mediterranean coast, that an east wind could have had this 
 effect. At neither of the other places, lately mentioned in con- 
 nection with the supposed discovery of Pithom as possible 
 points of passage of the Israelites — one, near Shaluf, south of 
 the Great Bitter Lake, and the other, between this lake and 
 Lake Timsah — could an east wind have produced any such re- 
 sult. It would, in either of these cases, have blown almost 
 directly across a narrow body of water. 
 
 There was no reason for using the words " caused the sea to go 
 
 1 Ex. XIV, 21. 
 
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Route ot the Exodus 137 
 
 back by a strong east wind," unless this wind had some agency 
 in producing the result. It certainly could have had no such 
 agency on the deep waters of that arm of the Red Sea which 
 comes to Suez, where the Biblical commentators have, until a 
 recent date, located the point of passage. 
 
 The phrases "the waters were divided," 'Hhe waters were a 
 wall to them on their right hand and on their left," and others 
 of simiilar character, can easily be explained. Could they not, 
 they would have but little importance in the minds of those ac- 
 quainted with the highly figurative character of Oriental lan- 
 guages and with the manner in which the people express them- 
 selves. 
 
 When the waters were drawn by the east wind out of the east- 
 ern branch of the larger body of water lying near Pelusium, as it 
 now would be out of an arm of Lake Menzaleh, the Israelites, 
 having no chariots and choosing their locality, could have passed 
 in safety. The waters were divided when they were so lowered 
 as to leave where they had been shallow a dry place for crossing. 
 The ''waters were a wall" simply means they were a defence, not 
 a towering mass. On account of these waters, with their miry 
 quicksand bottoms, on the right and on the left, the Egyptians 
 could not approach on either side. They were to the Israelites 
 a wall of defence. 
 
 ''In the morning watch," that is, toward morning, the winds 
 ceased to blow and the waters commenced returning. The Egyp- 
 tians, who, with their six hundred heavy, small wheeled chariots, 
 undertook in the night to follow the Israelites, missed their way 
 in the darkness and were caught in the treacherous bogs of 
 the "gulfs." "The Lord took off their chariot wheels, and 
 they drave them heavily,"^ and, the "sea returning to its 
 strength," ^ that is, to the natural depth of the water, the Egyp- 
 tians were overwhelmed and destroyed as an organized army. 
 
 1 Ex. XIV, 25. 2 Id. 27. 
 
138 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 The description of the tearing off of the chariot wheels and the 
 difficulty of drawing these clumsy instruments of war applies 
 rather to an army floundering in the mire, than to one suddenly 
 overwhelmed by the falling of walls of water, that had remained 
 piled up on either side, till the moment of the catastrophe, as 
 often represented in old pictures and sermons. 
 
 Previous to the approach of the Egyptians, the Israelites may 
 have crossed onto the strip of sand-beach between the sea and 
 the lake, near the east end of which there was in ancient times a 
 fortress. Barred by this obstacle or in obedience to the purpose 
 of God that they should not go by the way of the PhiHstines,^ 
 they may have turned south and crossed the lake at some 
 shallow place. In this case, the same results might have been 
 produced by the east wind at the point of their crossing. 
 
 Sirbonis was for a long period, beginning, perhaps, with the 
 filling up of the Pelusiac and Tanitic branches of the Nile, a dry 
 lake having only boggy or marshy places. About 1876, a few 
 fishermen from Lake Menzaleh went to this desolate and wholly 
 uninhabited desert region, and cut a channel from the sea to the 
 old lake-bed at its eastern end for the purpose of making a fishing- 
 lake. In ancient times there may have been at this point an 
 outlet to the sea, as there is now from Lake Menzaleh. Sirbonis 
 thus became again, after a long period of dryness, a lake forty 
 miles in length and in some places five miles broad. Like the 
 other coast lakes it is generally very shallow. 
 
 Mr. Chester, at the time of his visit, found the lake filled with 
 salt water and, consequently, containing no fresh-water plants, 
 and very few marine plants. He refers to the cutting of the 
 channel and to the fact of the lake having been previously dry, 
 but wholly ignores the consequences of the changed conditions. 
 He assumes that the condition of the lake was the same in an- 
 cient times as that in which he found it and that it, therefore, 
 
 1 Ex. XIII, 17. 
 
 i 
 
Route of the Exodus 139 
 
 then contained no fresh-water vegetation, and could not have 
 been the Yam Silph, Sea of Weeds, Reeds or Rushes. He even 
 finds fault with Brugsch's map of the lake, because it had been 
 taken from the older charts and was not correct after the refilling 
 of the lake. 
 
 He was sent out to obtain facts to disprove the theory of 
 Brugsch Pasha, which startled some of the old school theologians 
 and rendered worthless a multitude of eloquent sermons that had 
 given vivid pictures of the swallowing up of the armies of Pha- 
 raoh by the deep waters of the Red Sea. The facts, however, 
 which he gives sustain the opinion of Brugsch as to the general 
 route of the Exodus. 
 
 The Israelites did not wait for the reorganization of the dis- 
 comfited Egyptian forces. ''So Moses brought Israel from the 
 Red Sea [Yam Staph] and they went out into the wilderness of 
 Shur,^ and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no 
 water." ^ Shur means a wall and Etham a fortress. Therefore, 
 the wilderness or desert of Shur or Etham is the wilderness of 
 the wall, or fortress. Brugsch says that this desert is on the 
 northeast of Egypt adjoining Lake Sirbonis and the former east- 
 ern end of Menzaleh, and that no part of the desert to the east 
 or in the vicinity of the Red Sea was ever known by these 
 names.^ He also says that his object in what he wrote was only 
 /'to direct public attention to the historical consequences of the 
 monumental records, and the writings on papyrus, bearing on 
 the subject." 
 
 ^ Or, as it is stated in Numbers XXXIII, 8, the wilderness of Etham. 
 
 2 Ex. XV, 22. 
 
 ^ Brugsch Pasha (Dr. Henry Brugsch), lately deceased, was the most learned 
 Egyptologist of his time. His dictionary of the hieroglyphs and his great 
 geography of Ancient Egypt, containing the names of over thirty-six hundred 
 places, on which he labored twenty years, will be a lasting monument of the 
 great work he accomplished. Professor Maspero who took up the work later 
 has now surpassed all his predecessors. 
 
140 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 Many criticisms have been made upon Brugsch's essay on 
 the Exodus. One result of the examination and discussion is that 
 all competent persons, who have examined the subject with the 
 light of modern discoveries, have wholly given up the old theory 
 of the passage of the Israehtes through any part of what now 
 constitutes the Red Sea. 
 
 Objections can be made to any of the routes suggested. No 
 one of the other routes, however, is sustained by evidence as 
 convincing as that adduced by this most candid and conscientious 
 scholar. There is nothing conclusive regarding the question of 
 the route of the Exodus in the supposed discovery of the Pithom 
 of the Bible, the treasure city built by the people of Israel for 
 Ramses. This city is thought to be too far south for the route 
 suggested. The word Pi-tum or Pi-atum was found. Tum or 
 Atum was a god, one of the forms of the Sun-God, who was more 
 particularly worshipped at HeUopoHs and in all the eastern part 
 of the Delta. Pi means dwelling or house, and Pi-tum, Pi-atum 
 or Pithom, is the house of Tum. Wlierever Tum was worshipped 
 was the house of Tum, the phrase being used in the same way as 
 ''the house of God" in Christian countries. The city in question 
 may have been the Bibhcal city of Pithom, or it may have been 
 simply a place where Tum was worshipped, some edifice or place 
 dedicated to this god. 
 
 I have not given the principal facts mentioned by Brugsch, 
 nor have I intended to give any opinion as to the route of the 
 Exodus. I have referred only to such facts as seemed necessary 
 to show the possible bearing on this subject of my experience on 
 Lake Menzaleh. I have done this for the reason that I have seen 
 no reference made in any writings to the extraordinary receding 
 of the coast line and the draining of the arms of these shallow, 
 grassy lakes by a continued strong wind. It is evident that the 
 attention of Brugsch Pasha had never been called to this subject. 
 Certainly, the facts related, considered in connection with the 
 
Route of the Exodus 141 
 
 Biblical narrative, have an important bearing on the question 
 of the route of the Exodus. 
 
 There has been no other route suggested which harmonizes 
 the known physical conditions of the country in the earliest his- 
 toric periods with the Biblical record. All the other routes re- 
 quire the supposition that, at that period, the Suez arm of the 
 Red Sea extended far north of its present terminus. Of this 
 condition we have no proofs and there is no reasonable ground 
 for supposing that it then existed. Such extension, had it ex- 
 isted, would have been directly north. In that case, what agency 
 could the east winds have had in producing the results described 
 in the sacred narrative? What reason could be given for the use 
 of the words ''the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong 
 east wind all that night"? Moreover, this arm of the sea would 
 have been salt water and would not have produced the grasses 
 necessary to constitute a sea of weeds (Yam Suph). 
 
 The question of the route of the Exodus cannot be considered 
 as solved. The only objection, however, to the northern route 
 is the one based upon the supposed discovery of the site of Pi- 
 thom. The claims advanced for the other routes are not only 
 founded on improbable suppositions, but are subject to other 
 unanswerable objections. 
 
142 ^gyP^ ^^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 Cleopatra's needle— negotiations by which it was secured 
 
 The idea of securing an obelisk for the City of New York had 
 its origin in 1877. It grew out of the newspaper reports of the 
 work, then in progress, of transporting an obeHsk from Alex- 
 andria to London. Paris had such a monument already. London 
 was to have one. Why should not New York, the great city of 
 the New World, be equally favored? 
 
 It was erroneously stated in a New York newspaper that his 
 Highness, the Khedive of Egypt, had signified ''his willingness 
 to present to the City of New York, upon a proper application, 
 the remaining obehsk of Alexandria." Mr. John Dixon, the 
 contractor who transported to London the obehsk now on the 
 Thames Embankment, was the person, it was claimed, to whom 
 the Khedive had thus expressed himself.^ 
 
 Mr. Henry G. Stebbins, then Commissioner of the Department 
 of Public Parks of the City of New York, undertook to secure the 
 necessary funds for transporting and erecting the obelisk in 
 question. Mr. William H. Vanderbilt was asked to head the 
 subscription, but he generously offered to defray the whole ex- 
 pense of the undertaking. After some telegraphic communica- 
 
 ^ Mr. Dixon afterwards wrote the writer that the report that the Khedive 
 had had any conversation with him regarding the obelisk of Alexandria or 
 had given him any intimation of an intention of presenting an obelisk to the 
 United States, or to the City of New York, was wholly a mistake; that, in fact 
 nothing whatever of that nature ever took place. 
 
Cleopatra's Needle 143 
 
 tions had been exchanged with Mr. Dixon as to the sum that 
 would be required, Mr. Vanderbilt entered into a written contract 
 with Mr. Stebbins to that effect. Only eight days after the first 
 publication of the erroneous statement, Mr. Stebbins addressed 
 to the Department of State at Washington the following letter:— 
 
 "New York, 15th October, 1877. 
 "Hon. Wm. M. Evarts, 
 "Secretary of State, 
 "Dear Sir: 
 
 "I have the pleasure to enclose two copies of a letter addressed this 
 day to his Highness the Khedive of Egypt, on the subject of the obelisk to 
 which I had the honor of inviting your attention yesterday. 
 
 " Will you kindly send one copy to the Consul-General of the United States 
 at Alexandria with instructions to await the arrival of an authorized repre- 
 sentative of Mr. Dixon, mentioned in letter, bringing with him an engrossed 
 copy of the letter, and upon the arrival of that representative, to accompany 
 him into the presence of the Khedive, or in some other proper way to certify 
 to the authority of the letter, and to the authority of the person bearing it. 
 
 " I am, dear Sir, 
 
 " Yours very respectfully. 
 Signed: " Henry G. Stebbins." 
 
 On the receipt of this letter the Secretary of State, Mr. Evarts, 
 addressed to me the following despatch, enclosing a copy of 
 Mr. Stebbins' letter and a copy of the letter which it was pro- 
 posed to have delivered to his Highness the Khedive: — 
 
 " Department of State, 
 
 "Washington, October 19, 1877. 
 "No 85. 
 
 "E. E. Farman, Esquire, Etc., Etc., Etc. 
 "Sir: 
 
 "This department is in receipt of a communication from Mr. Henry G. 
 Stebbins, Commissioner of the Department of Public Parks of the City of New 
 York, relative to the Obelisk which it is understood the Government of the 
 Khedive is willing to present to the City of New York, on due provision being 
 made for its transportation and erection in some public place there. Mr. 
 Stebbins encloses a copy of a letter of which the engrossed original is to be 
 presented to the Khedive by an authorized representative of Mr. Dixon of 
 
144 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 London, the engineer in charge of the transportation to England of the obe- 
 lisk known as Cleopatra's Needle, and solicits the sanction of this Government 
 in the presentation of that letter. 
 
 " A copy of the letter of Mr. Stebbins and of its enclosure is herewith trans- 
 mitted to you. In view of the public object to be subserved you are instructed 
 to use all proper means of furthering the wishes expressed in Mr. Stebbins' 
 letter. 
 
 " I am, Sir, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 Signed: " Wm. M. Evarts. 
 "Enclosures: 
 
 "Mr. Stebbins to Mr. Evarts, October 15, 1877, with accompaniment." 
 
 Copy of proposed letter of Mr. Stebbins to the Khedive. 
 
 "To 
 
 " His Highness, 
 "The Khedive. 
 "Highness: 
 
 "The deep interest excited throughout the civilized world by the 
 removal, under the auspices of your enlightened and liberal Government, of 
 the great obelisk known as 'Cleopatra's Needle,' from Alexandria to England, 
 has been quickened in the United States of America by the intimation con- 
 veyed to the people of the City of New York through the estimable Mr. Dixon 
 of London, that your Highness might not be indisposed, upon a proper appli- 
 cation to that effect being made, to testify your gracious good will and friendl}'' 
 sentiments towards the American People, by presenting to the City of New 
 York, for erection in one of the great public squares, the companion obelisk 
 which now stands at Alexandria. 
 
 " In the hope that such an application may indeed be favorably received by 
 your Highness, an eminent citizen of New York has signified to me his willing- 
 ness to defray all the necessary costs and charges of bringing this obelisk across 
 the Atlantic Ocean and setting it up in such a situation, there to remain as an 
 eloquent witness alike of the liberal and enlightened spirit in which your 
 Highness administered the affairs of the ancient and illustrious country so 
 happily confided to your sceptre and of your good will towards the youngest 
 of the great nations of the world. 
 
 "The generous and public-spirited citizen of whom I speak has requested 
 me in my capacity as a Commissioner, for now many years past, of the Depart- 
 ment of Public Parks in the City of New York to lay before your Highness, 
 therefore, through the Honorable, the Secretary of State of the United States 
 of America, this formal application and to say to your Highness that if it 
 shall please you to authorize the removal of the obelisk and its erection here, 
 
Cleopatra's Needle 145 
 
 I am fully prepared to commission Mr, John Dixon of London at once to imder- 
 take the work. 
 
 " I am sure your Highness will permit me to say to you, that the successful 
 completion of this work will be gladly and gratefully hailed by the people of 
 New York, and of the United States of America, as a new illustration of the 
 statesmanlike wisdom displayed by your Highness in your patronage of the 
 mighty enterprise which has united the Mediterranean with the Indian seas; 
 and as a new and most interesting bond connecting the Republic of the United 
 States with the Government of your Highness, and with the Egyptian people 
 and Realm. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, 
 "Your Highness's 
 
 " Most obedient humble servant, 
 
 Signed : " Henry G. Stebbins. 
 "New York, 
 "Oct. 15, 1877." 
 
 I was much surprised by the Secretary's despatch. I had 
 already received information of the publications in New York 
 relative to the obelisk, but was aware that the question was 
 entirely new in Egypt. Soon afterwards I addressed to Mr. 
 Evarts the following despatch and, at the same time, sent him 
 a private letter in which I made other suggestions as to the course 
 that should in my opinion be pursued. 
 
 "No. 196. 
 
 " Agency and Consulate-General of the United States. 
 "Cairo, November 24, 1877. 
 "Honorable William M. Evarts, 
 " Secretary of State, 
 "Washington, D. C. 
 "Sir: 
 
 " I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No . 
 85 enclosing a copy of a letter of Mr. Henry G. Stebbins, Commissioner of 
 the Department of Public Parks in the City of New York, addressed to his 
 Highness, the Khedive, and also a copy of a letter addressed by the same per- 
 son to you, both relating to the obelisk now standing at Alexandria, which it 
 is desired to obtain and transport to the City of New York. 
 
 "On the arrival of Mr. Dixon's Agent, I shall not fail to use, in accordance 
 with your instructions, all proper means of furthering the wishes of Mr. Steb- 
 bins. 
 
146 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 " I fear, however, that there will be serious opposition to the removal of the 
 obelisk from the City of Alexandria, so much in fact that although the Khedive 
 might personally desire to gratify the wishes of the citizens of New York, he 
 would not think it best to grant their request. 
 
 "The obelisk lately removed by the English, having been thrown down 
 many years since, was nearly covered with sand and was not considered of any 
 value to Alexandria. The one now standing, and the monument known as 
 Pompey's Pillar, are the only objects of antiquity remaining in the city that 
 are of sufficient importance to be visited by travelers. 
 
 "Should it be impossible to obtain the obelisk at Alexandria, it is not im- 
 probable that an application for the one standing at Luxor, or one of those at 
 Karnak would be favorably received. 
 
 "The companion of the obelisk removed by the French in 1833, and after- 
 wards erected at Paris in the 'Place de la Concorde,' is within a few rods of 
 the river at Luxor. There are two others at Karnak, two miles below Luxor, 
 and about fifty rods from the river. The removal of one of these might not be 
 impracticable. At least in the case of the failure to procure that at Alexandria, 
 the question might be considered by those in New York, who have taken an 
 interest in the subject. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, Sir. 
 "Your obedient servant 
 
 Signed: "E. E. Farman." 
 
 In the meantime Mr. Dixon had been informed of the steps 
 taken by the parties in New York and of the action of the De- 
 partment of State. He was much surprised at the manner in 
 which his name had been used. He was directly mentioned in 
 the letter of Mr. Stebbins, which it was proposed should be de- 
 livered to the Khedive, as having intimated that his Highness 
 might not be indisposed to present to the City of New York an 
 obelisk. Mr. Dixon, as has been explained above, had never 
 had any conversation with the Khedive upon the subject. He 
 knew enough of diplomatic matters and court usages to under- 
 stand that it would be entirely out of place for him, a private 
 English citizen, or for his agent, to ask of the Khedive a favor in 
 behalf of the citizens of any country, even his own. 
 
 Had the Khedive had any intention or desire to confer a favor 
 upon the people of the United States, he would never have given 
 
Cleopatra's Needle 147 
 
 intimation of the fact to a subject of some other nationality in- 
 stead of to the accredited representative of our own Government. 
 Mr. Dixon took immediate measures to inform the parties in 
 New York of their mistake, and, fearing lest I might act on the 
 instructions I had received from the Department of State, he 
 also wrote me the following letter: 
 
 "1, Laurence Poultney Hill, 
 "Cannon Street, 
 
 "London E. C, Nov. 16, 1877. 
 " H. E. The Consul-General of the United States, 
 "Egypt. 
 "Sir: 
 
 " You will, I believe, have received a communication from Mr. Secretary 
 Evarts requesting you to ascertain from the Government of his Highness, the 
 Khedive, whether he would be disposed to sanction the removal of an obelisk 
 to the United States and present one for such purpose. 
 
 " This is all very proper but my name has been mixed up with it as though 
 I were purveyor of obelisks to H. H. ! ! I believe it is founded upon a casual 
 remark of mine that if the U. S. wanted an obelisk I thought it possible that 
 one might be obtained. Mr. Vanderbilt offered to defray the expenses. 
 
 "You will see whilst a suitable despatch from the United States secretary 
 might have its prayer acceded to, neither my name nor that of anyone else 
 ought to be mentioned. 
 
 " I have written to the United States explaining my views and an amended 
 despatch will be sent you. Meantime if you can secure one, well and good^ 
 but pray do not mention my name as having suggested it. I shall be glad to 
 co-operate in the novel enterprise, but H. H. has treated me with such con- 
 sideration that I would not at any price run the risk of offending him as the 
 despatch I allude to would certainly do. 
 
 " I have the honor to remain, Sir, 
 "Your obedient servant, 
 
 Signed: "John Dixon." 
 
 Mr. Dixon's letter, a copy of which was sent to Mr. Evarts, 
 was received immediately after the sending of my despatch to 
 the latter, on the 24th of November. 
 
 I expected soon to receive further instructions; but none came, 
 nor any communication on the subject from any source. On 
 
148 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 receipt of Mr. Dixon's communication^ sent to parties in New 
 York, the whole matter of the obelisk was dropped. After the 
 newspaper publications of October, 1877, which I have men- 
 tioned, there was a profound silence. No reference to the sub- 
 ject was made in any of the New York journals for more than a 
 year and a half, and then not until my despatches of May, 1879, 
 to the Department of State giving information of the successful 
 termination of the negotiations which I had personally conducted 
 had been received. Neither Mr. Dixon, nor his agent, nor the 
 engrossed copy of Mr. Stebbins' letter ever came. 
 
 During my trip with General Grant in Upper Egypt (of which 
 I have written in ''Along the Nile with General Grant"), I ex- 
 amined the obelisk at Luxor, and the two at Karnak, with refer- 
 ence to the feasibility of their removal. My conclusion was that 
 the only obelisk in Egypt that we should be at all likely to obtain 
 was the one at Luxor. No one would think of removing that 
 of Heliopolis, antedating Cleopatra's Needle a thousand years 
 and standing where it was originally placed by Usertesen — 
 a soHtary monument marking the site of the once famous city 
 of On. 
 
 The larger of the two obelisks at Karnak, the largest obelisk 
 known, in fact, stood where it was placed by the woman-king 
 Hatshepsu thirty-four hundred years before. The smaller one 
 near it, that of Thutmosis I, whose mummy has since been de- 
 posited in the Museum at Cairo, had one corner broken. It was 
 also cracked in a manner that would render its removal without 
 further injury difficult, if not impossible. The only other obe- 
 lisks then in Egypt, except those broken into fragments, were 
 that of Alexandria and that of Luxor. 
 
 I informed General Grant of the correspondence relative to pro- 
 curing an obelisk and asked his opinion as to the propriety of 
 my attempting to obtain one on my own initiative, as the people 
 in New York seemed to have abandoned the undertaking. He 
 
Obelisk of liamses 11 at Luxor; Companion of, but Larger than, 
 That of the Place de la Concorde, Paris. 
 
4 
 
Cleopatra's Needle 149 
 
 replied that he could see no objection to my doing so and advised 
 me to procure one if possible. 
 
 On the 4th of March, I had an interview with the Khedive 
 at the Palace of Abdin for the purpose of laying the matter be- 
 fore him. I knew I should not receive a direct refusal. The 
 people of the Orient, especially the better classes, are very polite. 
 They have very little of the brusque, decisive, Anglo-Saxon way 
 of disposing of matters. They seldom give a definite refusal to a 
 request. Courtesy toward a representative of a foreign power 
 would specially require that such a request should be taken into 
 consideration and that a hasty answer should not be given, un- 
 less it was a favorable one. 
 
 I informed his Highness that the people of the United States 
 desired one of the ancient obelisks of Egypt, and that a wealthy 
 gentleman of New York had offered to defray the expenses of its 
 transportation and of its erection in that city. I mentioned the 
 obelisk of Paris and that of London and the natural desire of 
 our people to also have one in their metropolis. I explained, in 
 the course of the conversation, that our nation was so young and 
 all its works of so recent a date that one of the ancient monu- 
 ments of Egypt would be much more highly prized in the United 
 States than in England or France. I called attention to the obe- 
 lisk at Alexandria as the most accessible for shipment, but added 
 that, if his Highness concluded to favor us with such a gift, we 
 should be much pleased with any his Highness might select. 
 
 I found the subject entirely new to the Khedive. He seemed, 
 at first, to be surprised at the proposal. However, after various 
 questions and observations, he said that, while it would be a 
 great pleasure for him to be able to accede to my wishes, or to do 
 anything in his power to gratify the people of the United States, 
 the matter would have to be seriously considered. As to the 
 obelisk at Alexandria, he did not think it best even to mention 
 it, since the people of that city would be opposed to its removal. 
 
150 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 I did not afterwards make any special mention in the presence 
 of his Highness of the Alexandrian obelisk, although that was 
 the one that was finally given us. As I took leave of the Khedive 
 he said I could call his attention to the subject at some future 
 time. 
 
 I immediately sent a despatch to Mr. Evarts informing him 
 of the subject and results of this interview. Other conversations 
 were had with the Khedive regarding the matter, without any 
 definite results. A little later I was present at a dinner given by 
 the Khedive at the Palace of Abdin and it was on this occasion 
 that the first favorable intimation was given in regard to the obe- 
 lisk. There were from thirty to forty persons present, among 
 them M. Ferdinand de Lesseps. After dinner the company 
 was conversing in groups. The Khedive, who was constantly 
 shifting his place, seemed in better spirits than was usual for him 
 in those sad days of financial embarrassment. He approached 
 me and invited me to be seated. His first words were, '^Well, 
 Mr. Farman, you would Uke an obelisk? " 
 
 I replied that we would Hke one very much. We conversed 
 some minutes on the subject, without his Highness giving the 
 least intimation of his intentions. Some one came to join us and 
 we rose and, soon after, separated. 
 
 A few minutes later I was in conversation with M. de Lesseps. 
 This was at the time the Khedive was about to establish a com- 
 mission of inquiry to ascertain the amount of the net revenues 
 of the country with a view to determining what rate of interest 
 could be paid on the public debt. There had been an almost 
 total failure of the winter crops in a large portion of Upper 
 Egypt, resulting from the unprecedentedly low Nile of the pre- 
 vious year. This rendered it impossible, in the opinion of his 
 Highness, to continue the payment of interest at the rate of 
 seven per cent on the nearly one hundred millions of pounds of 
 Egypt's indebtedness. He had named, or was about to name, 
 
Cleopatra's Needle 151 
 
 M. de Lesseps president of the commission. During our conversa- 
 tion the Khedive joined us. M. de Lesseps, turning towards him, 
 repeated something I had just said about the best manner of 
 ascertaining the amount of the revenues. Either his Highness 
 did not hear, or, what is more likely, he did not wish to enter 
 upon the discussion of that subject. Interrupting the conversa- 
 tion he said, ^' Mr. Farman wishes an obelisk." 
 
 M. de Lesseps, who was a fine conversationaUst, and always 
 polite, agreeable and quick in his replies, immediately said, ''That 
 would be an excellent thing for the people of the United States." 
 Then, after a moment's hesitation, during which time the Khe- 
 dive seemed to await his further reply, he added: ''I do not see 
 why we could not give them one. It would not injure us much 
 and it would be a very valuable acquisition for them." 
 
 M. de Lesseps had been so long in Egypt that he considered 
 himself as one of the country, and, in speaking of Egyptian mat- 
 ters, was accustomed to say ''we," "us," and "ours." The 
 Khedive simply said, "I am considering the matter" and turned 
 to speak with another person who was approaching. 
 
 When I made my dinner call, two or three days afterwards, 
 the obeHsk was again mentioned. His Highness said that he had 
 concluded to give us one, but not that of Alexandria, and added 
 that he would take measures to obtain the necessary informa- 
 tion and inform me of his decision. He at once called his private 
 secretary and directed him to write a note to Brugsch Bey (after- 
 wards Brugsch Pasha), requesting a list and description of all 
 the obelisks remaining in Egypt, and an opinion as to which 
 could best be spared. I thanked his Highness warmly, and, as I 
 was leaving, he said that within a short time his secretary would 
 inform me which obelisk we could have. 
 
 It was not many days after this interview that a reception and 
 ball was given at the Palace. Brugsch Bey and myself happened 
 to meet and, after the exchange of a few words, he said in a rather 
 
152 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 reproachful tone, '^I learn you are trying to obtain an obelisk 
 to take to New York." 
 
 I replied, ^'Why not, they have one in Paris, and one in Lon- 
 don and the people of New York wish one also." 
 
 He answered: ''You will create a great amount of feeling; all 
 the savants of Europe will oppose it. The Khedive has asked 
 nie to give a description of the obelisks remaining in Egypt, and 
 to state which one can best be spared. I have sent a description 
 of the obelisks, but I shall not designate one to be taken away, 
 for I am totally opposed to the removal of any of them." 
 
 Not desiring to enter into any discussion on the subject, I 
 replied in a conciliatory manner, saying that it was of no great 
 importance, that there were a number of obelisks in Egypt, and 
 that the removal of one would not make much difference. He 
 assured me that I would encounter a great deal of antagonism. 
 This was the beginning of an opposition that was to delay for 
 more than a year the completion of the gift which his Highness 
 had deliberately determined upon. 
 
 Had this opposition come from Egyptians of position, who 
 would have had a right to be heard, I should have desisted at 
 once, through delicacy, from all further efforts in the matter. 
 It came, however, wholly from Europeans temporarily residing 
 in Egypt, who, whatever might be their opinions and however 
 well founded their conclusions, had no rights to protect against 
 the United States, and, consequently, were not entitled to be 
 considered. It was purely an affair between Egypt and our- 
 selves, and, as no opposition was made on the part of any real 
 Egyptian, I did not feel bound to yield to the opposition of others 
 nor have any scruples about taking every proper means to over- 
 come it. 
 
 About this time I was informed by the English Consul-General 
 that the obelisk at Luxor, the only one I then had hopes of ob- 
 taining, belonged to his people. He affirmed that it was given 
 
Cleopatra's Needle 153 
 
 to them at the same time that the one at Paris was given to 
 France, and announced that they claimed it and should object 
 to its being removed by anyone else. The Consul-General ad- 
 mitted that he did not know that they should ever take it, but 
 he insisted upon their right to do so. The Khedive afterwards 
 said to me that it was true that the obelisk at Luxor was offered 
 to the English at the same time that its companion was given 
 to the French. They did not take it, but they objected now to its 
 being given to anyone else. Under the circumstances it would 
 not do to interfere with it. 
 
 This was a new and unexpected complication. The Luxor 
 obelisk had been offered to the Enghsh by Mohammed Ali, fifty 
 years before, because he did not wish to create any ill feelings on 
 account of his gift to France. It was not then accepted and there 
 was no intention of taking it. Another had in the meantime been 
 accepted and removed to London. It was evident that claim was ^ 
 laid to this simply to prevent its going to the United States. 
 
 :?. 
 
154 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 GIFT OF THE OBELISK 
 
 Weeks passed and no note came from the Khedive. In the 
 meantime his private secretary had informed me verbally that 
 no obelisk had been designated to be given to the United States, 
 for the reason that Brugsch Bey had reported no opinion as to 
 the one that could best be spared. I knew that special objections 
 were being made in the case of each obelisk, that all the European 
 influences were combined against me, and that the English claim 
 to the Luxor obelisk was only one of the results of this combina- 
 tion. 
 
 Once afterwards, during the spring of 1878, the matter was 
 mentioned by the Khedive. He spoke of the English claiming 
 the Luxor obelisk and said that he had not yet fixed upon one 
 to be given to us, but that he would do so at no very distant day. 
 
 Serious difficulties came upon Egypt about this time. The 
 Khedive was harassed and vexed in many ways. M. de Lesseps, 
 well knowing that he could not do justice to Egypt and at the 
 same time please the Paris bankers, had gone to France without 
 entering upon the duties of the Commission of Inquiry. The 
 Commission had been organized, however. It was composed of 
 persons who had been selected in the interests of the bondholders, 
 and its work progressed with rapidity. Among the measures of 
 economy it demanded was the dismissal of many Government 
 employees, and the Americans in the military service of the 
 Khedive were among the first to be discharged. Without any 
 
Gift of the Obelisk 155 
 
 previous notice, they ware informed that their terms of service 
 were ended. They all had considerable amounts of arrears of 
 pay due them, and some of them had disputed claims and de- 
 mands for indemnity which complicated their relations with the 
 Government and rendered a settlement of their accounts difhcult. 
 
 I was called upon to aid my countrymen and found myself 
 suddenly thrown into an unpleasant contest. In view of this 
 depressed state of I^^gyptian affairs and the fjmbarrassments with 
 which the Khedive found himself surrounded, there was no time 
 for him to think of the obelisk and any .mention of it on my part 
 would have been discourteous. Therefore, I left Egypt about 
 the middle of July, without again referring to the subject, on a 
 leave of absence, with permission to visit the United States. 
 
 Early in October, a few days before I sailed from New York 
 on my return, T had an interview with Mr. P]varts in which I 
 informed him of the state of the negotiations relative to an obe- 
 lisk. He said he would be very much pleased if I could obtain 
 one, and that he was ready to do anything he properly could to 
 aid me. 
 
 On njy arrival in Egypt in November, I found a great change 
 in Governmental matters. What was called the Anglo-French 
 Ministry had been formed with Nubar Pasha at its head. It 
 had been organized on the theory of ''responsibihty." A respon- 
 sible ministry is responsible, while in power, for the government 
 it administers; but it is supposed to be responsible or accountable 
 to some person, or body of persons. This Ministry assumed to 
 act independently of the Khedive, as the English Ministry does 
 of the Queen. But in England there is a parliament to which 
 the Ministers are accountable, to this extent at least, that they 
 must have its support or resign. 
 
 In Egypt there was no parliament, all the legislative as well as 
 the executive power being vested in the Khedive. There was a 
 Chanriber of Notables, which was sometimes assembled to vote 
 
156 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 on questions of extraordinary taxation. This Chamber was con- 
 voked in December, 1887, or in January following, but was 
 utterly ignored by the Ministry, which even refused to submit to 
 it a report of the proceedings of the Minister of Finance. The 
 Ministers, according to their theory, were independent of all 
 restraint, and, as it afterwards appeared, no one could rightfully 
 remove them. At least this was affirmed. 
 
 Such was the Ministry through which the obelisk was now to 
 come if at all, the Khedive, as claimed, having no authority in 
 the premises. 
 
 Mariette Bey, who had spent the summer at the Exposition 
 in Paris, had arrived, and I knew he was making strenuous 
 opposition to the gift. He was then at the head of the Depart- 
 ment of Antiquities and his opposition could not but embarrass 
 and delay the negotiations. At one time it seemed likely to 
 wholly defeat the intentions of the Khedive. 
 
 On my arrival I paid the customary visit to the Khedive and 
 had frequent interviews with him afterwards, but no mention 
 was made of the obelisk for a number of weeks. He finally 
 signified his willingness and desire to complete the gift, but he 
 did not hesitate to intimate to me what I very well knew, that 
 the matter of the obelisk was in the hands of the Ministers. 
 
 Though I had little faith in any long continuance of the exist- 
 ing state of things, I took occasion to bring the matter of the 
 obelisk before his Excellency, Nubar Pasha, whom I had never 
 seen until my late arrival in Egypt. He had been in disfavor with 
 the Khedive and had resided in Europe since 1875, being re- 
 called to head the Ministry at the instance of certain European 
 Powers. 
 
 I found that he already understood the question, not through 
 the Khedive, but through those who were opposed to the gift. 
 He took a fair view of the matter, however, and said that, if the 
 Khedive had expressed his intention of giving us an obelisk, it 
 
Gift of the Obelisk 157 
 
 should be considered as a '^fait accompli,'' and that there was no 
 reason why the Ministry should oppose it. He promised to see 
 the Khedive, learn exactly what had been done, and then carry 
 out his Highness' wishes. He added, however, that if it were a 
 new and open question, he should oppose it. 
 
 Not long afterwards he informed me that he had seen the 
 Khedive, and that his Highness said that he had promised an 
 obelisk and desired to have the promise fulfilled. His Excel- 
 lency added that he would take the necessary measures for that 
 purpose. 
 
 About this time Mariette Bey laid before the Council of Minis- 
 ters a memorial on the subject, in which he made strenuous 
 opposition to the removal of any of the obelisks of Egypt, and 
 particularly set forth the sacredness of the obelisks at Karnak 
 and HeliopoHs. It was this memorial and the declarations of 
 Mariette that afterwards determined which obelisk should be 
 given us. He undoubtedly thought that there would be suffi- 
 cient opposition from other sources to prevent the removal of 
 the obehsk at Alexandria; that the English would take care of 
 theirs at Luxor; and that, if he could prevent the selection of 
 either of those at Karnak, or the one at HeliopoUs, the project 
 would be defeated.^ 
 
 In February Nubar Pasha informed me that the English 
 claimed the obelisk at Luxor and that Mariette Bey was so 
 strongly opposed to the removal of those at Karnak and Heli- 
 opolis that he had determined to give us the one at Alexandria, 
 Cleopatra's Needle. He at the same time prepared and handed 
 his clerk a memorandum of a despatch to the Minister of PubUc 
 
 ^ Previous to the time of his being employed by the Egyptian Government, 
 Mariette Bey took to Paris the finest collection of antiquities that has ever been 
 removed from Egypt. A large, and the most valuable, part of the collection 
 was obtained only by long and strenuous diplomatic pressure and by keeping 
 the secret, during the negotiations, of what had been found. The collection, 
 numbering about seven thousand objects, is still in the Museum of the Louvre. 
 
 V- 
 
158 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 Works who represented France in the Ministry, asking him to 
 institute the necessary formalities for its delivery. Whether this 
 despatch was ever sent I do not know. Two or three days after- 
 wards, events happened that threw Egypt into intense excite- 
 ment and compelled Nubar Pasha to retire from the Ministry. 
 
 A large number of Egyptian officers and soldiers had been dis- 
 charged, without receiving their arrears of pay. It was also just 
 at this time that we were getting the details of the famine in 
 Upper Egypt during the previous months of November and De- 
 cember, and the public feeling had become very hostile towards 
 what was known as the European Ministry. This state of excite- 
 ment culminated on the 18th of February in a street attack by 
 the discharged officers upon Mr. Rivers Wilson and Nubar Pasha, 
 as they were leaving their departments to go to their noon-day 
 meal. The officers demanded their arrears of salaries and, on 
 payment being refused, took the Ministers back to the Depart- 
 ment of Finance and held them prisoners until information was 
 conveyed to the Khedive who came personally to their relief. It 
 was then only with great difficulty, and after some shots had 
 been fired, that order was restored. 
 
 Nubar Pasha resigned the next morning. The English and 
 French Ministers, supported by their respective Governments, 
 retained their places and, after thirty days of diplomatic nego- 
 tiations, the Ministry was reorganized, but under such conditions 
 that the two European Ministers could virtually control the 
 Government. This reorganized Ministry was not destined to 
 last long. Turns of the wheel of fortune were frequent in Egypt 
 and they generally happened when least expected. It is called a 
 country of surprises, and there is an Oriental proverb, according 
 to which only what is intended to be provisional is lasting. An 
 Arab does not finish his house through fear that some accident 
 will befall it or its occupants. 
 
 The new regime was supposed to be permanent. Telegraphic 
 
Gift of the Obelisk 159 
 
 lines had been freely used and the combined diplomatic wisdom 
 of two great European Powers called into action. Conditions 
 were formulated and imposed that were designed to insure the 
 immovability of the Ministers. When the work was completed, 
 it was supposed that there was at least one unchangeable in- 
 stitution in Egypt. The reorganized Ministry was henceforth 
 to be an immovable fixture in the governmental machinery. But 
 the Arab proverb held good and the structure which rested on 
 laborious negotiations lasting thirty days, endured just eighteen. 
 On the 7th of April occurred what was called the ^' coup d^etaV 
 of the Khedive, Ismail Pasha. 
 
 The action of the new Ministry was such that the Khedive 
 soon afterwards claimed it to be necessary, for the safety of the 
 country, that he should again take the Government into his own 
 hands and form a Ministry composed wholly of Egyptians. He 
 requested Cherif Pasha to form and take the presidency of a new 
 Ministry. The trust was accepted and the Ministry was formed. 
 Once more the Khedive was the real as well as the nominal chief 
 and head of the Government, but the diplomatic and political 
 circles of Europe were thrown into a state of excitement. At 
 Paris, where the feeling against the Khedive was the most in- 
 tense, his dethronement was loudly demanded. 
 
 I had known Cherif Pasha since the time of my first arrival in 
 Egypt. He was admitted by all parties to be a noble, honest and 
 just man, who never entered into intrigues or speculations. In 
 his youth he had received a good European education. He had 
 commenced his career as an army officer and risen to the rank of 
 colonel, and afterwards had had experience in every department 
 of the Government. Always frank and sincere, he enjoyed more 
 of the confidence of the people than any other person the Khedive 
 could call into his service. 
 
 It was not many days before matters were again running 
 smoothly so far as the local Government of Egypt was concerned. 
 
i6o Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 The only difficulties were in Paris and London, where potent 
 influences were at work against his Highness. In Egypt, the 
 native public sentiment was one of hostility to being governed 
 by foreigners. As a result of this sentiment, there arose about 
 this time a faction styling itself the '' National Party," having 
 for its motto "Egypt for the Egyptians." It was small in num- 
 bers and to a large extent necessarily secret in its action, but its 
 feeling of antagonism to "foreign rule" was in accord with that 
 of the native population. 
 
 A number of European Governments were at this time, in 
 consequence of some real or supposed interest, claiming a share 
 in the Government of Egypt, and vying with each other for a 
 preponderance of influence and power. The Government of 
 the United States, having no political purposes to carry out in 
 this country, did not assume the right to interfere with its 
 Government. It was, consequently, able to keep itself free from 
 all political complications. Under these circumstances, there 
 was naturally the kindest feeling among the Egyptians toward 
 our Government and people. 
 
 Cherif Pasha was conversant with the negotiations relative to 
 the obehsk. Though the new Ministry had been organized on 
 the same theory of "responsibility" as the one it replaced, I had 
 good reasons to believe that his Excellency would not put any 
 obstacles in the way of the fulfilment of the expressed intentions 
 of the Khedive. 
 
 About a month after the so-called ^^ coup d^etat/^ political 
 affairs became entirely quiet, and it seemed for the moment as 
 if the European Powers were to acquiesce in the new order of 
 things. A convenient opportunity occurring, I suggested to 
 Cherif Pasha, that I would like to have the matter of the obelisk 
 terminated. He said he would take the first opportunity to talk 
 with the Khedive and that his Highness' wishes, whatever they 
 were, should be carried out. Some days afterwards when I was 
 
Gift of the Obelisk i6i 
 
 calling upon him for another purpose he told me that the ques- 
 tion of the obelisk had been considered and had been practically 
 decided in my favor, but that he desired to speak to the Khedive 
 once more on the subject. He added that he should see him that 
 evening and if I would call on the morrow at eleven o'clock, he 
 would give me a definite answer. This I was led to understand 
 would be a favorable one. The next day I went to the Ministry 
 at the hour designated, but was informed that Cherif Pasha was 
 at the Palace, and probably with the Khedive. 
 
 On my return to the Consulate I stopped to visit the Pasha 
 who held the position of Keeper of the Seal, and who had rooms 
 in one part of the Khedive's residence. I found there two of the 
 princes, brothers of the late Khedive, Tewfik Pasha. We entered 
 into conversation, and coffee was served according to the uni- 
 versal Oriental custom. In a few minutes Cherif Pasha came in, 
 and, after the usual salutations, had a few words with the Keeper 
 of the Seal in their own language. Starting to leave, he gave me 
 an invitation to accompany him, and, bidding good morning to 
 the others, we went out together. On shaking hands with Cherif, 
 I noticed that he was much agitated, and I suspected that there 
 was important and perhaps alarming news from the Cabinets of 
 Paris and London. As soon as we were in the hall, his Excellency 
 commenced a conversation, saying that he presumed I had been 
 to see him, that he regretted not having been at the Ministry, 
 but that he had been detained by important business with the 
 Khedive. We had passed through a long hall and down a stair- 
 way and were just going out of a doorway near which both of our 
 carriages were awaiting us when the Pasha said, " It is the obe- 
 lisk at Alexandria that you prefer, is it not? " 
 
 I replied that that one was more conveniently situated for 
 removal than the others. 
 
 '^ Well," said the Pasha, ''we have concluded to give it to you." 
 
 After thanking him, I said that I ought to have something in 
 
1 62 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 writing, confirming the gift, to send to the Secretary of State at 
 Washington. I said further that, though we had always talked 
 of it as a gift to the United States, it was understood that it was 
 to be erected in New York, and that I had been thinking it would 
 be better to give it directly to that city, as otherwise there might 
 be some complication requiring an act of Congress. 
 
 Cherif replied, " We give you the obelisk, do as you wish with 
 it." After a moment's reflection he added: — ''Write me a note 
 indicating what you wish to have done. State that all the ex- 
 penses of removal are to be paid by the United States, or by the 
 City of New York if you prefer. Hand the note to my Secretary- 
 general and tell him to prepare an answer confirming the gift, in 
 accordance with the suggestions you give, and to bring it to me 
 for my signature." 
 
 Two hours later I handed to the Secretary-general of the De- 
 partment of Foreign Affairs, at the same time informing him of 
 what the Pasha had said, a letter of which the following is a 
 translation from the French: — 
 
 "Agency and Consulate-General of the United States at Cairo, May 17, 1879. 
 "Excellency; 
 
 " Referring to the different conversations that I have had the honor to have 
 with your Excellency in which you have informed me that the Government of 
 his Highness, the Khedive, is disposed to present to the City of New York, to 
 be transported and erected there, the obelisk of Alexandria, I should be pleased 
 if your Excellency would have the kindness to definitely confirm in writing 
 the gift of this monument. 
 
 " It is understood that its transportation is to be effected at the expense of 
 certain citizens of the said City of New York. 
 
 "I beg to assure your Excellency in advance of the warm thanks of my 
 Government for having thus favorably responded to the representations I 
 have made to the Government of his Highness the Khedive, in accordance 
 with the instructions that I have received on this subject. 
 
 " I have every reason to believe that the monument which is thus soon to be 
 transported to and erected in the City of New York, will always be a souvenir 
 and a pledge of the friendship that has ever existed between the Government 
 of the United States and that of his Highness, the Khedive. 
 
The Obelisk, Known as Cleopatra's Needle, as It Stood 
 
 at Alexandria, SI lowing the N'early Effaced 
 
 Hieroglyphics on the Land Side. 
 
Gift of the Obelisk 163 
 
 "I beg your Excellency to accept the renewed assurance of my high con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Signed: "E. E. Farman. 
 " To his Excellency Cherif Pasha, Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of 
 
 the Council of Ministers." 
 
 The next day I received the following reply which I have trans- 
 lated from the French. 
 
 "Cairo, May 18th, 1879. 
 "To Mr. Farman, Agent and Consul-General of the United States. 
 
 "Mr. Agent & Consul-General: 
 
 " I have taken cognizance of the despatch which you did me the honor of 
 writing on the 17th of the current month of May. 
 
 " In reply I hasten to transmit to you the assurance, Mr. Agent & Consul- 
 General, that the Government of the Khedive having taken into consideration 
 your representations and the desire which you have expressed in the name of 
 the Government of the United States of America, consents, in fact, to make 
 a gift to the City of New York of the obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle, 
 which is at Alexandria on the sea-shore. 
 
 "The local authorities will therefore be directed to deliver this obelisk to 
 the representative of the American Government, and to facilitate, in every- 
 thing that shall depend upon them, the removal of this monument, which 
 according to the terms of your despatch is to be done at the exclusive cost 
 and expense of the City of New York. 
 
 " I am happy, Mr. Agent & Consul-General, to have to announce to you this 
 decision, which while giving to the Great City an Egyptian monument, to 
 which is attached as you know, a real archaeological interest, will also be, I 
 am as yourself convinced, another souvenir and another pledge of the friend- 
 ship that has constantly existed between the Government of the United States 
 and that of the Khedive. 
 
 "Be pleased to accept, Mr. Agent and Consul-General, the expression of my 
 high consideration. 
 
 Signed: "Cherif." 
 
 It will be seen by these notes that the obelisk was given directly 
 to the City of New York, and not, as is stated in the inscription 
 on a claw of one of the crabs upon which it now rests, to the 
 United States. 
 
 On the 22d day of May I sent Mr. Secretary Evarts, the fol- 
 lowing telegram: — ''The Government of the Khedive has given 
 
164 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 to the City of New York the obeUsk at Alexandria, known as 
 Cleopatra's Needle." I also, on the same day, forwarded to him 
 a despatch enclosing copies of the notes that had been exchanged 
 between Cherif Pasha and myself. 
 
 The obelisk was secured, but the complications in the afiFairs 
 of Egypt continued. On the 27th day of June the Khedive 
 abdicated in favor of his son, Mehemet Tewfik Pasha, who, on 
 the same day, was proclaimed Khedive of Egypt. 
 
 The experiment of a European Ministry was not tried again. 
 Cherif Pasha was continued at the head of the Administration 
 during the summer, but early in the autumn what was known as 
 the Riaz Ministry was formed. 
 
 The final negotiations by which the obelisk was secured had 
 been conducted so quietly that the first public information in 
 Egypt that the gift had been made came from New York 
 through the medium of English newspapers. Very little was 
 then said upon the subject by any of the local journals, but as 
 soon as the Riaz Ministry was organized an attempt was made, 
 through the influence of certain Europeans, to have the action 
 of the late Government reversed. The matter was two or three 
 times considered in the Council of Ministers, and commented 
 upon by the European press of Egypt. The Ministers, however, 
 finding that the gift had been confirmed in writing, by an ex- 
 change of official notes, decided that it was too late for them to 
 take any action in the matter. Lieutenant-Commander Gor- 
 rings arrived in October, 1879, to effect the removal of the obe- 
 lisk, and the necessary orders were given to the local authorities 
 of Alexandria for its delivery. 
 
 On the receipt of my despatch of the 22d of May informing 
 him of the successful termination of the negotiations. Secretary 
 Evarts wrote me a private letter, and at the same time sent me 
 an official despatch, dated June 13th, 1879. In the latter he 
 said: — 
 
Gift of the Obelisk i65 
 
 *' I have to aclmowledge the reception of your despatch of the 
 22nd ultimo, with its enclosures in which you have informed the 
 Department that the negotiations entered into to procure an 
 Egyptian obelisk for the City of New York have been successful, 
 and that the Government of his Highness the Khedive has gen- 
 erously presented to that city the obelisk known as Cleopatra's 
 Needle. 
 
 ^'It is a source of great gratification to this Government, that 
 through the generosity of the Khedive this country is soon to 
 come into the possession of such an interesting monument of 
 antiquity as Cleopatra's Needle. You are therefore instructed 
 to inform his Highness that the great favor he has conferred upon 
 this Republic by making this gift is highly appreciated and that 
 it is felt that such a rare mark of friendship cannot but tend to 
 still further strengthen the amicable relations which have ever 
 subsisted between the two countries and will cause the memory 
 of the Khedive to be long and warmly cherished by the American 
 people. 
 
 "The historical account of the obelisks of Egypt, which your 
 despatch contains has been read with interest." 
 
 It must not be supposed that the obelisks and other ancient 
 monuments of the country are slightly prized by the educated 
 Egyptians. On the contrary, they are highly valued and guarded 
 with great jealousy. Considering all the circumstances, the 
 Khedive could not have furnished a stronger proof of his respect 
 for the Government and people of the United States than this 
 gift of Cleopatra's Needle. I have abundant evidence of the 
 great admiration he had for our institutions, though he knew 
 that nothing of the kind was possible in the Orient. 
 
 The other obelisks that have been removed from Egypt were 
 obtained under circumstances entirely different from those now 
 existing. They were for the most part removed by the Roman 
 
i66 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 conquerors. Only two, besides Cleopatra's Needle, have been 
 taken away in modern times, that of Paris and that of London. 
 The latter was given to England in 1820, at a time when Egypt / 
 was in a condition entirely different from that of to-day. Fur- ( 
 thermore, this obeUsk had been lying for centuries nearly buried 
 in sand and rubbish. It was nmch injured, and, in comparison 
 with the standing obelisks, httle prized. Yet it was considered 
 a gift worthy to be bestowed upon his Majesty, George the 
 Fourth, in return for favors and presents received from him by 
 Mohammed Ali Pasha, then Viceroy of Egypt. 
 
 The obelisk now at Paris was given to France ten years later, 
 in 1830, on account, it is claimed, of services rendered to the 
 Government of Egypt. It stood at Luxor, then a small village 
 of mud huts, situated six hundred miles up the Nile and inhabited 
 by a few hundred natives. 
 
 There wxre three other obelisks standing in this vicinity and 
 many colossal ruins, the most magnificent and interesting in the 
 world. The place was at that period, however, seldom visited 
 by Europeans, and the removal of one of its obelisks was not an 
 event to create any opposition. Yet the monument was consid- 
 ered an important embelUshment of the city of Paris. 
 
 The European press of Egypt, commenting in the fall of 1879 
 upon the subject of the removal of Egyptian monuments, laid 
 great stress upon the fact that the London and Paris obelisks 
 were both given on account of services and favors rendered by 
 the Governments of the countries to which they were presented, 
 while there was no pretence of any such consideration for the 
 gift of Cleopatra's Needle to the City of New York. 
 
 This only proves that the courtesy was prompted by the re- 
 spect and kindly feelings of a sovereign towards a government 
 and a people who had always been his friends, and who had no 
 selfish designs to further against him, his subjects or his country. 
 
 In the acceptance of the obelisk the City of New York assumed 
 
 79 \ 
 
 ) 
 
Gift of the Obelisk 167 
 
 a solemn obligation toward future generations, towards all of 
 those millions of the citizens of the Republic who shall in the 
 coming centuries visit the great metropolis. That obligation is 
 to preserve the monument which has been placed in its keeping. 
 It has come to us through thirty-five centuries, and, after all the 
 vicissitudes through which it has passed, is still in a fair state of 
 preservation. It would now be a shameful negligence, as repre- 
 hensible as wanton destruction, on the part of those having the 
 custody of this noble monument, to allow it to be unnecessarily 
 injured for the want of that provident care which prudence 
 demands should be bestowed upon it. 
 
 The injuries it has already received are generally supposed by 
 those who have only slightly examined the subject to have re- 
 sulted from its having stood for a long time near the sea. This 
 is a mistake. It was not the sides facing the sea that were in- 
 jured. I have elsewhere shown that these injuries could only 
 have been produced by the alkalies of the soil in which the obe- 
 lisk probably lay for several centuries, or by fire. It is probable 
 that the principal injuries were caused by the latter agency. 
 
 It is well known that polished granite successfully resists all 
 atmospheric influences in cold as well as in warm climates. But 
 when this polish is once removed, and a rough uneven surface 
 is presented, certain atmospheric and climatic influences are 
 injurious. 
 
1 68 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE REMOVAL OF THE OBELISK AND MASONIC EMBLEMS 
 
 Cleopatra's Needle is a single shaft of red granite from the 
 quarries of Syene, now Assuan, at the First Cataract of the Nile, 
 seven hundred miles from the Mediterranean. It is sixty-eight 
 feet ten inches in height and seven feet ten inches by eight feet 
 two inches at its base. It tapers gradually upwards to six feet 
 one inch by six feet three inches, terminating in a pyramidion 
 seven feet high. Its weight is about two hundred and twenty 
 tons. It stood upon the sea-shore at Alexandria, fifty feet from 
 the water line, with its base buried in sand and earth that had 
 been accumulating for centuries. 
 
 The base of the obelisk, when uncovered, was found to be con- 
 siderably rounded. It rested on two copper supports cast in 
 the form of sea-crabs and placed under opposite corners. Under 
 a third corner was a stone, but the fourth corner was unsup- 
 ported. This left a space between the obelisk and its pedestal of 
 eight inches. There was a thin iron wedge wholly oxydized on 
 the top of the stone support. The bodies of the two crabs were 
 about twelve inches long, measuring from the head back, and 
 they were sixteen inches broad and eight inches high. Each, 
 when entire, weighed over five hundred pounds. Bars of the 
 same material as the crabs ran from their upper and lower sur- 
 faces into the obelisk and the pedestal. These bars were over 
 three inches square and nine inches long, forming dowels which 
 
Placing the Obelisk in the Hold of the Steamer Dessong 
 
 at Alexandria. 
 
Removal of the Obelisk 169 
 
 held the obelisk securely in its place. The dowels were sur- 
 rounded and made firm in the mortises with lead. 
 
 Originally, there were four crabs, the two missing ones having 
 been removed by the natives for the metal. The remaining 
 crabs were much injured. The claws and legs of one had been 
 removed. The other had only one leg left and even this was 
 broken in turning the obelisk to a horizontal position. It is 
 probable that the crabs were placed under the obelisk as supports 
 at the time of its re erection by the Romans, on account of the 
 rounded condition of its base. One writer conjectures that the 
 form of the crab was chosen to satisfy the superstition of both 
 the Egyptians and Romans. 
 
 The obelisk rested upon a pedestal formed of a single block 
 of Syenitic granite tapering upward in about the same propor- 
 tion as the obelisk. It was seven feet high, averaged nine feet 
 square and weighed forty-eight tons. The substructure on which 
 the pedestal rested was four feet nine inches high and the imder 
 surface of its lowest step was only eighteen inches above the 
 level of the sea. 
 
 At the time of the erection of the obelisk at Alexandria, a little 
 over nineteen hundred years ago, the surface of the earth at this 
 point was lower than the lowest step of the pedestal. There was 
 a gradual accumulation of sand and gravel to the height of seven- 
 teen feet, burying the steps, the pedestal and finally the base of 
 the obelisk. During the same period, there has been a marked 
 change in the relative position of the land and sea. Tombs cut 
 in the rocks overlooking the sea are now partly submerged and 
 constantly washed by the waves. The height of the obelisk, 
 measuring from the base of the lower step, was eighty-one feet 
 two inches. 
 
 Lieutenant-Commander Gorrings, U. S. N., was granted a leave 
 of absence to enable him to remove the obelisk to the United 
 States. He was accompanied by Lieutenant Seaton Schroeder, 
 
lyo Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 now Captain, and late Governor of Guam, who was a valuable 
 assistant. Heavy constructions were made in the United States 
 to aid in the accomplishment of the work. 
 
 When the excavations were finished, the obehsk was encased 
 with planks, and stone piers were erected to support the con- 
 structions used in turning it to a horizontal position. These 
 constructions consisted of steel frame- works on two opposite sides 
 of the obelisk, similar in form to the iron piers of a bridge, on the 
 top of which were placed bearings for trunnions. Heavy plates, 
 with trunnions cast upon them, were fastened to the sides of 
 the obelisk by means of long bolts or rods passing from one to 
 the other through their projecting edges. Four pairs of heavy 
 rods ran from the trunnion plates downward and through the 
 ends of heel straps that passed under the obelisk. These straps 
 were double-channeled and fastened to the rods by nuts. When 
 the base of the obelisk was pushed by means of hydraulic jacks 
 from the supports on which it rested, its whole weight was sus- 
 tained by the rods and, thus supported, it was swung to a hori- 
 zontal position, turning on its improvised trunnions like a 
 mammoth cannon. 
 
 Through an error in the computation of the weight of the 
 upper and lower parts, the trunnions were placed too low, making 
 that part of the obelisk above them heavier than that below. 
 The obelisk, when once started, swung very quickly and struck 
 with great force upon the nest of planks that had been erected 
 to receive it. Happily, it was not broken, though the great 
 throng of people present were startled by the crashing of the 
 planks. It was a fortunate escape from a serious accident to 
 the noble monument. A similar nest of planks was placed under 
 the other end of the obelisk. After the pedestal and foundations 
 had been removed, it w^as gradually lowered by means of hy- 
 drauhc jacks to a caisson constructed to receive it. 
 
 The caisson was pushed into the sea, towed around the ancient 
 
Removal of the Obelisk 171 
 
 island of Pharos and into the harbor. Here, it was placed with 
 the steamer Dessoug in a floating dry-dock. The dock was closed, 
 the water pumped from it and the obelisk run into the steamer 
 through a hole made in its side near the bow. The ways on which 
 the obelisk was moved were made of heavy rails of channel iron 
 on which cannon balls were used as rollers. To prevent any 
 injury to the obelisk and cover its uneven surfaces, similar rails 
 of channel iron were placed, inverted, under the obelisk and over 
 the balls. On the arrival of the steamer in New York the same 
 means as those used in Alexandria were employed in unshipping 
 and erecting the obelisk. 
 
 The Dessoug did not leave Alexandria until the 12th of June, 
 1880, eight months having been employed in lowering and ship- 
 ping the obelisk with the aid of the most approved modern 
 appliances which had been previously prepared for this special 
 purpose. Six months more, after its arrival in New York, were 
 required for its unshipment and re erection. 
 
 When we compare this work with that accomplished on the 
 banks of the Nile thirty-five hundred years ago, we are unable 
 to find words to express our astonishment at the skill of the 
 ancient Egyptians. The most perfect and beautiful of the ex- 
 isting obelisks is one of those that stand at Karnak. Its weight 
 is nearly twice that of Cleopatra's Needle. According to hiero- 
 glyphic inscriptions on its base, this immense monolith was cut 
 from its native bed at Assuan, transported one hundred and 
 forty miles and erected on the pedestal where it now stands, in 
 seven months. The work appears to have been hastened in or- 
 der that the erection of the obelisk might '' commemorate an an- 
 niversary of the queen's coronation." We can excuse the satis- 
 faction, the pride, the egotism of the wonderful woman, Queen 
 Hatshepsu, over her marvelous achievement, as expressed in the 
 following inscription which she had chiseled on the pedestal of 
 the obelisk: 
 
172 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 ''This is what I teach to mortals who shall live in centuries to 
 come, and who shall inquire concerning the monuments I have 
 raised to my father. . . . When I sat in the palace and thought 
 upon him who made me, my heart hastened me to erect to him 
 two obelisks of electrum whose tops should reach the sky before 
 the august gateway between the two great pylons of king Thut- 
 mosis I. . . . When they see my monuments in after years and 
 speak of my great deeds, let them beware of saying ' I know not, 
 I know not why it was determined to cover this monument with 
 gold all over.' It is thus that it hath been done, that my name 
 may remain and live forever. This single block of granite has 
 been cut at the desire of My Majesty between the first of the 
 second month of Pirit of the Vth year and the 30th of the fourth 
 month of Shomu of the Vlth year which makes seven months 
 from the day when they began to quarry it." 
 
 If we credit the ancient records, there were formerly obelisks 
 of twice the weight of the largest now existing. The broken 
 statue of Ramses II, at Thebes, weighed nearly nine himdred 
 tons. Herodotus mentions a temple of Latona in the sacred 
 enclosure at Buto, Egypt, forty cubits square, ''made from one 
 stone " and, for its roof, another stone laid over it, having a cor- 
 nice four cubits deep.^ A stone which I saw cut, but still remain- 
 ing in the quarry, at Baalbec, weighs one thousand tons; and 
 there are in the walls of the temple of that place three stones each 
 weighing nearly one thousand tons. That part of the wall which 
 contains them is of unknown antiquity, but it is probably con- 
 temporaneous with some of the great monuments of Egypt, the 
 ruins of which abound with stones of gigantic size. 
 
 We know from the ancient drawings and hieroglyphic writings 
 that colossal statues were drawn on sledges and that obelisks 
 were sometimes transported by boat on the Nile or in the canals. 
 By what means the great obelisks were placed on their pedestals 
 
 1 Her. II, 155. 
 
7j 
 
 c 
 
Removal of the Obelisk 173 
 
 with the greatest precision, and without in the least marring 
 the sharp edges of their bases, is still left wholly to conjecture. 
 
 ObeHsks were originally made with a flat base which rested 
 directly on the pedestal. Many of them were thrown down at 
 the time of the Persian invasion and remained on the ground five 
 hundred years, till the Roman conquest. Cleopatra's Needle, 
 originally erected at HeliopoUs, was removed to Alexandria in 
 the reign of Augustus Caesar. Either while lying at Heliopolis or 
 in its removal, the corners of its base were broken off, leaving the 
 lower surface slightly rounded. 
 
 The bronze crabs appear to have been placed under its four 
 corners that it might rest more securely on the pedestal. The 
 crabs were discovered in 1877 by excavations made by Mr. 
 Dixon at the time of the removal of the companion of Cleo- 
 patra's Needle to London. Copies of inscriptions then found 
 upon the remaining leg of one of the crabs were published by 
 Dr. Neroutsos Bey, an antiquarian of Alexandria, and the crabs 
 and base of the obelisk were recovered with earth. 
 
 The inscriptions, as then published and subsequently copied 
 by Lieutenant-Commander Gorrings, inserted by him in his book 
 and inscribed on one of the crabs now under the obelisk, errone- 
 ously gave the date of the erection of the obelisk at Alexandria 
 as the year eight of the reign of Augustus Csesar, 23-22 b. c, 
 instead of the year eighteen, 13-12 b. c. This led to much dis- 
 cussion by antiquarians and historians, both in Europe and 
 America, in consequence of its contradiction of what was sup- 
 posed to be a well estabhshed historical fact, namely, that Bar- 
 barus (PubUus Rubrius) was not at that time the prefect of 
 Egypt, though he was the prefect ten years later. This fact had 
 been established by a Greek inscription found on the ruins at 
 Philse, which read, ''To the Emperor Csesar, the August, the 
 Savior and Benefactor, in the 18th year. Under the auspices of 
 Publius Rubrius Barbarus." 
 
174 -^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 In 1883, the question was submitted by the authorities of the 
 Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the crab had been deposited, 
 to Columbia College, and by the president of the College to the 
 professor of Greek, Augustus C. Merriam. After a long and ex- 
 haustive research, being unable to reconcile the facts of history 
 with the inscriptions as published, the professor had the leg of 
 the crab cleaned of its oxydation. Besides bringing clearly to 
 view some of the Greek and Latin characters that had been sup- 
 plied in the reading, he found that in the Greek inscription the 
 date was the year IH (18) of the reign of Csesar, instead of H (8), 
 and in the Latin inscription XVIII instead of VIII. 
 
 The correct reading of the inscription is as follows: — 
 
 L IH KAI^MP^ 
 BAPBAPOSANEeHKE 
 APXITEKTONOTNTO {%) 
 nONTIOT 
 
 The Latin L represents the word year and is used on nearly all 
 of the dated Egyptian coins of the Greco-Roman period. I alone 
 would be ten, IH, eighteen. The whole inscription may be trans- 
 lated: "In the year eighteen [of the reign] of Csesar, Barbarus 
 erected [or dedicated] [this monument], Pontius being the archi- 
 tect." 
 
 The Latin inscription was on the inner side of the claw and 
 much injured, some of the letters being wholly effaced. The date 
 and the other essential parts, however, were legible. The full 
 inscription, restored, is as follows: 
 
 ANNO XVIII C^SARIS 
 
 BARBARVS PR.EF 
 
 iEGYPTI POSVIT 
 ARCHITECTANTE PONTIC 
 
Eemaining Part of One of the Bronze Crabs Which Supported the 
 
 Obelisk, Showing Greek Inscription. The Upper 
 
 Part Is One of the Dowels. 
 
i 
 
Removal of the Obelisk 175 
 
 Professor Merriam was of the opinion that the Greek letter 
 Psi C^) in the upper corner was the initial of the engraver. The 
 inscription may be translated as follows: 
 
 "In the year eighteen [of the reign] of Augustus Caesar, Bar- 
 barus, prefect of Egypt, erected [this monument] by the architect 
 Pontius (Pontius being the architect)." 
 
 The foundations of the pedestal consisted principally of large 
 blocks of Umestone. The whole structure below the pedestal and 
 above the lower surface of the lower step was fastened together 
 with "iron dogs" protected with a covering of lead, in the same 
 manner as iron similarly used is protected at the present day. 
 The iron was of an excellent quality and in a marvelous state of 
 preservation, even where it had been somewhat exposed to at- 
 mospheric influences. The entire structure was a magnificent 
 piece of work and showed that the architect, Pontius, would have 
 been entitled, even at this day, to a position in the first rank of 
 his profession. 
 
 In this structure were found emblems which have been re- 
 garded by many Free Masons as an important discovery relating 
 to the history of their order. Others have taken an entirely 
 different view. The foundations were, with the exception of four 
 pieces, of light-colored gray Hmestone. On removing the pedes- 
 tal, there was found under its easterly corner a large block of 
 finely pohshed Syenitic granite in the form of a cube, except the 
 height was less than the side measurement. I was present at 
 the removal of the first tier of stone. Directly below the granite 
 cube and on the same plane with the lower step, was another 
 piece of granite, the upper part of which was cut in the form of a 
 builder's square. Its long arm was eight feet six inches by one 
 foot seven and a half inches and its short arm four feet three 
 inches by one foot seven and three-fourths inches. 
 
 Between the arms of the square was a piece of pure white 
 limestone, four feet long by two wide and nine inches deep. On 
 
176 -^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 one side of the square and touching its short arm was an irregu- 
 lar piece of granite, its upper surface very rough, its angles all 
 different, and having, consequently, no two of its sides parallel. 
 On the other side of the stone forming the square was a large 
 block of limestone with its upper surface about four inches below 
 that of the square. It was covered with a thin stone, on the re- 
 moval of which an iron trowel and a lead plummet were found. 
 
 The trowel, which was the shape of a flattened spoon and eight 
 inches long by five wide in its broadest part, was wholly oxydized. 
 The handle was four inches long and three-eighths to one-half of 
 an inch in relief. Spaces had been cut in the limestone block in 
 which these objects had been imbedded in cement. These sym- 
 bols — the square, the trowel, the plummet, the two granite 
 blocks, the one rough and the other finely finished (the rough 
 and the finished ashler), the white stone and the relative posi- 
 tions in which they were found — are claimed by some members 
 of the Masonic Fraternity to be strong evidence of the existence 
 in the Roman period of an order of Free Masons from which the 
 modern orders have sprung. So many concurrent items of evi- 
 dence certainly tend to prove that these objects were designedly 
 placed as emblems in the structure. But the presence of all but 
 the trowel and the plummet might be wholly accidental, and 
 these might well be placed by the workmen in so famous a struc- 
 ture as symbols of their occupation without any reference to an 
 organized order. 
 
 Alexandria had been a large city for over two centuries. It 
 had recently suffered severely from battles fought within its 
 walls and contained many ruins. These were used as far as prac- 
 ticable in new constructions and probably furnished the material 
 for the foundations of the obelisk. There was nothing imusual 
 in the form of any of the pieces, except that of the square. This 
 stone, when taken out, was found to be twenty-five inches thick, 
 having the part between its two arms cut out and lowered to the 
 
Removal of the Obelisk 177 
 
 depth of nine inches. This space was filled with other stone, in- 
 cluding the white block. When it was first discovered, only the 
 upper surface of the form in a square could be seen. The lower 
 part of the stone had the form of a rectangular parallelogram. 
 Taken by itself, the natural inference would have been that it 
 was a part of a large water-basin (from the court of a temple or 
 palace), such as was common in the Greco-Roman period, and 
 that one side and one end had been taken off, by accident or 
 design, leaving the bottom and the other side and end as origi- 
 nally made. 
 
 The inside of the rim of the basin, if it was a basin, had, at its 
 junction with the bottom, three small mouldings or beads and, 
 on the outside at the bottom, the edges instead of having sharp 
 angles were grooved. There was nothing in the appearance of 
 the stone to indicate that it was cut in the form of a builder's 
 square for the purpose of being placed in the obelisk foundation. 
 Its resemblance to a square, when it was in place and the space 
 between the arms was filled, may have suggested to the workmen 
 the idea of adding the trowel and plummet. 
 
178 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 HISTORY OF OBELISK AND INSCRIPTIONS 
 
 Cleopatra's Needle comes to iis from the golden period of 
 Egypt's history. It was taken from the quarries of Syene, 
 brought down the river six hundred miles, and erected at Heli- 
 opolis during the reign of Thutmosis III, the most brilliant and 
 famous sovereign of the long line of the Pharaohs. The central 
 columns of its inscriptions are devoted to his praise. 
 
 Ahmosis, the founder of the eighteenth dynasty, having ex- 
 pelled from Egypt the last of the Hyksos, or '^ Shepherd Kings," 
 who had ruled the Delta of the Nile for five centuries, led his 
 victorious army as far as Sharuhen, a town near the southern 
 boundary of Palestine which was subsequently allotted to the 
 tribe of Simeon.^ He afterwards built, to protect his country 
 from further invasions, a series of fortifications on his eastern 
 frontier, not far from the present line of the Suez Canal. He re- 
 stored peace and order in the interior of his empire and subju- 
 gated certain tribes in Nubia that had refused to pay their cus- 
 tomary tribute. Contenting himself with the laurels he had 
 won, he turned his attention to the restoration, extension and 
 embellishment of the temples which had been neglected dur- 
 ing the long reign of the foreigners. 
 
 Thutmosis I, the second in succession after Ahmosis, was a 
 great warrior and carried his conquests much farther than his 
 predecessor. He led his victorious army through Palestine and 
 
 1 Joshua XIX, 6. 
 
History of the Obelisk 179 
 
 northern Syria to Naharaim, the "land of the two rivers," 
 which extended from the river Orontes far beyond the Euphrates, 
 and returned to his capital, Thebes, ''covered with glory" and 
 ''laden with booty." He enriched Egypt by his conquests and 
 by the wealth he afterwards constantly drew from Syria and his 
 southern provinces. 
 
 After a short Hfe, he was succeeded by his son Thutmosis II. 
 Thutmosis II ruled in the right of Hatshepsu, his half-sister and 
 wife, who was in fact the real sovereign. She was, through her 
 mother, more nearly of purely divine descent than her husband, 
 but it had required a miracle, wrought at her birth, to purify 
 her blood of the taint inherited from one of her maternal an- 
 cestors who was not of the royal family. 
 
 The kings of Egypt claimed descent from the gods and re- 
 ceived homage as divine beings from their subjects. Hence the 
 purity of the royal blood was of the first importance. The king 
 was the "son of Ra." His father was the "son of Ra," and his 
 grandfather and great-grandfather and so back through all his 
 ancestors to the god himself. There were no other earthly 
 famines of divine descent with whom to contract marriages. 
 Brothers and sisters intermarried and it was only their children 
 who wTre of pure royal blood. The male child had the right of 
 succession if he was of the same mother. It sometimes happened 
 that a prince whose mother was only a common woman of the 
 harem succeeded to his father's government, and those whose 
 ancestors were wholly unknown, by success in war or by other 
 means, became de facto rulers. These were not regarded by the 
 priests and people as legitimate kings, and they often sought 
 to legitimize their reigns and establish the succession in their 
 children by marrying princesses of the divine blood. They made 
 their wives queens and ruled in their right. The king also often 
 associated with him in his government one of his children, when 
 yet a mere child, because through its mother it was more nearly 
 
i8o Egyp^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 of the pure royal blood than the father. These means were not 
 always considered sufficient to purify the blood and establish 
 the legitimacy of the reigning family. This could only be done 
 by a miraculous interposition of the ancestral god. Ra, the 
 Sun-god, condescended to become incarnate in the earthly father 
 at the moment of conception and thus the offspring became 
 divine, a ''son of Ra." Besides that of Hatshepsu there are two 
 other instances recorded in Egyptian history of the miraculous 
 infusion of the divine essence into the blood of royal families, 
 viz.: that of Amenothes III, the son of Thutmosis IV, and of 
 Ptolemy Csesarion, the son of JuUus Caesar. These inventions 
 of the priests were believed by them to be political necessities.^ 
 
 Thutmosis I also reigned in the right of his wife. His mother 
 was a mere concubine. To legalize his de facto government and 
 continue the divine succession he made Hatshepsu his associate 
 when she was a child. 
 
 Thutmosis II died, after a short and uneventful reign, at the 
 age of thirty. He left one son, Thutmosis III, whose mother, 
 Isis, was a woman of low birth. He was then a child, but his 
 aunt. Queen Hatshepsu, proclaimed him her successor and con- 
 tinued to rule in his name, as she had previously done in the name 
 of her husband. This nominally dual government continued 
 upwards of sixteen years and ended at a time and in a manner 
 of which the monuments give us no account. It was a prosper- 
 ous, peaceful reign in which Egypt continued to amass wealth, 
 build and beautify temples and erect other magnificent monu- 
 ments. 
 
 Thutmosis III was about twenty-five years old when he be- 
 came sole ruler. He immediately entered upon his glorious 
 career of conquests. About a hundred years had elapsed since 
 the expulsion of the ''Shepherd Kings," during which period 
 
 1 Maspero's " Struggle of the Nations," M. L. McClure's translation, 
 demy quarto ed., pp. 236, 237. 
 
History of the Obelisk i8i 
 
 the foundations of the empire had been firmly laid. But it was 
 left to this ruler, to whom we are indebted for our obelisk, to 
 raise Egypt to the highest rank among the then existing nations. 
 Including the time he was associated with Hatshepsu, he reigned 
 nearly fifty-five years. 
 
 His whole reign was a succession of victorious campaigns, 
 which extended the boundaries of the empire and brought to 
 Egypt a constant flow of gold, silver, horses, cattle, sheep and 
 other useful animals, and all the forms of personal wealth known 
 to the commerce of that period. 
 
 From the twenty-third year of his reign to the fortieth, he 
 conducted against the Asiatic nations fourteen campaigns. He 
 made long marches in strange and hostile countries, crossing 
 rivers, mountains and deserts, taking by siege and storm strong- 
 hold after stronghold and, finally, destroying or subjugating 
 every tribe and people who dared to resist the victorious and 
 beloved son of the god Amon. In the language of the hiero- 
 glyphics, he extended his boundaries in the south to the remotest 
 lands of inner Africa; in the west, beyond the tribes of the Lybian 
 desert and along the shore of the sea; and, in the east and north, 
 to the land of the " two rivers " and the " four pillars of heaven." 
 
 He was acknowledged by his contemporaries to be the con- 
 queror and ruler of the world and was regarded by his faithful 
 subjects with reverence and awe as a divine being. Under his 
 rule, Egypt became the central point of the world's influence 
 both in commerce and war. His long reign and the immense 
 resources at his disposal, arising from the annual tributes of the 
 conquered countries, enabled him to carry out his early con- 
 ceived plans for increasing the number and enlarging and deco- 
 rating the temples of the gods of Egypt, of whom he considered 
 himself an emanation and a part. 
 
 It was in this and the immediately succeeding reigns that 
 Egyptian art reached its highest degree of perfection. The 
 
t8 2 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 centuries that have passed have left us, in most cases, only heaps 
 of ruins; but enough remains to give us a full knowledge of the 
 marvelous monuments of this period. Whether we consider the 
 grandeur of the original conceptions, the grace of the massive 
 forms, the completeness and symmetry of the structures, the 
 elegance and effectiveness of the ornamental designs or the fine- 
 ness, beauty and fidelity of their execution, we must conclude 
 that the artists of the sixteenth century before our era produced 
 master works that have never since been surpassed. It was 
 Egypt's golden period in power and glory, in war and commerce, 
 in wealth and art, and even historians and poets were not want- 
 ing. Indeed, it is to these we are indebted for the very full 
 knowledge we now have of this wonderful people. 
 
 Among the monumental works of Thiitmosis III, his obelisks 
 occupy a prominent place. That of St. John Lateran at Rome 
 is one of his, though it appears from its inscriptions to have been 
 finished and erected some time after his death by Thutmosis IV. 
 It has been somewhat shortened, but it is still one hundred and 
 five feet in height and is the largest existing obelisk, except the 
 unfinished one lying in the quarry at Assuan. It weighs five 
 hundred tons and that of Assuan over seven hundred. It was 
 one of a pair erected in front of the temple of Amon at Karnak. 
 The inscription says: ''The king has raised these immense obe- 
 lisks to him (Amon) in the forecourt of the House of God." 
 
 The remaining part of an obeHsk now at Constantinople was 
 also his work, and has been attributed to the early part of his 
 sole reign. Like the other Egyptian obelisks, it is of rose-colored 
 Syenitic granite, and its inscriptions were carved in the elegant 
 style of the period. The king here tells us of his Asiatic con- 
 quests: ''King Thutmosis III passed through the whole extent 
 of the land of Naharaim as a victorious conqueror at the head of 
 his army. He placed his boundary at the horn of the world, and 
 at the hinder water-land of Naharaim." 
 
History of the Obelisk 183 
 
 Cleopatra's Needle and its companion now in London were 
 originally erected by him at one of the gates of the Temple of the 
 Sun at Hehopohs, probably toward the end of his life, about ) 
 fifteen hundred years before Christ. He restored and beautified 
 the then ancient temple and, according to the inscriptions, built 
 a wall around it in the year forty-seven of his reign. 
 
 Heliopolis was sometimes called the city of obelisks from the 
 number of these monuments it contained. It had been a city of 
 obelisks for a long period previous to the time of Seti I, and yet 
 this monarch is spoken of on the monuments as '^ having filled 
 Hehopohs with obehsks to illumine with their rays the Temple 
 of the Sun." The obehsks, or, at least, their inscriptions, were 
 gilded with gold or other metals . An inscription on the Temple 
 of Amon at Karnak describes certain objects dedicated by the 
 king, Thutmosis III, to this god. Among them was a '' beautiful 
 harp, inlaid with silver and gold, and blue, green and other 
 precious stones," a statue of the king, giving his exact Hkeness, 
 ^'such as had never been seen in Egypt since the days of the Sun- 
 god Ra," and '' obehsks on which silver, gold, iron and copper 
 were not spared and which shone in their splendor on the surface 
 of the water and filled the land with their light hke the stars on 
 the body of the heavenly goddess Nut." 
 
 The obelisks stood in pairs at the gates of the temple, to which 
 long avenues, with rows of sphinxes on either side, conducted. 
 Hehopohs was not only one of the oldest cities of Egypt, famous 
 for its monuments and the worship of the bull Mnevis, but for 
 many centuries it was the seat of Egyptian learning. Many 
 Grecian philosophers came to Heliopolis, during its later years, 
 to add to their store of knowledge from the wisdom of its priests. 
 
 The long and glorious history of Hehopohs was suddenly 
 ended by the Persian invasion, 525 b. c. From that time, though 
 the priests afterwards restored the worship of the Sun-god, in- 
 carnate in the sacred buH Mnevis, the city has remained deserted. 
 
184 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 According to Herodotus, Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, when a 
 youth of ten years, promised his mother that when he became a 
 man he would 'Hurn Egypt upside down." The promise was 
 loyally kept. We have no history of the details of the destruc- 
 tion of the sacred city and can only judge of what was done by 
 the cruel and sacrilegious character of the Persians and the con- 
 dition in which it was afterwards found by Greek and Roman 
 travelers. When Strabo visited it, five hundred years later, 
 24 B. c, twelve years before the erection of our obelisk in Alex- 
 andria, he found only a deserted city, but the faithful priests, 
 tenaciously clinging to the old religion, were still worshipping in 
 the ruined temple. He says: 
 
 ^' Here in Heliopolis, upon a large mound, one sees the Temple 
 of the Sun where the bull Mnevis is kept in a sanctuary. He is 
 regarded as a god, as the Apis is at Memphis. In the front of the 
 mound are lakes fed by the neighboring canal. The city is now 
 wholly deserted. Its ancient temple, built in the Egyptian style, 
 bears numerous marks of the fury and sacrilegious spirit of 
 Cambyses, who ravaged the holy buildings, mutilating them 
 with fire and violence. In this manner he injured the obelisks. 
 Two of these monuments that were not greatly damaged were 
 taken to Rome. There are others of these obelisks, both here 
 and at Thebes, now Diospolis, some standing, much eaten by 
 fire, and others thrown down and lying on the ground." 
 
 From this description, the cause of the rounding of the base 
 of Cleopatra's Needle and the injured condition of its sides is 
 evident. It and its companion were probablj^ lying on the ground 
 at Heliopolis from the time of the Persian invasion until they 
 were removed by the Romans to Alexandria. They were not 
 only thrown down and otherwise injured by Cambyses, but they 
 suffered from the alkalies of the soil and the fires of the natives 
 who prepared their food beside them for five hundred years. 
 
The Obelisk, Cleopatra's Xeeclle, in Central Park, Xew York, 
 
1 
 
History of the Obelisk 185 
 
 Heliopolis is but an hour's drive from Cairo. The first object 
 seen is its soUtary obehsk in the distant fields. There are a few 
 low mounds in the vicinity and occasional ruins protruding from 
 the soil. These and the lone obeUsk are the only marks of the 
 site of the once famous city. This obelisk is the oldest of the 
 large obelisks that have been discovered. It was erected by 
 Usertesen I of the twelfth dynasty, nearly a thousand years 
 earUer than the time of Thutmosis III. Centuries before Abra- 
 ham was born, even before the recorded time of the flood, the 
 priests of On (Heliopolis) read the deeply cut inscriptions on this 
 obelisk that we read to-day. The same inscription is repeated 
 on each side. The translation is as follows: — 
 
 "TheHoroftheSun, 
 The life for those who are born, 
 The king of the upper and lower land, 
 Khepher-ka-ra. 
 The lord of the double crown, 
 The life of those who are born, 
 The son of the Sun-god Ra, 
 Usertesen. 
 
 The friend of the spirit of On, 
 Ever living, 
 The golden Hor, 
 The life of those who are born. 
 The good god, 
 Kheper-ka-ra, 
 Has erected this work, 
 
 In the beginning of the thirty years cycle, 
 He the dispenser of life forever." 
 
 Usertesen was one of the great kings of the twelfth dynasty 
 and had a prosperous reign of forty-five years, including ten 
 
1 86 Kgypt and its Betrayal 
 
 years in which he was associated with his father. In the third 
 year of his reign, after counseling with the high officials of his 
 court, he ordered the *' raising of worthy buildings to the Sun- 
 god Ra." He either restored or enlarged the temple, which was 
 already ancient even in that remote period. When the great 
 gate was finished, he erected at its entrance a pair of obelisks, of 
 which the obelisk now standing was one. Its companion was 
 often mentioned by the old Greek and Arab writers, and re- 
 mained standing till a. d. 1160, when it fell and was broken.^ 
 The pyramidions of these obelisks were covered with copper 
 caps, which, according to these writers, were of great weight and 
 value. They also had figures carved upon them. 
 
 The New York obelisk, before its removal from the sacred city 
 of Heliopolis, had long outlived its own civilization. It had 
 passed through the whole of Egypt's golden period. It had 
 looked down upon the boy Moses, as he went daily, with the 
 noble youths of the land, to receive instruction from the priests 
 of the Temple of the Sun; and Moses, on his part, beheld with 
 admiration the then golden hieroglyphs, that so long puzzled 
 the wise men of modern times, but which he read as a student 
 reads his Latin. It had beheld the chosen people of God in the 
 days of their oppression and witnessed the excitement at the 
 time of the Exodus — the hurrying to and fro of the priests of 
 the temple and the groups of the people in the public places of 
 the city discussing the great event. 
 
 It had afterwards watched for eight centuries the passing of 
 the generations during the reign of the Pharaohs, and had looked 
 down not only upon these monarchs, but upon all the long lines 
 of scholars who came to seek knowledge in this famous city of 
 learning. It had then mutely witnessed the conquest of the 
 
 * De Lancy in his notes accompanying his translation of Abel-ul-Latif, 
 from the Arabic into French, cites at length the statements of these writers 
 relative to this obelisk. 
 
History of the Obelisk 187 
 
 Persians and seen the city of On and its temples destroyed, and 
 itself and many of its companion obelisks become victims of the 
 vengeance of the sacrilegious soldiers of Cambyses. 
 
 Afterwards, lying upon the ground, where it had been left by 
 the Persians, it had seen Plato in his daily walks pursuing his 
 study of philosophy and astronomy. It had then beheld the 
 coming of Alexander the Great into its surrounding ruin and 
 desolation and his warm reception by the people as their deliverer 
 from the yoke of the Persians; and later, the three hundred 
 years' reign of the Ptolemies. 
 
 On the coming of the Csesars, it had left the ruin and decay of 
 its inland town and been transferred to the busy seaport of Alex- 
 andria. Here, standing upon the seashore, a beacon to mariners 
 for nineteen hundred years, it watched the rolling waves and 
 the coming and going of the ships on the one side and the kaleido- 
 scope of human events on the other. 
 
 Rebellions and insurrections, invasions and conquests; the 
 struggles between paganism and Christianity, between Christi- 
 anity and Mohammedanism and between the different dynasties 
 of Arabs and Turks; the successive reigns of Sultans, Khalifs 
 and Mamelukes ; the conquest of Napoleon and the land and sea 
 battles between the English and French were all seen by this 
 ancient monument while standing at Alexandria. What it is 
 to see during the coming centuries, in its new home within a 
 metropolis that had not even an existence when it was three 
 thousand years old, can only be related by historians to be born 
 in the distant future. 
 
 The ancient Egyptians had a literature far surpassing that of 
 any other of the early peoples. Only a small part of it has come 
 to us. Many hundreds of inscriptions, however, have been pre- 
 served on stone and papyrus. The more they are studied the 
 greater is the admiration of the scholar. Some of these inscrip- 
 tions are historical; others relate to religious beliefs. 
 
1 88 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 Of all the Egyptian writings, the inscriptions on the obelisks 
 are the least interesting. They are devoted to the boastful self- 
 praises of the kings and the affirmation of their descent from the 
 gods. Those on the pyramidion and the central columns of the 
 New York obelisk were inscribed by Thutmosis III. Nearly 
 three hundred years later, Ramses II used the vacant space on 
 each side of the central column. He was not only famous for his 
 numerous and great works, but he was also the great appropriator 
 of the works of his predecessors for the record of his own name 
 and fame. The two outer columns which he inscribed on each 
 face of the obelisk tell us of his abundant years, his great vic- 
 tories, and that he is the son of the Sun-god Ra, the issue of his 
 loins. 
 
 Four hundred years later, Osarken I placed close to the outer 
 edge of each face, near the base of the obelisk, inscriptions in- 
 forming succeeding generations that he was the king of Upper 
 and Lower Egypt, and a descendant of the Sun-god. This king, 
 under the Bible name of Zerah, was defeated by Asa in a great 
 battle in the south of Palestine.^ 
 
 On the east face of the pyramidion, Thutmosis III is repre- 
 sented as a sphinx couchant on a pedestal, holding in his hands 
 two vases and in the act of offering a libation to the hawk- 
 headed Ra-Harmachis, the Sun-god of On (Heliopolis). Thut- 
 mosis is here called, ''The Good God," "Lord of the Two Lands" 
 (Upper and Lower Egypt), ''Men-Kheper-Ra," and ''The Bull 
 of Victory arisen in Thebes, son of the Sun, Thutmosis." Under 
 the vases in the half-effaced inscription may be read, "Giving 
 Wine." 
 
 The central column of hieroglyphs, that of Thutmosis III, on 
 the east face of the obelisk, is translated as follows: 
 
 1 II Chron. XIV, 9-13. 
 
History of the Obelisk 189 
 
 Banner-name 
 "The crowned Horus 
 Bull of Victory- 
 Arisen in Thebes. 
 
 " The lord of the Vulture and Urseus crowns 
 Prolonged as to kingdom, 
 Even as the sun in the heavens. 
 By Tum lord of On begotten, 
 Son of his loins, who hath been 
 fashioned by Thot, 
 
 Whom they created in the great-temple 
 With the perfections of their flesh, 
 Knowing what he was to perform. 
 Kingdom prolonged through ages. 
 King of Upper and Lower Egypt 
 Men-kheper-ra (Thutmosis III), 
 Loving Tum, the great god. 
 With his cycle of divinities, 
 Who giveth all life stay and sway, 
 Like the sun forever." 
 
 Central colunm, north face. 
 
 Banner-name 
 "The crowned Horus 
 Tall with the southern crown 
 Loving Ra. 
 
 " The king of Upper and Lower Egypt, 
 Men-kheper-ra (Thutmosis III), 
 The golden Horus, content with victory. 
 
I go Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 Who smiteth the rulers of the nations — 
 
 Hundreds of thousands; 
 
 In as much as father Ra 
 
 Hath ordered unto him 
 
 Victory against every land, 
 
 Gathered together; 
 
 The valor of the scimeter 
 
 In the palms of his hands 
 
 To broaden the bounds of Egypt; 
 
 Son of the Sun, Thutmosis III, 
 
 Who giveth all life forever." 
 
 Inscriptions of Ramses II 
 Translation of the south column of the east face. 
 
 Banner-name 
 "The crowned Horus, 
 Bull of victory 
 Son of Kheper-ra. 
 
 "The king of Upper and Lower Egypt 
 User-ma-ra (Ramses II). 
 The chosen of Ra, the golden Horus 
 Rich in years, great in victory. 
 Son of the Sun, Ramses II, 
 Who came forth from the womb 
 To receive the crowns of Ra; 
 Fashioned was he to be the sole ruler. 
 The lord of the Two Lands, 
 User-ma-ra (Ramses II), 
 The chosen of Ra, son of the Sun, 
 Ramessu Meiamun (Ramses II), 
 
/rwm 
 
 i^ST cj ft- ^W 
 4K Mt ' ii i ■- A <» 
 
 ■fii{-Ii] 
 
 
 ffAS 
 '1 
 
 
 
 If'? 
 
 
 '-'7 
 
 
 M 
 
 Sin 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 /ifmrs 
 
 4v-l 
 
 
 
 — — I h - -^ 
 
 The Hieroglyphics on the Four Sides of the 
 Obelisk in Central Park, New York. 
 
History of the Obelisk igi 
 
 Glorified of Osiris 
 
 Like the Sun life-giving forever." 
 
 North Column. 
 
 Banner-name 
 " The crowned Horus 
 Bull of Victory 
 Loving Ra. 
 
 " The king of Upper and Lower Egypt 
 User-ma-ra (Ramses II), 
 The chosen of Ra, 
 The Sun born of divinities. 
 Taking the Two Lands, 
 Son of the Sun, 
 
 Ramessu Meiamun (Ramses II) ; 
 The youth 
 Beautiful for love, 
 Like the orb of the Sun 
 When he shines in the horizon, 
 The lord of the Two Lands, 
 User-ma-ra (Ramses II), 
 The chosen of Ra, 
 Son of the Sun 
 Ramessu Meiamun, 
 Glorified of Osiris, 
 Life giving like the Sun forever." 
 
 There are also some nearly effaced hieroglyphics at the bottom 
 of the obelisk. They have been translated as: ''Life gracious- 
 god, Ramses II." This phrase is repeated several times at the 
 bottom of each face. 
 
 The other inscriptions on the different sides of the obelisk are 
 
IQ2 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 of the same character and to a large extent repetitions of those 
 of which the translations have been given. 
 
 On two sides of the pyramidion, Ramses III, as a sphmx 
 couchant, is represented as offering hbations to the Sun-god, 
 Ra-Harmachis (the rising sun) and on the other two sides to 
 Turn (the setting sun). 
 
what Egypt Has Done for England 193 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 WHAT EGYPT HAS DONE FOR ENGLAND — THE SUEZ CANAL 
 
 Soon after my first arrival in Cairo, the remnant of the Khe- 
 divial army, which had met with disastrous defeat in an attempt 
 to invade Abyssinia, retm'ned to Egypt. The facts of the losses 
 of the campaign had till that time been mostly concealed. 
 
 In August of the previous year, the Khedive had sent to Masso- 
 wah two thousand men to invade Abyssinia for the purpose of 
 obtaining redress for continued grievances. It was claimed that 
 the Abyssinians, in their raids in search of booty, crossed over 
 their border into the Sudan, driving off cattle and committing 
 other depredations. The Khedivial troops were met by King 
 Johannes with an army of natives, claimed to have numbered 
 thirty thousand, and were almost wholly annihilated. Only 
 about thirty men escaped the massacre. 
 
 As soon as it could be prepared, an army of sixteen thousand 
 men was sent to retrieve the lost prestige of the Egyptians. It 
 was under the nominal command of Prince Hassan, a youthful 
 son of the Khedive, who had received a military education in 
 England, but the real commander was Ratif Pasha, who had 
 acquired some distinction by his services in the Sudan. 
 
 General Loring accompanied him in the position of adviser. 
 According to the account which the General personally gave 
 the writer, the Khedive, in his presence, enjoined Ratif Pasha 
 to follow strictly his advice in every military movement. 
 
1 94 -^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 General Loring was a resident of Florida. When only a lad 
 he ran away from home, went to Texas and engaged in the war 
 then being carried on by the people of that state, under General 
 Sam Houston, against the Mexicans under Santa Anna. He 
 served as an officer under General Scott in the Mexican War, and 
 distinguished himself at the storming of one of the gates of the 
 City of Mexico, where he lost an arm. He was afterwards en- 
 gaged in our Indian wars on the western frontier and, at the 
 commencement of the War of Secession, was a colonel in our 
 army. He resigned his commission, entered the Confederate 
 service, became a General, and was a good fighting officer, but 
 never achieved more than a moderate success. 
 
 Some years after the close of this war, being out of employment, 
 he entered the Khedivial army with the rank of a general. He 
 claimed to have been engaged in seventy-five battles. He was 
 a very agreeable and interesting gentleman, but he had the hot 
 Southern blood and an ungovernable temper, and this peculiarity 
 contributed not a little, according to the opinion of high Egyp- 
 tian officials, to the disastrous results of the Abyssinian campaign. 
 
 The Egyptian army, after some days' march into the interior, 
 was met by the Abyssinians and defeated with great loss. Gen- 
 eral Loring's advice was completely ignored. According to his 
 views, if it had been followed, the army would have been suc- 
 cessful. The more recent experiences of the Italians, however, 
 clearly prove that the invasion of Abyssinia is a difliicult task. 
 The success of the English in 1868 was due to discords among 
 the Abyssinians and the want of a centralized governing power. 
 
 The second Egyptian defeat was not as disastrous as the first 
 one, nor even as that suffered by the Italians. The Abyssinians 
 themselves met with severe losses, and the Egyptian Govern- 
 ment was enabled to withdraw its army, and re-establish peace 
 on what was called ''honorable terms." 
 
 The Khedive probably sent his first small expedition to Masso- 
 
what Egypt Has Done for England 195 
 
 wah with the intention of taking and holding a small province 
 lying between that place and the Sudan. No less ambitious a 
 design than the conquering of Abyssinia, or a considerable part 
 of it, would have prompted the sending of so large and expensive 
 an expedition as the second. In addition to the loss of life, the 
 cost was over $5,000,000. The army was transferred from dif- 
 ferent parts of Egypt to Suez and thence by water over one thou- 
 sand miles to Massowah. All of the provisions of the commis- 
 sariat and, to a large extent, the means of their transportation 
 into a physically difficult and hostile country, without roads 
 or civiUzation, were also shipped from Suez. 
 
 The Khedive had already conquered and added to his posses- 
 sions an immense extent of territory in Central Africa. His name 
 was a power from the mouths of the Nile to its sources in the 
 Albert and Victoria Nyanzas, a distance by the way of the river 
 of over three thousand miles. 
 
 Over all this territory he held undisputed sway. His word 
 was law; and the life and Uberty of six millions of people in Egypt 
 proper, and as many more in the Sudan and Central Africa, were 
 subject to his arbitrary will. The Abyssinian campaign was the 
 first check to his grand schemes of territorial aggrandizement, 
 and his disappointment can easily be understood. 
 
 It would be assuming too much good nature and too gentle a 
 disposition in an Oriental potentate to suppose that he was in 
 good humor on learning the real facts. His native officers, to 
 avoid their own disgrace, put the blame upon the Americans, 
 thereby very much increasing for them the difficulties of getting 
 a settlement of their accounts, when they were discharged two 
 years later. 
 
 Accusations were especially made against General Loring and 
 Colonel Dye. No one had fought more bravely, nor done more 
 to save the Egyptians from defeat, than the latter. Yet, when 
 no facts could be found to sustain any other charge, an order 
 
196 ^^^gypt ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 was issued for his arrest and trial before a court-martial for hav- 
 ing struck with his hand one of his inferior native officers. The 
 stat(; of feeling was such that the Colonel came to the Consulate- 
 General, demanding protection, and remained there several days. 
 After I had had several interviews with the Khedive, the matter 
 was dropped and, on the Colonel's discharge two years after- 
 wards, I obtained for him an indemnity of five thousand dollars 
 on account of a wound received in the Abyssinian battle, from 
 whicli he was still suffering. The same amount was obtained 
 for Colonel Colston also on account of loss of health in the Sudan. 
 
 After long and tedious negotiations, the accounts of all the 
 Americans who had served as officers in the Khedivial army, 
 about forty in number, were satisfactorily settled and paid. 
 
 In l<]gyi)tian finance, the Abyssinian War was ''the last straw 
 that broke the camel's back." During the organization of the 
 company for the construction of the Suez Canal, after M. de 
 Lesscps had sold all that was possible in Europe of the capital 
 stock of 200,000,0()() francs, there still remained unsold 177,642 
 shares out of the whole number of 400,000. Said Pasha, then 
 Viceroy of Egypt, subscribed, in the name of his Government, 
 for all of these remaining shares a sum amounting to over 
 $17,500,000. 
 
 At the time of the preparations for the second Abyssinian 
 expedition, the financial situation of Egypt became serious. 
 Not only was ten, twelve and even fourteen per cent interest paid 
 on the amounts received on loans, but as high as two per cent a 
 month was paid on temporary loans and for carrying overdue 
 obligations. Up to this time the Khedive had not defaulted in 
 his payments, but he found it difficult to procure the means 
 necessary for his expensive Abyssinian campaign. In his em- 
 barrassment, he was negotiating for a loan on the pledge of his 
 canal shares as security for its payment. 
 
 The French bankers thought they had within reach an oppor- 
 
what Egypt Has Done for England 197 
 
 tunity for another ricli, usurious contract. Ten and twelve per 
 cent interest was demanded. There was an attempt to form a 
 syndicate in Paris to make the loan. The amount to be raised 
 was large and the procuring of the money difficult. Some of the 
 bankers whose aid was asked had affiliations in London. Acting 
 under the influence of their London associaties they ''threw cold 
 water on the undertaking" and retarded the negotiations. Ap- 
 plication was made to the French Ministry for aid. It was argued 
 that the securing of the Suez Canal shares was a transaction of 
 such national importance that the Government should not only 
 lend its influence but should aid financially. 
 
 It was expected by those attempting to forrri the syndicate 
 that, through the loan, they would become the owners of the 
 stock, and that the loan would in effect be a purchase. M. l)e- 
 cazes, then the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, was courting 
 the English. He was very desirous of their friendship, on account 
 of the strained relations between France and Germany, and did 
 not wish in any manner to take the risk of offending them. 
 Through his diplomatic representative in London, he informed 
 Lord Derby, the English Minister of Foreign Affairs, that there 
 was a report that the Khedive was negotiating with a French 
 financial company for the sale of his Suez Canal shares and asked 
 if England would have any objection to such sale. The prompt 
 answer was, ''Certainly England would be opposed to these; 
 shares beconjing the property of a French company." 
 
 Disraeli saw and quickly seized the opportunity. He coun- 
 selled with the Ilothschilds and they agreed to furnish the money, 
 take the stock and wait the future confirmation of the purchase 
 by an act of Parliament. Within less than three days, the Suez 
 Canal shares were the property of England and the certificates 
 in the possession of the English Consul-General in Cairo. Dis- 
 raeli acted without authority, but, in the eyes of the English, 
 he was in the position of a General who, by disregarding or acting 
 
198 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 without orders, has won a great victory. The act of Parliament 
 was easily obtained. The commissions of the Rothschilds in 
 this transaction, in addition to the interest on the money loaned, 
 amounted to half a million dollars. 
 
 Disraeli said to the Khedive, through his diplomatic repre- 
 sentative in Cairo, '' We will buy the Suez Canal shares, advance 
 the money, and require only the payment of five per cent interest 
 on the amount of the purchase money during the period for which 
 the interest coupons and the right to dividends has been taken 
 by the Canal Company." This was half the minimum rate of 
 interest Egypt was then paying. The Khedive caught at the 
 alluring offer and the purchase was completed before the French 
 had had an intimation of the negotiations. Egypt then had re- 
 maining 176,602 shares of its canal stock. These were trans- 
 ferred to England for £3,976,583. It was a ''grand coup" for 
 Disraeli, but a death blow to the Khedive, the most serious 
 political as well as financial mistake of his life. 
 
 In the settlement of one of M. de Lesseps' claims, the interest 
 and dividend coupons of these bonds had been cut off and trans- 
 ferred to his company for the intervening time up to 1895. 
 During the remainder of this period, Egypt agreed to pay and 
 did pay to England, five per cent per annum on the money ad- 
 vanced for the canal shares, that is, about $1,000,000 per annum. 
 
 A year later than the end of this period, November, 1896, these 
 shares were worth in London £23,841,270. In dollars, the 
 amount paid was $19,256,661, and the value at the time named 
 was $115,391,746, leaving England a net profit of $96,135,085— 
 a sum equal to the original cost of the canal. England had also 
 received up to that date two per cent more annual interest on 
 the money advanced than she paid on her own obligations. 
 Since that time, the net income of the canal has been so largely 
 increased that the price of the stock has risen in the market to 
 nine times its par value, which would give England a profit of 
 
what Egypt Has Done for England 199 
 
 over $130,000,000 besides the high rate of interest and, since 
 1896, the dividends she has received. According to a statement 
 published by the House of Commons in 1884, this difference of 
 interest which was figured at one and one-half per cent had 
 already liquidated nearly $500,000 (£99,414) of the debt created 
 on account of the purchase of these canal shares. 
 
 This immense pecuniary profit is only a small part of what 
 England has gained by the transaction. She has gained Egypt 
 itself with its Central African provinces and the Sudan, territory 
 sufficient for an empire. From the moment of the purchase, she 
 regarded the canal as an EngUsh possession and, 'Ho protect 
 her interest," it was necessary from an English standpoint to 
 control the country through which it passed. From that time 
 on, this has been her purpose. In every move on the diplomatic 
 chess-board, this purpose has been kept in view by England's 
 controlling statesmen. Nor have there been any scruples about 
 the employment of means that would aid in its realization. 
 
 France, since the time of the conquest in Egypt of the first 
 Napoleon, had tried to maintain a preponderance of political in- 
 fluence in that country. England had been her constant and 
 powerful rival preventing the realization of her ambition. 
 
 France, through one of her citizens, had obtained the grant 
 of the Suez Canal franchise. A French company, by the aid of 
 the then powerful Napoleon III, succeeded in constructing the 
 canal against the wishes and the strong active opposition of 
 England, both in Egypt and at Constantinople. The French, 
 on the completion of this great work, believed that they had 
 obtained a permanent advantage over the English. Marseilles 
 was to become a Liverpool and France was to maintain a domi- 
 nating influence in the land of the Nile. 
 
 England soon learned that the canal, contrary to her former 
 opinion, was of much more importance and benefit to her than 
 to all other nations. From the time of her full realization of this 
 
2 00 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 fact, it is not improbable that she had her eyes on the Khedive's 
 canal shares. Absolute secrecy was necessary for success; other- 
 wise, the French would have protested, and either made the pur- 
 chase or prevented the sale. When the opportune moment 
 arrived, no time was lost. 
 
 It has been said by those who assume to have a knowledge of 
 the facts that M. de Lesseps was in the secret and privately aided 
 the English in the purchase. This may have been true, though 
 it is not probable. It is claimed, on the other hand, that he was 
 very active in his efforts to form the French syndicate for the 
 purchase of the stock. His interest, however, at that time, was 
 in the revenue and the consequent value of the stock. He fore- 
 saw that, if the English were interested, the business of the canal 
 and its revenues would be increased. It is certain that he never 
 manifested any hostile feelings against the Khedive on account 
 of this transaction. The French people, however, never forgave 
 his Highness. Nothing that he did afterwards pleased them. 
 
 M. de Lesseps was undoubtedly correct in saying soon after 
 the purchase that it would be an advantage to the company. 
 The English interest, thus acquired, became, in fact, a valuable 
 aid in augmenting the revenues of the canal. This arose not so 
 much from the increase of tonnage passing through the canal on 
 account of the purchase as from England's aid in fixing and main- 
 taining the tolls. Without this interest, England would not have 
 remained silent while paying tolls on her immense tonnage trans- 
 ported through the canal, in consequence of which the price of 
 the stock has increased to nine times its par value. She would 
 have long since found '^ just cause " of complaint and demanded 
 and enforced reduction. 
 
 There are other reasons for the phenomenal rise in the value 
 of the canal shares. The canal nominally cost about $91,000,000. 
 Of this sum 200,000,000 francs were realized for stock, 100,000,000 
 were borrowed and 124,000,000 were wrongfully taken from 
 
what Egypt Has Done for England 201 
 
 Egypt by and as a result of an award of Napoleon III. There 
 was an interest account which made up the balance of the nomi- 
 nal cost of the canal. Of the capital from which the canal was 
 constructed, Egypt paid for her canal shares 88,801,000 francs 
 of principal which, added to the 124,000,000 mentioned, make 
 212,801,000 francs. All the other stockholders paid for their 
 stock only 111,101,000 francs. Thus Egypt furnished of the 
 capital stock, in dollars, 40,000,000 and all the other stock- 
 holders 22,000,000. The 124,000,000 francs ($24,000,000) were 
 taken from Egypt in a manner that cannot be too severely 
 characterized. It was a disgraceful national fraud. 
 
 The Suez Canal project, with all its disastrous consequences to 
 Egypt, was a legacy to Ismail Pasha left by his immediate prede- 
 cessor, Said Pasha. The original grants for the construction of 
 the canal and the various privileges mentioned in them were 
 made '^subject to the ratification of his Imperial Majesty the 
 Sultan." They had no validity without such ratification. ^'As 
 to the work of excavating the canal, it was to be commenced 
 after the authorization of the Sublime Porte." The work, how- 
 ever, was commenced in the spring of 1859, without the authori- 
 zation of the Porte, and was continued under these conditions 
 for four years. 
 
 On the granting of the first concession, England commenced 
 at Constantinople and Cairo strenuous opposition to the whole 
 scheme of the canal. One of the arguments presented to the 
 Sultan was that, under the guise of workmen, regiments of 
 Zouaves would be introduced into and take possession of Egypt. 
 To obviate this objection, which the Sultan made at the insti- 
 gation of Lord Palmers ton, M. de Lesseps had inserted in a second 
 act of concession a clause providing that ''four-fifths of the la- 
 borers should be Egyptians." 
 
 In one of the acts of concession, the canal company was ceded 
 the right to excavate a canal to conduct fresh water from the 
 
2 02 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 Nile to the Suez Canal. It provided, furthermore, that, in case 
 of the construction of such a canal, Egypt was to ''abandon to 
 the company" all the then unoccupied desert lands that might 
 be irrigated by its waters with the right of the navigation of the 
 canal and other privileges — all of which grants were subject to the 
 ratification of the Sultan. 
 
 When M. de Lesseps was ready to commence work, he said 
 to the Viceroy that there should be an agreement as to the price 
 to be paid the laborers. An agreement was made fixing the 
 price for adults at fifteen cents a day, for those under twelve 
 years of age at twelve and a half cents, with an allowance of 
 five cents a day to each class for food. It was the children that 
 to a large extent carried the dirt out and emptied it on the 
 banks. 
 
 The pay would have been adequate had it been for work in 
 the cultivated parts of Egypt and near the villages of the labor- 
 ers, but, under the conditions which actually prevailed, it was 
 a mere pittance. 
 
 The canal was constructed across the desert at a distance 
 varying from fifteen to sixty miles east of the cultivated land. 
 During the first four years of the work, not only the provisions 
 but the water for the use of the laborers were conveyed across 
 this strip of desert on camels. Sixteen hundred camels and 
 upwards, furnished by Egypt, were constantly employed for 
 this purpose. During the same period, twenty to twenty-five 
 thousand people were furnished by the corvee, or forced labor, 
 to work on the canal. These were replaced, at periods of one 
 to three months, by fresh levies. 
 
 According to information obtained from those who were 
 cognizant of the facts, even the small sums agreed upon for the 
 laborers were, for the most part, not paid to them, but to the 
 Viceroy, Said Pasha. In proceedings afterwards instituted, it 
 was admitted that nearly a million dollars (4,500,000 francs) of 
 
what Egypt Has Done for England 203 
 
 the small airiounts due to these people, a large proportion of 
 whom were children, had not been paid to anyone. What is 
 more, it was never paid. It was offset against interest on dam- 
 ages claimed for not continuing to furnish the corvee laborers. 
 
 The Viceroy, Said Pasha, and M. de Lesseps had, in their 
 younger days, been friends when the father of the latter was the 
 representative of France in Egypt. The acts of concession were 
 "To my devoted friend of high birth and elevated rank, M. 
 Ferdinand de Lesseps." The Pasha was a man of moderate 
 mental capacity and during the last years of his reign in delicate 
 health. The influence over him of the vigorous, polite and ever 
 fascinating M. de Lesseps was nearly unlimited. This accounts 
 in a large degree for some of the remarkable conditions under 
 which the work of the canal was carried on until after his 
 death. 
 
 During the time the work was being done under the acts of 
 concession, void, by their very terms, on account of not having 
 been approved and ratified by the Sultan, the English Am- 
 bassador at Constantinople had been ceaseless in his efforts to 
 throw obstacles in the way of the enterprise. As an argument 
 to induce his Imperial Majesty not only passively to withhold 
 his ratification of the concession, but to intervene actively and 
 stop the work, he claimed that a French colony would be estab- 
 lished on the desert land to be irrigated by the fresh water 
 canal, the excavation of which had been commenced by the 
 canal company, and that this colony would put in jeopardy his 
 sovereignty in Egypt. It was also claimed that the corvee 
 laborers were cruelly treated and were dying like flies. 
 
 The question of the French colony on the then desert lands 
 was disposed of by the canal company. It is probable that 
 intimations of the Sultan's apprehension were communicated to 
 M. de Lesseps by the French Ambassador at Constantinople and 
 that these had their influence. There were other weighty rea- 
 
2 04 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 sons for the company's action. Its funds were nearly exhausted 
 and it was evident that it would be unable to construct a fresh 
 water canal of sufficient capacity to meet its needs. It was 
 also evident that the value of the desert lands, if they could be 
 utilized at all, would not exceed the cost of putting them in a 
 condition for cultivation. 
 
 Ismail Pasha had become Viceroy and it was with him that 
 negotiations were thenceforward to be conducted. It had been 
 learned that the canal, to give sufficient water, instead of con- 
 necting with an irrigating canal near Zagazig, must be con- 
 tinued to Cairo. Under the claim that the company's owner- 
 ship of this canal might lead to complications with the people 
 along the line and with the Government, the company pro- 
 posed to renounce their right to construct it, and persuaded the 
 Viceroy to accept this renunciation and undertake the work 
 himself. The company at the same time retroceded to Egypt 
 the land granted to it which it was supposed could be irrigated 
 by this canal. 
 
 A few days later, April 6, 1863, the Sultan, in a despatch, 
 communicated to the parties interested the condition on which 
 he would ratify the concessions, viz.: that the clause in one of the 
 acts stipulating 'Hhat four-fifths of the laborers employed in 
 the work on the canal should be Egyptians" should be abro- 
 gated. This condition was accepted by all the parties in- 
 terested. 
 
 The Viceroy, therefore, in obedience to the Sultan, discon- 
 tinued furnishing laborers by the corvee. The concessions hav- 
 ing been made subject to the ratification of the Sultan, and the 
 retrocession of the lands and of the rights of constructing the 
 fresh water canal having not only been made voluntarily, but 
 on the initiative and in accordance with the expressed wishes 
 of the company, the Viceroy believed, and had good reasons for 
 believing, that the matter was closed. He had not then fully 
 
what Egypt Has Done for England 205 
 
 learned all the lessons of diplomacy. M. de Lesseps was an 
 adept in that line, a most accomplished diplomat. 
 
 The company needed and must have more money or its enter- 
 prise would be a failure. The work had not progressed far 
 enough to permit loans sufficient for its continuance. Said 
 Pasha had saved the company from failure at an early day by 
 taking the stock that could not be sold elsewhere, thus add- 
 ing to the company's available assets 88,801,000 francs. Why 
 should not Ismail, in the commencement of his reign, do even 
 better? It was during the American War of Secession. Cot- 
 ton was high and Egypt was supposed to possess untold wealth. 
 Certainly, in a country where events often produce the most 
 unexpected results, the chances of success were worth the 
 trial. 
 
 The attack was begun. 
 
 First: a large claim was made for damages for not furnishing 
 the corvee labor. 
 
 Second: another, for the desert land that had been retroceded. 
 
 Third: another, for the amount that had been expended on 
 the abandoned canal. 
 
 Fourth: another, for the amount that it was estimated it 
 would cost to complete the canal. 
 
 Fifth: still another, for the value of the water which the com- 
 pleted canal would furnish. 
 
 The Viceroy was alarmed, but his objections were wholly 
 disregarded. The French Consul-General and M. de Lesseps 
 were persistent in their demands. Finally, the whole matter 
 was submitted to Napoleon III as sole arbiter. He was then 
 the all powerful monarch of Europe. The Viceroy had abso- 
 lute confidence in his Imperial Majesty, and no suspicion of 
 disastrous results. 
 
 The award was quickly prepared by French attorneys and 
 signed by Napoleon. It astonished the jurists of all Europe, 
 
2o6 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 and, had it not been of so serious a character, would have been 
 regarded as a judicial curiosity. 
 
 His majesty awarded the company 38,000,000 francs dam- 
 ages on account of the withholding of the corvee labor. 
 
 He found further that the company could not be considered 
 as having retroceded the land and the benefits they would have 
 received from the fresh water canal, except on the supposition 
 that it was to be reimbursed for these lands and the benefits 
 they would have received under the concession. On this find- 
 ing, he awarded the company: 30,000,000 francs for 60,000 
 hectares of desert land (about 120,000 acres) that it was as- 
 sumed could be irrigated by this canal; 10,000,000 francs that 
 the company claimed to have expended on the canal including 
 some interest on damages; and 6,000,000 francs, on account of 
 water that the company had thought might be sold to outside 
 parties. 
 
 The whole award amounted to 84,000,000 francs. 
 
 It was also decided by the award that the company was en- 
 titled to all the benefits it would have derived from the canal, 
 had it been constructed at its own expense, such as tolls, right 
 of navigation and the use of all the fresh water needed for the 
 success of its enterprise. The amount of water to be received 
 was fixed at 70,000 cubic metres per day. The canal was 
 necessarily large and nearly 100 miles in length. It was con- 
 structed at a cost of 50,000,000 francs and was to be perpet- 
 ually cleaned and kept in repair by Egypt. The canal com- 
 pany was to receive its waters gratuitously. Egypt was to pay 
 the company 30,000,000 francs, for the worthless land it was 
 supposed might be irrigated with its waters, 10,000,000 francs 
 on account of labor done on the canal and certain interest on 
 supposed damages, and 6,000,000 francs for water that it was 
 expected the company could sell to other parties! That is, 
 Egypt gratuitously gives the company the right to construct 
 
what Egypt Has Done for England 207 
 
 a canal and to receive the benefits therefrom. She gives also 
 certain lands that might be irrigated with its waters. The project 
 is abandoned by the canal company and the land is retroceded 
 unconditionally. Egypt, however, must construct the canal at 
 her own expense, and the canal company is to receive not onl}^ 
 the benefits of its waters, but also compensation for all the lands 
 it might have irrigated, had not the company otherwise used 
 its waters! 
 
 But the end was not yet in sight. The wonderful success of 
 this attack on the treasury of Egypt only encouraged the mak- 
 ing of others. The company had forgotten some of its "just 
 claims." A second attack was prepared. The second claims 
 were, like the first, utterly groundless. That was of no im- 
 portance. They were claims, and a claim made at that time 
 by one who had as a supporter the great and all powerful Na- 
 poleon III must be considered as an obligation. A Frank 
 could never be considered in the wrong. This non-Christian 
 people had not then learned all the righteous ways of the en- 
 lightened and superior Christian nations. The 84,000,000 francs 
 and the 50,000,000 francs to be expended on the fresh water 
 canal for the use of the company were not enough to meet its 
 needs. The pound of flesh was not sufficient. 
 
 Among the newly discovered ''just claims" was a large one 
 for buildings for the Egyptian laborers, so-called " hospitals and 
 barracks," which were now asserted to be useless to the com- 
 pany because of the discontinuance of the corvee laborers. This 
 was, in efi'ect, an admission that the company was to have no 
 more work done by hand-labor, that is, that the Egyptians were 
 not to be employed. The fact was, that at the time of the award 
 the part of the labor which could be performed by the Egyptians, 
 in their simple way of removing the earth, had been nearly or 
 quite completed. 
 
 The canal was to be twenty-six feet deep and seventy-two 
 
2o8 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 feet wide at its base, with a water line varying from two hundred 
 to three hundred feet in breadth. The banks formed by the 
 earth removed were on either side very high. In the dry dig- 
 gings, this earth was dug up by adults and carried up the steep, 
 high banks to a great extent by corvee children. But a large 
 part of the distance was not dry land. From the Mediterranean 
 side, the canal was constructed thirty-four miles through the 
 shallow waters of Lake Menzaleh and its marshy lagoons. 
 These waters were one to three feet deep. The roadstead ex- 
 cavated in this lake at Port Said was nine hundred feet wide 
 and on a narrow strip of sand beach separating the lake from 
 the sea. Near Suez, there were also extensive marshy lagoons. 
 In other places, as soon as the sandy top was removed, infiltra- 
 tion commenced. The water was pouring into the unfinished 
 channels. The Egyptians were good swimmers, but the children 
 could not dive into the water and bring up the soft mud from 
 the bottom. The balance of the work must be done with dredges. 
 
 This condition had been foreseen and the necessary provisions 
 made. The dredging machines had been ordered and constructed 
 and were already at work when the award was made. Yet one 
 of the arguments suppUed to Napoleon by the French attorney, 
 on which his labor award w^as based, was the alleged increased 
 cost of the work if done by machinery. 
 
 Diplomacy has many tortuous and mysterious ways. In this 
 case, the French Ambassador at Constantinople was able, 
 through the powerful influence of Napoleon, to delay the de- 
 cision of the Sultan relative to the corvee for four years, until 
 there was no longer any use for this kind of labor. When this 
 time arrives and the corvee work on the canal must necessarily 
 be ended, the Sultan, in the interest of humanity and his solici- 
 tude for the well-being and happiness of his subjects, orders the 
 discontinuance of corvee labor! 
 
 Another of the forgotten "just claims" was for the right of 
 
what Egypt Has Done for England 2 eg 
 
 fishing in the famous fresh water canal! This would have be- 
 longed to the canal company had it constructed the canal under 
 its grant. Though it had renounced its rights to do so, and the 
 work was to be done by the Egyptian Government at its own 
 expense, Napoleon had decided that by this renunciation it 
 had not renounced its rights to the benefits that would have 
 accrued under the original concession. On this basis, one of the 
 items of damages of his Majesty's award was 6,000,000 francs 
 for water that might have been sold. Then why should not 
 Egypt pay for the right of fishing in these prolific waters? 
 Fishing rights are regarded in Egypt as valuable and the Gov- 
 ernment derives from them revenues amounting to a considera- 
 ble sum. In the French advocate's imagination the stream 
 would be alive with piscatory species. These would increase 
 like the fish on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and be brought 
 forth in the simple nets of the natives in miraculous quantities. 
 
 It is unnecessary to follow further the details of these claims. 
 The Viceroy was badly frightened. He was in the condition of 
 a vanquished army ready to submit to any terms of surrender. 
 A settlement was agreed upon. Happily, it was to include a 
 release of all claims of the company of every nature against 
 Egypt. To be thus freed from further '^ discoveries," the 
 Viceroy agreed to pay 30,000,000 francs. To this was added 
 10,000,000 francs for a piece of property for which the com- 
 pany had paid, a short time previous, 1,800,000 francs. In 
 round numbers, these last two items of spoil amounted to 
 $8,000,000. 
 
 The Egyptian Government had no money with which to pay 
 this little peace offering. Nothing is easier, says the bland 
 M. de Lesseps. On the item of 30,000,000 francs we will ask 
 no money. We will take it in the interest coupons of your canal 
 stock (discounting them, of course, at the regular rate of in- 
 terest which was then about ten per cent). We will only just 
 
2IO Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 ask you to throw in tlie right to dividends on the stock. The 
 canal shares bore interest at the rate of five per cent from the 
 time of their issue. This was to be paid before dividends could 
 be made. The canal was then not completed and there were 
 no revenues and consequently no dividends; neither would 
 there be for a number of years. To these propositions, the 
 Viceroy perforce assented. The discount computation of the 
 coupons was mad(^ and 125,000,000 francs of the coupons taken 
 to pay the 30,000,000. This took the coupons up to 1895. 
 
 This is a brief statement of one of the many schemes of 
 ''spoiling the Egyptians." No greater fraud was ever success- 
 fully perpetrated, and this upon a people to whom the per- 
 petrators were sending missionaries to teach them Christianity. 
 
 In addition to furnishing the corvee labor for four years and 
 paying the sums we have stated, Egypt furnished for the use 
 of the company large numbers of camels for which little was 
 paid. 
 
 Including the benefits of the corvee labor furnished, the 
 amounts paid on the various claims, the costs of the sweet 
 water canal and the gratuitous labor and use of the camels, 
 Egypt, by the most conservative estimate, paid in addition to 
 the cost of its canal shares at least one-half of the original cost 
 of the canal. This estimate is not that of the writer alone, but 
 of such men as Riaz Pasha, who was for a long time at the head 
 of the Egyptian Ministry under the Anglo-French control, and 
 of others equally capable, and cognizant of the facts. 
 
 If the canal had been constructed under normal conditions 
 by paid voluntary labor, and the company had constructed its 
 own fresh water canal, the cost would have been very largely 
 increased. The fresh water canal would have cost the com- 
 pany double what it cost Egypt. As to the desert land, it was 
 of no value whatever. 
 
 From the account given, one of the principal causes of the 
 
What Egypt Has Done for England 211 
 
 rise in the value of the canal stock will be readily seen. The 
 interest coupons for over thirty years, which were to have been 
 paid annually, had been taken off from over seven-sixteenths of 
 the stock and transferred to the company. This alone lessened 
 the fixed charges against the company $1,000,000 per year 
 during this time. The right to dividends to the year 1895, 
 twenty-five years from the opening of the canal, had also been 
 surrendered. Thus, during this period, less than nine-sixteenths 
 of the stock, about $22,000,000, received the full benefit of what 
 would have cost under normal conditions at least $100,000,000, 
 in addition to the bonded indebtedness of the company. The 
 stock that received all these benefits was in amount only about 
 one-fifth of the amount of the actual cost of that from which it 
 received its revenue. Since 1895, $40,000,000 of stock has en- 
 joyed these benefits. 
 
 Had it not been for the aid voluntarily given and forcibly 
 taken from Egypt, the canal could not, at that period, have 
 been constructed. The enterprise would have proved a disas- 
 trous failure, not as appalling, perhaps, as that of the Panama 
 venture, but certainly similar to that. 
 
 For all its loss of life and outlay of money, Egypt has received 
 no benefit. The canal is not only a real, but a great damage to 
 her commerce. Formerly she had an immense overland trade, 
 which is now entirely lost. Heavily laden ships are constantly 
 passing through the canal in the desert east of her cultivated 
 lands, with no more benefit to Egypt than their passage through 
 the Mediterranean. 
 
 The conditions under which we are completing the Panama 
 Canal furnish a marked and characteristic instance of the dif- 
 ference between our manner of treating the small Powers of 
 America and the treatment of Oriental non-Christian countries 
 by the European Governments. After paying the French for 
 the work they have done, we pay $10,000,000 for the right of 
 
2 12 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 control of sufficient lands to enable us to complete the canal 
 and insure its maintenance and use. We demand no assistance 
 of corvee labor, nor damages for refusal to furnish it. We do 
 not ask Panama to construct at great expense a feeding-canal 
 (as Egypt constructed the indispensable fresh water canal) to 
 give us all the water it furnishes, and then to pay us not only 
 for all the land this water might irrigate, if we had not already 
 appropriated it to other uses, but for all the water which might 
 have been sold — to say nothing of making claims for the right 
 of navigation and fishing in its waters. 
 
 England is in no w^ay accountable for the extortions practiced 
 upon Egypt during the time of constructing the Suez Canal, but 
 the benefits of the spoils are hers, to a very large extent, and 
 she has no intention of returning any part of them to the people 
 who were despoiled. Nearly all the commerce of the canal is 
 English and to the EngUsh accrue many millions of dollars of 
 benefits annually in addition to the $130,000,000 advance on 
 her canal stock. 
 
 Egypt's first loan was made to obtain money for the Suez 
 Canal Company. She has paid interest, generally at a very 
 high rate, on this indebtedness for about forty years, and is 
 destined to continue these payments for a long, indefinite period. 
 All these burdens of an oppressed people arose from concessions 
 that appeared perfectly innocent. It was expressly provided 
 that the canal was to be constructed wholly by the company, 
 without cost to Egypt. Such is the fate of weak nations. 
 
Tragedy of Sadik Pasha 213 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF ISMAIL SADIK PASHA 
 
 Soon after my arrival in Egypt a characteristically Oriental 
 event occurred in Cairo. I was returning from Europe to Egypt 
 in October at the expiration of a two months' leave of absence. 
 On the same steamer, came Hon. G. J. Goschen, M.P., late 
 member of the Cabinet of Mr. Gladstone, and M. Joubert of 
 Paris. They came as representatives of the English and French 
 bondholders. Their mission was to arrange a settlement with 
 the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, more favorable to his creditors 
 than that which had been offered by his Highness. The Khedive 
 claimed, what everyone at all conversant with the country knew 
 to be true, that five per cent interest was all he could pay. 
 This did not satisfy the bankers of Paris and London who had 
 been receiving ten and twenty per cent, and often more, on 
 their Egyptian loans. 
 
 Egypt had received for the sale of its bonds an average of 
 only sixty per cent, in round numbers, of their face value. On 
 the last issue in 1873 of £32,000,000 it had received only a little 
 over fifty per cent, or £17,000,000. This issue of bonds was 
 forced upon the Khedive by a threat of exposing his financial 
 condition. On a basis of six per cent interest, three-fourths of 
 the nominal debt had in 1876 been paid. 
 
 According to official documents, the correctness of which has 
 never been denied, Egypt had paid in 1882 the whole of the 
 
2 14 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 principal of the money actually received on its loans and in- 
 terest at the rate of six per cent per annum. Yet this indebt- 
 edness remained and still remains at the nominal amount of 
 $500,000,000. On this amount of indebtedness, three-fourths 
 of which, at that time, was made up of usury, Mr. Goschen in- 
 sisted, with the moral support of his Government, on the pay- 
 ment of interest at the rate of seven per cent per annum. He 
 also asked for the formation of a commission of European con- 
 trollers authorized to collect the revenues of the country and 
 pay this interest direct to the bondholders. As Egypt is wholly 
 an agricultural country, having no manufacturing establish- 
 ments, the interest demanded would require an annual tax of 
 between six and seven dollars on each acre of land, besides 
 enough to meet the other large burdens of the country. A con- 
 siderable part of the lands are not very productive and from 
 them such a high rate of taxes could not be realized. This 
 would increase the amount necessary to be obtained from the 
 better classes of lands. 
 
 Mr. Goschen was an ex-banker and broker and well fitted 
 for his mission. It was a firm to which he belonged that ne- 
 gotiated the first loan to Egypt made by the Khedive to pay 
 the indebtedness incurred on account of the Suez Canal. Be- 
 cause of his high position as a member of Parliament and a 
 late member of the English Cabinet, he was selected by the 
 bondholders for this work. The Khedive regarded him as a 
 representative of her Majesty's Government and did not dare 
 to refuse his persistent demands, though the money to comply 
 with them could be procured, if at all, only by using the means 
 employed by Sadik Pasha. When the English obtained full 
 control, they found it necessary to reduce the interest to about 
 one-half of the amount demanded by Mr. Goschen. 
 
 Ismail Sadik Pasha was at the time of Mr. Goschen 's visit 
 the Egyptian Minister of Finance. He was known as the 
 
Tragedy of Sadik Pasha 215 
 
 Mufettish, because, previous to being Minister, he had been 
 the Mufettish of the Khedive, that is, one of the superintendents 
 or managers of his private estates. He was the Khedive's foster- 
 brother. Although belonging to the fellah class, and having a 
 very ordinary education, speaking only Arabic and writing it 
 poorly, he and the Khedive as boys were much together. From 
 his childhood, he had been his Highness's protege. He became 
 first his secretary and, on arriving at manhood, one of the man- 
 agers of his estates. In 1869 he was made Minister of Finance, 
 a position which he held till his tragic death. 
 
 He was a man of much natural abiUty, an astute and sagacious 
 manager and had great influence over the Khedive. No one 
 ever did the work assigned him, that of raising revenue, with 
 greater tact or success. Being himself a fellah, he was able to 
 ascertain the incomes and accumulations of this class. Then, 
 applying the theory of autocratic law, that the fellah was only 
 the steward of the Khedive to whom he, his family and all he 
 possessed belonged, Sadik proceeded, in the name of his High- 
 ness's Government and clothed with all the authority of the 
 supreme tax imposer and collector, to obtain any surplus that 
 might remain after the payment of the regular taxes. These 
 were equivalent to rental rates, but if anything remained and 
 was not forthcoming, he was not scrupulous as to the use of any 
 means by which it might be obtained. 
 
 In default of his demands being compUed with, crops were 
 taken, and, if money or valuables were supposed to be con- 
 cealed, as was often the case, imprisonment and the daily 
 bastinado were resorted to until the last shilUng and the last 
 treasured heirloom, and, in some cases, all that could be ob- 
 tained on mortgages was pressed from the poor victim. 
 
 The bastinado is a common means of punishment in the East. 
 It consists of throwing the victim upon the ground on his breast, 
 sometimes putting him in stocks, and applying a leathern whip 
 
2 1 6 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 to the soles of the feet. It is said to produce the most ex- 
 cruciating pain, but does not leave serious wounds. The fellah 
 will often submit to this mode of punishment for an unlimited 
 time, rather than give up his treasures. He sometimes does this 
 on the theory that if he yields what he has, he will still be 
 whipped on the supposition that he has more. Generally, what 
 he may have has been accumulated by little savings from long 
 and severe toil. He is the more tenacious from the fact that he 
 well knows that, when the wolf appears at his door, he has no 
 reliance for aid, except on the few sovereigns he may have 
 buried beneath the dirt floor of his cabin. 
 
 Sadik was horribly cruel in the numerous modes of extortion 
 which he practiced, partly to enrich himself, as was shown by 
 his accumulated wealth, but principally to meet the pressing 
 demands of the creditors of the Government. His eminently 
 bad qualities did not, however, prevent him from foreseeing the 
 difficulties of the future and he was inexorably opposed to the 
 plans of Messrs. Goschen and Joubert. Perhaps he was tired 
 of the cruel methods to which he was obliged to resort to re- 
 plenish the constantly exhausted treasury. He well knew that, 
 even by these methods, the ever increasing wants of the Gov- 
 ernment could not be supplied, for Egypt's accumulations of the 
 past had already disappeared to a large extent, having gone to 
 enrich the usurers of London and Paris, and replenish the 
 treasury of the Sultan. 
 
 Henceforth, there would be only the annual crops of the coun- 
 try with which to meet increasing demands, and the amount thus 
 obtained, even with the strictest economy, would not be suffi- 
 cient to sustain the Government and pay more than five per 
 cent interest on the public debt. I know he used to say in those 
 days, when urgent demands were made by creditors, that the 
 money could not be obtained, that one might continue to whip 
 the fellahin, but it would not bring the money because they did 
 
Tragedy of Sadik Pasha 217 
 
 not have it, and could not get it. Mr. Goschen had been previ- 
 ously informed that the Mufettish was opposed to the paying 
 of the high rate of interest demanded by the bondholders and 
 that he would be the greatest obstacle to his obtaining the agree- 
 ment which was the object of his mission. On his arrival, he 
 met the Khedive and called upon all the Ministers, except the 
 Mufettish whom he entirely ignored. He also informed the 
 Khedive that he would have nothing to do with his Minister of 
 Finance. 
 
 Nearly a month passed in fruitless negotiations, but the 
 Khedive under the pressure of the English and French Consuls- 
 General began to weaken, thinking, probably, that it was best 
 to yield for the moment and find means afterwards to extricate 
 himself from the difficulty. In the meantime some excitement 
 had been produced in the provinces and Sadik was accused by 
 the English and French of attempting to create an insurrection. 
 Whatever the real facts may have been, they will probably 
 never be known to the public. English agents reported that 
 Sadik had threatened the Khedive. There is not the least 
 probability that these reports were true. 
 
 Sadik sent in his resignation and, in his letter, warned the 
 Khedive against the proposed Goschen-Joubert contract, the 
 responsibility of which he refused to accept. Because of this 
 and the reports made to him, the Khedive became very angry, 
 but, with his accustomed ability for acting well his part, he con- 
 cealed his wrath. The next day he matured his plans and yet 
 appeared in his accustomed good humor. He passed the evening, 
 according to those who saw him, in pleasant conversation and 
 even joviality with those who were gathered at Abdtn. He was 
 in the habit of taking his siesta after his midday meal and of 
 sitting up very late at night, until twelve and even one and two 
 o'clock. He rose early in the morning and ordinarily took a 
 drive immediately afterwards. 
 
2 I 8 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 On the second morning after the receipt of Sadik's resignation, 
 his Highness arose at the usual time and sent for Sadik to ac- 
 company him in his morning drive. This he had frequently 
 done, when he had some important matters concerning which 
 he wished to converse with his Minister. Sadik, little thinking, 
 probably, of anything but friendHness, obeyed the summons 
 and came to the palace. The two left Abdin together in an 
 open carriage, smoking and talking as usual, crossed the Great 
 Bridge at Kasr en-Nil and, turning into the boulevard, drove to 
 the palace of Gezireh. They mounted the steps and entered 
 the magnificent hall, which I had entered on my first visit to 
 the Khedive. The door closed behind them and with it all cer- 
 tain knowledge of Ismail Sadik Pasha, the all powerful Minister, 
 who for seven years, so far as the people were concerned, had 
 exercised an authority in matters of taxation equal if not su- 
 perior to that of the Khedive, and had, by his cruelty, become 
 a terror to the fella hin. The Khedive immediately came out 
 of the palace, re-entered his carriage and was driven back to 
 Abdin. 
 
 Several versions have been current at different times as to 
 what happened to the ex-Minis ter, perhaps none of them cor- 
 rect. According to the official account, a special Council of 
 Ministers was innnediately called, of which Cherif Pasha and 
 Tewfik Pasha, afterwards Khedive, w^ere members. By this 
 Comicil, Sadik was tried for treason, convicted and sentenced 
 to banishment with close confinement at Dongola. This trial 
 was private, without the presence of the prisoner, and he had 
 no knowledge of the proceeding. In fact, as this Council was 
 held the next day after the arrest, it was very probable that the 
 prisoner was already beyond being affected by any decision it 
 might make. Formerly, in Massachusetts, perhaps still, a civil 
 process was commenced by the issue of an execution. In this 
 case, it is supposed that the execution preceded the judgment. 
 
Tragedy of Sadik Pasha 2ig 
 
 Dongola is a small town of Nubia, on the left bank of the Nile, 
 about one thousand miles from Cairo, and the principal place of 
 a small province of the same name. It was said that other 
 prisoners had been banished to this place to work in the mines. 
 There were, however, no prisoners there and no mines that had 
 been worked within the memory of any living person. It was 
 well understood in Egypt that banishment to Dongola meant 
 secret capital punishment by strangulation, poisoning, or some 
 other Oriental mode, and no one was deceived by any official 
 declarations. 
 
 The prisoner in such cases disappears and is never afterwards 
 heard from, as was the case in the time of Louis XI and other 
 Kings of France. The prisoner in France entered a myste- 
 rious dungeon, '^ oubliette y'^ and was forgotten. In Egypt, he was 
 supposed to have started on a voyage up the Nile, but nothing 
 was ever heard from him afterwards. 
 
 A steamer left Cairo the night after the arrest of Sadik and 
 ascended the river to the First Cataract, ostensibly to convey 
 the prisoner. A second steamer continued the voyage to the 
 Second Cataract and, thence, a small caravan went to Dongola. 
 No one was allowed to visit these steamers while they were 
 ascending the Nile, and the whole proceeding was surrounded 
 with as much mystery as possible. 
 
 Sadik had the rank of Mushir, which entitled him to a trial 
 at Constantinople. The Sultan, on learning of the affair, di- 
 rected the Khedive to send him the prisoner. The journey to 
 Dongola required about thirty days, and the Khedive waited 
 for a report from that place, which was to the effect that the 
 Mufettish, having taken to excessive drinking on the voyage, 
 had died soon after his arrival, The certificate of a physician, 
 purporting to have been made at Dongola and certifying death 
 from this cause was afterwards produced. This was the official 
 death. 
 
2 20 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 As to the real death, there were several statements current m 
 Cairo soon after the event. The one most generally credited was 
 that the prisoner was kept in the Gezireh palace during the day 
 of his arrest; that, the following night, he was taken on board 
 the steamer we have mentioned, which immediately started on 
 its trip up the Nile; that, at a short distance above the city, he 
 was strangled, placed in a weighted sack and dropped into the 
 river, the steamer continuing on its voyage as we have stated. 
 All the particulars were given in detail, even to the name of the 
 Pasha in charge of the steamer. 
 
 In 1879, when Ismail Pasha had been sent away, and the 
 English and French had obtained full control of the finances 
 of the country, a large mmiber of names of persons who had 
 received pensions from the Government, generally very small, 
 were dropped from the rolls. 
 
 Among the pensioners whose cases were thus summarily dis- 
 posed of was an Arab of Upper Egypt, one Ishak Bey. He was 
 a soldier at Cairo at the time of the disappearance of the Mufettish 
 and of large and powerful physique. He had lost a thumb and 
 enjoyed till this time a small pension. Whether he had other 
 disabilities that would have entitled him to this aid from the 
 Government, I do not know. On the discontinuance of the 
 pension, he gave and continued to reiterate a new account of 
 this mysterious tragedy. 
 
 Mr. J. C. McCoan, an English writer with whom I was well 
 acquainted in Cairo, gives this version of Ishak Bey's story: 
 
 "About an hour after Sadik's arrest he, Ishak Bey, was sum- 
 moned into a room in which Sadik was confined and there found 
 Prince Hassan and the prisoner already stripped of his clothes. 
 The Prince whispered to him an order to kill the Mufettish either 
 by strangling or preferentially by another method of acute 
 painfulness, which would leave no marks of violence. He 
 adopted the latter and having thrown the victim on his back 
 
Tragedy of Sadik Pasha 221 
 
 endeavored with his left hand to smother his cries, while with 
 his right he did his deadly work. Although a sHght man, Sadik 
 in his agony struggled with a strength almost equal to that of 
 his murderer and, getting the Arab's left thumb in his mouth, 
 bit it clean off. That on the following night, the body, wrapped 
 in canvas and heavily weighted, was carried on board the wait- 
 ing steamer which started up the river into which the corpse 
 was flung a few miles above Cairo." 
 
 Prince Hassan was then Minister of War and I remember his 
 occupying Gezireh after my return from Europe that year. I 
 called upon him according to custom and he came out of the 
 building occupied by the harem, crossed the garden and re- 
 ceived me in the palace. 
 
 There is, however, much doubt about the truth of Ishak Bey's 
 story. At the time of its first relation, the ex-Khedive, Ismail 
 Pasha, and his son. Prince Hassan, were in exile. Those who 
 then controlled Egypt lent a willing ear to every statement in 
 any way injurious to Ismail and hastened to publish it in Europe. 
 Arabs are always ready to make such statements as they be- 
 lieve will please their hearers and Ishak probably hoped for and 
 perhaps received some reward. The assertions that he found the 
 prisoner naked in the presence of Prince Hassan, that he was 
 ordered single handed to commit the murder, or that he could 
 have accomplished the object, had he been so ordered, are all 
 highly improbable. All the stories agree in stating that Sadik's 
 body was thrown from the steamer into the Nile, a little above 
 Cairo, on the night after his arrest. It matters little as to the 
 precise manner in which he was killed, or the place of his death. 
 
 The motive for this act on the part of the Khedive is as 
 mysterious as the details of the deed. Sadik had been the 
 Khedive's life-long friend, confidant and, so far as known, 
 faithful servant. Many conjectures have been made, but no 
 satisfactory explanation has been given. Some claimed that 
 
22 2 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 there was a real conspiracy, others, that the victim possessed 
 compromising facts that he might reveal against the Khedive 
 and still others publicly stated that Mr. Goschen was morally 
 responsible for the deed. That he was pleased to have the ex- 
 Minister out of the way of his financial scheme, there is no doubt. 
 
 The next day after the arrest, the English Consul-General, 
 Mr. Vivian, in a despatch to his Government speaks of the 
 tragedy ''as one of those dramatic incidents peculiar to Eastern 
 Hfe." He adds, ''He was the greatest stumbling-block to any 
 chance of financial reform or administration and his fall, how- 
 ever it was brought about, can only be regarded as a great public 
 benefit." The same day, he reported the probable success of 
 Messrs. Goschen and Joubert, "which had for some time been 
 doubtful in consequence of the hostile attitude of the late 
 Minister of Finance." As a matter of fact, the Goschen- Joubert 
 proposition was agreed to the next day. 
 
 It is quite true, as I stated at the time in my report to Secre- 
 tary Fish, that there were no regrets for the Mufettish. There 
 was joy at his removal and people cared little whether it was 
 just or in what way it was accomplished. 
 
 In an interview that I had with the Khedive the day after 
 the arrest, I found him very much excited. It was the only 
 time I ever saw him when he seemed to have lost control of 
 himself. He was apparently very angry with the Mufettish. 
 He told me how he had raised him up from a common fellah to 
 the most important position in Egypt and said that he had 
 undertaken to incite a rebellion. He detailed what he claimed 
 to be some of the facts which he had learned from the governors 
 of the provinces and the heads of the religious organizations. 
 Having already some knowledge of the methods of autocratic 
 Oriental Governments, I concluded from the temper of the 
 Khedive that the ex-Minis ter was already dead, though nothing 
 was said indicating that such was the fact. 
 
Tragedy of Sadik Pasha 223 
 
 As a sequel to the disposal of the Mufettish, came the con- 
 fiscation of his estates. In his wealth, we have a marked illus- 
 tration of the wonderful opportunities and privileges of a 
 favorite minister of an autocratic ruler. Perhaps we have also 
 a case in which the accumulated wealth of such a favorite has 
 been the cause of his fall. 
 
 Foucquet, the Finance Minister of Louis XIV, lost the 
 favor of his sovereign in consequence of the wealth he had 
 amassed and the splendor of his palaces and festive entertain- 
 ments. He ended his days in a dungeon after nineteen years 
 of imprisonment. 
 
 No one can say to-day whether the wealth of the Egyptian 
 Minister was one of the causes of his tragic end. The posi- 
 tions of such servants of royalty are always precarious and, the 
 greater the wealth, when confiscation is permitted, the greater 
 the danger. 
 
 In this case, we have a man from the lowest class in Egypt, 
 who commenced life in poverty and squalor, and who never 
 had any apparent means of accumulating wealth, except his 
 official position. Yet, at the age of fifty-five, after having spent 
 immense sums in Oriental extravagance, he left a fortune of 
 from $10,000,000 to $15,000,000. He had thirty thousand acres 
 of choice Nile lands, three large, magnificently decorated and 
 furnished palaces, hundreds of female slaves, large amounts of 
 valuable jewelry, securities and other personal property. 
 
 I had an opportunity of passing through his palaces previous 
 to the removal of the furniture. They were on adjoining lands. 
 As you approached, nothing could be seen from the streets but 
 the high walls that surrounded the gardens and buildings. The 
 entrances were by large porte-cocheres, which contained lodges 
 for eunuchs and guards. Each palace was separated from the 
 others by a high wall, so that the view from one to the other 
 as well as that of the streets was obstructed. There were no 
 
2 24 ^SyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 communicating passages, except by a small door through the 
 wall, presumably for the convenience of the master. The build- 
 ings were large, and contained, I should judge, two hundred 
 rooms. The appointments were all princely and excelled in 
 Egypt only by the palaces of the Khedive. 
 
 Here lived the Mufettish in luxurious splendor, with his 
 wives and female slaves, the latter numbering, according to the 
 most conservative statements, not less than three hundred. 
 Very few of these ever went outside the garden walls, and all 
 were always closely guarded by eunuchs. Among the inmates 
 of his harem, there were said to be many of the handsomest 
 young Caucasians and Georgians. White slaves of this class 
 are very costly, and the favorites are gorgeously dressed and 
 adorned with jewels. 
 
 The harem has its well defined aristocracy. The wives and 
 favorites are served by slaves, generally colored, who are often 
 treated by their mistresses with great cruelty. The worst acts 
 of cruelty, of which I heard while in Egypt, were those of women 
 towards their slaves. All children born in the harem are legiti- 
 mate and have equal rights as heirs. The mother, on the birth 
 of a child, is raised to the rank of a wife. 
 
 The slaves of the Mufettish were absorbed by the other 
 harems of Cairo — those of the Khedive, Pashas and Beys — 
 the Khedive, of course, having the first choice if he desired. 
 A large number of them were said to have been sold. If so, the 
 sales were privately made and the secret kept. They disap- 
 peared, but under what conditions the public never knew, and 
 the numerous reports were mere conjectures. 
 
 A few days later, there was a sale at auction of such furniture 
 and jewels as had not been otherwise disposed of. The Khedive, 
 according to report, pocketed the proceeds of the confiscated 
 estates and thus ended a drama that at the time attracted much 
 attention in Egypt and Europe. 
 
Tragedy of Sadik Pasha 225 
 
 The principal actors arc now dead, — the Khedive, his son 
 Tewfik, afterwards Khedive, Prince Hassan and Cherif Pasha. 
 There is, however, no authentic evidence that any of these per- 
 sons except the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, were responsible in any 
 degree for what happened. As Ismail was an Oriental ruler 
 in whom were centered all governmental powers, — legislative, 
 judicial and executive, — we cannot say, not having full knowl- 
 edge of the facts, that his course was criminal, however much 
 we may condemn such arbitrary modes of procedure in cases 
 of persons accused of crime. 
 
 In judging the acts of people of different nationalities and 
 different systems of morals, religion and government, we must 
 take into consideration their laws and the criminal procedure 
 to which they have always been accustomed. Christian gov- 
 ernments do not hesitate, for the benefit of the example, when 
 it is thought necessary or when their sovereignty is in question, 
 to resort to the most summary executions. Even to establish 
 a questionable authority, there have been numerous cases within 
 a century of Christian governments sacrificing large numbers of 
 people, summarily, in the most cruel manner, and without even 
 the form of a drumhead court-martial. 
 
 On the arrival in Egypt, in 1882, of the English attorneys 
 who had been generously employed by Mr. Wilford Scawen 
 Blunt to defend Arabi Pasha and his associates against a charge 
 of treason, Riaz Pasha refused them access to the prisoners. 
 This he claimed would be contrary to Egyptian law.^ Neither 
 would he allow any communication with them, not even the 
 conveying to the prisoners the information that the attorneys 
 had arrived in Egypt and were ready to enter upon the prepara- 
 tion of their defense. It was only after long negotiations and 
 the intercession of noble, high-minded Englishmen that any 
 
 ^ He was then Prime Minister and continued to hold that position a long 
 time under the English regime. 
 
2 26 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 communication was permitted between the attorneys and their 
 clients. 
 
 When the question was raised of their having a fair trial, 
 as had been stipulated on their delivery by Sir Garnet, now 
 Lord Wolseley, to the Government of the Khedive, Riaz re- 
 plied: ''What is the use of a trial, when we all know that they 
 are guilty?" Such a proceeding was entirely superfluous ac- 
 cording to his ideas of justice. He would have had a secret 
 court-martial, without the annoyance of the presence of the 
 accused, sitting only long enough to draw up the necessary 
 judgments, and a secret execution of the prisoners before the 
 dawn of the following morning. 
 
 The only crime of these prisoners consisted in being loyal 
 to their own people instead of being wholly subservient to the 
 foreign domination which was being forced upon the country. 
 
 The strangest part of this remarkable history is that Riaz 
 was sustained by the whole English Jingo Party in Egypt. 
 They brought every possible influence to bear to prevent the 
 chiefs of the National Party from having the benefit of counsel 
 at their trials. The pressure of the Gladstone Ministry, sup- 
 ported by the better classes in England, prevailed in the case 
 of Arabi and his friends. 
 
 The investigation showed that he was not guilty of the so- 
 called massacre of the 11th of June, 1882, nor of the burning 
 of Alexandria, nor of treason in any legal sense. As Minister 
 of War, he had obeyed the orders both of the Khedive and the 
 Sultan in opposing the English, and the Government accounts 
 were found to have been kept with the strictest honesty. 
 
 To avoid the scandal a public trial would certainly have 
 caused, without losing the benefit of an example of the danger 
 of any opposition to the English Government, arrangements 
 were made for banishment to the island of Ceylon, instead of 
 hanging, and with this both Riaz and Arabi had perforce to 
 
Tragedy of Sadik Pasha 227 
 
 be content. In this connection, we might refer to the cruel, 
 illegal executions, sometimes of innocent victims, indulged in by 
 the populace in our own country, which are more summary and 
 often more barbarous than the acts of any Eastern potentate 
 These barbarities are tolerated and find numerous apologists 
 among us, while we boast of our Christian institutions and our 
 advanced civilization. 
 
 There occurred in Egypt in June, 1906, an incident which 
 shows the extreme measures sometimes employed to maintain 
 the principle of the inviolability of the governing authority. 
 
 A body of English soldiers were on the march from Cairo to 
 Alexandria. Five of the officers set out for a small village, four 
 or five miles from their camp, where they were certain to find 
 pigeon-shooting. A rural Egyptian village consists of a collec- 
 tion of sun-dried brick huts placed closely together. On some 
 of the rude dwellings cotes are built by the natives in which 
 pigeons are reared in large numbers, giving the owners small 
 incomes. To some of the older people this is a chief means of 
 suppdrt. There are only a few villages where there are pigeons in 
 any considerable numbers and naturally one of these was chosen 
 by the officers. For the same purpose, and to the displeasure 
 of the people, they had visited this village the preceding year. 
 
 Lord Cromer in one of his reports says: ^'The standing in- 
 structions to the army of occupation are that no pigeon-shooting 
 is to take place without the consent of the local Omdeh.^ " In 
 this case such consent was not obtained, as the Omdeh was 
 absent. The shooting, however, was not abandoned or even 
 delayed. The officers separated into two parties and began to 
 shoot the tame pigeons which were flying close to the village. 
 Two of the officers chanced to stand near a threshing-floor 
 where wheat was being threshed; and presently it was discov- 
 
 1 Village chief. 
 
22 8 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 ered that the wheat was on fire. On hearing the screams of a 
 woman and the alarm of fire the natives quickly gathered and 
 the fire was extinguished without serious loss. 
 
 As to the origin of the fire no evidence was offered during 
 the trial that afterwards took place, except the testimony of 
 the wife of the owner of the wheat, a woman twenty years old. 
 She gave the following testimony: "I was on the threshing- 
 machine 1 and my husband was collecting the threshed corn 
 [wheat]. Suddenly a shot hit the threshing-machine and set 
 it on fire. Another shot hit me in my leg. I fell and do not 
 know who fired the shots." The machine was charred by the 
 burning of the wheat. 
 
 There were two physicians who made the official examina- 
 tions for the trial. One was an officer, a member of the shooting 
 party, and the other a native village physician. According to 
 their report, used as evidence on the trial, this woman had 
 "about sixty shot wounds," "many of the shot were still in 
 the flesh," and "the skin on the parts affected painful and 
 swollen." It is important to note that the villagers had no fire- 
 arms; these are a luxury not permitted to the natives. 
 
 At the time of the burning of the wheat, or immediately after, 
 its owner, the husband of the wounded woman, attempted to 
 wrest his gun from the officer who had been shooting near him. 
 Others who had come at the alarm of fire came to the aid of the 
 native. The gun was discharged, as was later claimed, by acci- 
 dent. On the trial it was argued that the woman might have 
 been shot at this time; though there was no evidence tending 
 to prove that this was the fact. The struggle for the gun con- 
 tinued, and according to the testimony certain of the officers 
 
 1 A rude sled drawn by animals and having rollers between the runners 
 set with short irons, or with disks, so that the wheat is not only threshed by 
 the treading of the animals, but the straw is at the same time cut finely so 
 that it can be eaten by camels. See the accompanying illustration. 
 
tf. 
 
 Zl. 
 
Tragedy of Sadik Pasha 229 
 
 who had been shooting on another side of the village hurried 
 to the scene of the incident. They then shot two or three times, 
 one witness said four times, into the crowd of natives, variously- 
 estimated to have numbered from thirty to one hundred. Three 
 of these persons were wounded, one of them being as it hap- 
 pened the Sheikh-el-Ghaffir ^ and another a ghaffir. The tes- 
 timony of both of these persons was taken on the part of 
 the prosecution, and no accusation was made against them. 
 The Sheikh-el-Ghaffir in his evidence said that 'Hhe shot that 
 wounded him came from another Englishman," that is, one of 
 those who had come up after the crowd had gathered, and not 
 the officer who was struggling to keep possession of his gun. 
 He added, ''No aggression against the officers was committed 
 until I was injured." 
 
 As none of the officers in their evidence deny this shooting 
 or give any explanation concerning it, one must assume that a 
 correct version was given by the Sheik. On the part of the 
 officers the chief claim was that the wheat or straw could not 
 have been set on fire by the shooting. 
 
 Whatever the exact facts may have been, the husband of the 
 wounded woman and the natives who had been suddenly 
 brought together by her cries and the alarm of fire naturally 
 believed from what they saw and heard that the officers had set 
 fire to the wheat and wounded the woman. They became ex- 
 cited, beside themselves, furious. One of the officers testified 
 that the natives who were struggling for the gun ''were in a 
 state of excitement and fury." In this not unnatural obsession 
 of rage they followed the officers after they had been disarmed 
 or had given up their guns, beating them with sticks and throw- 
 ing at them sun-dried brick and dried mud. There is no doubt 
 they were rough to brutality after the manner of infuriated 
 mobs; though apparently nothing happened which might not 
 
 1 Chief of the guards or watchmen. 
 
230 ^gyp^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 have taken place in any labor riot in the United States. One 
 officer had a broken arm and other members of the party were 
 badly bruised. 
 
 Two of the officers escaped and hastened to camp for soldiers. 
 The abuse of the other three continued. They were taken back 
 to the threshing-floor and seated not far from the wounded 
 woman. There was no interpreter at hand. The natives pointed 
 to the woman and one of them drew his hand across his throat 
 in a manner that might have been taken as a direct threat to 
 kill the officer. Surrounded by this excited and furious body 
 of natives, and powerless to communicate with them, the 
 Englishmen were certainly in an awkward and even dangerous 
 position. However, there were no further hostile acts. 
 
 It was excessively hot, and one of the two officers who had 
 attempted to return to their camp had a sunstroke and died 
 twenty-four hours later. As to the cause of death, the court 
 found "that a blow had caused a concussion of the brain, and 
 though it was not sufficient in itself to cause death it weakened 
 him and thereby made him to be quickly affected by sunstroke 
 and so contributed to his death." 
 
 Under a Khedivial decree which the English had previously 
 obtained providing for the trial of offenses against the army 
 of occupation, a special court was organized for the trial of 
 fifty-nine natives accused of having taken part in the assault 
 upon the officers. This court consisted of three Englishmen 
 and two natives. One of the natives was a judge of the native 
 court whose official position was dependent upon the will of 
 the English authorities. The other native was designated in 
 the proceedings as the Acting Minister of Justice. With him, 
 however, as one of the English members of the court, was the 
 English Acting Judicial Adviser. 
 
 The Khedive has for his adviser the English Consul-General. 
 who instructs his Highness as to his duties and thus becomes 
 
Tragedy of Sadik Pasha 231 
 
 the absolute ruler of Egypt. The other high native officials 
 also have their English advisers whose duties are to instruct 
 the natives as to what they shall do and to see that they carry 
 out these instructions. Thus, while nominally the principal 
 officials are natives, in fact, they have only the powers of sub- 
 ordinates subject to removal for the slightest disobedience to 
 the commands given them by their English advisers. 
 
 The court thus organized listened for a part of two days to 
 the reading of the evidence (proces verbal), which had all been 
 previously taken, — for the most part wholly ex parte, without 
 the presence of the accused or of any one representing them. 
 In fact, some of the parties were not arrested till the testimony 
 had been closed. All the evidence taken, that on which the 
 conviction was afterwards based, was merely in the nature of 
 that taken in the United States before the issuing of a warrant 
 of arrest. Orders were issued from time to time for the arrest 
 of such persons as were shown to have been present and taken 
 part in the affray. 
 
 The prosecuting attorney was then heard. Afterwards, when 
 the trial had in fact been ended, counsel was permitted to speak 
 in behalf of the prisoners. The English representative (Lord 
 Cromer having left Egypt) triumphantly reported to his Gov- 
 ernment that "the defense broke down completely, and all 
 that their counsel could say on behalf of the prisoners practically 
 amounted to an appeal for the mercy of the court"! 
 
 The five members of the court, after "due deliberation," 
 rendered a judgment condemning twenty-one persons: four to 
 death by hanging; two to penal servitude for life, one of whom 
 was the husband of the wounded woman; one to penal servitude 
 for fifteen years; six to penal servitude for seven years; three 
 to fifty lashes and labor for one year; and five others to fifty 
 lashes. 
 
 The judgment was without the right of appeal or approval 
 
232 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 l)y liny higher authority. The sentence of the persons con- 
 demned to be hanged and those to be flogged was publicly 
 executed the following day at the village of the riot. The 
 native "medico-legal expert" certified that the hanging and 
 flogging had been ''properly performed." Thus ended the 
 judicial tragedy . 
 
 There was no attempt to identify the person who struck the 
 deceased officer and no more })roperly admissible evidence 
 given against the four persons condemned to death than against 
 many others. They were designated with others as ringleaders 
 who had excited the riot. The proof to establish this fact was 
 hearsay and as follows: The official who took the testimony 
 directed a person who was not present and knew nothing per- 
 sonally of the incident to ascertain and report what he could 
 learn relative to the affair. Among other items of his report, 
 which was rendered verbally and not on oath, was the state- 
 ment that certain [)ersons were the ringleaders, the authority 
 cited being the Omdeh of the village. The Omdeh was also 
 absent at the time of the attack upon the officers, but upon 
 being asked if he had made these statements, answered in the 
 affirmative. To the inquiry as to the source of his informa- 
 tion, he said: "I was told this by the inhabitants." The English 
 official in his report attempts to justify the admission of this 
 and other hearsay evidence, alleging that it was in accordance 
 with French procedure. 
 
 As might be expected, the action of the court was loudly 
 condemned by all nationalities represented in Egypt, except 
 the English. Complaints were made in Europe and a report of 
 the whole proceedings was called for, and presented by the 
 English Ministry to Parliament. The evidence that was read 
 before the court on which the prisoners were convicted and 
 such other facts as the Ministry thought politic to make public 
 were printed in two Parliamentary papers on Egypt, Nos. 3 and 
 
Tragedy of Sadik Pasha 233 
 
 4 (1906). The account tliat I have given is taken wholly from 
 these official documents. 
 
 However abhorrent this whole procedure may appear from 
 information based on the official reports, it would appear much 
 more abhorrent should we accept, as the true version of the 
 facts, information received from native sources and from Con- 
 tinental residents of Egypt. Because of the unrest it produced 
 in Egypt the cry was at once raised of Moslem fanaticism, and 
 more English troops were demanded. The Egyptians were said 
 to be ungrateful for all that had been done for them, and even 
 to hate their English benefactors!! 
 
 It is not probable, however, that the Englishmen who were 
 responsible for this remarkable procedure intended to do in- 
 justice to any one. In its severity and injustice it probably 
 has no parallel in the modern judicial annals of any civilized 
 Christian country. Yet this was thought to be demanded by 
 English interests, and by the necessity of sustaining English 
 prestige and authority. In their opinion this terrible exliibition 
 of power, this spectacle of hanging and flogging, was necessary 
 as an example. The natives must learn the danger of molest- 
 ing those whom the Government of his Majesty, the King of 
 England, had placed over them, regardless of the right or 
 wrong of either party. They viewed the affair wholly from an 
 English standpoint. The slave must not return the blow, 
 however cruelly and unjustly he may be chastised by his mas- 
 ter. If he does, the master may kill him to maintain his au- 
 thority, without incurring any penalty of the law. 
 
 On the route between the English camp and the village there 
 was found late on the day of the affair the body of a native 
 with his skull crushed. No investigation seems to have been 
 made as to the manner in which he came to his death. 
 
2 34 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 REIGN OF THE BONDHOLDERS 
 
 Yielding to the diplomatic pressure instigated by the bond- 
 holders, the Khedive consented to the appointment of European 
 comptrollers for the different financial departments. Not satis- 
 fied with these concessions, the foreigners soon demanded and 
 obtained control of the Ministry, leaving his Highness only the 
 shadow of power. Important economies were promised in ob- 
 taining consent to this last demand. Native officials were 
 dismissed and their places filled by highly paid strangers, 
 unacquainted with the language of the country, and, in a great 
 number of cases, incompetent for any duty except that of 
 drawing their salaries. 
 
 The English Consul-General kept his Government well in- 
 formed as to all that took place. On the 12th of July, 1877, 
 he wrote as to the payment of the coupons then due: 
 
 "The money required, £2,074,975 ($10,000,000), was fully 
 paid yesterday. But I fear these results may have been 
 achieved at the expense of ruinous sacrifices to the peasantry by 
 forced sales of growing crops, and by collecting taxes in advance . 
 All this must be wrung in some shape or other from the country 
 already crushed by taxation. Meanwhile I fear the European 
 administration may be unconsciously sanctioning the utter ruin 
 of the peasant creators of the wealth of the country, for which 
 I hold that Englishmen are incurring a serious responsibility." 
 
 This and other despatches of similar import did not in the 
 
Reign of the Bondholders 235 
 
 least lessen the pressure of London and Paris, though they did 
 cost the Consul-General Disraeli's displeasure and his ultimate 
 removal. 
 
 On the thirtieth of November, 1878, he reported to his Gov- 
 ernment as follows: ''The treasury is empty, the troops and the 
 Government employees are many months in arrears of pay, and 
 among the latter class the greatest distress and misery prevail." 
 He should have added that the hundreds of foreign sinecure 
 employees were promptly paid, each month, their high salaries. 
 
 In speaking of the situation at the beginning of 1879, an 
 EngHsh writer who made no secret of his pride in England's 
 good fortune in capturing Egypt, says: 
 
 ''The new year opened with no improvement in the Egyptian 
 situation. The oppressive fiscal methods of the old personal 
 regime were still in full operation; yet the treasury was empty, 
 and the unpaid native officials, the army, and the local creditors 
 were all suffering and clamoring as of old. Only the legion of 
 European functionaries were content, receiving their fat salaries 
 punctually in full. Indeed, if there had been no other grounds 
 of complaint against the new system, the very number of these 
 foreign half-sinecurists, and the fact that they were so paid, 
 while native employees, and all ranks of the army were left 
 many months in arrears, were enough to account for the popu- 
 lar discontent which found freer and louder voice each day." 
 
 In the face of these facts and of the starving thousands in 
 Upper Egypt caused by the low Nile, English journals at the 
 time (and English writers ever since) attributed the national dis- 
 content to the Khedive, claiming it was "all of his fomenting." 
 
 For the year 1877, out of the £9,543,000 of revenue, £7,473,909 
 went as interest to the bondholders and nearly £1,000,000 to 
 pay England the interest on the Suez Canal shares and the 
 Turkish tribute, leaving only a little over £1,000,000 for all the 
 
236 EgyP^ ^^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 expenses of the Government, including the army and the high- 
 paid foreign employees. Substantially the same conditions 
 were true of 1S7S. 
 
 It must be remembered that there were no municipalities in 
 Egypt, and that all the expenses of the comitry, including those 
 of the cities, towns, dikes and canals, schools, etc., were paid, 
 if at all, from the Government Treasmy. With the smn re- 
 maining for current expenses, about one-fom*th of what was 
 absolutely necessary, the Khedive was asked to be responsible 
 for the public security and the regular working of the Govern- 
 ment and was treated as a criminal because he could not succeed. 
 
 I watched closely the fuiances of Egypt from the time of my 
 arrival and know that the Khedive, whatever his previous sins 
 may have been, did his utmost, after the beginning of 1S76, to 
 alle\'iate the fhiancial situation. There was no building of 
 palaces, no extension of railways, nor of telegraph lines, no 
 purchase of steamei^, no personal expenses greater than those 
 of the petty princes of Em-ope, or greater than the private for- 
 tune of the Khedive, before he became Khedive, would have 
 permitted. 
 
 It had been persistently claimed, contrary to the assertions 
 of the Khedive, that the revenues of Egypt properly appUed 
 were amply sufficient to enable the Government to pa}^ seven 
 per cent mterest on its indebtedness. The European ]\Iinistry 
 on coming into power soon learned that this was not true. They 
 immediately sought other resources to enable them to fulfill 
 their promises to the bondholders, who had seemed them their 
 lucrative positions. If these promises could be kept, bonds that 
 had been bought at from fifty to seventy cents on the dollar, 
 would be worth their face value. First, they demanded the 
 vast estates belonging to the Khedive and liis family. 
 
 Ismail Pasha, before he became Khedive, was the wealthiest 
 and most thrifty prince in the Orient. He had inherited a large 
 
Reign of the Bondholders 237 
 
 property, consisting of buildings in Alexandria and Cairo, and 
 of lands, principally plantations of sugar-cane in Upper Egypt. 
 These estates were well managed and productive. With his 
 vice-regal throne he also had large inheritances. He undoubt- 
 edly had the mania of acquisition, and, on his accession to the 
 absolute sovereignty of Egypt, his landed estates increased very 
 rapidly. Within ten years, they amounted to nine hundred 
 and fifty thousand acres. A part of this was acquired by pur- 
 chase, but much the larger portion was reclaimed from the 
 desert by the construction of irrigating canaLs, leveling the 
 ground, and otherwise preparing it for cultivation. 
 
 In the acquisition of these additional lands, and the putting 
 of them in a state of cultivation, the Khedive incurred an in- 
 debtedness, in excess of the net profits of all his estates, of 
 S43,000,000. Some idea can be formed of the value of these 
 estates from the fact that they constituted nearly one-fifth of 
 the lands of Egypt, and produced annually more than a million 
 of acres of crops. Upon this property there were fifteen sugar 
 factories, well constructed and in excellent condition, contain- 
 ing fifty mills for crushing the cane; two old factories not in 
 use, and the machinery and the other materials for the con- 
 struction of three more. There were also two hundred and fifty 
 miles of railroads with forty locomotives and a proportionate 
 amount of other rolling-stock, all constructed and principally 
 used to transport cane to these factories. The presence of these 
 railroads did not obviate the necessity of employing large num- 
 bers of camels. I have seen lines of cameLs miles in length 
 conveying cane to the railway stations. 
 
 A large part of these estates had been previously conveyed by 
 the Khedive to members of his family. On the demand of the 
 European Ministry they were all conveyed, with the personal 
 property pertaining to them, to the State to aid in relieving it 
 from financial embarrassment. Some of these lands were sub- 
 
2 3^ ^SyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 ject to a mortgage of forty- three million dollars, the indebt- 
 edness previously mentioned, but over four hundred and fifty 
 thousand acres were unencumbered. Thus was terminated the 
 ownership of what was, when all owned by the Khedive, the 
 most valuable individual landed estate in the world. The gift 
 also included large amounts of property in Cairo and Alex- 
 andria. 
 
 Among the early official enterprises of the English member 
 of the Ministry was a trip to London to obtain a loan, to be 
 secured by a mortgage on the unencumbered part of these lands. 
 He had an interview with the Rothschilds. This was their 
 opportunity. Why should they not profit by it? Egypt wanted 
 money. The security was ample and the interest high. The 
 only question was how much blood they should take. As to 
 the Minister, he was ready to consent to any terms they might 
 think expedient to name. A contract was concluded, therefore, 
 by which this banking house undertook to market, at seventy- 
 three per cent, £8,500,000 of bonds to be secured by a mort- 
 gage on the unencumbered estates conveyed by the Khedivial 
 family to the Egyptian Government. These estates were to be 
 put under the management of English and French comptrollers, 
 and in case the revenues were at any time insufficient to pay 
 the interest and principal of the loan, as they should become 
 due, the deficit was to be paid by the Egyptian Government. 
 These bonds were worth, at the time of their issue, their face 
 value, and would have been gladly taken at that figure by the 
 creditors. That it might appear that they were acting as 
 brokers, the Rothschilds stipulated that they should receive 
 for their services three per cent of the proceeds of the sale, 
 which amounted to the modest sum of $900,000. The bonds 
 were nominally put upon the market, but were all immedi- 
 ately taken by the Rothschilds and such friends as they chose 
 to favor. By this transaction, Egypt lost $12,000,000. This 
 
Reign of the Bondholders 239 
 
 sum, to say the least, was needlessly thrown into the coffers 
 of the rich bankers of London. The bonds of this loan are 
 known as the "Domanial," those of the domain. The interest 
 has been promptly paid, and from the sale of lands the larger 
 part of the principal. The bonds remaining, if any, can be sold 
 at a premium. 
 
 Notwithstanding the promises made to the Khedive, when he 
 gave these vast estates to the Government, that the floating 
 debts should be paid, and that he should thus be relieved of 
 further annoyance from the financial situation, these debts 
 remained unpaid. The proceeds of the loan, as fast as received, 
 were applied by the Franco-English control to the payment of 
 the high interest on the bonds. It was the creditors holding 
 these bonds that the European Ministry specially represented. 
 
 The discontent of the people increased and the opposition 
 became daily stronger against the inundation of the country 
 by foreigners, who had already obtained possession of the most 
 important official positions and were fast filfing the minor ones. 
 
 The soldiers of the Egyptian army were discharged and the 
 officers, twenty-five hundred in number, placed on a detached 
 list. The pay of both soldiers and officers, during nearly the 
 entire period of the bondholders' control of the finances, was 
 one to two years in arrears. The officers had been educated for 
 the military service and knew no other way of obtaining a sub- 
 sistence. They and their famiUes were in a deplorable state 
 of destitution. The people became intensely excited. Not- 
 withstanding all that the Khedive and his family had given 
 to the Government, the national debt continued rapidly in- 
 creasing. There were disturbances in Upper Egypt and in- 
 cipient rebellion in Cairo, all arising from the sufferings of the 
 people caused by the oppressive taxation insisted upon by the 
 European Ministry, and the taking of nearly all the proceeds 
 to Paris and London to pay six and seven per cent interest on 
 
240 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 what was claimed to be Egypt's indebtedness. The Khedive 
 was held responsible for the good government of the country 
 and the peaceable conduct of its inhabitants without the least 
 means being allowed him with which to alleviate their sufferings. 
 
 Thus commenced, either with premeditated design on the part 
 of the Franco-English Ministry, or through their administrative 
 inability and excessive zeal in the interest of the London and 
 Paris bankers, the political disturbances which culminated three 
 years later in the forcible opposition of an oppressed people un- 
 der the lead of Arabi Pasha. This situation was foreshadowed 
 by the Khedive in a statement made to the writer in the presence 
 of two of his colleagues at the time of the first civil disturbances. 
 He said; "I can govern the people without a soldier, but a 
 Ministry of foreigners or of a different religion can only govern 
 them with military force." The experiment of thus governing 
 has not been repeated since the first disastrous failure. 
 
 There was no ameUoration in the governmental conditions. 
 With every change of the Ministry, the two European Govern- 
 ments assumed more powers, until the only duty of the Khedive 
 was to sign such decrees as might be prepared by the European 
 Ministers. According to their pretensions, he was wholly sub- 
 ject in the affairs of the Government to their dictation. This 
 too, in spite of the fact that they had not had legislative, exec- 
 utive or governmental experience and lacked the ability that 
 their positions required. It would have been more dignified 
 for the Khedive to have revolted in the first instance, as the 
 Sultan did when the Powers asked him to establish a European 
 control at Constantinople. His answer was laconic, but it left 
 no doubt as to his Majesty's meaning. He replied, "I may be 
 the last of the Khalifs, but I will never consent to become a 
 second Khedive." 
 
 The Egyptian policy of England and France was then dictated 
 by the bondholders. An early, positive and firm refusal to per- 
 
Reign of the Bondholders 241 
 
 mit them to interfere in the internal affairs of the country, 
 instead of trying to please them with continual concessions, 
 would have saved the Khedive his throne. Each new con- 
 cession only increased their demands, until he virtually abdi- 
 cated his sovereignty. It must have been known at London 
 that the Government could not continue under the conditions 
 imposed. It is not probable that Disraeli intended that it 
 should. He was already waiting and watching for an oppor- 
 tunity to rid himself of the French alliance, which the English 
 hated from the beginning, and into which they had entered to 
 prevent the French from obtaining control of Egypt. 
 
 Both the French and English Consuls-General opposed the 
 action of the European Ministry, but the bondholders in Paris 
 succeeded in having the French Consul-General promptly re- 
 called. The English bondholders were not immediately suc- 
 cessful in getting rid of the English Consul-General, but the 
 political designs of Disraeli and the financial interests of the 
 Rothschilds and other bankers demanded the sacrifice. Even 
 a future member of the House of Lords was not permitted to 
 stand in their way, and a few weeks later the English Consul- 
 General, Mr. Vivian, was also recalled. He was an only son of 
 Lord Vivian, who was of a very old and honorable family, but, 
 in politics, a member of the Liberal Party. 
 
 Mr. Vivian afterwards represented his Government in several 
 countries, became Lord Vivian on the death of his father and 
 died while Ambassador at Rome. The English member of the 
 Ministry accomplished his purpose, but his administration was 
 such an evident failure that the time of his own departure was 
 not long delayed. A wise administrator, like the present Eng- 
 lish ruler. Lord Cromer,^ might have retained his position 
 
 ^ Since the writing of the above, Lord Cromer has resigned and has been 
 succeeded by Sir Eldon Gorst as British Agent and Consul-General at Cairo, 
 who thereby becomes the real ruler of Egypt. 
 
242 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 indefinitely and been highly beneficial to Egypt. The Govern- 
 ment had, however, been placed by the European control in 
 the worst possible condition, and this furnished a plausible 
 excuse for the drastic measures soon to be taken. 
 
 The Egyptian question in the early days of the Khedive's 
 embarrassment, for those not in the secrets of diplomacy, was 
 wholly one of finance, — how bonds that had been bought for 
 fifty cents on a dollar by bankers and syndicates in Paris and 
 London might be made worth their face value. Many of these 
 bonds had been placed in the hands of those in power, or in 
 positions of great political influence, where, to use an American 
 phrase, "they would do the most good." Thus it turned out, 
 especially in Paris, that relatives of cabinet officials and mem- 
 bers of Parliament were large holders of Egyptian securities. 
 These officials were ready to aid in procuring any measures that 
 would be likely to increase the value of their holdings. 
 
 At the time of England's first official interference in Egyptian 
 finance, there were nearly a score of Governments, in different 
 parts of the world, that had failed to meet their liabilities, and 
 who were owing English creditors many hundred millions of 
 dollars. Yet the English Government had never officially aided 
 one of these creditors in collecting their claims. On the con- 
 trary, it had always given them "the cold shoulder." Not only 
 did it refuse them aid, but plainly informed them that if they 
 wished to loan their money where it would be secure, they must 
 loan it at home, and be content with the English rate of in- 
 terest. If they loaned it abroad, taking foreign securities, they 
 did it at their own risk and must not expect any aid from their 
 Government in enforcing the payment of their demands, just 
 or unjust. This had been the settled policy of England. It did 
 not undertake to resolve itself into a sheriff's posse comitatus 
 for the purpose of enforcing the collection, in foreign countries, 
 of the securities purchased by its adventurous citizens. Eng- 
 
Reign of the Bondholders 243 
 
 land had never given official aid in the collection of claims 
 arising from voluntary contracts, such as the loaning of money, 
 or the buying of foreign bonds. Such aid could only be given 
 in the collection of claims arising from the wrongful acts of 
 Governments or their citizens, or their wrongful neglect. 
 
 It is quite evident from these facts, as well as from the sequel 
 to this Egyptian drama, in which Disraeli, for a time, became 
 the principal promoter, that he had, after the purchase of the 
 canal shares, other than purely financial objects in view. This 
 was the more apparent from the fact that the demands sought 
 to be collected were notoriously usurious, to such an extent, 
 that not nearly one-half of the amounts claimed was justly 
 owing. It is not probable that, in the whole enormous list of 
 foreign bonds held by Englishmen against defaulting states, 
 any were more unjust than the Egyptian. While France and 
 England were apparently harmoniously engaged in forcing the 
 payment of interest on Egyptian bonds, and the Shylocks of 
 Paris and London were pocketing the plunder, these two very 
 Christian powers were watching each other with most intense 
 jealousy, each striving for preponderance of power and each 
 afraid the other would obtain some poUtical advantage. Thus 
 the strife continued until the final acts of the drama, the bom- 
 bardment of Alexandria, Tell el-Kebir, and the permanent 
 military occupation of Egypt by the English. 
 
 The burdens of the fellahin under the last years of the Khedive 
 had been excessive. He had been constantly threatened with 
 the loss of his crown unless the excessive interest was paid, and 
 had made the most desperate efforts to accomplish the im- 
 possible. The taxes under the European Ministry were not 
 diminished, but rather increased. I have written a detailed 
 account of the acts of the bondholders' reign, but space will 
 not permit its insertion in this narrative. 
 
 Cupidity grows on being well fed. After the acquisition of 
 
2 44 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 the Khedivial estates, worth at least seventy-five million dol- 
 lars above the encumbrances, search was made for other means 
 of increasing the amounts that could be drawn from Egypt. 
 I will only mention two or three of the principal of these sources 
 of increased revenue. One is what was known as the Mouka- 
 balah. Under a decree of the Khedive all persons who should 
 "pay into the treasury a sum equal to six years of their land 
 tax were to be relieved in perpetuity from one-half of their 
 taxes, such taxes to be computed on the basis of the land-tax 
 then paid, the taxes thus lessened not to be increased in the 
 future, in any manner nor for any reason." Over seventy-eight 
 million dollars had been paid into the treasury under this de- 
 cree, many mortgaging their lands to raise the money. 
 
 The European Ministry proposed the abolition of the Mouka- 
 balah and the repudiation of all claims made under it. This 
 would, as claimed, increase the annual revenue five and a half 
 million dollars, sufficient to pay the bondholders an additional 
 one per cent per annum. 
 
 Another source of revenue was to be derived from increasing 
 the tax on that class of lands known as the Ouchouri. The 
 average annual land-tax on all the cultivated lands of Egypt 
 was already five and a half dollars per acre. On the Ouchouri 
 lands, lower taxes were paid than on the other lands in Egypt. 
 They had been reclaimed from the desert, during the last seventy- 
 five years, at great expense in leveling and constructing canals. 
 At first, it was agreed by the Government that they should be 
 free of taxation. They were afterwards taxed, according to the 
 old Moslem law, a tenth of their gross income, giving them their 
 name, Ouchouri, one-tenth. The taxes were later increased 
 under various pretexts till they were about half of those of the 
 other lands known as the Karadja, or conquered lands. In 
 consequence of this immunity from a part of the taxes, this land 
 sold for about double the other lands. 
 
Reign of the Bondholders 245 
 
 The Ministry proposed, under a pretense of equalizing taxa- 
 tion, to raise the tax on these lands, placing them on the same 
 basis as the Karadja. This was to add immediately to the 
 annual revenues seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the 
 amount to be largely increased as soon as appraisals of their 
 products could be made. 
 
 There was also an indebtedness of the Government of over 
 nine milHon dollars which had been paid into the treasury under 
 agreements for perpetual annuities. This, it was proposed to 
 wholly repudiate. These reforms, as they were called, with 
 others equally just, were all embodied in a decree which the 
 Khedive was asked to sign. When objections were made by the 
 people and the Khedive, he was accused by the reformers of 
 fomenting discontent. After the removal of the Khedive, these 
 measures, slightly modified, were imposed upon Egypt. A small 
 interest was made payable on the money advanced under the 
 decree known as the Moukabalah. 
 
 Under these conditions, the Khedive determined to make 
 one supreme effort to save his sovereignty and rid his people of 
 the foreign control. The Consuls-General were invited to as- 
 semble at the Khedive's palace to receive from his Highness an 
 important communication. All of the Great Powers of Europe, 
 the United States, Spain, Holland and Denmark were repre- 
 sented. 
 
 We were received by the Khedive in the presence of Cherif 
 Pasha, a committee of the Chamber of Notables, and certain 
 Ulemas. His Highness appeared at first considerably agitated, 
 but proceeded to say, that it was impossible for the Govern- 
 ment of the country to continue under the existing conditions, 
 that a financial plan had been prepared by the European Minis- 
 ters that destroyed acquired rights and annulled laws that were 
 regarded as sacred; that the plan would be injurious to the 
 country, and unjust to a large number of its inhabitants; and 
 
246 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 that so strong an opposition had been created among the people 
 that it was necessary for him to yield to their wishes and form 
 a new Ministry. 
 
 Chcrif Pasha explained the situation more at length. He 
 stated that the National movement had originated in the Cham- 
 ber of Notables which had been in session all winter, and was 
 finally dismissed without any realization of what they consid- 
 ered their just demands, and that the country could no longer 
 support the present administration. The next morning a new 
 cabinet was formed, with Cherif Pasha at its head, from which 
 the European Ministers were left out. 
 
Dethronement of Ismail Pasha 247 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 DETHRONEMENT OF ISMAIL PASHA 
 
 The Anglo-French bondholders' reign had been suddenly 
 suspended, never to be resumed in the anomalous form in which 
 it had been commenced. It might be characterized as the 
 English reign, for, while it had nominally been Anglo-French, 
 the English influence had latterly prevailed to such an extent 
 that the French influence was scarcely felt. This preponderance 
 was so marked that some of the French residents were quite as 
 much rejoiced as the natives at what they termed the Khedive's 
 couj) (Tetat. 
 
 The whole movement was popular, and its popularity arose 
 largely from the utter failure of the attempt at governing (in 
 the interest of foreign creditors) by an irresponsible Ministry 
 which had httle knowledge of the country and none of the 
 language, customs, laws and necessities of its people. The 
 foreign Powers were fully aware of this failure and of the political 
 mistakes for which they were responsible. This, they could not 
 be expected to admit. European Powers claim infallibility for 
 all their acts in the Oriental non-Christian countries and, how- 
 ever great their mistakes, or those of their agents, they always 
 insist that they were in the right. 
 
 There was at that time scarcely a precedent in history for 
 their interference in the affairs of Egypt under the pretense of 
 securing the payment to their citizens of claims arising from 
 money that had been loaned. Supposing that in the case of any 
 
248 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 one of the many refusals of our individual Southern states to 
 pay their indebtedness the others had attempted a forced col- 
 lection, what would have been the result? 
 
 In the case of Egypt it was not repudiation that was in- 
 volved, but a mere question as to the rate of interest. Not- 
 withstanding the low price at which the Egyptian bonds had 
 been sold, twice as high a rate of interest was claimed on them 
 as was paid by the English Government. This amount was 
 more than Egypt could pay; and the source of all the trouble, 
 was the attempt to compel the Khedive to do what was im- 
 possible, even after the despoiling of the Khedivial family and 
 the people. 
 
 At the very time of the making of the exorbitant demands I 
 have mentioned, the thousands who had died of starvation or 
 from the result of insufficient food in Upper Egypt had scarcely 
 been buried. These deaths were the direct consequence of the 
 exaction of high interest. 
 
 An English gentleman [one of the commissioners who went 
 up the Nile about the month of February of this year (1879) 
 to carry provisions to the people and to ascertain their con- 
 dition] reported that the number who had died of starvation 
 and as a result of the want of sufficient food was not less than 
 ten thousand, and that many more would be added to this 
 number in consequence of diseases contracted by their priva- 
 tions and sufferings. He added that all this was the direct 
 result of poverty arising from over-taxation. The scenes wit- 
 nessed by the first travelers who ascended the Nile that winter 
 were appalling. 
 
 For this famine and all its ghastly work, the English and 
 French Governments were directly responsible, and this after 
 having been previously informed of the conditions of the country 
 and the approaching want of food supplies. The famine oc- 
 curred in Upper Egypt, the nearest section of the stricken 
 
Dethronement of Ismail Pasha 249 
 
 region being three hundred and fifty miles above Cairo. They 
 were the most densely populated rural districts in the country. 
 Their extreme northern portions had a population of from one 
 hundred to one hundred and seventeen persons for each one 
 hundred acres of land, and the remainder a population of one 
 hundred and seventy-nine persons to each one hundred acres. 
 
 In April, 1878^ the question of the payment of the May 
 coupons on the bonded indebtedness was under consideration. 
 It was well known that large portions of these districts were 
 as dry as the desert, and that no crops had been produced upon 
 them in consequence of the unprecedentedly low Nile of the 
 previous year. Wheat was then one of the principal products 
 of this part of Egypt. It is one of the winter crops and is gen- 
 erally produced by the natural overflow of the river. 
 
 The famine did not occur till about the beginning of the year 
 1879, though the low Nile was in 1877. It was so low in the 
 summer and fall of that year that no crops were produced the 
 next winter in large portions of Upper Egypt. Where there 
 were crops, they were sold to pay taxes and exported. The 
 earliest crop following the rise of the Nile in the summer of 
 1878 was a kind of bean that was not sufficiently advanced 
 until about the month of February, 1879, to give any relief. 
 It was during a few weeks previous to this time that the famine 
 occurred. Those who actually died of starvation were mostly 
 old or feeble people and women and children. It was a poverty 
 famine like all others of the present day. With modern facilities 
 of communication and transportation, there is always an abund- 
 ance of food that can be obtained by those having the means 
 necessary for its purchase. 
 
 There was not sufficient money in the treasury to pay the 
 May coupons of 1878, that I have mentioned, the deficiency 
 being about $6,000,000. The Khedive said these coupons could 
 not be paid in full. The French Consul-General, acting under 
 
250 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 instructions from his Government, and seconded by the English 
 Consul-General, also acting under instructions, but against his 
 personal judgment and wishes, demanded their payment. The 
 matter had been well considered. The facts were notorious, and 
 had been reported to these Governments. The Khedive even 
 begged the Consuls-General not to insist, calling renewed at- 
 tention to the inability of the people to pay their taxes and the 
 destitution that would necessarily result from such a drain upon 
 their resources. The answer of the French Consul-General was, 
 "You must pay." 
 
 The English Consul-General reported to his Government, 
 that, as the English and French Governments required that 
 the coupons should be paid, the Khedive said he would do all 
 that lay in his power to meet them, at whatever cost to the 
 country; but that the responsibility for the consequences would 
 not rest with him. The fiat went forth to raise the money. The 
 tax collectors used extraordinary methods, but, after the last 
 piaster that could be forced from the poor fellahin had been ob- 
 tained, there was still a deficiency of over $2,000,000. This was 
 raised by the sale by the Government of the taxpayers' un- 
 harvested wheat, then still green in the fields, and by pledging 
 the personal property of the Princes, the sons of the Khedive. 
 
 The coupons were paid the day that they became due, and 
 the wheat was afterwards exported to Europe to reimburse 
 the money advanced. A score of men at Paris, who received 
 early private information of the effect of the French Consul- 
 General's declaration to the Khedive, made fortunes by the 
 rise of Egyptian bonds. The result for Egypt was the famine 
 of the following winter. Not enough was reahzed from the sale 
 of the wheat to pay the deficit. After various payments, a 
 judgment was finally taken against the Princes for the balance, 
 about $120,000. 
 
 A little before this, the expense of maintaining an army in 
 
Dethronement of Ismail Pasha 251 
 
 Turkey had been added to the burdens of the country. The 
 Khedive was required to send a body of troops to take part 
 against Russia in the Turco-Russian war. His Highness hesi- 
 tated a long time, even after the troops were ready to embark, 
 and only sent them forward under the diplomatic pressure of 
 England. Monsieur de Lex, the Russian Consul-General in 
 Egypt, who at the time gave the writer full information as to 
 the negotiations, tried in vain to induce the Khedive to with- 
 hold them. 
 
 In the end, the Khedive did not dare to disobey the demands 
 of the Sultan, supported by England. About thirty thousand 
 troops, including those that had been previously sent to aid 
 against Servia, were clothed, equipped, sent across the Medi- 
 terranean and maintained in Turkey about a year. They came 
 back to Egypt just at the time of the demand of the payment 
 of the May coupons of 1878. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the burdens imposed upon the country, 
 and the mistakes, if we forbear using harsher terms, of the 
 bondholders' reign, there was no abandonment of aggressive 
 projects. The French took the lead in a new movement, namely 
 the dethroning of the Khedive. The old enmity caused by the 
 sale of the canal shares to England had latterly been much 
 increased by the constantly augmenting preponderance of Eng- 
 lish influence in the Orient. 
 
 This hostility being thus aroused, nothing less than the blood 
 of the Khedive could satisfy a Frenchman. ^' Une revanche 4cla- 
 tante " was what they publicly demanded at Paris, and what, 
 in their hearts, they had desired from the moment of this sale. 
 They attained their object, but sacrificed thereby all the political 
 influence they had acquired in Egypt by nearly a century's 
 strife. The strong head of the Government being removed, 
 conditions inevitably and quickly followed that made the road 
 easy to English supremacy. 
 
252 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 There is this radical difference between the character of the 
 French and English. The former will sacrifice the future for 
 the gratification of a present desire. The latter weigh carefully 
 all the facts and, before acting, determine what course will be 
 in the end most to their advantage. They can wait and wait, 
 until the opportune moment arrives. 
 
 The acquisition of Cyprus, after the Berlin Congress, and the 
 evident ^^ entente amicale" between England and the Sultan 
 undoubtedly gave to the English, in the mind of the Khedive, 
 a position of power much more to be feared than that of the 
 French. The English were also more practical and knew better 
 how to adapt themselves to the conditions of the country. 
 This, with the more effective aid of their Government, enabled 
 them to secure a large portion of the most lucrative positions 
 in Egypt and to flood the country with English employees. 
 
 The workings of the new Ministry were wholly satisfactory 
 and popular with all classes. No one could find any fault with 
 the Khedive for the manner in w^hich he conducted the Gov- 
 ernment, nor even claim that he was not doing the best that 
 could be done under the circumstances. France, however, under 
 the influence of the bondholders, continued against him, with 
 increased asperity, the newspaper war that she had unjustly 
 waged for three years. When England hesitated, and seemed 
 ready to abandon her, she sounded the Cabinets of all the lead- 
 ing Powers of Europe, asking their moral support. 
 
 At the time of the Berlin Congress of 1878, organized to settle 
 the questions growing out of the Turco-Russian war, England 
 had need of the influence of France. This she obtained by pro- 
 curing the assent of the Powers to the proposition that Egyptian 
 matters should not be discussed and by such promises as led 
 France to believe that her policy in regard to Egypt was to be 
 adopted. It was under the pressure of the questions pending 
 in Berlin that England, against the advice of her Consul-General 
 
Dethronement of Ismail Pasha 253 
 
 and other representative Englishmen in Egypt, aided in en- 
 forcing the full payment of the May coupons of that year. 
 
 But conditions had changed. England no longer had need 
 of France. The preponderance of her influence in Egypt seemed 
 assured. Notwithstanding all that had taken place, the Khedive 
 showed a decided preference for the English. The party of 
 English in Egypt, which was against the Anglo-French Minis- 
 try and which included the Consul-General, was stronger than 
 that Ministry's partisans. Moreover, England disliked to em- 
 bark in this new enterprise in partnership with France. Their 
 alleged cordiality was only an outside appearance. High Eng- 
 lish officials often stated to me that their Government had 
 unwisely allowed itself to be drawn into a disagreeable and 
 complicated alliance. Their ideas of what ought to be done 
 were wholly different from those of the French. They could 
 agree neither upon a general poUcy, nor upon its details. Their 
 jealousies were strong, each thinking that the other had some 
 covert political designs in every movement made. That each 
 did in most cases have such designs was undoubtedly true. 
 
 The financial question became one of secondary importance. 
 This fact made their working together in harmony still more 
 difficult. France thought that she, by virtue of the conquests 
 of the first Napoleon, had in Egypt prior acquired rights of the 
 fruits of which she had been deprived by the English. England 
 was there, if not at that time with the intention of remaining, 
 at least with the design of preventing France from obtaining 
 any permanent foothold. The motive of the present movement 
 on the part of the French was also to a large degree hatred of 
 the Khedive. England, who really had no cause of complaint, 
 remained undecided. She was considering the final results. 
 France was acting from impulse. England knew from ex- 
 perience that the dethroning of a strong, capable prince, and 
 the setting up in his place of a young, inexperienced man, meant 
 
2 54 ■'^SyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 the assumption of the Government. Such a responsibility she 
 would not hesitate to take upon herself; but how could this 
 dual government, this partnership \sith France in the governing 
 business, be managed? 
 
 By reason of these considerations and the satisfactory work- 
 ing of the Government in Egypt, the balance seemed turning 
 in favor of the Khedive, when, suddenly, a new element en- 
 tered into the contest from a wholly unexpected source. It 
 was nothing less than an apparent alliance on the pending 
 Egj'ptian question between Prince Bismarck and France. Al- 
 though nothing at the time could be more surprising, it was 
 not difficult for one who had watched and been acquainted with 
 diplomatic affairs at Cairo for the preceding two years to com- 
 prehend some of the causes that had led to this imexpected 
 event. 
 
 Germany had heretofore played a very modest role in the 
 affairs of the Orient, having, in comparison with England and 
 France, very Uttle influence. She was, however, interested in 
 the floating debt of Egypt to the amount of S750,000. Austria 
 was in a similar situation. 
 
 The Consuls-General of these countries complained that 
 while the Khedive heeded the demands of the Consuls-General 
 of England and France, he paid no attention to theirs. They 
 frequently said that there were only two Consuls-General in 
 EgA-pt, those of England and France, and that the others might 
 as well go home. Bismarck was offended at this secondary 
 position of Germany and saw his opportunity to make his in- 
 fluence felt and to obtain a position in Eg^-pt more in accord- 
 ance with the dignity of the new empire he had lately founded. 
 The facts were that all the resources of the countrv, including 
 the estates of the Khedi^ial family, were in the hands of the 
 European comptrollers, and were applied by them to the pay- 
 ment of the interest on the bonded indebtedness. The European 
 
Dethronement of Ismail Pasha 255 
 
 Ministry had not kept the promise it made to the Khedive, at 
 the time he turned over his private estates, to pay the floating 
 debt. This debt was constantly increasing, and the Khedive 
 could do nothing to relieve this embarrassing situation so long 
 as the bondholders were permitted to absorb all the revenues. 
 
 WTiether the attitude of Germany had any influence upon 
 England we do not know. However that may be, as soon as 
 she was informed of the policy of the Kaiser's Government, she 
 consented to the French scheme of deposing the Khedive. 
 
 Thus, from her avowed and most dreaded enemy, France 
 obtained what was then considered valuable aid in an under- 
 taking to which she attached the greatest importance, and for 
 the accomplishment of which she had persistently labored with 
 all her force. Deservedly, this success was not only the cause 
 of her loss of power in Egypt, but it led to an estrangement be- 
 tween her and England which lasted through two decades. 
 Once England decided to act, the dethronement of the Khedive 
 was easy to accomphsh. The only important question was the 
 manner in which it should be done. 
 
 About the middle of June, the English representative, Mr. 
 Vivian, orally, and as was then claimed, unofficially, advised 
 the Khedive to abdicate and immediately afterwards left Egypt 
 not to return. Soon afterwards. Monsieur Tricou, a newly 
 arrived French Consul-General, who seemed to have been sent 
 for the special work in hand, gave in his discourteous manner 
 the same advice. 
 
 Monsieur Tricou had previously represented France in Egypt 
 and had been recalled at the instance of the Khedive. His 
 return at this time was a direct insult to his Highness and plainly 
 showed the animus of those having control of the French Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 The day following the verbal communication, Monsieur 
 Tricou and Mr. Lascelles, the English charge d'affaires, read to 
 
256 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 his Highness a joint official note of the same import. During 
 the day and previous to the presentation of the note, I had an 
 interview with the Khedive at his palace. He appeared de- 
 jected, and there was an absence of the vivacity that generally 
 characterized his interviews, even at the time of his most serious 
 troubles. He talked freely of the situation, but expressed no 
 opinion as to its probable outcome. He was already advised 
 of the official note that was to be presented asking him to abdi- 
 cate, but he did not then expect its presentation till the next 
 day. In a conversation the same day with Cherif Pasha I found 
 him full of hope as to the final result. 
 
 The Khedive was given forty-eight hours in which to answer 
 the demands of the Powers. When the Consuls-General called, 
 at the expiration of this time, he informed them that he had 
 telegraphed to Constantinople for instructions from the Sultan, 
 that he had not yet received a reply and that, when it came, he 
 would have to trouble them to come to receive his answer. 
 He said he had received his authority from the Sultan and could 
 not relieve himself of the responsibilities of the Government 
 without his Majesty's orders. The French Consul-General was 
 much irritated at the unexpected response, and, in his usual 
 manner, said, ''How long has your Highness been the humble 
 servant of the Porte?" "Since my birth. Monsieur," was the 
 quick reply of the Khedive. 
 
 The Powers were very anxious to have the Khedive abdicate 
 voluntarily in order to avoid contracting any obligations to 
 the Sultan. The French Consul-General continued to urge the 
 abdication, and, the conversation becoming animated, he ac- 
 cused the Khedive of frequently disobeying the Sultan. ''I 
 defy you to name an instance" retorted the Khedive. Monsieur 
 Tricou being unable to answer, Mr. Lascelles came to his rescue 
 by politely asking the Khedive if it would not be better in this 
 instance, to act on his own responsibility? To this, the Khedive 
 
Dethronement of Ismail Pasha 257 
 
 replied in the most courteous manner, '' My dear sir, as the first 
 use you desire me to make of my independence of the Sultan is 
 to relinquish the authority he has given me, I do not see what 
 I am to gain," 
 
 All possible pressure was employed to obtain the abdication 
 of the Khedive without waiting for the decision of the Sultan. 
 Promises were made of a civil list, certain private property and 
 the accession of his son Mehemet Tewfik, in case of his ac- 
 quiescence, and threats of being succeeded by Halim Pasha 
 and sent away without anything, in case he did not ac- 
 quiesce. 
 
 Afterwards, the French and German Consuls-General went 
 to the palace and had the Khedive called at three o'clock in 
 the morning, thereby causing great terror of assassination in 
 the harem. They informed him that they had come to give him 
 the last opportunity of abdicating in favor of his son; that, in 
 a few hours, Halim would be appointed Khedive, and it would 
 then be too late. The Khedive coolly said: " There will be plenty 
 of time to abdicate, I will see you to-morrow. Good night. 
 Gentlemen," and went back to his rooms. 
 
 Prince Halim was the red flag that was for years flaunted by 
 the French in the face of the Khedive whenever he refused to 
 accede to their demands. When Napoleon III was the all- 
 powerful monarch in Europe, the Khedive trembled at the sim- 
 ple announcement of a visit from the French Consul-General. 
 ^'What does he want now?" the Khedive would say, or ^'He 
 has come to insist on the demand he made yesterday." 
 
 Halim was the uncle of the Khedive and, on the latter's 
 death or abdication, would have been, according to Moham- 
 medan law, entitled to the succession, being the oldest male 
 descendant of Mohammed Ali. In 1866, the Khedive had pro- 
 cured a firman from the Sultan, Abdul Aziz, changing the order 
 of succession, so that the Viceroyalty should descend from 
 
258 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 father to son instead of going to the oldest male member of the 
 reigning family. 
 
 A large party of influential Moslems, composed mostly of 
 people living in Constantinople, were opposed to this change. 
 Halim resided in that city and, on the accession of the new 
 Sultan, Abdul Hamid, there were constant intrigues against the 
 Khedive and attempts to restore the old order of succession. To 
 counteract this influence, he was obliged to send large sums of 
 money to Constantinople, in addition to the annual tribute, 
 which had been increased to three million four hundred thou- 
 sand dollars on account of various concessions, among which 
 was the title of Khedive, a dignity not enjoyed by his prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 These conditions account for his dread of having the influence 
 of any powerful European Government thrown into the balance 
 against him. They also account for the anxiety of the repre- 
 sentatives of the Powers to have the Khedive abdicate in favor 
 of his son. They feared that Halim might be too independent 
 or too much under the influence of the Sultan, and that the 
 Sultan might attempt, if they relied upon his action, to profit 
 by the occasion to regain prerogatives that had been bartered 
 away by his predecessor. This last was precisely what did 
 happen. It was only the positive and firm refusal of England 
 and France to yield that prevented the success of the Sultan's 
 attempt and secured to Tewfik Pasha the continuance of the 
 privileges that had been granted to his father, so far as they 
 were thought essential. This was only securing privileges for 
 themselves, however, as Tewfik, whom they were setting on the 
 throne, had no voice in the negotiations, and was afterwards 
 compelled to do their bidding. 
 
 At an early stage in the negotiations, before the question of 
 abdication had been broached to Ismail, the Sultan had been 
 consulted. His Majesty had expressed a willingness to make 
 
Dethronement of Ismail Pasha 259 
 
 Halim Khedive, but he consented to the appointment of Tewfik 
 only under the strong pressure of England. 
 
 The day following the midnight visit of the French and 
 German Consuls-General to the Khedive, attempts to procure 
 his voluntary abdication were continued, based on information 
 claimed to have been received from Constantinople, that the 
 Sultan was about to designate Halim as his successor. Offers 
 were made of written guarantees of what had been promised, 
 but the Khedive said firmly that he would only resign his power 
 into the hands of the Sultan, or by his order. 
 
 During these scenes at Cairo the Ambassadors of England 
 and France were busy at Constantinople. 
 
 In 1831, Mohammed Ali commenced a war against the Porte 
 to secure his independence. In the following year, his armies, 
 under the command of his adopted son, Ibrahim, the father of 
 Ismail, conquered Syria. The intervention of the Powers pre- 
 vented him from besieging Constantinople, but, under the 
 treaty which followed, he retained the government of Syria. In 
 1839, England induced the Sultan to renew hostilities. The 
 Sultan suffered a decisive defeat, but England, assisted by 
 Austria, came to his support and arrested the victorious march 
 of the forces of Mohammed Ali. They also compelled him to 
 give up Syria, which had welcomed his coming and been satis- 
 fied with his reign and they restored this unhappy country, 
 against its will, to the rule of the Turk. They also compelled 
 him to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Sultan and pay to 
 him an annual tribute amounting to one and a half million 
 dollars. This action of England in replacing Egypt under the 
 suzerainty of the Sultan has cost that country two hundred 
 million dollars. 
 
 It has always been the policy of England to sustain Turkey 
 as a bulwark against Russia. However cruel the Turk, he could 
 always count on England's support whenever the integrity of 
 
2 6o Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 his empire was endangered. Under the treaties, the Sultan 
 could not remove the Khedive without the consent of the Powers 
 that joined in the treaty compelling Mohammed Ali to accept 
 for himself and his successors the sovereignty of Turkey. 
 
 When information came from Cairo that there were no hopes 
 of the Khedive's voluntary abdication, the Sultan was much 
 gratified to be able, on the invitation of the Powers, to exercise 
 his prerogative of sovereignty in changing the ruler of Egypt. 
 This privilege had been denied to him and his predecessors since 
 the time that Mohammed Ali proclaimed his independence. He 
 was the more willing and even pleased to do this, as he had 
 never been friendly to the Khedive. This was for the reason, 
 probably, that since the accession of his Sublime Majesty to 
 the throne of the Khalifs in 1876, the exchequer of Egypt had 
 not been such as to enable the Khedive to send to Constantinople 
 such large sums as the Sultan, Abdul Aziz, and the members of 
 his court were accustomed to receive. 
 
 In the forenoon of the twenty-sixth of June, a telegram came 
 to the palace at Cairo addressed to "His Highness, Ismail 
 Pasha, ex-Khedive of Egypt." In the excitement of the crisis, 
 an unusual number of persons were in the rooms of the Master 
 of Ceremonies, many of whom were waiting in the hope of ob- 
 taining an interview with the Khedive. 
 
 In olden times, the bearer of bad news to an Eastern potentate 
 often forfeited his life. According to Herodotus, Xerxes said 
 to Pythius, the Lydian, " Learn this well, that the spirit of man 
 dwells in his ears which, when he hears pleasing things, fills the 
 whole body with delight, but when he hears the contrary swells 
 with indignation." ^ 
 
 Prejudice against communicating unpleasant information is 
 still strong in the East. The Master of Ceremonies, Zekieh 
 Pasha, read the address upon the despatch and quickly dropped 
 
 1 Her. VII, 39. 
 
Dethronement of Ismail Pasha 261 
 
 it upon the table. Neither he nor his assistant, Tonino Bey, 
 nor any other of the palace officials would venture to take the 
 fatal message upstairs to his Highness. Fortunately, at this 
 moment, Cherif Pasha entered. He was too much of a man to 
 be influenced by any narrow prejudice or superstitious ideas 
 and immediately took the message to the Khedive. His High- 
 ness is said to have opened and read it without any visible change 
 of countenance. It was as follows: ^ 
 
 "The Grand Vizier of Turkey to Ismail Pasha, ex-Khedive of Egypt: 
 
 "The difficulties of Egypt both internal and external have assumed great 
 importance, and the prolongation of the present state of affairs would be 
 dangerous both to Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. 
 
 " It is one of the most important duties of the Imperial Government to find 
 means of maintaining the tranquillity and assuring the well-being of the 
 people, and the stipulations of the Imperial Firmans have been drawn with 
 that object. It is evident that your remaining in the position of Khedive 
 can have no other result than to increase and aggravate the present difficulties. 
 
 "Consequently, his Imperial Majesty, the Sultan, following a decision of 
 his Council of Ministers, has decided to appoint, to the position of Khedive, 
 his Excellency, Mehemet Tewfik Pasha, and an Imperial decree to this effect 
 has been made. 
 
 "This important decision is communicated to his Excellency by another 
 despatch, and I ask you to withdraw from the affairs of the Government in 
 conformity to the order of his Imperial Majesty, the Sultan. 
 
 "The 6 Redjeb, 1296 (26 June, 1879)." 
 
 His Highness had till this moment relied upon the support 
 of the Sultan and, when he had finished reading the despatch, 
 he is said to have exclaimed, ''That is what I receive for having 
 sent during my reign £20,000,000 ($100,000,000) to Constanti- 
 nople." He then quietly folded the despatch, saying, ''Send 
 for Tewfik immediately." Cherif quickly descended the stairs 
 to a side door and, instead of sending for Tewfik, entered his 
 carriage and went for him himself. 
 
 Tewfik was then residing at the palace Isma'iliyeh, near the 
 
 ^ Translation from the Turkish. 
 
262 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 Nile Bridge, half a mile distant from Abdin. Here was hope, 
 perhaps expectation, on the part of a young man of twenty-six 
 years, who was as yet living with his family, quietly, without 
 ostentation, and who bore himself with a modesty bordering on 
 diffidence. 
 
 At the time of sending the despatch from Constantinople to 
 Ismail Pasha, another was sent to Tewfik informing him of his 
 appointment to the position of Khedive and ordering him to 
 assume the direction of the Government. There was neither 
 hesitation nor delay in the delivery of this despatch. The hope 
 of reward stimulated the fortunate bearer of such welcome 
 tidings. 
 
 It is said that the native telegraph operator who at night 
 awaited the expected telegram announcing the death of Said 
 Pasha, in 1863, and took it to Ismail his successor, was rewarded 
 by immediate promotion, which was followed by others, until 
 be became a Pasha. 
 
 On Cherif's arrival at the palace of Tewfik, he found him 
 ready to enter his waiting carriage and about to drive to Abdin. 
 Cherif took a seat by his side and, as they drove out of the palace 
 gate, Tewfik handed him the despatch, which he read as the 
 carriage rolled hurriedly toward Abdin. It was as follows: ^ 
 
 "Grand Vizier of Turkey to Mehemet Tewfik Pasha: 
 
 "The firm desire of his Majesty, the Sultan, is to secure the means of progress 
 and tranquillity in Egypt which is an integrant part of the Empire, and the 
 privileges which have been granted to the Government of this province suffi- 
 ciently prove this supremely good intention. But, for some time, interior and 
 exterior difficulties have arisen in this province which necessitate the removal 
 of your august father Ismail Pasha. 
 
 "Your capacity and intelligence, tried and recognized by his Majesty, the 
 Sultan, gives promise that you will be able to properly govern this province 
 and to re-establish peace and tranquillity in conformity to the high and august 
 desire of his Majesty, the Sultan. Consequently his Imperial Majesty has, by 
 
 ^ Translation. 
 
Tewfik Pasha. 
 
^ 
 
Dethronement of Ismail Pasha 263 
 
 an Imperial decree, appointed you Khedive of Egypt, and the Imperial firman 
 will be delivered to you with the usual ceremony. 
 
 '' Ismail Pasha is invited by another despatch to retire from the affairs of 
 the Government. Consequently, on receiving this despatch, you will assemble 
 all the Ulemas, the functionaries, the notables of the country, and the employ- 
 ees of the Government, communicate to them the stipulations of the Imperial 
 decree concerning your appointment and commence the direction of the affairs 
 of the Government. 
 
 "This high and just appointment is a recompense for your capacities, and 
 your accession will be the commencement of order and progress which will 
 reign in the country, whose Government you are called to administer. 
 
 " I wish you great success, and I felicitate you on your accession." 
 
 "The 6Redjeb, 1296." 
 
 In returning the despatch, Cherif said, "Your Highness will 
 take measures to be proclaimed Khedive at the Citadel this 
 afternoon?" Tewfik assented. 
 
 The carriage quickly arrived at the grand entrance of Abdin. 
 They mounted in a moment the palatial stairway and were met 
 by Ismail at the entrance of the reception room. His Highness 
 took the hand of his son, raised it to his lips, according to the 
 Oriental custom of familiar homage and said, "I salute you as 
 my Effendina" (Lord), as the Khedive is usually styled among 
 the natives. He then kissed him on both cheeks and added, 
 '*I hope you will not forget that I am your father," after which 
 he retired immediately to his private apartments. 
 
 Thus, suddenly, all the responsibilities of the Government 
 of Egypt and the Sudan from the Mediterranean to the lakes of 
 Albert and Victoria Nyanza fell upon this young prince, and he 
 became the absolute ruler of over ten million people, to whom 
 his word was law. The Mahdi was soon to relieve him of the 
 responsibility of the Sudan and Central Africa, and England 
 and France were to assume the principal share of the Govern- 
 ment of Egypt, but his cares and burdens were to be increased 
 rather than lessened therebv. 
 
264 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE INSTALLATION OF TEWFIK PASHA AND THE DEPARTURE OF 
 
 ISMAIL 
 
 The members of the Ministry were soon afterwards assembled 
 at the palace. Ismail Pasha appeared before them and formally 
 consented to the accession of his son to the throne of Egypt. 
 Official notices of the change of ruler were immediately sent to 
 the diplomatic representatives, accompanied with an invitation 
 to meet his Highness, Tewfik Pasha, that afternoon at his palace, 
 Isma'iliyeh, and accompany him to the Citadel for the cere- 
 mony of his proclamation as Khedive. 
 
 At the appointed hour, we were at the palace and were re- 
 ceived by his Highness. All were in dress imiforms, except the 
 representative of the United States. He was compelled to ap- 
 pear on this, as on other official occasions, in a plain dress-suit. 
 The lack of knowledge on the part of the members of Congress 
 of the customs of other countries and their desire to force their 
 Brother Jonathan ideas upon the whole world induced them, a 
 few years ago, to deny to their foreign representatives the 
 privilege of wearing uniforms according to the universal diplo- 
 matic custom. 
 
 We were joined at the palace by such judges of the New 
 Tribunal, or International Court, as were in Cairo. They were 
 in their official dress, which consisted of the red tarboosh; the 
 stamboul (a single breasted black coat with standing collar); 
 a broad scarlet scarf, with gold tassels at its ends, which passed 
 
Installation of Tewfik Pasha 265 
 
 over the left shoulder and was attached at the waist on the right 
 side; and a large chest plaque, upon which was engraved in 
 relief the rising sun and in Arabic, in black enamel, the words 
 ''Justice is the foundation of all good government." The new 
 Khedive, his brothers (Princes Hussein and Hassan), the mem- 
 bers of the Ministry and the other court officials and high officers, 
 all wore brilliant uniforms. The Ulemas (Doctors of Law), 
 native judges and other notables were in their flowing native 
 costumes. 
 
 The Khedive left the palace in a calash with his two brothers 
 and Cherif Pasha. Then followed the carriages of the Consuls- 
 General, the Judges and a long procession of Europeans and a 
 few natives. The Citadel was over two miles distant, on a high 
 point at the southeastern extremity of the city, which is a spur 
 of the Mokattam Hills. Companies of cavalry were stationed 
 on either side of the street leading from the palace, and, for 
 a considerable distance before arriving at the Citadel, there 
 were soldiers arranged in the same manner. 
 
 Information of the change of Government was not given to 
 the public until two o'clock that afternoon. The news spread 
 rapidly, and the crowd became so great near the end of our 
 route that it was with difficulty that the soldiers could keep 
 the passage clear. As we slowly mounted the high hill by a 
 narrow passage with massive walls on either side, one hundred 
 and one guns were fired from the overlooking parapets, announc- 
 ing to the people the entry upon his reign of a new Khedive, 
 and the sad termination of the reign of Ismail Pasha which had 
 had such a brilliant beginning a Uttle over sixteen years before. 
 
 As we reached the summit, turning back we saw the city 
 spread out before us with its numerous gardens, its flat roofs, 
 its extensive cemeoeilt^s, its historic, domed tombs of Mamelukes, 
 Sultans, Khalifs, Pashas and Beys, its numerous mosques with 
 their domes and minarets. It was a unique and most delightful 
 
2 66 l^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 picture, covering a space very much more extensive than a city 
 of half a million inhabitants would be expected to cover. On 
 the west was the thread of the Nile and beyond the green fields, 
 and, at the other side of the valley, the pyramids and the moun- 
 tains of the Lybian desert. In front of us were the mosques 
 and palaces of the Citadel for which the yellow deserts of the 
 Mokattam Hills served as a background. 
 
 The Citadel was built by Saladin (MeUk Yusuf Salaheddin), 
 the founder of a dynasty of Kurds in Egypt, in 1166, of stone 
 taken from the small pyramids of Gizeh. It is of Httle impor- 
 tance at the present day, in a military point of view, except as a 
 temporary defense against any sudden revolt of the people of 
 the city. An old, narrow passage with high walls on either side 
 leads up to it. This passage was the scene of the horrid tragedies 
 on the first day of March, 1811, in which over four hundred 
 Mamelukes were slaughtered by the soldiers of Mohammed Ali, 
 leaving him the sole ruler of Egypt. 
 
 The Mamelukes were originally slaves, as the name implies, 
 trained as soldiers and forming the bodyguards of the Sultans. 
 In 1250, they usurped the throne of Egypt, established a dynasty, 
 and, with various changes, ruled the country for two hundred 
 and fifty years. Those who had previously been slaves fre- 
 quently became Sultans. In 1517, the Turks conquered the 
 country and reduced the Mameluke Beys to the condition of 
 petty princes. The Beys were made governors of the provinces, 
 but Pashas to whom the Beys promised allegiance were sent to 
 govern the country at large. The Pashas' authority, however, 
 soon became little more than nominal, since the Beys, although 
 paying them tribute, had absolute control of the provinces. 
 The Beys sometimes rebelled and became almost independent 
 of the Ottoman Government. 
 
 This was the condition of the country when Mohammed Ali 
 became its governor, or the ruling Pasha. The Mameluke Beys 
 
Installation of Tewfik Pasha 267 
 
 formed an aristocracy that in reality controlled the Government, 
 the Turkish authority being only nominal. Mohammed AH 
 found that he could do nothing without their consent. Tired 
 of this restraint, he conceived the idea of their utter extermina- 
 tion, and, having made preliminary arrangements to this end, 
 he invited all the Mamelukes in Egypt to a grand reception at 
 his palace in the Citadel. 
 
 The invitation of a ruler is always considered a command, and 
 the Mamelukes, having no suspicion of his designs, willingly 
 obeyed. When the reception was finished, he invited them to 
 join in a procession and march through the city. To this they 
 readily assented. Mounted on their richly caparisoned Arab 
 steeds they would make an imposing spectacle, not only delight- 
 ing the people, but inspiring in them an awe of the power of the 
 combined force of the Mameluke princes. 
 
 When they had all entered the narrow passage, with files of 
 the Pasha's soldiers arranged as a guard of honor on either side, 
 the Pasha caused the great gates behind them as well as those at 
 the foot of the hill to be closed, thus shutting them in between 
 high walls. The order was given, the troops fell upon them, and 
 the whole number, variously stated at from four to nearly five 
 hundred, were slain. Only one escaped, and he, because he 
 arrived at the Citadel too late to enter before the lower gate was 
 closed. He heard the noise within and on his fleet horse made 
 his escape into Syria. By a single stroke, the most success- 
 ful couj) d'etat in history, a numerous aristocracy that had 
 governed the country for over five centuries were exterminated. 
 Thus was founded the power of Mohammed Ali, the son of a 
 Turkish tobacconist of Kavala Roumelia, who was then forty- 
 three years old. He is often called the great-grandfather of 
 Tewfik, whom we were about to see proclaimed as Khedive. 
 In fact, neither Ismail nor his son were descendants of Mo- 
 hammed Ali. Ismail's father, Ibrahim Pasha, a great general. 
 
2 6S '^'gyp^ ^^^^^' ^^^"^ Betray ill 
 
 wlu> siu'ctvHltHl MoliHiunuHl All as nilor of l*'j!;y[>t, was only his 
 nil(>i>(tHl soi\. Ilo was the real son i>f owe of (ho wives of 
 MohatnnuHl Ali bv a previous husband and was born in 
 
 'rurkt\Y. 
 
 The Citadt^l is sulliciontly larj:;e to contain a small town, and 
 thtM'o an* in i( st^NtM-al very old niosi|ues and a very large palace, 
 useti wluMi 1 was lirst in l'4!;yi>( for ollices of the l)e[)artnient of 
 War. Tho palact^ built by Mohanuned Ali was of modest size 
 and usi\l [principally for ceremonial receptions, and it was to 
 this that our proc(\ssion was directeil. 
 
 Thert* was io be a nu^re formal ceremony on the arrival of 
 the tirnian. This one. thtM(4\He, was short, consistinji; merely 
 of tlu* rcvulini;- of the Imperial messai];e before the Ministei*s, the 
 lUemas, hiiijh functionaries, notables and em[)loyees of the Gov- 
 ernment, and a reception o( {\\c {>rincipal personages in the 
 country, foreign and native. 
 
 Tlu* ni[>lomatic and Consular Corps W'ere received first. The 
 young Khedive, his brothers and the Ministers were seated in a 
 large reception room. As we entered, his Highness arose and 
 came fc>rward io meet us. 
 
 The Poyen of the Piplomatic Corps made a short compli- 
 n\entary speech in IVench. in behalf of himself and his colleagues, 
 and the Khedive replied in the same language. We were seated, 
 smoked the chibuk, drank cotYee. had a short conversation and 
 took our leave. The Judges were ne\t presented, and then 
 various civil, religious and military IxHlies otTered their homage 
 to their new sovereign, many humbly prostrating themselves in 
 his presence. None were seated nor served with cotYee and pipes 
 except the diplomatic representatives. 
 
 Puring this time Ismail was at his palace, Abdin. 1 went 
 directly from the Citadel to visit him, being probably the only 
 Consnl-General who did so. My position of friendliness during 
 his llighness's troubles permitted me to do what could not con- 
 
Installation of I'cwfik Pasha 269 
 
 sistently he done by other ConsuLs-Gerieral representing Great 
 PowerH, except the representative of Russia. 
 
 His Highness talked freely of the situation, and said he should 
 embark on the next Sunday or Monday and go directly to Con- 
 stantinople, where he expected to pass the rest of his days. 
 Knowing of his education in France arjd his love of European 
 civilization, I ventured the suggestion that some European 
 country other than Turkey njight be more agreeaVjle. "Yes," 
 he replied, "perhaps for me personally, but for my family, with 
 our customs, this would be disagreeable, impossible." On tak- 
 ing leave of his Highness, on previous visits, he had accompanied 
 me only to the door of the reception room. On this occasion 
 he accompanied me, while constantly talking, along the hall to 
 the head of the stairs, and started to descend with me before I 
 perceived his object. I did not permit him to go farther, and, 
 as a response to my dLssent, he said as we shook hmnds and 
 separated, "I am no longer Khedive." He had a delicate ap- 
 preciation of the forrrjs of etiquette, and by accompanying me 
 he wished to renounce all claims arising from his former sov- 
 ereignty. 
 
 Two days later, .Saturday, I again visited his Highness, and 
 he informed me that the Sultan ?iad refused him permission to 
 come to Constantinople. He was much disappointed, but stated 
 that he should leave Cairo on Monday morning and Alexandria 
 the evening of the same day. Within twenty-four hours after 
 the abdication, the French CorLSul-General called on him to 
 inquire when he was to leave, making as an excuse ttiat he wished 
 to give orders to the French war-vessels at Alexandria to render 
 him, on his departure, such honors as were due to a sovereign. 
 
 On Saturday afternoon, fearing that there might be some 
 delay, he called again with the acting English Consul-General, 
 both on the young Khedive and his father and insisted on the 
 atter'fi leaving immediately. The two Powers also required the 
 
270 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 Princes, Hussein and Hassan, to leave the country, as they both 
 informed me. Thus the Khedive was required by his Christian 
 guardians to exile, by nearly his first official act, not only his 
 father, but two brothers about his own age against whom no 
 complaints had ever been made. Four days after the abdica- 
 tion, the exiles sailed from Alexandria with their families for 
 an unknown destination. 
 
 There was no exultation in Egypt over the change of Gov- 
 ernment, but only marks of sympathy and respect for the fallen 
 sovereign. Notwithstanding the Oriental custom of abandon- 
 ing the fallen to their disgrace, his palace was thronged, from 
 the day of the abdication, with visitors who came to express 
 their sympathy, and immense crowds of people accompanied 
 him to the station. There, the separation of the family was a 
 sad scene. The young Khedive embraced his father and brothers, 
 and there were tears in the eyes of all beholders. Only the father 
 was able to control his feelings. It was to be his last meeting 
 with the son, to secure whose accession to the throne he had 
 sacrificed large sums in gifts to the Sultan and his court. 
 
 All along the route to Alexandria, there were large numbers 
 of people at the stations, all manifesting feelings of sympathy 
 and respect. At Alexandria, the crowd was so great that it 
 was necessary for the Khedive to go to the ship by an unex- 
 pected route. The war-vessels in the harbor manned the yard- 
 arms and fired the usual royal salute. Large numbers of people 
 went on board the steamer to take leave and were received by 
 his Highness with the utmost cordiahty and calmness. He took 
 leave of one after another by the shaking of the hand, saying a 
 kind word to the more intimate and friendly, and occasionally, 
 according to the habit of Orientals, warmly embracing an old 
 and true friend. I stood some time on the deck talking with the 
 two Princes, and saw some kissing the ex-Khedive's hand and 
 others his garments, while many bowed to him with the greatest 
 
Installation of Tewfik Pasha 271 
 
 reverence. Thus one after another during over two hours took 
 a final farewell of the late Effendina. The hour for sailing ar- 
 rived and the Mahroussa, which had been his Highness's fast 
 and favorite steamer in the height of his power, and was now 
 consigned to take him and his family into exile, moved out of 
 the harbor amid the renewed roar of cannon. 
 
 We soon learned of the exultation in Paris over the diplomatic 
 victory, and the "revanche edatante;" but in Egypt the feeling 
 was only that of a conquered people parting with their sovereign 
 at the dictation of hated foreigners. The French thought to 
 strengthen their waning power in the Orient by this achieve- 
 ment, but they were only preparing the way to lose that which 
 had survived their deplorably bad policy. Through this policy, 
 the bondholders had added to their wealth, but the nation was 
 to suffer not only in prestige, but commercially, in a degree 
 wholly disproportional to what had been gained. 
 
 The Khedive went first to Naples. Stopping in that city a 
 month later, I found his Highness and his family still on the 
 steamer in the harbor, not yet knowing their final destination. 
 Two years afterwards I visited him at the Favorita. This is a 
 royal palace on the Bay of Naples at the foot of Vesuvius, which 
 had been assigned him as a residence by the King of Italy. If 
 public rumor was correct, this favor was only a partial payment 
 of considerable sums of money that had been loaned by the 
 Khedive personally to the King's father, Victor Emmanuel, and 
 which had not been repaid. On this occasion, the Khedive was 
 apparently very much affected by my visit. He embraced me in 
 true Oriental style, kissing me on both cheeks, and, as he stood, 
 still having his hand upon my shoulder, tears started from his 
 eyes. All his warmth of welcome and the cordiality with which 
 he frequently charmed the visitor when he was Khedive has 
 been characterized by his detractors as theatrical, designed to 
 please, mere ''stage play," without any foundation of sincerity 
 
272 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 or real cordiality. That he possessed in a high degree a talent 
 for pleasing is certain, and that he may have used it at times 
 simply for the results produced is not improbable; but from my 
 personal knowledge of his character I believe that he also formed 
 strong friendships, to which he was generally true, until there 
 was at least an apparent reason for a change of sentiment. 
 
 I remained at the palace one or two hours talking of Egyptian 
 affairs, and on my return to Naples, the carriage of the Princes, 
 Hussein and Hassan, followed close after mine to return the 
 visit. 
 
 In the fall of 1881, I breakfasted with the Khedive at Milan 
 and again, in the winter of 1882-83, in Paris. On the latter 
 occasion General Stone, on his return from Egypt after a service 
 of about ten years, was present. The Enghsh had then taken 
 possession of the country and insisted on the General's retire- 
 ment, though the young Khedive preferred to have him remain. 
 
 When I last saw Ismail, at Paris, he had changed his tarboosh 
 for a tall, silk hat and had the appearance of a European. He 
 resided at the Favorita until 1888, when he was permitted to 
 make Constantinople his home. In so doing, he became virtually 
 a prisoner of the Sultan, Abdul Hamid, his old enemy. He 
 could thereafter leave that city only by his Majesty's special 
 permission and was even a part of the time confined in his 
 palace. A short while before his death, having long been in 
 poor health and knowing he had but a short time to live, he 
 made an effort to obtain permission to return to Egypt, desiring 
 to spend his last days in its genial climate and die in his own 
 country. This boon was refused by those who ruled its destinies. 
 After his death, which occurred in March, 1895, they did per- 
 mit his body to be taken to Cairo and placed in the mausoleum 
 of the Khedivial family. Thus, the principal actor in the 
 Egyptian drama of 1875 to 1879 disappeared. His two sons, 
 Tewfik and Hassan, Cherif Pasha, Lord Vivian and others had 
 
Installation of Tewfik Pasha 273 
 
 preceded him. The leading Americans who were in the service 
 of the Khedive (Generals Stone and Loring, Colonels Colston, 
 Field and many others) have also disappeared. The same may 
 be said of the prominent Americans who visited the land of the 
 Nile in that period, and who were kindly received by Ismail: 
 Grant, Sherman, Washburn, Maynard and Noyes. 
 
2 74 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 ISMAIL PASHA AND HIS REIGN 
 
 There are different opinions as to the merits and demerits 
 of the reign of Ismail Pasha, according to the sources of in- 
 formation and the standard by which he is judged. Few per- 
 sons were ever so excessively extolled at first and afterwards so 
 shamefully traduced. Until he became financially embarrassed, 
 not only the persons with whom he was immediately surrounded, 
 but European journals of all classes and persons in high positions 
 indulged in the most extravagant praises of the marvelous de- 
 velopment of Egypt and its rapid advancement under its en- 
 lightened and progressive ruler, the "Napoleon of the Orient." 
 
 On his visit to Europe he was received as a royal guest and 
 lodged in royal palaces at Florence, Vienna, Berlin, Paris and 
 London. Emperors, kings, queens and princes vied with each 
 other in bestowing upon him royal honors. In 1867, Queen 
 Victoria conferred upon him the Grand Cross of the Bath and, 
 in 1868, the Grand Cross of the Star of India, and Lord Napier 
 was sent to Cairo to invest his Highness with this latter high 
 decoration. When the financial conditions changed, his news- 
 paper adulators, without any consideration of the causes, turned 
 upon him their batteries of slander and vituperation. 
 
 The things he had done for the advancement of education, 
 for modern civilization and for the material improvement of his 
 country, which had before elicited such unstinted eulogies, 
 were then attributed to selfish motives. He had done them 
 
Ismail Pasha and His Reign 275 
 
 either to enrich himself, or, to use the language of his detractors, 
 'Ho throw dust in the eyes of Europeans." All that had previ- 
 ously been worthy of the highest praise was then only evidence 
 of selfishness, deceit, low cunning, or other base sentiments. 
 
 Most of the writers of the history of the period are English. 
 Many of these have written with a semblance of fairness. They 
 are, however, constantly searching for an excuse for being in 
 Egypt, and find no other than that of the claim of the bad 
 administration of Ismail Pasha. It is not my purpose to under- 
 take a defense of his Government. It would be difficult, with 
 our ideas of what constitutes good government, to justify the 
 acts of any Oriental prince. 
 
 If England and France had desired to depose the Emir of 
 Afghanistan, the Shah of Persia, or the Sultan, they would have 
 had no difficulty in finding a pretext of bad government and 
 establishing the fact to the entire satisfaction of the whole 
 civilized world. What I do wish to say is, that of all these 
 governments, that of the Khedive was decidedly the best. 
 The people were governed arbitrarily, and what we should term 
 harshly, as in all Oriental countries. There are few prisons and, 
 in the larger number of cases, the koorbash and the bastinado 
 took the place of confinement. 
 
 But there were no riots, no periodic slaughtering of Christians, 
 as throughout the whole of the rest of the Ottoman Empire. 
 These slaughtered Christians are numbered by the thousands, 
 and the massacres are nearly as numerous as the passing years. 
 Still, the so-called Christian Powers are constantly combining 
 to give their support to the maintenance of the integrity of the 
 Sultan's dominions. 
 
 During all the reign of Ismail Pasha, the Christian was as 
 secure in his rights of property, liberty and life as the Mussul- 
 man. The stranger, of any nationality or religion, could travel 
 throughout all his dominions, from the sea to Central Africa, 
 
276 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 as safely as in any country in the world. Had he remained 
 Khedive, with his authority as a ruler untrammeled, the same 
 conditions would have continued. There would have been no 
 revolts in 1881-82, no rule of Arabi Pasha, no bombardment, 
 pillage and burning of Alexandria, with all their attendant 
 horrors, and no $20,000,000 indemnity to be paid by the Egyp- 
 tian Government and added to the national debt. 
 
 There would have been no Tell el-Kebir with its slaughter 
 of unarmed natives, no successful Mahdi, no defeat and mas- 
 sacre in Kordof an of Hicks Pasha and his ten thousand Egyptian 
 soldiers, no terrible defeats and slaughters at Suakin, no disas- 
 trous expedition up the Nile in a vain effort to rescue Gordon 
 Pasha, no loss to Egypt of the Sudan and the other provinces 
 of Central Africa, and no expedition of Egyptian and English 
 soldiers, at great expense to the Egyptian treasury, to recover 
 the lost territories. 
 
 All of these events, with their attendant losses of tens of 
 thousands of lives and scores of millions of dollars, were the 
 direct result of the removal of a strong and competent ruler 
 and the placing of the Government in the hands of irresponsible 
 agents of the Paris and London bankers. And this removal was 
 a sequence of Lord Beaconsfield's consent to join with France 
 in an attempt to extort excessive interest on loans of which 
 only fifty to sixty per cent had actually been received by the 
 Egyptian Government. 
 
 An English writer, anent this subject, says, ''This forcible 
 intervention on the part of both of these Powers was brute force 
 overriding public law for the meanest motive that ever in- 
 fluenced Christian Governments." ''Such a departure" he adds 
 "from every previous principle of English policy could not fail 
 to be serious." 
 
 Ismail Pasha was in many respects a most remarkable man. 
 In energy, administrative ability and intelligence, he far sur- 
 
Ismail Pasha and His Reign 277 
 
 passed all other Oriental rulers. Under his guiding hand, Egypt 
 advanced more in all that pertains to modern civilization during 
 the sixteen years of his reign than it had in the previous five 
 himdred years. In the promotion of education, in the preserva- 
 tion of the monuments of antiquity, in vast explorations — 
 scientific and geographic — in the construction of railways and 
 telegraphic lines, in the matter of steam navigation and in re- 
 claiming land from the desert, it accomplished more than had 
 been accomplished by the whole Ottoman Empire since the 
 days of Osman, its founder. 
 
 When Ismail commenced his reign, Egypt had 246 miles of rail- 
 way, to which he added 960 miles, at a cost of about $60,000,000; 
 it had 350 miles of telegraph, to which he added over 5,600 
 miles; it had 4,052,000 acres of tillable land, to which there was 
 added during his reign, mostly by him, 1,370,000 acres, an in- 
 crease of 33 per cent; it had 44,000 miles of irrigating canals, to 
 which he added 8,400. The cost of the great canal from Cairo 
 to IsmaiHya as already stated was not less than 50,000,000 
 francs. He constructed the harbors of Alexandria and Suez at 
 a cost of $20,000,000. 
 
 He built docks, bridges and immense sugar factories. He 
 erected lighthouses and instituted an excellent lighthouse 
 service on all the coasts of Egypt. He purchased steamers 
 and established regular steamship lines on the Mediterranean 
 and the Red Sea. He had constructed in France and removed 
 to Alexandria a large dry dock. The annual exports were in- 
 creased during his reign more than three-fold, from £4,454,000 
 to £13,810,000. He added to his dominions large extents of 
 territory in Central Africa and on the Red Sea, including Suakin, 
 Massowah and Zeila. He caused these countries to be surveyed 
 and mapped and established in them his Government, the au- 
 thority of which was everywhere respected. This vast territory 
 with the old Sudan now constitute what the English with great 
 
278 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 pride term the ''New British Empire of the Sudan." It was 
 all under the full, peaceable control of the Khedive at the time 
 he was dethroned. 
 
 At the commencement of his reign, Cairo was wholly an 
 Oriental city. The streets were narrow, many of them only 
 wide enough for a single camel or horse. They were not lighted. 
 Each person who went out at night carried his lantern or was 
 preceded by a torch bearer. There was no available water- 
 supply except the canal running through the town, from which 
 the water was carried in skins. When the canal was dry, which 
 was the case for some months each year, the water was taken 
 from cisterns where it had been stored at the time of the high 
 Nile. Ismail established good systems of gas and water both 
 in Cairo and Alexandria. To the former city, he made large 
 additions of streets, boulevards and public gardens, thus creat- 
 ing a beautiful European town, with modern comforts and con- 
 veniences, alongside the old town. 
 
 Egypt has the benefit to-day of these numerous internal 
 improvements, as well as of the increased amount of tillable 
 land, the railroads, telegraph lines, harbors, docks and light- 
 houses. 
 
 Ismail Pasha also abolished the slave trade in his dominions 
 and the horrid practice of the mutilation of colored boys for 
 service in the harems, making such mutilation a crime punish- 
 able with death. He stopped the importation of slaves, ex- 
 pended very large sums of money in an attempt to end com- 
 pletely the slave trade in the Sudan and the provinces of Central 
 Africa, and to prevent the transportation of slaves across the 
 Red Sea, whence the slave dealers took them to Turkey and 
 Persia. 
 
 He also made a law, according to the provisions of which the 
 sale of slaves, both white and black, from family to family was 
 to cease in August, 1884. As there were rarely any slaves born 
 
Ismail Pasha and His Reign 279 
 
 in Egypt, this would soon have ended slavery in that country. 
 He permitted his sons to have only one wife each, in order to 
 set an example for the discontinuance of polygamy and the 
 consequent importation of white slaves. 
 
 Previous to his reign, there was an open slave market at Cairo 
 where both white and black slaves were sold; and negroes were 
 being constantly captured in Central Africa and brought down 
 the Nile or taken across the Red Sea and sold as slaves. 
 
 A short time before his dethronement, I negotiated with 
 Cherif Pasha, with the approbation of his Highness, a treaty 
 in which were embodied, in the form of an agreement on the 
 part of the Khedive, provisions for the abohtion of traffic in 
 slaves. This was done in accordance with a verbal understand- 
 ing on the subject with the Government at Washington. I sent 
 Mr. Evarts a draft of the treaty in English and French, but, in 
 consequence of the change of Khedive and the English and 
 French control, it was never executed. 
 
 This treaty contained also a provision giving to cruisers of 
 the United States a right to ''visit, search and detain, in order 
 to hand over to the most convenient Egyptian authority for 
 trial, any Egyptian vessel found engaged in the traffic in slaves, 
 or which might be fairly suspected of being intended for that 
 traffic." 
 
 It would require a volume to give a history of the improve- 
 ment in educational facilities during Ismail's administration. 
 At the close of the reign of his immediate predecessor, Said 
 Pasha, the whole number of pubUc schools was only 185. Dur- 
 ing the reign of Ismail the number was increased to 4,817. 
 These schools provided for between eighty and one hundred 
 thousand pupils — a percentage of the whole number of boys 
 in the country eight times greater than the percentage of public 
 school pupils in the Russian Empire, and three-fourths as great 
 as the percentage in Italy. 
 
2 8o Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 In the last year of the reign of Said Pasha, the whole sum 
 appropriated by the Government for schools was only $30,000. 
 Ismail had increased this amomit in 1872 to $400,000. Under 
 the bondholders' reign, this smn was reduced in 1880 to $200,000, 
 precisely the amount of the salaries of twelve European comp- 
 trollers imposed upon the country.^ The Arabs have a great 
 desire for learning. Their aptitude in acquiring knowledge is 
 universally admitted and their advancement under the reign 
 of Ismail was without parallel. They are also capable of the 
 highest degree of culture. In his attempts to raise the standard 
 of education, the Khedive had to encounter the almost uni- 
 versal illiteracy among the masses, but he had no prejudices 
 to combat. 
 
 In all other departments than that of education he had 
 tremendous obstacles to overcome. We of the Occident can- 
 not comprehend the full significance of his innovations. The 
 ruler who attempts to graft modern civilization upon the old 
 Oriental stock, with all its ignorance, its prejudices and con- 
 servatism, has no aid. He must not only originate and direct 
 every change, but must actually impose it by the force of his 
 authority.^ 
 
 1 " Influenced by his third wife, a woman of considerable learning, the 
 Khedive Ismail caused to be constructed most extensive school buildings to 
 be devoted to the higher education of Mohammedan girls ; but this promis- 
 ing institution was suppressed, as a measure of economy, in 1876, through 
 the English and French intervention in Egyptian financial affairs, and these 
 beautiful buildings are now occupied by the administration of public works. 
 A similar " economical " measure was employed in the suppression of the 
 extensive schools for soldiers' children established by General Stone Pasha, 
 the American chief of Ismail's military household." — Gen. George S. Bat- 
 CHELLER in North American Review of Aug. 2, 1907, p. 776. 
 
 2 An experience of my own while traveling in Syria will show the difficulties 
 of improvements in these countries. 
 
 I was returning southward from a trip to the Great Cedars, along the highest 
 mountain path. Near sunset on the second day, I suddenly came to the brow 
 
Ismail Pasha and His Reign 281 
 
 The Khedive was personally of amiable disposition. No 
 other testimony would be given by any of his numerous palace 
 employees, either foreign or native. He discontinued the severe 
 punishments, which had previously prevailed in Egypt. There 
 
 of a mountain declivity whence could be seen, a thousand feet below, a pic- 
 turesque village in a plateau on the side of the mountain. 
 
 My company consisted of an interpreter, a fifteen year old son of Dr. Bliss, 
 president of the American College at Beirut, a cook and two muleteers. We 
 had three riding horses and mules to cany tents, provisions and camp equi- 
 page. The descent appeared difficult and, for the horses impossible, but others 
 had descended by the same path and why not we. Our animals were so accus- 
 tomed to mountain travel that they could even mount and descend ordinary 
 stairs. The baggage having been fastened so that it could not slip forward, 
 the horses and mules slowly crept down the mountain, shding, at times, for 
 considerable distances. 
 
 That night, by permission, we pitched our tents on a lawn in front of the 
 dwelling of a former Emir of the Lebanon. Previous to 1860, he was a petty 
 prince governing by hereditary right, subject to the Sultan. In consequence 
 of the massacres of that year, the Lebanon was placed under a special govern- 
 ment, the Governor being appointed by the Sultan, but subject to the ap- 
 proval of the Great Powers. The Emir lost his hereditary authority, but 
 retained great influence among the people. 
 
 In the evening, I called upon the Emir. He was very old and deaf, and only 
 his wife could make him understand. Our conversation was, therefore, 
 through the interpreter and the wife. Rustoum Pasha was then the Governor 
 of the Lebanon, and an exceptionally good ruler. We had lately had our tents 
 pitched close by each other for two weeks, and he had told me of some of his 
 plans for improving the country. 
 
 Among them, was a wagon road from Beirut to Damascus by the way of 
 the Dog River (Lycus of the Romans), which was a little east of the village 
 of the Emir but much lower. The only wagon road in Syria at that time in a 
 condition to be used was one between these two cities constructed over the 
 mountains by a French company under a fifty-year concession. The tolls 
 were designedly fixed at a figure sufficiently high to exclude all travel, except 
 by the company's conveyances. This gave it the monopoly of the passenger 
 and freight traffic, which was so large that the business required sixteen hun- 
 dred horses and mules and four hundred men. 
 
 Stages left each end of the route morning and evening and large trains of 
 wagons loaded with merchandise each day. I naturally thought that a new 
 road that would end this oppressive monopoly, and give an outlet to the in- 
 habitants of this and manv other secluded villages, would very much please 
 
282 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 were no confiscations, scarcely any banishments and very few 
 capital punishments. I heard of only one of the last named 
 during the three years that he reigned, after my arrival. There 
 is the one exceptional case, it is true, that of the Minister of 
 Finance, Ismail Sadik Pasha. In the absolute Oriental govern- 
 ment, the sovereign must in many cases necessarily take the 
 place of the judge, and there may have been injustice in some 
 cases. But Ismail's record is white, in this respect, in compari- 
 son with that of any other Oriental potentate. Even the Eng- 
 lish in the Government of non-Christian countries cannot show 
 a better record. They never hesitate to try, shoot, or hang 
 people summarily, whenever they believe it necessary to assure 
 or strengthen their supremacy. On their landing at Alexandria 
 after the bombardment of that city, they adopted some of these 
 summary methods. 
 
 While Egypt was so rapidly advancing in all that pertains to 
 modern civiUzation (even including the luxury of creating a 
 large national debt, in which most European countries indulge 
 to the extent of their credit), what was being done in the rest 
 
 the Emir. During the conversation I mentioned the subject. The wife had 
 not the patience to do more than announce the subject to her deaf consort. 
 She commenced at once to express her own decided opinions, which were, 
 undoubtedly, also those of her husband. 
 
 "Yes," she said, "the Governor wanted their people to help build this road" 
 but he would get "no aid from them." "What do we want of a road?" 
 "What purpose can we put it to? How can we use it?" and other exclama- 
 tions of the same character were repeated in quick succession with nervousness 
 and emphasis. " No, he will get no aid from us. We want nothing to do with 
 his road." 
 
 The poor woman had probably never seen a cart, wagon or carriage, cer- 
 tainly not in her own town, and such innovations were not to be tolerated. 
 The next morning, we descended one thousand feet to the river by an incline 
 nearly as sharp as that by which we had reached the village. We then mounted 
 two thousand feet on the other side, a part of the distance by broad steps. 
 We passed on the way people with pack mules loaded with wood going to 
 Beirut, twenty miles distant. And yet what did they want of a road? 
 
Ismail Pasha and His Reign 283 
 
 of the Ottoman Empire? Although his Sublime Majesty's Gov- 
 ernment was upheld and kept from disintegration by the Eu- 
 ropean Powers, was there any printers' ink used, during this 
 period, in praise of the material improvements of his country, 
 or of the amelioration of the condition of the inhabitants of the 
 dominions over which he ruled? No; there was only a record of 
 a constant cry of agonizing humanity, of massacres of Armenians, 
 Bulgarians and other Christians, and of congresses to impose 
 reforms and keep the Turk on his feet. The Ottoman debt did 
 not fail to be increased, not only to the extent of the borrowing 
 capacity of the Government, but even beyond any expectation 
 of its ability to pay. And, for this, there was nothing to show 
 but annals of murders. 
 
 In all Syria, there was not a harbor, a railroad, nor even a 
 wagon road except the one from Beirut to Damascus. The in- 
 ternal commerce of the country was carried on by means of 
 pack mules and camels over rough, rugged paths which had not 
 been improved in the least for centuries. Steamers coming 
 along the coasts were obliged to anchor out in the sea, to trans- 
 fer their cargoes and passengers to the shore in small boats, if 
 the weather permitted, or, if the sea was too rough for this, to 
 steam on without landing either. 
 
 In Asia Minor, there was only one railroad. That had been 
 built by an English company from Smyrna a short distance into 
 the interior. Turkey in Europe could not show much more 
 advancement. Everywhere, there were misery, oppression and 
 the cruelty of the Turk. But the Sultan was upheld as a supe- 
 rior moral being and was asked, in the interests of good gov- 
 ernment and of the happiness of his beloved subjects, to remove 
 the Khedive, who was in the way of the giving of a free hand 
 to those who were pocketing the resources of Egypt. He could 
 not do otherwise than obey, even if he had been so disposed. 
 
 The results were tersely expressed in 1887 by the now vener- 
 
284 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 able member of the English Parliament, Sir Wilfrid Lawson, in 
 seconding a motion to amend the address in reply to the Queen's 
 speech and demand an immediate recall of the English forces 
 in Egypt. He said: 
 
 ''We have raised the fmided debt of Egypt from £90,000,000 
 to £100,000,000, slaughtered many thousands of the natives, 
 crippled the National Chamber, bombarded the principal city 
 of the country under circumstances of the greatest horror, 
 increased taxation, promoted horrible debauchery in the capital, 
 sown dissensions between the Khedive and the people, and 
 crushed out the first little sparks of independence that had been 
 seen in Eastern nations for ages past." 
 
 The causes of the financial embarrassments of Ismail Pasha 
 are attributed, by those who attempt to justify his forced 
 abdication, to his extreme prodigality, and on this theme they 
 have embroidered the most extravagant romance. Any little 
 summer house on the desert has been classed as one of his 
 Highness's ''magnificent and costly palaces." 
 
 There were only two residences built by Ismail that were 
 worthy of the name of palaces, and the cost of these was in- 
 significant in comparison with royal European residences. Like 
 other buildings in Cairo, they were of common rough stone, laid 
 in mortar and plastered inside and out. They had plain, flat, 
 cemented roofs and their cost was in no way disproportionate 
 to his Highness's private wealth before he became Viceroy. 
 The receptions and dinners given by him after my arrival in 
 Egypt were few in number, and in no way extravagant; and yet 
 an English writer, who claimed great candor and conservatism 
 in the statements of his book, called them "revels" and "Bel- 
 shazzar's feasts." 
 
 According to the newspaper accounts, the balls and other 
 entertainments given by his immediate successors, under their 
 
Ismail Pasha and His Reign 285 
 
 European advisers, have been greater in number and far more 
 sumptuous; but there is no claim of extravagance. 
 
 When Mr. Goschen came to Egypt, with all the prestige of 
 an ex-member of the English Cabinet, to continue the work of 
 "spoiling the Egyptians," which he had commenced years 
 before as a member of the firm of Fruhling-Goschen, one of the 
 great crimes he charged against the Khedive was that of aiding 
 in the maintenance of the theater at Cairo. 
 
 This theatre was largely patronized by European and Ameri- 
 can visitors, who came in the winter to Egypt for health, or 
 pleasure. The operas and principal theaters of Paris, Berlin and 
 other European cities are maintained, or largely aided, by their 
 re^^ctive Governments. The theater at Cairo still exists; but 
 there are^now no criticisms. 
 
 All of these pretended extravagances, which for years fur- 
 nished themes for the newspaper correspondence carried on in 
 the interest of the bondholders, counted but little in the sum 
 of the national debt. The most serious imnecessary expenditures 
 were those arising from the Khedivial hospitality in entertain- 
 ing the imperial, royal and princely guests with their niunerous 
 retinues, the Ambassadors, Ministers and newspaper correspond- 
 ents, who visited Egypt at the time of the opening of the Suez 
 Canal. 
 
 Among these guests were Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria, 
 the Empress Eugenie, the Crown Prince of Prussia and numerous 
 scions of royalty and nobility. From these, down through a 
 long list to correspondents of obscure newspapers and nobodies, 
 there were in all, it is claimed, over three thousand who through 
 some official influence managed to be classed among the invited. 
 All these visitors were sumptuously entertained in palaces and 
 hotels, and many were furnished with steamers for the voyage 
 up the Nile. This was a foolish expenditure, an excessive mani- 
 festation of Oriental hospitality, the cost of which might properly 
 
2 86 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 have been placed to the charge of the private estate of the 
 Khedive. 
 
 His Highness then thought that the canal, to the construction 
 of which he had so largely contributed, was to be his crowning 
 glory. It did not occur to him that it was to lead to his own 
 and Egypt's ruin, nor that the nation which had given it no 
 aid and had as far as possible obstructed the work would ulti- 
 mately reap its vast commercial benefits, and, through it, 
 augment its possessions and its poUtical power to an inestimable 
 extent. Probably, the suavity of the ever captivating ^lonsieur 
 de Lesseps, as w^ell as his ovm. Oriental largeness of hospitality, 
 led him to this unjustifiable expenditure. T\Tiatever may be 
 said of the great accomplishment of ^lonsieur de Lesseps, he was 
 certainly the evil genius of Egypt, and the Suez Canal the pri- 
 mary cause of its ruin. 
 
 The Prince of Wales and many other royal or celebrated 
 personages were also entertained by Ismail with a lavishness 
 similar to that which he had practiced at the time of the open- 
 ing of the canal. Outlays of this character added to the total 
 of the indebtedness, but they were not the causes of the financial 
 embarrassments. These causes were the same that have fre- 
 quently produced great numbers of failm*es among business 
 men, — the attempt to do too much at a flood-tide of prosperity 
 which is soon to be followed by a low ebb. 
 
 Ismail came to the throne in 1863 at the time of the high 
 price of cotton. Egypt had been producing considerable quan- 
 tities of this commodity for some years. The high prices then 
 prevailing, and a behef in the continuance of the war in the 
 United States, caused a great extension in this department of 
 Egyptian agriculture. In 1864, the exports of Egypt amounted 
 to the imprecedented sum of $72,000,000. This prosperity ex- 
 cited all classes and produced the wildest ideas as to the mines 
 of wealth in the soil of the Delta of the Nile. Egypt was hence- 
 
Ismail Pasha and His Reign 287 
 
 forth to be the great cotton-producing country of the world. 
 Even the common fellah could indulge in a second wife. The 
 best business men lost their conservatism and were carried away 
 in the current of financial speculation. The Khedive, who had 
 previously been very successful in all his business enterprises, 
 imbibed the spirit of the day and thought there was no end to 
 Egypt's wealth. 
 
 Orientals are proverbially improvident. With prosperity 
 comes ostentation and love of pomipous show. The Khedive, 
 unfortunately, knew Europe too well. He loved its splendor, 
 and, with his grand and noble ideas of enlarging the boundaries 
 of Egypt, creating an African Empire on the model of European 
 civilization, with numerous railroads, telegraphic facilities, har- 
 bors, docks, steamboat lines and general education, came also 
 the desire for fine cities, beautiful gardens and parks and all 
 the attendant luxuries of modern civilization. He was sur- 
 rounded by a legion of European flatterers, who extolled him 
 and exaggerated the wealth of the country, and he was soon 
 launched into a multitude of costly schemes of territorial en- 
 largement and internal improvement. 
 
 In the fall of 1864, on the requisition of the Sultan, a small 
 army was sent by Egypt, at its own expense, to put down a 
 rebellion in the Hedjaz; and, in the spring of the following year, 
 another was sent to Crete to aid the Turk in suppressing the 
 Christian revolt. 
 
 With the addition of expenses came a reduction in revenues. 
 In 1866, in consequence of the dechne in cotton, the exports had 
 decreased thirty- three per cent, about $23,000,000. Great 
 projects were under way, contracts were made, and, because 
 there was everywhere hope of better times and of an increased 
 revenue from imcompleted improvements, there was no curtail- 
 ment of expenses. They were rather constantly increasing, each 
 new work requiring additional outlay. The harbors required 
 
2 88 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 docks and the railroads rolling stock. There were also great 
 wastages, enormous leakages. All the works were new to the 
 natives, and were carried on by contracts with Europeans, 
 who formed a body of cormorants ever seeking lucrative 
 ^'jobs." 
 
 The Khedive had few competent and trustworthy agents. 
 He was obliged to supervise every department of his Govern- 
 ment, and, in order to do so, had to familiarize and occupy him- 
 self with the railroads, the telegraphs, the steamer lines, the 
 harbors, the docks, the lighthouse system, the municipal im- 
 provements, the armies, the vast explorations and conquests 
 in Central Africa, and the establishment of his authority in the 
 equatorial provinces and at Suakin and Massowah. 
 
 All these departments were under his immediate control, and 
 not a contract could be made, nor a car purchased, nor a new 
 switch put in, nor a rod of track laid without his direction. In 
 addition to this and to the personal government of his millions 
 of subjects, his vast personal estates and those of his family, 
 the cleaning and constructing of irrigating canals, and the re- 
 claiming of desert lands, all required his attention. 
 
 The management of his lands with their hundreds of thou- 
 sands of laborers, their great sugar factories, their railroads, 
 boats, camels, cattle and utensils, would have been sufficient to 
 have prostrated the most able administrator. Yet, with all his 
 other cares, he did not neglect his personal estates. His knowl- 
 edge of the details of every applicance and utensil, from the 
 shaduf and mattock to the steam pump, the locomotive and 
 steamship, was always an occasion of the greatest surprise to 
 those who conversed with him for the first time, and the con- 
 stant wonder of those Europeans who were the most familiar 
 with him and the country. 
 
 He made all contracts of importance, and even the smaller 
 ones were under his supervision. It was far too much for one 
 
Ismail Pasha and His Reign 289 
 
 brain; and it is doubtful if any one person ever undertook to 
 direct so many, and such varied and extended enterprises, — 
 to say nothing of the endless cares of his Government. The re- 
 sults were necessarily great wastes through incapable and dis- 
 honest agents. 
 
 Notwithstanding these losses, his administration would have 
 met all its liabilities except for the usurious interest paid on its 
 loans. As already stated, Egypt had, as early as 1882, repaid 
 the full amount of all moneys it had actually received on the 
 sale of bonds with six per cent annual interest, and had left to 
 its credit in over-payments eighteen million dollars. The loans 
 so repaid included those made to pay the fifty million dollar 
 debt legacy of Said Pasha and the many millions taken by the 
 Suez Canal Company through the award of Napoleon III. The 
 four hundred and fifty milUon dollar debt now placed to Egypt's 
 account, and the interest paid thereon since 1882, amounting to 
 as much as the nominal principal, are all usury, and without 
 any equitable consideration. 
 
 The annual interest on the sum still remaining is, in round 
 numbers, eighteen million dollars. This is a naked tribute 
 which must be paid annually to Europe for an indefinite period, 
 probably for generations, like the tribute paid to Turkey im- 
 posed by the Powers, at the instigation of England, in the time 
 of Mohammed Ali. Ismail Pasha's real crime consisted in put- 
 ting himself into the hands of the Shy locks of London and Paris. 
 These Shylocks, who were mostly Jewish bankers, had sufficient 
 power to control the Governments of England and France and 
 to induce them to establish a new precedent relative to official 
 aid in the collection of contractual debts, even those not rest- 
 ing upon any moral obfigation. 
 
 It was for the collection of claims of this character, which 
 would enable the Rothschilds, Oppenheims, Goschen and others 
 of the financial groups to reap the full harvest of their financial 
 
2 go ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 ventures, that the two Great Powers first gave their official aid 
 and England, later, its military support. 
 
 Very few English people have ever received correct informa- 
 tion relative to the causes of the financial failure in Egypt. 
 Having had no information to the contrary, they believe that 
 the money was honestly loaned, that the indebtedness remain- 
 ing is the balance unpaid, and that these hundreds of millions 
 were squandered by Ismail Pasha in riotous living. They are 
 justly proud of what Lord Cromer has done toward giving the 
 people a good Government, but they know nothing of the facts 
 relative to the burdens imposed, which Lord Cromer could do 
 little to alleviate. He could do nothing to relieve this little 
 country, one-fifth as large as the state of New York, from the 
 annual payment of eighteen million dollars unjustly exacted and 
 forced from this oppressed people by military power; nor from 
 the payment of the three and a half millions of tribute to Turkey, 
 which, I am informed, has long been hypothecated and goes 
 direct to England. 
 
 When we speak of the extent of Egypt, we do not include 
 the surrounding deserts nor the Sudan and other southern 
 provinces. These are not yet any more than self-supporting, 
 neither are they any longer a part of Egyptian territory. Egypt 
 paid the expense of the reconquest and is permitted, as com- 
 pensation, the empty honor of having her flag raised, for the 
 time being, beside that of the English. 
 
 The new departure of certain aggressive European Powers 
 from well-established principles, in their attempts to collect 
 claims based on contracts and other claims the equity of which 
 is doubtful by the use of ironclads, opens a wide door for the 
 perpetration of gross wrongs against small and weak countries. 
 Any encouragement of, or even acquiescence in, acts of this 
 character against weak American Powers would be likely to 
 lead us into serious international complications. Aiding, or in 
 
Ismail Pasha and His Reign 291 
 
 any manner participating in the forced collection of claims of 
 the character of the larger part of those against Egypt would 
 be a crime which it is hoped there will be no occasion to charge 
 to the Government of the United States. If we strictly adhere 
 to the course we have thus far pursued, we shall avoid not only 
 the danger but the injustice of such a policy. Secretary of 
 State EUhu Root, in his late speech at Buenos Aires, Argentina, 
 said: "The United States has never employed and never will 
 employ her army or navy for the collection of debts contracted 
 by governments or private individuals." ''Such measures," he 
 added, ''lend themselves to speculation and are based on sordid 
 objects." 
 
292 KgyP^ ^^^ i^^ Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS 
 
 The Mixed Tribunals or International Courts of Egypt con- 
 stitute a unique institution. They are composed of foreign and 
 native judges. To constitute a court for the trial of a cause 
 requires five judges, three foreign and two native. There are 
 no juries, the court finding the facts and deciding the questions 
 of law. The court in which the trial takes place is known as 
 the Court of First Instance and has two branches, the civil and 
 the coinniercial. The former has jurisdiction in what would 
 be termed equity actions in an English or American court and 
 the latter in actions at law. There are, however, important 
 exceptions to this line of division. 
 
 In the commercial court, there are two assessors, one native 
 and one foreigner, chosen from the prominent business men of 
 the city in which the court is held. They serve for a stated time, 
 at the end of which others are selected to take their place, in a 
 manner similar to that of selecting jurors in the United States. 
 They sit with the judges on the trial and have a vote in the 
 decision of the case. The Europeans are residents of Egypt, 
 and the natives are chosen from among the prominent local 
 merchants. Being acquainted with the commercial customs 
 of the people, they are valuable aids to the court. Actions in 
 which the sum in controversy is below a fixed amount are tried 
 before a single European judge in a court known as the Court 
 of Justice Sommaire. 
 
International Tribunals 293 
 
 There is also a Court of Appeal, a forum of last resort, to 
 which cases may be appealed from the trial courts. It has seven 
 foreign judges, one from each of the seven Great Powers, and 
 five natives. General George S. Batcheller has lately been 
 designated by President Roosevelt to represent the United 
 States in this Court. He was, under President Harrison, As- 
 sistant Secretary of the Treasury at Washington and Minister 
 to Portugal. Having served in the Court of First Instance at 
 Cairo for over ten years, he is eminently fitted for his new 
 position. 
 
 There are in all these International Courts thirty-four foreign 
 and twenty-one native judges. Of the former, there are three 
 from each of the seven Great Powers, including the United 
 States, and one and sometimes two from the Christian Powers 
 of the second class, such as Belgium, Holland, Greece and Spain. 
 The courts have jurisdiction in civil actions in all mixed cases, 
 that is, actions in which there are parties of different nationali- 
 ties, — as a native and an Englishman or an Englishman and a 
 German. They also have jurisdiction in cases of crimes com- 
 mitted in opposing the execution of their judgments. They 
 were instituted under the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, to take the 
 place of a large number of consular courts which had been es- 
 tablished under the extraterritorial jurisdiction granted to the 
 Christian Powers. 
 
 Christian governments have never acknowledged the juris- 
 diction over their citizens of the courts of non-Christian coun- 
 tries. Whenever these countries have been opened to com- 
 merce and the residence, temporary or permanent, of foreigners, 
 treaties have been made or concessions granted allowing extra- 
 territorial jurisdiction. This is the right of the Christian coun- 
 try to govern, through its Consuls, its own citizens who may, 
 either temporarily or as permanent residents, be in the non- 
 Christian country. Japan has lately been made an exception 
 
2 94 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 to this rule, whether wisely or not the future action of her 
 courts will determine. Already serious complaints have been 
 made by European merchants. 
 
 In the case of the Turkish Empire, the Khalifs and Sultans 
 could not formerly treat with infidels. To have entered into 
 agreements with them would have been to acknowledge that 
 they had rights which even a Khalif was bound to respect. 
 Instead of entering into agreements or making treaties, the 
 Khalifs issued letters containing grants of privileges. These 
 letters, known to Orientals as Imperial Diplomas and to Euro- 
 peans as Capitulations, granted to the foreign sailors and mer- 
 chants who came to trade in the Khalifs dominions immunity 
 from arrest or molestation by the local authorities. They were 
 first issued as early as the twelfth century. Christian nations 
 were never over modest in making claims under a very elas- 
 tic construction of these grants of privileges. As favorable 
 opportunities occurred, they also obtained additional grants, 
 until in the principal cities of Egypt, more especially in Alex- 
 andria, it became a question whether the foreign governments 
 or the local authority was the ruling power. The extraterritorial 
 rights, claimed and enjoyed, resulted in the establishment of 
 numerous sovereignties in Egypt. 
 
 Christian foreigners were, as to their government and all 
 judicial proceedings, considered as residing in their own coun- 
 try. There were fourteen Christian Powers, at one time eighteen, 
 represented by Consuls, each of whom was a de facto governor 
 of the members of his colony and a judge to try and decide all 
 complaints or actions brought against them, from whose de- 
 cisions there was no appeal except to his own Government. 
 There was, however, no means of executing judgments rendered 
 against a native except through the local authorities, nor against 
 a foreigner except through the courtesy of the Consul of the 
 party against whom the judgment had been rendered. 
 
 J 
 
International Tribunals 295 
 
 Foreigners were not only exempt from arrest and trial by the 
 local authorities, but their children, born in Egypt, took the 
 nationality of their parents, and this might continue, as it 
 actually did in some cases, for generations. To secure this right 
 of the nationality of both the parent and child, it was only nec- 
 essary that the family records should be properly entered and 
 preserved at the Consulate. 
 
 There were residing in Egypt in 1878 thirty thousand Greeks, 
 ten thousand Italians and many of other nationalities. The 
 bankers, a large portion of the principal merchants and other 
 business men of the country were foreigners. Commercial en- 
 terprises were largely in their hands. With fourteen independent 
 judicial systems, often rendering opposing decisions, since each 
 Consul acted under the laws of his own country, there could 
 only be endless confusion resulting in most serious difficul- 
 ties. 
 
 Different plans to avoid this confusion were tried, but the 
 first efficacious solution was the International Courts. It was 
 only through long and difficult negotiations and, it is said, by 
 a free use of money at Constantinople and with the press of 
 London and Paris, that the Khedive succeeded in establishing 
 them. Several of the Powers clung tenaciously to the privileges 
 granted, or acquired by long usage and by forced construction 
 of the Capitulations. Jurisdiction in criminal cases is still re- 
 tained by the Consular Courts. 
 
 The position of a foreign judge is no sinecure, though he has 
 each year three and a half months' leave of absence, usually 
 taken in the hot months from June to October. Three foreign 
 judges, however, must remain during the vacation to hold a 
 court in case of urgency. These take their vacation at a later 
 date. From October to June, the court is always overloaded 
 with work. 
 
 The judgments are prepared by the judges and are in the 
 
2g6 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 nature of the report of a referee, containing the findings of fact, 
 the legal opinion, and the order of execution. By the French 
 system, a party against whom a judgment is rendered must be 
 informed by the judgment itself of the facts and reasons of its 
 being rendered; otherwise, the judgment is void on its face and 
 cannot be executed. 
 
 The legal languages of the courts have been, until a very 
 recent date, French, Italian and Arabic. English has now been 
 added. In practice, French is the principal language, all the 
 judges, except the Italian, and most of the lawyers employ 
 no other in their court proceedings. The papers used in evi- 
 dence are in many languages besides those mentioned, — Greek, 
 German, Spanish, Turkish, and even Hebrew. This necessitates 
 a large number of clerks and interpreters. 
 
 The court is an independent body, employing and discharg- 
 ing at its pleasure its clerks, sheriffs and interpreters, paying 
 their salaries and those of its members. Large fees are received 
 from suitors and for the services of clerks, sheriffs and inter- 
 preters and also a percentage on the judgments rendered. The 
 revenues from these sources and for the registration of deeds, 
 bonds, mortgages and for notarial acts are more than sufficient 
 to pay all the expenses of the courts. The surplus is paid to the 
 Egyptian Government. During the first twenty-eight years of 
 the sitting of these courts, ending October 31, 1903, the num- 
 ber of cases adjudged was 229,807 and the receipts therefrom 
 and from the other sources I have mentioned were 7,184,722 
 Egyptian pounds, equalling $35,923,610. The expenses of the 
 courts during this period were $18,843,715, leaving a surplus 
 of $17,079,895 which was paid to the Egyptian Government. 
 During the last decade, the business of the courts has increased 
 very rapidly. The receipts for the year 1904 were $3,910,000; 
 those for 1905, $5,048,000. The surplus paid to the Government 
 in the latter year was $3,978,000. Thus these courts, instead of 
 
International Tribunals 297 
 
 being an expense to the Government, as our courts are, are a 
 fruitful source of revenue. This is a species of taxation to which 
 we, happily, have not yet had recourse. 
 
 The judges hold their positions for life, or as long as these 
 courts are maintained. They can neither be removed by their 
 own Governments nor by that of Egypt. They may, however, 
 be removed by the Court of Appeal for misconduct or in- 
 competency. 
 
 Oral testimony is rarely permitted in the trial of a cause, and 
 then only by an interlocutory judgment allowing certain pre- 
 scribed questions to be asked or some isolated fact to be proved. 
 If such evidence were permitted as is permitted in an American 
 or English court, it would be of little advantage to litigants, as 
 no employee, employer, servant, master, business associate, or 
 person within the fourth degree of relationship to a party is a 
 competent witness. The system is the same in principle as that 
 in France and other Continental countries. It is based on the 
 supposition that no one interested, however remotely, is to be 
 believed. 
 
 If contracts are not in writing, there is generally no legal 
 remedy. The honor of the party must be relied upon. Even 
 the payment of money upon a contract cannot be proven orally, 
 but the party claimed to have received it may be ordered by the 
 court to appear and answer the simple question as to whether 
 it is true that payment was made as claimed. If he does not 
 appear as ordered, he loses his case. If he does and denies the 
 payment, that settles the question. His denial cannot be dis- 
 proved by oral testimony. In criminal cases, oral testimony 
 is taken as under the English or common-law system. 
 
 The value of property or the amount of loss sustained by 
 damage to it is determined by experts appointed by the court. 
 AppHcation for such appraisal must be made immediately after 
 the event causing the damage claimed, and the expert must 
 
298 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 promptly make and deliver to the court his report to be used 
 whenever the case is heard. 
 
 Books of account, when kept in a prescribed manner, and 
 letter-press copies are admissible as evidence in actions between 
 merchants only; but the condition of the accounts and the 
 balances are determined by the written reports of expert ac- 
 countants, also appointed by the court. 
 
 Documents, promissory notes, letters and other writings are 
 admitted in evidence without proof of authenticity. The party 
 against whom they are introduced, however, can enter a plea 
 of forgery or any other, which, if proved, would invalidate the 
 document. In that case, the action is suspended and a special 
 issue formed and tried before a single judge under the limita- 
 tions of a judgment of the court as to the oral evidence to be 
 admitted. In the event of failure of a party to sustain his alle- 
 gations, he is not only condemned to pay the costs of the special 
 proceeding, but in case of bad faith or of an accusation of forgery 
 he may be fined. 
 
 The court is generally in session every forenoon, except on 
 the Moslem Sunday (which is our Friday) and the Christian 
 Simday. The trial of a cause consists of short arguments by 
 the attorneys on the papers produced, including reports of ex- 
 perts, if there are any, and generally does not occupy more than 
 an hour, often not half that time. 
 
 The papers with the briefs of the attorneys are taken by the 
 court and the cases divided among the judges, generally only 
 among the foreign judges, for examination. A decision is agreed 
 upon at a council held each week, in accordance with which a 
 judgment is drawn by the judge who first took the papers for 
 examination and is read in open court by the presiding justice. 
 The proceeding is very summary and the judgment is generally 
 rendered within a very short time after the commencement of 
 the action. 
 
International Tribunals 299 
 
 All decisions are per curiam in accordance witli the votes of 
 a majority of the judges or the judges and assessors sitting on 
 the trial. No dissenting opinions are permitted, nor can the 
 differences in opinion of the judges, if any, be divulged. The 
 judgment stands as that of the court, and is, so far as the public 
 is informed, the unanimous opinion of the judges. It is thought 
 that dissenting opinions or a knowledge that there is any dis- 
 agreement among the judges weakens the effect of the judgment 
 and lessens the confidence in and the respect for the court. 
 There are advocates of the adoption of the same system in the 
 courts of our country. 
 
 The want of more explicit and more detailed evidence is 
 often very perplexing to the judge, and the uneducated native 
 undoubtedly frequently suffers great wrong; but I am not pre- 
 pared to say that the truth is not quite as often arrived at as 
 by our system of voluminous, conflicting and often directly 
 contradictory evidence. Certainly, the ascertaining of damages 
 to property by experts, acting immediately, is more satisfactory 
 than that of oral testimony as taken in our courts, often after 
 the lapse of years. The European judges in these courts are 
 strongly opposed to oral testimony, claiming that its introduction 
 would only be opening the doors to perjury and gross frauds. 
 
 The Mixed Tribunals were organized in 1875, and a code, 
 which was a modification of the Code Napoleon, adopted for 
 their use. The modifications were such as were thought neces- 
 sary to adapt it to the customs and conditions of the country. 
 Its application by the courts proved the desirability of other 
 changes. In 1880, an International Commission was organized 
 for the purpose of making additional modifications. Presi- 
 dent Hayes appointed Hon. George S. Batcheller, then judge 
 in these courts at Cairo, and the writer, to represent the United 
 States on this commission. The commission met in Cairo from 
 time to time during the winter of 1880-81, but did not finish 
 
300 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 its work on account of disagreement regarding several important 
 questions. 
 
 While in the United States on a leave of absence in the sum- 
 mer of 1881, 1 received a telegram from the chief clerk in the De- 
 partment of State, requesting my presence in Washington. On 
 arriving in that city on the morning of the first day of July, I 
 was informed that the President, Mr. Garfield, wished to see me. 
 By an arrangement of Mr. Blaine, then Secretary of State, an 
 interview was had at the close of the Cabinet meeting held that 
 day. It was the last Cabinet meeting at which this lamented 
 President presided. As I entered the room by invitation of 
 Mr. Blaine, the other members of the Cabinet were conversing 
 and arranging their papers preparatory to leaving. After a few 
 words of greeting, I was seated near the President who com- 
 menced a conversation relative to the judgeship in the com-ts 
 of Egypt, which had become vacated by the appointment of 
 Judge Morgan to the position of Envoy Extraordinary and 
 Minister Plenipotentiary in Mexico. He asked me if I would 
 like the place, stating that Mr. Blaine had recommended me 
 as a suitable person for the position and that he would be 
 pleased to offer it to me if it would be acceptable. 
 
 The President had planned an excursion to New England and 
 was to leave Washington the following morning. As the mem- 
 bers of the Cabinet were about to leave the room, he turned 
 toward them and raising his voice asked, " Who is to accompany 
 me to-morrow?" I believe Mr. Blaine said he intended going. 
 Others said they would join him later. 
 
 The offer of the President was accepted and a telegram sent 
 that evening to Egypt by the Department of State announcing 
 my designation for the position. I was in New York the next 
 morning, when the report came that the President had been 
 assassinated. On my arrival in Egypt in October, I was as- 
 signed to the court at Alexandria. 
 
Riots of Alexandria 301 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 RIOTS OF ALEXANDRIA 
 
 While busily engaged during the winter of 1881-82 with 
 my new duties in the courts, the foreign financial pressure that 
 had been continued since the dethronement of the Khedive, 
 Ismail Pasha, was fast hastening the country to its final crisis. 
 The discontent of the people was constantly increasing. There 
 was no feeling of opposition to the Khedive, but hatred against 
 the foreign financial domination. 
 
 It cannot be admitted that the ruling spirits at London, who 
 dictated the English policy relating to Egypt, did not foresee 
 the result of their action. The English Ministry had been 
 changed, but the foreign representatives and the bureaucratic 
 departments remained in the control of that Jingo element of 
 the Conservative Party which believes in advancing English 
 interests in every part of the world without regard to the rights 
 of those not of their own nationaUty. iThey were actuated by 
 the same motives that were afterwards typified by the Jameson 
 raid and the policy of Cecil Rhodes in South Africa. 
 
 After various changes in the Egyptian Ministry, effected 
 sometimes by means indicating incipient rebellion, Arabi Pasha 
 became its ruling power. He did not interfere with the revenues 
 that had been devoted to the payment of the interest on the 
 public debt. No real fault could be found with his policy, except 
 that it diminished the prestige of the foreign Powers, and might 
 
302 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 in the end, if allowed to continue, give again to Egypt self- 
 control. 
 
 He was the idol of the people. No patriot was ever more 
 popular. His appearance in Alexandria was the occasion of an 
 ovation seldom surpassed among these phlegmatic people. The 
 streets were thronged and the demonstrations showed that the 
 natives were practically unanimous in his support. This made 
 him the more unacceptable to those who dictated the policy of 
 the Government. Patriotic movements are always in a degree 
 stimulated and aided by private ambitions, but from what 
 afterwards transpired, it was evident that no patriot was ever 
 less actuated by motives of personal ambition than Arabi. In 
 fact, after the most searching inquiry, no evidence could be 
 found which indicated anything other than a passionate desire 
 to be freed from an oppressive foreign domination. 
 
 That the Khedive was in sympathy with the movement to 
 free the country from the bondholders' rule, there is no doubt. 
 He would gladly have aided it, could he have been assured suc- 
 cess. To have aided it and failed would have lost him even his 
 shadow of authority. For him, there was no other safe course 
 than that of obeying the rulers that '^had been set over him." 
 
 Opposition to the European Powers at that late day was 
 ill-advised. The people were already ''bound hand and foot." 
 There was no army worth mentioning, and no means of creating 
 one. Egypt had not had control of its own finances for five 
 years and much more than its net revenues had been taken to 
 Paris and London in the interests of their great banking institu- 
 tions. There was little left for the people. Even their previous 
 accumulations and those of their ancestors were exhausted. 
 Only the land remained and much of that was mortgaged to, 
 or already in the hands of, those who had loaned them money 
 to pay their taxes. Whatever the results might be, the foreign 
 Govermnents had no intention ,of relinquishing the foothold 
 
Riots of Alexandria 303 
 
 they had obtained, without bloodshed, but through a long series 
 of negotiations and through diplomatic pressure at Cairo and 
 Constantinople so strenuous that it could not be resisted. 
 
 England and France sent their fleets of war vessels to Alex- 
 andria and anchored them in its harbor. Other nations, with 
 the object of watching their movements, followed their example. 
 Among the war vessels arriving were several of the Greek navy. 
 Between the lower classes of Greeks in Alexandria and the 
 Arabs there was little friendship. The presence of the vessels 
 stimulated the pride and increased the arrogance of the former 
 and correspondingly aroused the hatred of the latter. The 
 tension of public feeling was strong and all classes were in a 
 state of excitement that would not have existed, except for the 
 many war vessels in the harbor. Perfect quiet would have 
 reigned had they not arrived. 
 
 Some weeks after the arrival of the French and English fleets, 
 an incident occurred, due to the state of excitement that had 
 been created, which led to a serious riot. By a gross misrepre- 
 sentation of the facts, this gave some color of justification to 
 the subsequent action of England. 
 
 The eastern part of Alexandria is occupied largely by Euro- 
 peans and the better class of natives; the western, by natives 
 and the lowest class of foreigners. Among the latter were at 
 that time many Greeks noted then as now for their quarrel- 
 some and, in other respects, bad character. A riot occurred 
 on a Sunday in this part of the city. The exact details, as in 
 the case of most riots, will never be fufly known. We do know 
 that the rioting was instigated by an English subject, a Maltese 
 Greek. A large part of the laboring class of both the native 
 and foreign population, being that day unemployed, were either 
 in the native cafes, or taking their siestas. An Arab had a 
 dispute with the Greek concerning a small claim for money. 
 The Greek, who was said to have been intoxicated, became en- 
 
304 -^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 raged, drew a knife and fatally stabbed the Arab in the abdomen. 
 The sight of the helpless and bleeding victim, as he was carried 
 away, and the account of the affair which spread quickly, 
 excited the natives who soon commenced gathering in large 
 numbers. 
 
 The Arabs of Egypt have been for many generations sub- 
 jects of an arbitrary and generally an oppressive government. 
 If they were originally of a different disposition, they have be- 
 come the most peaceable, submissive and easily governed people 
 in the world. As the news spread, the crowd increased and 
 J became turbulent, but it was not until the Greeks and Maltese 
 Ij had commenced firing from their windows and flat housetops 
 fj upon the unarmed natives, and some of their number had been 
 i killed and others wounded, that they were aroused to violent 
 acts of vengeance. 
 
 The natives, excepting the Beduins, were not allowed the 
 luxury of firearms. They could only provide themselves with 
 clubs. These, for the most part, were large canes, such as the 
 fellahin generally carry when walking in the fields. They are 
 rough, round saplings, one and a half to two inches in diameter 
 and about five feet long. They are heavy and resemble clubs 
 rather than canes. There are no timber lands in Egypt and 
 these are brought across the Mediterranean and sold in the 
 Arab quarters. The Greeks had been imprudently provided 
 with firearms by the permission of their Consul, under the claim 
 that it was necessary for their protection. As a result of the 
 firing, the Arabs became thoroughly aroused and maddened 
 and came swarming into this part of the city, clubbing to death 
 every European they found in the streets. 
 
 The Hotel de I'Europe, where I was then taking my meals, 
 was at the lower end of the Place Mohammed-Ali, and near the 
 Arab quarter. My rooms were three-fourths of a mile distant. 
 I left the hotel about two o'clock. Little more than an hour 
 
Riots of Alexandria 305 
 
 afterwards, it became necessary to barricade the porte-cochere 
 of the hotel to protect the inmates from the mob. Thieves took 
 advantage of the situation and many stores were pillaged in the 
 native quarter. Some American naval officers who were on the 
 shore in civilian dress had a narrow escape. The police were 
 wholly unable to cope with so formidable a riot. 
 
 During the hot summer, it is customary in Egypt to take a 
 short nap after the noon-day meal. The stores, banks and other 
 business places are closed from twelve till three o'clock. No 
 one is to be disturbed in his repose during this time. The prin- 
 cipal persons charged with the government of Alexandria were, 
 at the time of the commencement of the difficulties, indulging 
 in their usual siestas. It was nearly an hour after the stabbing 
 of the Arab before the Governor was aroused and fully informed 
 . of the seriousness of the situation. There was at the time no 
 Minister of the Interior and the Governor received his instruc- 
 tions direct from the Cabinet of the Khedive. Much time was 
 spent by him in communicating with Cairo and with the com- 
 manders of the English and French fleets. Finally, he sum- 
 moned the soldiers. They came promptly and on their arrival 
 order was quickly restored. 
 
 It was between four and five o'clock when I was first in- 
 formed that there was ''fighting in the streets down town." 
 Though advised that it was dangerous, I immediately started 
 for the Place Mohammed- Ali. I met only a few persons in the 
 streets, and these were running from the disturbed quarters. 
 As I entered the upper end of the square, the soldiers, having 
 come from the forts on what was formerly the Island of Pharos, 
 entered at the other end. Standing upon the high steps of the 
 Palace of Justice, I saw only a few persons and these were flee- 
 ing as fast as possible. As soon as it was known that the soldiers 
 were approaching, the mob disappeared with magical celerity. 
 /^ About sixty foreigners lost their lives in this riot. These 
 
3o6 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 were of the lower classes and most of them resided in the Arab 
 quarters. It was claimed during the following two days, with- 
 out contradiction, that several times that number of Arabs were 
 killed. One Greek, the next morning, boasted of having shot 
 five. 
 
 This is as correct a statement as can be given of what has 
 been characterized by historians as the Alexandrian massacre 
 of the Christians by the Moslems. For three days no one termed 
 it anything other than a lamentable and serious riot, com- 
 menced by a foreigner. ^ 
 
 The French Consul m the report made to his Government 
 dated the following day, called it a riot (emeute). Among other 
 things, he said: ^' About three o'clock a Maltese and a native 
 quarreled and the latter received a stab of a knife in the stomach. 
 At his cries, the Arabs gathered. The quarter is inhabited by 
 Maltese and Greeks. The latter had been imprudently armed. 
 Revolvers having been fired from the windows, the strife be- 
 came general. Troops of Arabs came from all quarters armed 
 with clubs and beat to death the Europeans." Commander 
 Batcheller, of the American man-of-war. Galena, was one of 
 the American officers who were on shore at the time. In his 
 report, he called it a '^ serious riot, in which many Europeans 
 and natives were killed." Similar accounts were published the 
 next day in the London papers. In the Daily News was the 
 following paragraph: ^'The Europeans fired from the windows, 
 killing many Arabs, who in their turn dealt terrible havoc among 
 the Europeans in the streets." Other papers contained state- 
 ments to the same effect. 
 
 When the European correspondents, who had come to Egypt 
 on the arrival of the fleets, arrived from Cairo, the riot was 
 quickly changed to a massacre, chargeable to Moslem fanaticism. 
 They even went so far as to charge upon Arabi Pasha, without 
 a shadow-reason, the inciting and organization of the mob. 
 
Riots of Alexandria 307 
 
 The European dead and wounded were taken to the European 
 hospitals. The natives immediately buried their dead and the 
 exact number was never given. 
 
 "'Accounts, a large part of which were due to the creative 
 imagination of the different correspondents, were published and 
 republished in England, on the Continent, and in the Egyptian 
 journals owned by Europeans until not only the people of Eng- 
 land and the Continent, but the mass of the European residents 
 of Egypt beUeved them to be true. The more intelligent Euro- 
 peans, who knew the facts, thought their interest would be 
 subserved by a foreign occupation and allowed the reports to 
 go without public contradiction. Thus is history made. \ 
 
 A w^eek after the riots, in a copy of one of the leading news- 
 papers of London, the writer read an entirely incorrect statement 
 of what was known to have taken place. Having become some- 
 what acquainted with the correspondent of that paper, he took 
 the liberty of criticising his statements. He asked him why he 
 had suppressed a part of the facts and characterized the riots 
 as a premeditated massacre of Christians by Mohammedans, 
 when he knew that they were commenced by an EngUsh subject 
 and that many more natives were killed than foreigners. The 
 correspondent was not in the least disturbed by the question 
 and coolly answered that he was in Egypt for a purpose and was 
 fulfilling the object of his mission. Then smiling and raising his 
 hands in the attitude of one holding and reading a newspaper 
 he jocosely added; ''I send a despatch to London every day. 
 The next morning the subscribers all over England read it over 
 their coffee with all the seriousness and confidence that they 
 read their Bible." ^ 
 
 ^ A few weeks later, the English army was in possession of Alexandria. 
 Arabi Pasha had erected earthworks at Kafr ed-Dawar, twelve miles inland 
 from Ramleh in the direction of Cairo. The English commander, probably 
 for the sake of getting information as to the character of these works, or, per- 
 haps, to keep up the idea that the invasion was to be made from this point, 
 
3o8 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 The published accounts and the information given by the 
 Consuls to their citizens that war was imminent, created general 
 alarm. Every train from the interior was crowded with Euro- 
 peans who took the first steamer for their country, or, in their 
 fright, sought refuge aboard some ship in the harbor. The courts 
 continued their work as long as suitors or their attorneys ap- 
 peared. Ships of war continued to arrive, until the harbor 
 presented an array of war engines such as is seldom witnessed. 
 Even the United States with its then very limited navy was 
 represented by four vessels. 
 
 Steamers of various nations were constantly coming and 
 going, generally sailing away loaded with refugees. French, 
 Italian, and Greek vessels, crowded with people of their own 
 
 sent one of his popular regiments on a reconnoissance. It crossed the grassy 
 marsh, then nearly dry, on the east of Lake Mareotis to the vicinity of the new 
 earthworks. Before its arrival within gunshot, the Egyptians commenced 
 firing. According to statements of persons who claimed to have witnessed 
 the movement, the soldiers suddenly broke their ranks and fled, returning 
 to camp without "formality in the order of their going." The correspondent 
 mentioned in the text immediately telegraphed to his paper in London an 
 account of this reported military exploit. 
 
 The next day a member of the English Parliament rose and asked if it were 
 true that the regiment mentioned had behaved badly. The representative 
 of the War Office replied that he had received no information of that character, 
 and would ascertain the facts. Inquiry was made by telegram and an answer 
 received denying the truth of what had been published. The English Admiral 
 immediately ordered the correspondent to leave the British lines within 
 twenty-four hours. As there was no other means of departure he was obliged 
 to take passage for England on a freight boat. The next week appeared in 
 Punch a cartoon, of which the harbor of Alexandria and the British ships 
 supplied the background, and which represented the British Admiral, a colossal 
 figure, as holding this correspondent by the back of the neck preparatory to 
 hurling him over the British lines. Thus one correspondent, who was "in 
 Egypt for a purpose," learned the difference, in results, between misrepresent,- 
 ing facts relative to those who have no one to protect them, and misrepre- 
 senting facts relative to those who have protectors. If he had reported 
 what he believed to be true, as is possible, his disillusion must have been 
 just so much the more bitter. 
 
Riots of Alexandria 309 
 
 nationalities, most of whom could not pay their transportation, 
 were lying at anchor in the harbor. There were then no docks 
 approached by steamers at which passengers could be landed 
 and embarked. Hence, the waters were covered with small 
 native boats going to and from the vessels, some of them rowed, 
 but most of them provided with sails of the Oriental type. The 
 boatmen who wore their native costumes, with the red tarboosh, 
 fez or turban, were all active and noisy. 
 
 Uniformed officers in their gigs, manned with sailors in cos- 
 tumes representing their nationality, were going to or coming 
 from the shore, or paying friendly visits to the officers of the 
 other vessels. The beautiful weather, the bunting displayed by 
 the numerous ships, the activity of the native boatmen, made 
 joyous by their increased business and indifferent to the future, 
 gave the whole scene the appearance of a gala-day without a 
 suggestion of impending disaster. It was the peaceful calm 
 before the awful storm of war. The city and the whole country 
 were as peaceful and quiet as the harbor. 
 
 / There was a serious attempt made at the time to obtain evi- 
 dence showing that Arabi Pasha was responsible for the riots 
 and that they were the result of plans prepared by him and his 
 associates. The English Government had political reasons for 
 wishing to establish some criminal acts against these parties. 
 It employed an attorney at Alexandria and obtained a mass of 
 unreliable and contradictory statements, principally from Mal- 
 tese and Greeks, without finding anything to prove that which 
 was desired. The attention of the British agents was particu- 
 larly directed, by a despatch from Lord Granville, to the ol> 
 taining of evidence implicating Arabi and those acting under 
 him. The task became hopeless and was abandoned.^ 
 
 The Egyptian Government desired a full and coniplete ex- 
 amination and formed a Commission of Inquiry. The English 
 attorney whom I have mentioned was designated by the Eng- 
 
3IO Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 lish Consul as a member of this commission to represent his 
 Government. As soon as this was known in London, Lord 
 Granville sent instructions to have the English representatives 
 ''hold themselves aloof from it." The French representative 
 also withdrew. Without the co-operation of these two Govern- 
 ments, nothing could be accomplished. Under the extraterri- 
 torial privileges enjoyed by foreigners in Egypt, they could not 
 be brought before the commission to testify nor could their 
 houses be searched for the property stolen during the riots with- 
 out the consent and co-operation of their Consuls. This con- 
 sent was refused. Thus all further inquiry was prevented by 
 Lord Granville. 
 
 L. There have never been any proofs that the riots were the 
 result of any previously prepared plans. The fact, however, 
 that such claims were made, the sudden discontinuance of all 
 investigation when it was found that no blame could be charged 
 to Arabi, and the refusal of the English Government to co- 
 operate with those who wished and had a moral right to have 
 the most searching inquiry made, left a suspicion in the minds 
 of many Englishmen that there were facts which their Govern- 
 ment desired to conceal. Lord Randolph Churchill prepared 
 papers which were presented to the English Parliament asking 
 further investigation. His Lordship's statements cast suspicion 
 upon an entirely different class of people than those desired to 
 be inculpated. 
 
 r"In a despatch of May seventh, 1882, Sir Edward Malet, the 
 English Diplomatic Representative in Cairo, wrote Lord Gran- 
 ville, the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, as follows: "I 
 believe that some complication of an acute character must 
 supervene before any satisfactory solution of the Egyptian 
 question can be attained, and that it would be wiser to hasten 
 it than retard it." This means, of course, "satisfactory" from 
 an English point of view. 
 
Riots of Alexandria 311 
 
 At this time, the National Party was in power. The govern- 
 mental proceedings were satisfactory to all, except the for- 
 eigners, who wished to govern the country wholly in their own 
 interest, and those who were in the employ of the foreigners or 
 who dared not do otherwise than obey their orders. There was 
 profound peace among the people in every part of Egypt. Yet 
 the English Consul at Alexandria was secretly arming the Maltese 
 Greeks and, through his advice, the Greek Consul was pursuing 
 the same course with his people. Thus the worst, the most dis- 
 orderly and dangerous class in Egypt were provided with the 
 means that gave to the riots their sanguinary character. 
 
 The British Admiral lent his aid and detailed an officer of 
 his squadron to assist in making plans and effecting an organiza- 
 tion. It does not appear that the French took any part in these 
 preparations, and the Austrian and ItaUan Consuls did not 
 become aware of the secret till the ninth of June, two days before 
 the riots. The matter was then brought to the knowledge of 
 the Consuls-General at Cairo. Sir Edward had been kept in- 
 formed of the action of the English Consul, but had up to this 
 time remained silent, {jf meeting of the Consuls-General was 
 held on the morning of the Simday of the riots. They were of 
 the opinion that the arming was a ^'most dangerous course and 
 likely at any moment in itself to cause a colUsion." This de- 
 cision was communicated to the EngHsh Consul at Alexandria 
 and two hours after its receipt the riots were at their fullest 
 intensity. 
 
 There is another peculiar fact. It is known that during the 
 riots the telegraph wires were busy with despatches between the 
 Governor of Alexandria, the squadron and consular authorities 
 and the Government at Cairo. None of these have been pub- 
 lished. Arabi was in council with Dervish Pasha, the special 
 Turkish Commissioner, and had no information of what was 
 taking place at Alexandria until the riots were ended. 
 
312 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 I was well acquainted for a number of years with Mr. Cook- 
 son, the English Consul at Alexandria. He was an honorable 
 man and I am certain did nothing except what he considered 
 his official duty. He could not do otherwise than view every- 
 thing from an English standpoint, that is, with an eye to English 
 interests. Whatever his intentions or those of other English 
 representatives may have been, there are certain conclusions 
 that are unavoidable to anyone personally familiar with the 
 facts, or who has carefully studied the official documents. 
 
 1. The riots were a great grief to Arabi and his friends. It 
 was for their interest that the most perfect order should be 
 maintained. This they well knew. 
 
 £]2. The riots were welcomed by those who desired foreign 
 military occupation. They were the ''complications of an 
 acute character" which in their opinion ''must intervene be- 
 fore any satisfactory solution of the Egyptian question could 
 be attained" and which "it was wiser to hasten than retard."" J 
 
 3. Whatever the object of arming the Maltese and Greeks 
 might have been, it is certain that if this did not actually cause 
 the riots it was the cause of their extremely bloody character. 
 
 The English and French fleets came to Egypt, as it was 
 claimed, to assure the maintenance of peace. Their presence 
 had created a condition wholly unexpected by France. She had 
 relied on securing her ends by diplomatic pressure and a simple 
 show of force. Thus far, her part had been played to satisfy the 
 bondholders of Paris, to maintain her prestige and prevent 
 England from obtaining a preponderance of influence in Egypt. 
 She had not intended to engage in any actual hostilities nor 
 could her Parliament be induced to authorize such action. Her 
 irreparable mistake had been made in instigating the dethrone- 
 ment of a strong, able ruler, and the putting in his place of one 
 who was only to obey the orders of comptrollers sent from Paris 
 and London. The sending of her fleet to Alexandria, though 
 
Riots of Alexandria 313 
 
 she had no intention of having it engage in operations, was an 
 unfortunate declaration on her part that coercion by force was 
 necessary. Her discomfiture was England's opportunity, and 
 it was hastily embraced. 
 
 When a nation is ready for war, and has in view a rich con- 
 quest, reasons for commencing hostilities are easily found. 
 Under a claim, denied by Arabi and the Khedive, that Arabi 
 was mounting additional guns in the forts, thus strengthening 
 his position and placing in jeopardy the British fleet in the 
 harbor. Admiral Seymour commenced hostile operations. 
 
 A month had passed since the riots, and during this time the 
 foreigners, wholly unmolested, had been leaving the country. 
 A demand was made for the surrender of the forts which was 
 not granted, and immediate preparations were made for the 
 bombardment. I had been frequently invited to go aboard 
 one of our vessels in the harbor, but had answered that when 
 notice of the expected commencement of hostilities was given I 
 would do so. Until then, I saw no reason for leaving the city. 
 
314 EgyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 BOMBARDMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 
 
 / Sunday forenoon, July ninth, I received information from a 
 private and confidential som'ce that notices of the bombard- 
 ment, to take place twenty-four hours later, would be printed 
 that night in different languages aboard the English Admiral's 
 ship and sent out early the next morning. 
 
 Just at dusk, I was taken to the Lancaster^ the flagship of 
 the United States Rear-Admiral, Nicholson. He was much 
 surprised at the information I gave him and doubted its cor- 
 rectness. He said he was in daily communication with the 
 British Admiral, and would certainly have been informed had 
 the time been set for the bombardment. He added: ^' You have 
 lived in the Orient long enough not to believe imauthorized 
 rumors." I answered that I was not at liberty to give him the 
 source of my information, but that he might rely on its being 
 correct. The commanders of the other American vessels were 
 summoned and came aboard the Admiral's ship. A consulta- 
 tion was held, but the Admiral remained unconvinced. I went 
 for the night on board the Galena and was afterwards trans- 
 ferred to the Quinnebaug. The Galena had been ordered away 
 and sailed on the morning of the bombardment. 
 ^"'At early dawn, orders came from Admiral Nicholson to ^'fire 
 up," and a few minutes later to ^'fire up quickly!" He had 
 received at midnight official information of the intended bom- 
 bardment. Going on deck I was greeted with an impressive and 
 
Bombardment of Alexandria 315 
 
 beautiful scene. We were lying in the capacious roadstead 
 opposite the Khedivial palace, Ras-et-Tin, a mile or more from 
 the ordinary landing. There was a very large number of vessels 
 in the harbor. Besides the ships of war, there were steamers, 
 sailing vessels from the different parts of the Mediterranean, 
 ships, schooners, sloops, fishing smacks and other small craft 
 in great numbers. Some were square rigged, others had long 
 lateen-sails. 
 
 Already, there was a line of sailing boats moving past us 
 toward the sea, each flying its national ensign. This continued 
 for several hours. The American vessels, though under steam, 
 remained till the arrival in the afternoon of the train bringing 
 from Cairo the American Vice-Consul General and his suite. 
 We then moved out of the harbor and anchored just behind the 
 English fleet as near as the Admiral thought it prudent. 
 
 Here we awaited the events of the morrow. Behind us were 
 the merchant vessels and warships of nearly all the neutral 
 European Powers. The French fleet had withdrawn and sailed 
 to Port Said. The light sea-breeze of the day had died away, 
 and as the sun disappeared its last rays were reflected by placid 
 waters. Sixty or seventy vessels were anchored a short dis- 
 tance from the low, sandy beach that lies along the margin of 
 the sea and separates it from the city. The city itself was then 
 in full view, quiet and peaceful. 
 
 1^ Who could tell what was to happen there, what scenes of 
 horror would be witnessed, when once its people should be 
 wrought to madness by the shrieking shells of a hostile fleet and 
 the slaughter of the innocent inhabitants? The submarine 
 cable was controlled by an English company, and the Egyptian 
 shore end had been removed to a vessel lying several miles out 
 at sea. During the night, the English fleet was throwing its 
 calcium lights along the shore defenses. 
 
 The sun rose the next day in a clear sky. It was one of 
 
3 1 6 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 Egypt's beautiful summer mornings. The shore was lined with 
 old fortifications, some of them dating from the time of Mo- 
 hammed-Ali. None of them were at all adapted to resist mod- 
 ern engines of war, nor to protect properly the men serving 
 the guns. Some of them were built of stone in such a manner 
 that it would be difficult to find a more dangerous place for a 
 soldier within reach of the shells of a well-equipped, modern 
 man-of-war. They proved veritable slaughter-houses. 
 
 Looking southward, we had, on our left. Forts Pharos and 
 Ada, the former on the site of the old Phare, once one of the 
 seven wonders of the world. On our right was the entrance 
 to the modern harbor, the new lighthouse and other fortifica- 
 tions. Far behind them, on a sHght elevation, appeared the 
 tall, granite column, known as Pompey's Pillar. Further east- 
 ward, in the background, was the doomed city. 
 
 The ancient Phare was at the east end of what was an island 
 when Alexander ordered the building of the city. This was the 
 place of entry to the Greek and Roman harbor. The new light- 
 house is at the west and close to the entrance of the modern 
 harbor. Near this were fortifications. There were still others 
 along the coast west of the entrance for a distance of six 
 miles. 
 
 Directly in front of us, cleared for action, was a modern fleet, 
 the most powerful ever assembled for hostile purposes up to 
 that time. There were eight ironclads and five wooden vessels. 
 They were placed in position at an early hour in the morning. 
 The Inflexible had a sandwiched armor of wood and iron, the 
 entire thickness of the plates of iron being from sixteen to 
 twenty-six inches, and the sandwiched wood from seventeen 
 to twenty-five inches. This ship was the largest man-of-war 
 that had then been built. It was armed with eighty-ton guns, 
 capable of throwing shells weighing seventeen himdred pounds 
 five miles. 
 
Bombardment of Alexandria 317 
 
 At precisely seven o'clock in the morning, a signal gun an- 
 nounced the commencement of the bombardment. The fire 
 was immediately returned from the forts. It had been ex- 
 pected by military experts that the guns of the Egyptians 
 would be silenced within an hour. It was thought that it would 
 not be possible for any troops, in such fortifications, to with- 
 stand, even for a short time, such a rain of bursting shells as 
 would be thrown upon them by the fleet. In a conversation 
 with General Stone, a few days previous, I asked him what 
 time would be required for the fleet to silence the guns of the 
 forts. After a few moments' reflection, he answered: "About 
 thirty minutes." All were disappointed. 
 
 During the whole day we heard only the deafening roar of 
 cannon, saw the bursting shells and the smoke of battle which 
 was driven inland by the sea-breeze and enveloped the city as 
 with a cloud. The thirteen vessels of war showered upon the 
 brave men at their guns in the forts exploding shells to the 
 number of over three thousand. The explosions could be dis- 
 tinctly seen and were eagerly watched from our ships. Occa- 
 sionally they burst prematurely high in the air; sometimes, just 
 above the heads of the Arabs in the forts, scattering their mis- 
 siles of death in every direction. Some entered deep into the 
 earth or the masonry and there exploded, sending up clouds 
 of dust and debris and leaving large craters. Some of these 
 craters were as deep as eight feet and sixteen feet and more 
 broad. Occasionally a shell passed over a fort and entered 
 the city. 
 
 The bravery of the Arabs at their guns greatly astonished 
 military men. Immediately after the clearing away of the 
 dust and smoke of a bursting shell that must have left all in 
 its vicinity torn in pieces, a little cloud of smoke from a gun 
 close by would show that the living were still at their post; j 
 
 During the day there were three explosions in the forts, 
 
3 I 8 l^gypt ^^^ its Betrayal 
 
 which we thought, at the time, were the powder magazines or 
 arsenals, throwing high in the air clouds of smoke and debris. 
 One of these explosions, at Fort Ada, silenced its guns and killed 
 nearly everyone in the fort, showing the utter inadequacy of 
 these old fortifications to withstand the force of great, modern 
 guns. All the guns of the fortifications were not silenced till 
 five o'clock in the afternoon, and the English did not cease 
 firing until six o'clock. The ships received a large number of 
 shots and were considerably, but not seriously, damaged. Their 
 number of killed and wounded was small, six killed and twenty- 
 seven wounded. The Admiral said in his report that it was 
 ^'impossible to account for the very small loss considering the 
 amount of shell and shot which struck them." There were 
 about fifteen hundred men in the forts, a large part of whom 
 died at their posts. 
 
 After the battle commenced, an occasional shell from the 
 forts passed the English ships and fell near us. About ten 
 o'clock we moved a little further out, but remained nearer to 
 the scene of action than any other of the unengaged ships. 
 
 The next morning, all was quiet and the English buried their 
 dead at sea. Two or three shells were fired into the forts, but 
 no reply was made. In the afternoon we saw a dense smoke 
 rising from the upper part of the town. This increased, and, 
 as the night came, we could see the flames gradually extending 
 over the European quarter, threatening the destruction of that 
 part of the city. All the next day and the following night the 
 burning district grew larger and larger. This part of the town 
 was owned principally by Europeans, but there were no soldiers 
 to land and save the property from destruction. During the 
 evening of the thirteenth a party of English were landed. They 
 did not enter the interior of the town, but took positions along 
 its southern side. 
 
 Friday forenoon (the fourteenth) the American Admiral tired 
 
Bombardment of Alexandria 319 
 
 of waiting and, without having received any communication 
 from the English, moved into the harbor in advance of any other 
 neutral ships. He soon afterwards sent one hundred and 
 seventy-five marines into the town to re-establish the American 
 Consulate, and do what they could to arrest the destruction 
 of the fire. This was done at the request of the English Admiral 
 and with the consent of the Khedive, who had then returned 
 to his palace, Ras-et-Tin. In the morning, some English marines 
 had taken possession of the inner forts and some of the gates 
 of the walled city. Though the town had been abandoned by 
 the Egyptian soldiers since Wednesday forenoon, the English 
 did not enter its interior until Saturday, the day after our little 
 band had established its quarters and raised the American flag 
 at the upper end of the Place Mohammed-Ali. 
 
 I also entered the town on Saturday. A large part of the 
 European quarter was a mass of burning ruins. The streets 
 which the fire had not reached were like those of Pompeii in 
 their solitude. The shops had been pillaged and there was 
 scarcely a person to be seen. For two days after the local 
 authorities had been driven away by the shells of the fleet, the 
 city had been wholly in the hands of thieves. The result was 
 what might have been expected, but no worse than it would 
 have been in London or New York. Drive the local authorities 
 from either of these cities, and a swarm of pillaging thieves and 
 robbers would fill the streets in an hour. 
 
 The heart of the town could only be approached by circuitous 
 routes. The walls of the buildings were generally high and 
 three feet thick, made of rough stone and mortar, bound to- 
 gether with wood and plastered inside and out. The mass 
 of ruins was therefore so great that it covered the ground ten 
 and fifteen feet deep and filled even wide streets. Miles of great 
 blocks had been destroyed, and the fire was still spreading. 
 Fortunately, from the amount of stone, cement and mortar 
 
3 20 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 used in every part of the buildings, and the small amount of 
 wood, they were what were termed ^'slow burners." 
 
 The Palace of Justice, the American Consulate and a con- 
 siderable number of other buildings were saved by our marines, 
 who were commanded by Lieutenant-Commander, now Rear- 
 Admiral, Casper F. Goodrich, from the flagship, Lancaster. 
 There were a few unexploded shells lying in the streets, and 
 marks of others in the remaining buildings. According to the 
 official reports, about two hundred of the unarmed inhabitants 
 were killed by these stray shells and the fragments of others. 
 It was afterwards shown that fires were set by the evacuating 
 troops. It is probable that others were caused by the shells. 
 It is known that an adjoining dependence of the palace Ras-et- 
 Tin was thus set on fire. 
 
 A visit to the forts after the bombardment showed the terri- 
 ble ordeal to which the Egyptian soldiers had been subjected 
 in these open, unprotected fortifications. No words can paint 
 the scenes. The dismounted guns and shattered walls, with 
 the debris of bursted shells and broken stones scattered over 
 the entire inner surface of the forts, were such as to render it 
 apparently impossible for anyone to have escaped this holocaust 
 of death. The appearance of Fort Ada, where the explosion of 
 the magazine ^'caused the retreat of the remaining garrison," 
 as the English Admiral laconically puts it, was the most ap- 
 palling. Apparently, there could have been no one left living 
 to have retreated. Shells and their fragments and debris of 
 all kinds were thrown broadcast in such quantities, in every 
 direction, as to have rendered it almost impossible for anyone 
 to have escaped. 
 
 Notwithstanding this condition, I find in the account of a 
 military writer the following^ ''The English, while surprised 
 by the tenacity of their opponents, were the first to confess 
 that men of a stamp at all similar to their own would have 
 

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Bombardment of Alexandria 321 
 
 accepted the gage thrown down the next day, and have renewed 
 the fight." The men for the most part were either dead, or 
 hors de combat. If there had been fifteen hundred more Egyptian 
 artiller3'Tnen that could have been used, and they had been 
 placed on the morrow in these open slaughter pens, to a large 
 extent dismantled, they would have been sacrificed as the first 
 fifteen hundred had been. And to what purpose? There is 
 no doubt as to the bravery of the English troops, but when 
 and where have they stood at their guns to be slaughtered as 
 these men were? If there had been the least hope of final suc- 
 cess, even greater sacrifice might have been justified. 
 
 Nearly all the business part of the city had been burned,'^ 
 and the part that had escaped the flames had been pillaged. 
 There was much discussion at the time as to who was account- 
 able for this appalling disaster. Admitting, as claimed, that 
 the principal part of the damages were caused by the officers 
 of the defeated Egyptians and native thieves and robbers, 
 who was responsible for creating the conditions that permitted 
 these acts? In other words, who was responsible for the non- 
 landing of men to take possession of the city when it was 
 evacuated? If it was for want of men, who was responsible 
 for the commencement of hostilities without a force ready to 
 land? There were English troops both at Cyprus and at Malta 
 and only a very small body of men would have been required. 
 Four days' delay would have been ample time in which to make 
 all necessary preparations. 
 
 Even admitting that England was justified in the military 
 occupation of Egypt, admitting that she would have been for 
 this purpose justified in taking forcible possession of Alexandria, 
 even then, there was no justification for the bombardment at 
 the time, and in the manner it was executed. I never heard 
 an Englishman attempt its justification. Even those who at- 
 tempted an apology admitted it was a mistake. I have heard 
 
322 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 English officers, both of the navy and army, speak of it as a 
 lamentable military error to have commenced the bombard- 
 ment without an adequate landing force. Some of the army 
 officers attributed it to the ambition of the Admiral and his 
 desire to connect his name with an historical event, and give 
 his arm of the service a part of the glory of a conquest that he 
 knew was about to be made. There is only one other possible 
 explanation, and that is that the English authorities hastened 
 the event in order to have a fait accompli, fearing political com- 
 plications. 
 
 A few words will explain the situation. The eyes of the 
 world were, from the first, designedly kept fixed upon Alexan- 
 dria, as the official reports afterwards published show, although 
 England had no intention of entering Egypt by that city. How 
 long the plan for the invasion of Egypt had been under con- 
 sideration we do not know. That it had been perfected in all 
 its details eight days before the bombardment appears from 
 published official papers. Egypt was to be seized by an in- 
 vasion by the way of the Suez Canal. 
 
 A force of about twenty thousand men was to enter at Port 
 Said. Another division was to be brought from India and enter 
 at Suez. These were to meet at Isma'iliya near the center of 
 the canal. After an expected easy victory in the vicinity of 
 Tell el-Kebir, on the eastern edge of the cultivated lands, a 
 hasty cavalry expedition was to be made to Cairo before the 
 defeated Egyptians had time to re-form. This was precisely 
 what happened two months later, as soon as the troops could 
 be forwarded. When there is only a shadow of armed resist- 
 ance it is easy to form military plans and carry them out to 
 the letter, as in a sham battle. 
 
 At the date mentioned, plans had been made even as to the 
 means of transport across the desert from the canal to Tell 
 el-Kebir and, along the desert, to Cairo. Proposals were made 
 
 jflH 
 
Bombardment of Alexandria 323 
 
 for the purchase of one thousand mules in America for imme- 
 diate shipment. Secret orders were given to officers and a long 
 list of details arranged. Sir Archibald Alison left England for 
 Cyprus to take charge of the troops to be landed there and 
 organized for sailing to Port Said. 
 
 In all these multitudinous military preparations, made previ- 
 ous to the bombardment at Alexandria, no mention is made 
 of any expected co-operation by the French. Their fleet re- 
 mained at Alexandria with that of England, up to the time 
 notice was given of the bombardment, without any apparent 
 want of harmony. The military preparations were secret, and 
 it was evident that England had for a considerable time known 
 through secret agents, if not otherwise, that the French Parlia- 
 ment would not authorize any military hostilities.^ 
 
 She seized with avidity the opportunity offered to disem- 
 barrass herself of an alliance that had long been a source of 
 annoyance. The opportunity for which she had long watched 
 and waited had arrived. Egypt was to be hers without any 
 participation in its Government by the French. It may be that 
 fear of some new turn or complications in the negotiations with 
 the French hastened the commencement of an actual occupa- 
 tion. In that case, the premature bombardment, causing one 
 of the greatest disasters of the nineteenth century, may have 
 been the result of direct orders from London. The reasons 
 given to the public at the time for the bombardment were: 
 that the English, by means of their calcium lights, had dis- 
 covered that the Egyptians were strengthening their positions 
 
 * It would appear from the official despatches afterwards pubhshed that 
 France had no official information of the plans and intentions of the EngUsh. 
 On the day of the bombardment, Lord Lyons, the English Ambassador at 
 Paris, by order of Lord Granville, stated to M. de Freycinet, the French Minis- 
 ter of Foreign Affairs, that " the bombardment was considered as a legitimate 
 act of defense and that there was no hidden purpose {arrDre pensie) on the 
 part of the British Government." 
 
324 Egyp^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 in the forts; that they had mounted one or more additional 
 cannon; that the Admiral had informed his Government of the 
 facts claiming that his fleet was endangered; and that, on these 
 representations, he had obtained permission to take the forts 
 if he thought it necessary. The Egyptian Ministry denied this 
 statement, and even offered to permit the dismounting of two 
 cannon for every one claimed to have been mounted. The 
 reasons assigned were too ludicrous to merit a moment's con- 
 sideration. They evidently had no influence in determining 
 the plan of the Admiral. He well knew that anything that the 
 Egyptians could do in strengthening their position would not 
 have a feather's weight in determining the results of any attack 
 on the fortifications. He also knew that there was no intention 
 or disposition on their part of commencing hostilities. 
 
After the Bombardment 325 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 AFTER THE BOMBARDMENT 
 
 The return of the refugees who had been driven inland by 
 the bombardment was a melancholy drama. It was under- 
 stood, even by the well informed, that only the forts were to 
 be attacked, and that the only danger in remaining in any part 
 of the city not in their immediate vicinity would be from the 
 aroused frenzy of the natives. 
 
 Of the two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, it is 
 probable that not more than sixty thousand had left when the 
 explosion of the first great shell awakened those remaining from 
 their phlegmatic indifference. A large majority had believed that 
 nothing serious would happen. Had not the impregnable stone 
 forts and the old cannon with which they were manned pro- 
 tected them from hostilities since the childhood of the oldest 
 inhabitant? Why should they fear now? Would not the 
 soldiers in the fort sink the English fleet or drive it from their 
 shores? 
 
 It was not till the stray shells commenced falling in their 
 midst that the great mass of the lower class realized their dan- 
 ger. Then their flight commenced and soon became general. 
 Many, even in this hour of terror, clung to and carried away 
 with them their scanty possessions. Lake Mareotis bounds 
 Alexandria on the south. On the west, a long, narrow beach 
 separates the lake from the sea. The most practical route of 
 scape for the fleeing multitude — ^men, women and children — 
 
326 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 was eastward toward, or south of, Ramleh, a small suburb, 
 built on the desert, near the sea. In this direction many thou- 
 sands sought a place of safety. 
 
 Troops began to arrive from Cyprus on Monday, six days 
 after the bombardment. When outposts had been established 
 and a force received sufficient to police the city, messengers in-, 
 formed the refugees, who were encamped on the sands, that they 
 could safely return. They eagerly sought their homes, miserable 
 though they were. Entering the city by the Rosetta or Ramleh 
 gate, they passed down a broad street filling it from side to side 
 for hours. It was a constant stream of impoverished humanity. 
 All were poorly and scantily clad and begrimed with dirt and 
 dust. The natives were barefooted and barelimbed; the women 
 bore their infants in their arms, while their half-naked children 
 trudged at their sides; men and women, old and young carried 
 such effects as they still possessed. Occasionally one of the 
 more well-to-do had a donkey, a poor horse, or a buffalo cow 
 on whose back the burdens were packed. There were also a 
 few creaking vehicles loaded with personal effects. Such was 
 the motley mass passing down the streets, still smoking with 
 burning ruins, to their own quarter of the town. Fortunately, 
 the fire had done little damage in that part of the city, but it 
 had been pillaged of whatever was of sufficient value to tempt 
 thieves. 
 
 The Khedive remained at his palace in Ramleh, outside but 
 near the southeastern part of the city, during the bombard- 
 ment, and returned to Ras-et-Tin early in the morning of the 
 day of the landing of the American marines. General Stone, 
 keeping his solemn promise made to the ex-Khedive, Ismail 
 Pasha, that he would remain with and be true to his son, did 
 not leave him during these trying days. 
 
 In an interview that I had with his Highness soon afterwards, 
 he stated that he had ordered Arabi not to permit the English 
 
After the Bombardment 327 
 
 to land and he seemed, by his conversation, to censure him 
 because he had been unable to execute his orders. He added: 
 "As the representative of the Sultan, it is my duty to defend 
 the country and I cannot voluntarily surrender the least particle 
 of territory." 
 
 All the talk afterwards heard charging Arabi with the in- 
 tention of injuring him was pure fiction. If anything of this 
 kind could have been proved, he would have been hung instead 
 of being banished. His Highness gave me a detailed account 
 of what actually took place. Arabi wished the Khedive to 
 retire inland and remain there and sent officers to accompany 
 him. This would have increased largely the prestige of the 
 National Party. The same reasons made his possession by the 
 English desirable. They tried to have him go, as he stated to 
 me, on board of one of their vessels before the bombardment. 
 This he declined to do, preferring to remain with his people. 
 
 Whether his Highness really expected Arabi to be successful 
 in the defense of the country may never be known. That he 
 wished it is certain. He could easily have managed Arabi, but 
 he well knew, being advised by good counsellors, that England's 
 hand once closed upon Egypt would never be opened. When 
 he saw that further resistance was hopeless, he gave himself 
 up as the only means of saving his viceroyalty with its semblance 
 of power. From that time until his death he had no alternative 
 but to execute the will of his captors. The alleged treason of 
 Arabi consisted solely in disobeying the Khedive's orders when 
 the latter was virtually a prisoner. 
 
 After the arrival of the English fleet in the month of May, 
 Arabi and his Ministry, on the demand of the English, resigned. 
 At the request of the Austrian, German and Italian Diplomatic 
 Representatives, Arabi was reappointed by the Khedive and 
 retained in power till after the bombardment. The English 
 then made strenuous efforts, both at Constantinople and in 
 
328 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 Egypt, to have him officially declared a traitor. This, in their 
 opinion, was necessary in order to keep up the fiction that they 
 were the friends of the Khedive and had come to his support. 
 There were important political reasons of an international char- 
 acter why the (Government should be continued in the name 
 of his Highness. If Arabi could be thus disgraced, it would 
 also tend to aid in the execution of the military plans that had 
 been formed. Up to this time he had acted, in opposing the 
 English, in obedience to the orders of both the Sultan and the 
 Khedive. The facts were so well known that the Khedive 
 hesitated to comply with the anomalous demands made upon 
 him. 
 
 The mission of the fleet, as claimed, was to restore the full 
 authority of the Khedive and assure the peace of the country 
 which, up to the time of its arrival, had not been disturbed. 
 To be more explicit, the English came ostensibly as friends of 
 his Highness to aid him against the influence of Arabi and the 
 National Party. The Khedive ordered Arabi to fire upon these 
 friends and their ships, in case of their aggression, and not to 
 allow them to land upon the soil of Egypt. Arabi tried to the 
 best of his ability to execute these orders. He did as well as 
 any General could have done with the means he possessed, and 
 much better than any military judge thought possible. The 
 forts were destroyed, the artillerymen were killed and, as an 
 incident of the war, the city was burned, in the defense of the 
 country against the friends of the Khedive! The ironclads and 
 the eighty-ton guns were the stronger and Arabi was obliged to 
 yield to the inevitable. 
 
 Whatever the facts, the Khedive could not long resist the 
 demands of those into whose hands he had fallen, and retain 
 even a semblance of his sovereignty. Finally, some ingenious 
 person prepared for him the following most remarkable proclama- 
 tion and he had only to issue it and send it out to his people: 
 
After the Bombardment 329 
 
 "Let those who read this Order know the cause of the dis- 
 missal of Ahmed Pasha Arabi, and for the edification of all, 
 thl? is truth. 
 
 ^' After ten hours of bombardment our fortifications were anni- 
 hilated, 400 of our cannons destroyed, and the greater part of our 
 artillerymen killed or disabled, while the English fleet had only 
 lost five men, and its vessels had undergone no serioas damage. 
 
 '' Ahmed Pasha Arabi then came to as at the Palace of Ramleh 
 10 announce the painful news of the destruction of our forts. 
 
 "On his side the Afimiral of the English fleet Wl demanded 
 of us the ' evacuation of the forts of El-Adjemi, of Dekhile, and 
 of Mex, for them to be occupied by his troops.' The Council 
 of Ministers assisted by his Excellency Dervish Pashia, having 
 also assembled, it was decided that the forts could not be sur- 
 rendered without the express order of his Imperial Majesty the 
 Sultan, and that on the contrary it was necessary to provide 
 for their defense by reinforcing the garrlsoris to oppose a dis- 
 embarkation of foreign troop?. At the same time a telegraphic 
 despatch was addressed to the Sublime Porte. 
 
 "But Arabi Pastia then repaired to the Ptosetta Gat€ at 
 Alexandria, without taking any military measure. I had Mm 
 followed by one of my Aidas-de-camp to remind him that he 
 should send reinforcements to the positiorLS agreed upon. 
 
 "Arabi Pasha aaswered that he could not send a single soldier; 
 he ordered the troops to retire with him, and repair to Kafr 
 ed-Dawar, thas leaving the town deprived of defenders. 
 
 "The next day the English troops disembarked at Alexandria, 
 the most important point of our country, and took pc^session 
 of the town without a single shot having been fired, a fact which 
 would dishonor the Egyptian Army if the ineffaceable shame 
 did not wholly fall on tiirn who had the command— on Arabi 
 Pasha." ' 
 
 I Translated from the Arabic. 
 
3 30 l^ypt '*^^^^^ i^^ Betrayal 
 
 This proclanuitioii, to those jicqiiaintcd with the facts, was 
 a most extraordinary aiul even hulicroiis tlocumcnt. But it 
 was thawii for Ihe class of people ainong whom it was to be 
 circulatcul and vvjis thought by those then in control to be a 
 clever means of discrediting Arabi among the mass of ignorant 
 Egyptians. This class had believed in the invincibility of the 
 old guns of the fortilications. They also believed in the in- 
 fallible authority of the Khedive. To have him charge upon 
 Arabi the res[)onsibility of the failure of sinking the Knglish 
 vessels or driving them from their shores was regarded as a 
 crushing blow to his prestige. It wjis also a justification of the 
 Khedive and would render him a more useful instrument in 
 governing the country. 
 
 The incoming steamers gradually brought back the foreign 
 residents, and the city again showed some signs of life. Many 
 of the streets were wholly obstruct etl by the dSris of the burned 
 buildings, and others were rendered dangerous by the falling 
 walls. The Hotel de I'lOurope, to which 1 had removed before 
 the bombardment, had been burned with my books and other 
 effects. The building where I had previously resided in the 
 u{>per part of the city luul been taken as quarters for English 
 otlicers. Fortunately, I found for occu[)ation poor rooms in a 
 native building near the edge of the water of the old eastern 
 harbor, that of the Ptolemies and Romans. 
 
 Many clerks and other employees of the courts remained or 
 soon returned. All the judges except myself were absent dur- 
 ing the summer. While charged with all the responsibilities, 
 my duties were only administrative. No one attempted any 
 judicial proceedings. Arabi had withdrawn to Kafr ed-Dawar, 
 a point on the railroad to Cairo just beyond Lake Mareotis, 
 seventeen miles distant. 
 
 Outposts were established about the city and the war vessels 
 remained in the harbor, but all olTensive military movements 
 
After the Bombardment 331 
 
 were temporarily .suspended, ft was the opinion of military 
 experts at that time, that a v(;ry small arrriy of well (iisciplined 
 sokJiers coulcJ easily march to ('airo or any othcjr f>lace in I.ower 
 I^4^yi)t. The English, however, were not ready to ex(;cijt^3 the 
 plans tfiat had been matured in London by Sir Oarnrit WoLseley. 
 These plans were to givci T^ngland an of)portunity of sliowing 
 lOurope that in an (emergency it liad other sources than the 
 British Islands from wljich to draw troops. 
 
 It was known that thc^re would be no serioios fighting ancJ 
 thought to be perfectly safe and a fine stroke of policy to exhibit 
 the native Indiarj forces cornmanrJed by English officers. The 
 English fiave ever since congratulated themselves on tfie clever 
 manner in which they were enabled to show their vast military 
 resources. On the arrival of ilntyjt trorjps and otfjers from 
 Ivjgland, the Suez Canal was used as a military base. Although 
 M. de Lcsseps then fiad full authority over the canal, his pro- 
 tests and strenuous opposition were of no avail. It was simply 
 a question of rrjilitary power, of an anny and a navy. It will 
 be the sarrje with the Panama Canal in time of w^ar. Its posses- 
 sion and use will depend upon our ability to hold it against all 
 adversaries. 
 
 Arabi sent one of his officers to Tell el-Keblr to erect fortifica- 
 tions, that being considered the most available point of entry 
 from the canal. He could easily have blocked the canal, but, 
 relying upon the promises of M. rie Lesseps, he left it open for 
 the entry of the hostile forces until it was too late. After the 
 surrender of the Khedive, many of the native officers Uigan to 
 provide for their future. The officer in charge at Tell el-Keblr 
 communicated with the authorities at Alexandria through the 
 fanjily of General Stone and arrangerl to desert his post instead 
 of pushing the work assigned fiim. He escaped by the way of 
 the Suez Canal, giving the English full knowledge of the condi- 
 tion of the fortifications. 
 
33 2 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 There were only about eight thousand drilled native troops 
 in Arabi's army. These were mostly stationed at Kafr ed- 
 Dawdr and at Rosetta and Damietta, the present mouths of 
 the Nile. The other Egyptian soldiers were either old men, 
 or undrilled fellahin, ten thousand of whom could be put to 
 flight by a thousand well drilled troops. The so-called battle 
 of Tell el-Kebir gave Sir Garnet Wolseley a peerage. Yet com- 
 pared with the great battles that have been fought in Europe, 
 Asia and America during the last fifty years, it was, on the part 
 of the English, a mere skirmish. There were great gaps in the 
 fortifications through which the cavalry could ride, and, though 
 there were two lines of earthworks, cannons had been mounted 
 only in one. 
 
 A march was made for a considerable distance across the 
 desert in a very ^^dark night," and the attack made in a mist at 
 early dawn. No outposts were found, and the march was wholly 
 unobstructed. So still and successful was this movement, and 
 so utterly surprised were the Egyptians, that som.e of the 
 English troops commenced mounting the parapets before a gun 
 was fired. Then, for a few minutes, there was a desultory fire 
 by the suddenly awakened Arabs in the darkness, still so great 
 that it was difficult to distinguish friend from foe. Arabi was 
 awakened by the noise of the guns, but, before he was dressed, 
 his soldiers were in full retreat. ^'They threw away their arms 
 and begged for mercy," according to the English official report. 
 
 In this battle, lasting but a few minutes, the English lost in 
 killed, including officers that afterwards died of wounds, fifty- 
 eight. The Egyptians, according to the best information at- 
 tainable, lost twenty-two hundred killed and a great number 
 died afterwards from wounds. The English approached and 
 entered the works, according to the commander's orders, with- 
 out firing a gun. Considering these circumstances and the 
 short time of any resistance, it is not surprising that the English 
 
After the Bombardment 333 
 
 official published reports are ominously silent as to the native 
 losses. It was a slaughter, rather than a battle. 
 
 Most of the natives then at Tell el-Kebir were unarmed 
 fellahin. They were brought there in great numbers to con- 
 struct earthworks in the same manner that they were accus- 
 tomed to be summoned to dig and clean the irrigating canals 
 under the system known as the corvee. In such cases, they slept 
 at night on the ground at the place of their work, having at 
 most a blanket for protection. At the time of the English 
 attack, thousands of these unarmed natives were lying asleep 
 on the ground where they had been at work the previous day. 
 These were indiscriminately slaughtered, along with the fleeing 
 soldiers, by the Indian troops. 
 
 An English officer who was in the action of Tell el-Kebir 
 stated to me, in explanation of this affair, that some of the 
 Indians having been wounded, these troops became maddened, 
 and that before the officers could get them under control the 
 lamentable work had been done. This was undoubtedly true. 
 No English officer of the present day would have willingly per- 
 mitted such a slaughter. It was simply a case of "letting 
 loose the dogs of war." It was an unexpected object lesson 
 for Christian Europe of the result of using soldiers of this 
 class. 
 
 After Tell el-Kebir, all open opposition to the English oc- 
 cupation ceased, and the seat of Government was again trans- 
 ferred to Cairo. As a guard of honor, a body of Indian cavalry 
 was brought to Alexandria and used in escorting the Khedive 
 to the station. Well mounted and attired in their gay, native 
 uniforms, they made a pleasing picture. This display was 
 designed to further impress Europeans, as well as natives, with 
 an idea of the Empire's great reserve force in the heart of India. 
 As the Khedive rode, thus escorted, beside Sir Edward Malet, 
 the English Diplomatic Agent and Consul-General, along the 
 
3 34 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 principal street lined with people, there was no applause, no 
 manifestation of joy. 
 
 During the summer and fall, the permanent military occupa- 
 tion of the country was well established and, from that time, 
 there has been abject submission. The Khedive is required, as 
 a condition of retaining his position, to sign such papers as are 
 prepared for him. This he is expected to do without criticism 
 or comment, as a military subaltern executes the orders of his 
 superiors. A mild attempt, some years ago, of the present 
 young Khedive to exercise some of the prerogatives of a sov- 
 ereign was summarily suppressed by the English authorities.* 
 
 Immediately after the taking of Alexandria, there were serious 
 complaints by its European residents on account of their losses, 
 caused by the bombardment and subsequent burning and pillage 
 of the city. 
 
 The Khedive issued a decree making these losses a charge 
 upon Egypt. What else could he do? It has become almost a 
 principle of international law that the conquered shall be charged 
 with the cost of the conquest. The losses incurred at Alex- 
 andria were only an incident in the war. In actions between 
 litigants in our courts, the party failing is generally charged 
 with the cost of the proceeding on the ground that he was wrong 
 
 * A story was lately current in Egypt of another instance of a little insub- 
 ordination. It shows the precise situation. According to the account, Lord 
 Cromer went to the palace, Abdin, with some document that required the offi- 
 cial signature of the Khedive. The contents of the paper were not agreeable 
 to his Highness and he indulged in some criticisms. Finally, he asked, " What 
 if I do not affix my signature?" "Ceylon, your Highness" replied the real 
 ruler of Egypt. This was the island to which Arabi and his associates were 
 banished and where they were held in captivity many years. Still hesitating, 
 the Khedive added " What if I still disregard what you say and refuse to sign?'* 
 There was a body of English soldiers then drilling on the large square in front 
 of the palace. A military force is always near by and ready at a moment's 
 call. Lord Cromer invited the Khedive to accompany him to the window and 
 silently pointed to the soldiers. The document was signed and the incident 
 closed. 
 
After the Bombardment 335 
 
 in his pretensions. Among nations, might practically makes 
 right. Consequently, the weaker must pay the cost of failure. 
 
 Negotiations between the Powers were instituted, which re- 
 sulted in an agreement for an International Commission of In- 
 demnities. Its members were appointed by the different Gov- 
 ernments, and their labors commenced the following winter. 
 There were in all eleven commissioners, two from Egypt, one 
 from each of the seven Great Powers, one from Greece, on ac- 
 count of the number of its claims, and one representing the other 
 Powers of the second class. The writer was designated by Presi- 
 dent Arthur as the commissioner from the United States. 
 
 The claims were so numerous that their examination was 
 necessarily summary. They numbered over ten thousand. 
 To have examined them minutely and taken evidence, as in an 
 American court of claims, would have required many years. 
 The proceedings were, however, very similar to those of the 
 French courts in the trial of a civil action, except that the at- 
 torneys did not appear in person, but submitted their observa- 
 tions in writing. No oral testimony was taken and the sessions 
 of the Commission were secret. Full justice could not be ex- 
 pected as a result of work of such summary character. The 
 claimants, however, demanded speedy adjudications; saying 
 that one-half of the amounts of their losses paid without a long 
 delay and used in rebuilding or re-establishing their business 
 would be preferable to the whole paid many years later. 
 
 The parties submitted detailed, verified claims, accompanied 
 by affidavits and certificates of persons claiming to have knowl- 
 edge of the facts. Their attorneys added brief statements sum- 
 marizing the proofs and giving their conclusions as to the 
 amounts to which their clients were entitled. In the cases of 
 buildings destroyed, the opinions of experts, builders, contract- 
 ors and architects were added. The writings thus produced 
 formed what the French call a dossier. This was submitted to 
 
3 3^ ^SyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 the attorneys of the Government, who examined the papers and 
 added their opinions and conclusions. In this form, each claim 
 was brought before the Commission, which appointed committees 
 among which the work was divided. 
 
 The dossiers were divided among the members of the com- 
 mittees for examination, and, after such examination, reports 
 were made to the whole committee, by which they were adopted, 
 modified or rejected. On one day of each week, the whole Com- 
 mission met and received the reports of the committees. These 
 reports were generally adopted without dissent, but, in the more 
 important cases, there was often a divergence of opinion and 
 sometimes long and animated discussions. 
 
 The Commission finished its work in eleven months, having 
 examined and made final decisions on the ten thousand claims 
 presented, allowing on them over twenty milUons of dollars. 
 It was the intention to render as small awards as the facts would 
 permit. Few claims were wholly rejected, but nearly all were 
 very much reduced, and, in some cases, but a small part was 
 allowed. In the uncertainty surrounding a large part of the 
 claims, the Egyptian Government was given the benefit of all 
 doubts, and it is probable that the total amount awarded was 
 not very much more than half the aggregate of the actual losses. 
 
The Future of Egypt 337 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 THE FUTURE OF EGYPT 
 
 What is to be the future of Egypt? is a question often asked. 
 Politically, the countries bordering upon the Nile, from the 
 Mediterranean to the great lakes of Central Africa, will remain 
 practically English provinces as long as England holds India and 
 her other colonial acquisitions, and is able, as at present, to 
 maintain naval supremacy. 
 
 In a conversation with Sir Edward Malet, just before leaving 
 the hotel to board an American vessel, on the eve of the bom- 
 bardment, he stated to me that, were it not for the Suez Canal, 
 they would be out of Egypt within twenty-four hours. That 
 was probably, at the time, the sentiment of the English Cabinet 
 with Gladstone at its head. It would be different to-day, even 
 if there were no canal. A valuable territorial acquisition once 
 made is never abandoned by England. As long as she holds 
 Gibraltar, she w ill hold Egypt. ' 
 
 The control of The Suez Canal is to her of the most vital im- 
 portance. In case of an international war, it would be one of 
 her most effective aids. She secured its control for less than 
 $20,000,000. The Panama Canal, though of less national im- 
 portance to us, will cost $200,000,000. Each is of very great 
 value, both commercially and for strategic purposes. Neither 
 Government will yield these acquired rights so long as they hold 
 their present advanced position among the great world Powers. 
 
 Why does not England abandon all disguise and make Egypt 
 
33^ -'^SyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 an English province instead of governing the country by an 
 illusory, advisory system? 
 
 Primarily; because it is easier to govern the people through the 
 Khedive, one of their own language and religion. They regard 
 him as their legitimate and rightful sovereign and respect his 
 authority, even more than we do that of the President. They 
 know that a foreign Power occupies the country and that the 
 Khedive must conform to its wishes. They believe that he does 
 many things that are not in accordance with his desires, but 
 they are ever hopeful of an end of the foreign domination. 
 
 The English are careful to make the Khedive and his family 
 adequate pecuniary allowances and to have him surrounded 
 with the pomp that gives him the appearance of a real sovereign. 
 By thus maintaining his Highness's prestige, the country can be 
 governed principally by natives, necessitating only a small force 
 of English soldiers. The real governing power, claiming to act 
 only as advisory, in this way escapes the responsibility of its 
 own acts and policies, which it would not always wish to assume. 
 The Khedive, in theory, is the absolute ruler, making and en- 
 forcing all the laws. All decrees are issued and orders given in 
 his name. Under his supposed authority, the natives quietly 
 submit to burdens that would otherwise be endured only by 
 the application of military force. When in Upper Egypt, some 
 years since, I had a conversation relative to the land-tax with a 
 native living between Luxor and the First Cataract. He was the 
 owner of what was considered a large tract of land in that very 
 narrow and thickly settled valley. He informed me that the 
 tax had been so high that it left very little or nothing for him; 
 but that the Khedive had been up the river, and, after a personal 
 investigation, had reduced the tax in that section, having found 
 it too high. This man was only a fellah, but one of the most 
 prominent where he resided. He had a son who had been well 
 educated, and yet both were under the delusion that the Khedive, 
 
The Future of Egypt 339 
 
 of his own will, as former Egyptian rulers had done, could change 
 the amount of the land-tax. This manner of maintaining the 
 Khedive's prestige with his own people is certainly very adroit 
 and only persons who had had long experience in the govern- 
 ment of the Indian provinces would be able to produce and 
 maintain such a delusion through a series of years. 
 
 If England should make Egypt one of her provinces, it would 
 still be subject to the debts which she has sanctioned and which 
 are due largely to English people. It would also be subject to 
 the tribute to Turkey which virtually belongs to English bankers. 
 
 There are also reasons of an international character for con- 
 tinuing this advisory system of government. England has twice 
 promised to withdraw its military forces, one promise having 
 been made by the Liberals, when in power, and the other by 
 the Conservatives. Though the question of the permanent oc- 
 cupation may be considered as settled by the long, silent ac- 
 quiescence of the Powers, they have never given their formal 
 consent. France still has her claims, though recent negotiations 
 indicate that they have to a large extent been abandoned, in 
 exchange for a ''free hand " and English support in Morocco. 
 
 All of the Christian Powers have extraterritorial rights which 
 led to the formation of the International Courts. Some of the 
 Powers would yield these only under great pressure. 
 
 The rights of the Sultan must also be considered. His Maj- 
 esty is, by the admission of all the Powers of Europe, the real 
 sovereign of Egypt. His authority is at present only nominal, 
 but the assumption of sovereignty by England would be an in- 
 fringement upon his prerogatives likely to produce lasting 
 feelings of hostility. 
 
 In her policy of shutting Russia up among the icefields of 
 the north, England will always have need of the Sultan's aid 
 in keeping the Dardanelles closed. In case of the serious war 
 with that Power, which, for two generations, has been the con- 
 
340 EgXP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 tinuous nightmare of the English statesman, his Sublime Maj- 
 esty, if so disposed, might make a religious appeal. eH could 
 thus easily arouse the millions of Mussulmans in India, who 
 acknowledge him as their Khalif , the successor of Mohammed, the 
 head of Islam. Unless some satisfactory agreement can be made 
 with the Porte for the transfer of the sovereignty of Egypt, its 
 present form of government will probably continue indefinitely, 
 even if all other political difficulties should be removed. 
 
 What will be the future condition of the people of Egypt? 
 That of the working classes, who constitute the great mass of 
 the population, will remain substantially what it now is, what 
 it has been as far back as our knowledge extends. In this con- 
 dition there has been little change for centuries, and there will 
 be little for centuries to come. The land is being rapidly ac- 
 quired by foreigners. English companies and individuals are 
 already the owners of large tracts. But, whoever owns the soil, 
 European, Turk or native, the condition of those who till it, 
 dig and clean the canals, maintain the Nile levees, and perform 
 the immense amount of labor required by the necessity of irri- 
 gation, will not be materially changed. 
 
 The rough and, sometimes, cruel modes of government of 
 ancient rulers have been and are being ameliorated, as in other 
 countries. But the people receive such a pittance for their 
 labor that substantial improvement either in mental culture, 
 or in the conditions of living is impossible. They earn from ten 
 to fifteen cents a day, and are employed only a part of the year. 
 This is more than they formerly received, but the cost of living 
 is proportionally still higher. They provide their own food and 
 that of their families. Under these conditions, there is nothing 
 in reserve for them but ignorance, the mud hut or pen, and the 
 scantiest possible quantity, that will maintain their physical 
 being, of the coarsest food. 
 
 The abofition of the corvSe under the late Khedive, Tewfik 
 
The Future of Egypt 341 
 
 Pasha, was a step in the right direction, much to be commended. 
 The system had outhved the time of its necessity. The labor of 
 cleaning the canals and repairing the Nile levees is so great that 
 up to a very recent period it is doubtful whether it could have 
 been accomplished otherwise than by the corvee, which was a 
 form of taxation upon the masses. Neglect or delay of this 
 work would have been disastrous. The water controlled in the 
 river and distributed by the canals is the life of Egypt. 
 
 Under the corvee system, the people of the fellah-villages along 
 the lines of the numerous canals were compelled to perform the 
 work, necessary in their vicinity, without pay, as road work is 
 done in some parts of the United States. The manner of living 
 during the continuance of this labor was not materially different 
 from that to which they were accustomed. According to our 
 ideas of hving, it was a great hardship. As compared with theirs, 
 the difference was not as great as that between the Hfe of our 
 soldiers in time of peace and that of civilians. 
 
 The debt of Egypt is practically what it was twenty-five years 
 ago and there are political reasons why it will not be the policy 
 of the English Government to have it materially lessened. The 
 debt was the alleged cause of their coming and it will be a con- 
 tinuous alleged reason for remaining. Some of the lands and 
 other properties, gifts to the state made by the Khedive, Ismail 
 Pasha, have been sold and the proceeds applied to the debt. 
 Other habilities have been incurred, through the losses at Alex- 
 andria, the war in the Sudan and various public improvements. 
 The dam at Assuan and the barrage at Assuit have added 
 S800,000 to the amount of annual taxation for thirty years. 
 The high rate of interest has been very materially lessened, but 
 this interest, the tribute to Turkey and the expensive Enghsh 
 occupation and administration foot up so great a total that the 
 working class will remain in a state of poverty. The land- 
 holders, in consequence of the reduction of the interest to a more 
 
342 -^gyP^ ^"^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 reasonable rate, are in a better condition than formerly and, by 
 obtaining the labor of the people at the small sum now paid, they 
 are able to realize fair revenues on the capital invested. 
 
 The common laboring fellah will continue in the future, as 
 in the past, what he is often called by the higher classes, both 
 European and native, 'Hhe beast of burden." The useful don- 
 key, which he overloads and goads to his work, lives in a con- 
 dition but little lower. In saying this, it is not intended to cen- 
 sure the present rulers, nor to charge these conditions to them. 
 They certainly cannot be rightfully accused of being in Egypt 
 on any benevolent, humanizing, civilizing or Christianizing 
 mission. Their Government is there because it believes the com- 
 mercial and political welfare of the Empire demands it; its citi- 
 zens, official and unofficial, are there, for their individual in- 
 terests. 
 
 Lord Cromer's administration has been the best it could be, 
 considering the conditions under which it was commenced. 
 To him, too much praise cannot be accorded. But he and his 
 official sucessors must continue to exact from the people the an- 
 nual payment of the tribute to the bondholders and to Turkey. 
 His administration has been in reality a personal government. 
 Its success depended upon his good intentions and personal 
 ability. Will England find a second Lord Cromer? The question 
 of the sovereignty of Egypt is still open and the eyes of Europe 
 are fixed upon the administration of its Government. It is cer- 
 tainly in the interest of England that this administration should 
 be the best that can be attained, not only for political but also 
 for commercial reasons. That the latter are not neglected, was 
 tersely expressed to me by an Egyptian Pasha holding an official 
 position when I was last in Egypt. He said: ''The English gov- 
 ern well, but they govern for themselves." It is England who 
 is to reap the harvest. Unless the land is well tilled, the sheaves 
 all collected and the grain carefully garnered, the large amount 
 
The Future of Egypt 343 
 
 required to satisfy the claims cannot be realized. But however 
 good the intentions, the attempt to make any very material 
 change in the condition of the fellahin mth the debt that has 
 been imposed upon them unpaid, would be hopeless. Their 
 condition might be ameliorated if the country could be relieved 
 of its unjust burdens, but the improvement of the mass of the 
 laboring people would not be very marked. It is only by long 
 and continued observation that the real situation can be under- 
 stood. 
 
 In the United States, with its sparse population, its vast 
 extent of fertile lands, its rich and exhaustless mines, life is, or 
 should be, easy. Certainly material and mental advancement 
 are within the grasp of all, and have become the ruling passions 
 of the people. Egypt, not including the Sudan and the Central 
 African provinces and including only its productive lands, is 
 a very small country surrounded by sea and desert. Its re- 
 sources are in the soil. It contains a little less than 6,000,000 
 acres of productive land. Its debt is $450,000,000 or $75 on 
 each acre. If we capitaHze the tribute of $3,500,000 paid to 
 Turkey at the rate of three and a half per cent, another 
 $100,000,000 will be added to the interest-bearing debt, making 
 in all $90 on each acre. This is virtually a mortgage of $9,000 
 on each hundred acres of land, the interest on which must 
 be paid semi-annually. The population of Egypt proper is 
 now said to be 10,000,000. Thus, each 100 acres must sustain 
 166 persons, pay the interest on $9,C00 and the expenses of the 
 Government, including those of the cities, schools and the foreign 
 occupation and administration. How much can remain for 
 those who till the soil? 
 
 The fine new hotels, the increase of facilities for luxurious 
 living and the passing of a pleasant winter in the capital, or 
 up the river, in the society of educated, agreeable people and 
 polite English officers, charm the traveler. He is informed by 
 
344 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 an abundant English literature and verbal statements that there 
 is a wonderful transformation in Egypt. He repeats it to hia 
 friends and makes it the basis for articles in newspapers, maga- 
 zines and books. Rarely do any of these travelers enter a 
 fellah-hut or make any examination as to the real condition of 
 this class. 
 
 The same effect was produced on the traveler by the won 
 derful transformation due to Ismail Pasha, which caused his 
 praises to be proclaimed throughout Europe. But neither the 
 marvelous improvements he made, nor anything that has been 
 accomplished by his successors, has materially changed the con- 
 dition of the fellahin. You will find them, if you wish to make 
 the examination, living in the same mud huts, in the same 
 miserable condition as of yore. The conditions were even more 
 favorable for the people under the reign of Ismail Pasha, up to 
 the time of the financial crisis, than they have been at any time 
 since. Money was then flowing into the country in abundance 
 both from the sale of produce and the proceeds of loans. This 
 money was expended among the people in the extensive im- 
 provements that have been mentioned. Since that time, there 
 has been a constant stream flowing outward, going to Europe, 
 which has required all the resources of the country. 
 
 Whether living in better or worse conditions, the Egyptians 
 would be happier under native rulers of their own religion than 
 under any foreign power. European Governments are more 
 regular than any native Government would be. But their 
 system of taxation, as applied to all non-Christian colonies, is a 
 mill cleverly adjusted to the producing capacities of the country. 
 Its motion never ceases. It grinds closely and takes all the 
 flour. For those who, by their toil, produce the wealth of the 
 country, there remains only a scanty part of the products of 
 the soil. There is for them no opportunity for accumulation 
 and, with a failure of crops, comes starvation. 
 
The Future of Egypt 345 
 
 There is no better government for English people than that 
 of England, whether in England or in colonies occupied by her 
 own people. But that of her colonies, in which the people are 
 non-Christian natives who can never be Anglicized, is purely 
 arbitrary and military. The native, except to a very limited 
 extent in certain cities, has no voice in it, nor is he allowed to 
 hold any commanding position, civil or military. His treat- 
 ment depends upon the character of those placed over him. If 
 it happens to be a Lord Cromer, he has a good master; but it 
 is always a master, and he is kept in abject submission by mili- 
 tary force, whenever there is need of it, and is always governed 
 as an inferior being. 
 
 On the first establishment of the Anglo-French control, a 
 number of Englishmen of long experience in India were brought 
 to Egypt to occupy the principal governmental positions. 
 After the military occupation was effected, a native army was 
 organized with English officers, as in India, but without carry- 
 ing out the complete system that has been adopted in that 
 country. England has created in India what may be termed 
 a mifitary aristocracy and, by it, governs the country. The 
 common English soldier in India becomes a person of impor- 
 tance. He has more servants than a major-general in our army. 
 He has a cook, a man to wash and keep his clothes in order, men 
 to black his shoes, to keep him fanned, while he sleeps, with the 
 punkah, and to wait upon and serve him in every menial capac- 
 ity. If he is a cavalryman, his horse is fed and groomed by a 
 servant. In this manner, the idea of the superiority of the white 
 man is maintained. 
 
 The same system is adopted among the native soldiers which 
 form the bulk of the army. Natives are permitted to hold 
 subaltern positions, but they cannot command an Englishman. 
 The EngUshman, however low his official position, outranks any 
 native. Subaltern natives also have their retinues of servants, 
 
346 ^gyP^ ^^^ ^^^ Betrayal 
 
 but their number is not as great as those of the English. Even 
 the common native soldier has his servants, and his pay is so 
 much higher than the ordinary wages of the country, that it 
 gives him a position far above any class of laborers. He is a 
 piivileged person. "Once in the service, he does not wish to 
 abandon his position. Thus, the soldiers become an aristocratic 
 caste, domineering over the mass of the people and ruling the 
 country in the most arbitrary manner. They are his Majesty's 
 soldiers and, anything that they or their superiors need, they 
 believe they have the right to take without waiting for any 
 formality in the manner of taking. 
 
 Many years ago I was dining at his residence with a retired 
 English army officer, who had been long in the military service 
 in India and bore the title of '^ General." There were a number 
 of invited guests, all English but myself. The conversation 
 turned upon India and the Sepoy War, and the General related 
 some of his experiences. He was present on one of the occasions 
 when Sepoy prisoners were bound to the mouths of cannon and 
 blown into fragments. He said: ^' I was then a lieutenant. The 
 commanding officer stated to me in the morning that I might 
 see blood during the day. I did not know what he meant. We 
 were ordered out and my place was beside a cannon, and the 
 blood flew over me, staining my clothing." After relating vari- 
 ous details connected with this execution he remarked em- 
 phatically, ''Well, we have got their claws cut and intend to 
 keep them cut." On inquiry being made as to what he meant 
 by this expression, he answered, ''We have got them so poor, 
 and we intend to keep them so poor that they cannot rebel." 
 
 It must not be inferred that this officer was in any sense a 
 brutal man or devoid of feelings of humanity. I knew him well 
 and he was a kind, humane, gentleman, and I am sure would 
 not have knowingly wronged anyone. He was simply a typical 
 Englishman and saw everything through English eyes, with a 
 
The Future of Egypt 347 
 
 view to English interest. From his standpoint, and in accord- 
 ance with his education, wherever the English flag had been 
 raised, rightfully or wTongfully, there the authority of the 
 Queen's Government was supreme. Anyone who opposed it 
 was a traitor, an outlaw, who had forfeited his right to life. It 
 was right, and a proper regard for English interests required, 
 that his punishment should be made an example to deter others 
 from acts of rebellion. 
 
 The success in keeping the Indians poor is shown by the 
 poverty famines that have lately become so frequent and ex- 
 tensive. In the productive years, the produce is taken away 
 to pay the taxes. ^^Hienever there is a short crop, there is no 
 money with which to buy food. The vigorous, young and middle 
 aged men wander away and generally find means of subsistence. 
 The old, the weak, the decrepit and many women and children 
 perish. In a cold, economical point of view there is no loss. 
 It is the nonproducing class that disappears by thousands. 
 The Hon. Wm. J. Bryan in an article on the ''British Rule 
 in India," published in the Commoner, July 6, 1906, says: ''The 
 poverty of the people of India is distressing in the extreme; 
 millions live on the verge of starvation all the time, and one 
 would think that their very appearance would plead success- 
 fully in their behalf." Yet these starving millions pay annually, 
 for the privilege of being governed by Christians, a hundred 
 million dollars for the army and fifteen million dollars for the 
 civil service employed in keeping them from rebelHon. England 
 has taken from this country, in the last one hundred and fifty 
 years, thousands of millions of pounds. She is still, according 
 to the best English authorities, taking from these poor people, 
 over and above all expenses, thirty million pounds sterling 
 annually to be added to the enormous wealth she has already 
 accumulated from this country. 
 
 Mr. Bryan says that several times while in India he "heard 
 
348 Egypt and its Betrayal 
 
 the plague referred to as a providential reniedy for over-popu- 
 lation." He does not mention the famines as being thus re- 
 garded. 
 
 The English, not being in Egypt tor the benefit of the Egyp- 
 tians, cannot be expected to govern otherwise than for English 
 interests. The population, however, as compared with that of 
 India is small and there are several English military stations 
 not far distant. Considering the peaceable character of the 
 people and the other conditions, it will never be necessary to 
 resort to the extraordinary means of government adopted in 
 India. It is probable that the best possible government will be 
 given them under the conditions that have been imposed. This 
 is for England's interest. Otherwise, such large sums could not 
 be annually taken from the country. Certainly it will not be 
 necessary to take any extraordinary methods to keep the masses 
 in poverty. The fixed charges by which the country's resources 
 are taken to Europe will inevitably lead to that result. Fortu- 
 nately, droughts and years of failure of food supplies are rare. 
 It has been over a quarter of a century since the last famine in 
 Egypt. 
 
 Whatever the conditions, Egypt will always have men of 
 wealth. There will be prosperous and rich merchants and bank- 
 ers in Alexandria, and a very limited number in other cities. 
 Among these, there will be a few natives, but much the larger 
 number will be Europeans and Syrians. There will also be a 
 few rich, native landowners whose property has been kept intact 
 through all the financial vicissitudes which the country has 
 experienced. 
 
 The very richness of the soil of Egypt seems to be its greatest 
 misfortune. It is said that when the Persians became a power- 
 ful people they proposed to their King, Cyrus, to leave their 
 small rugged country, and occupy some of the fertile neighbor- 
 ing regions. The King consented, but "warned them to prepare 
 
The Future of Egypt 349 
 
 henceforth, not to rule, but to be ruled over," adding "that 
 delicate men spring from delicate countries, that it is not given 
 to the same land to produce excellent fruits and men valiant in 
 war." The Persians, acting on the advice of the King, remained 
 in their ancestral homes, " preferring to live in a barren country, 
 and to command, rather than to cultivate fertile plains and be 
 the slaves of others." ^ We have a marked exemplification of 
 the wisdom of the ancient ruler in the government to-day of 
 three hundred and fifty-six millions of alien races by thirty-five 
 millions of people inhabiting England and Scotland. 
 
 The people of Egypt, during a large portion of their history 
 since the Persian invasion, have been slaves to foreign domina- 
 tion. They are peaceful and love a quiet life. Their rich fields, 
 in the future as in the past, will attract the cupidity of the 
 foreigner. Besides the many political advantages accruing from 
 its occupation, twenty-five million dollars can be annually 
 abstracted from this country. It is now the ruling principle 
 of the Great Powers of Europe by the allotment of "spheres of 
 influence" or by direct partition, according to interests ac- 
 quired or claimed, to divide among themselves the territory of 
 such non-Christian countries as are unable to defend their rights 
 successfully. Under these conditions, it cannot be expected that 
 Egypt will not remain in the control of or be allotted to one of 
 the greater of these Powers. Whoever shall be their masters, 
 English, French or Turk, the great mass of the people, the labor- 
 ing classes of Egypt will continue to be bondmen, occupying the 
 richest and most productive land in the world, but living in 
 poverty, destitution and squalor. 
 
 iHer. IX, 122. 
 
5 
 
( OCT 1958