This morning about 5 o’clock the welcome daylight began to make its appearance. I had passed an uncomfortable night attempting to sleep without success, suffered some degree of annoyance from the attacks of certain little creatures which prey on human blood. However fortunately for me I do not suffer much from these creatures.The ladies complained grievously both of these and of the mosquitoes, and the poor baby gave very visible evidence of their attacks on its face: fortunately however for the little creature the bites did not inflame or swell. I went on deck, found it chilly, but gladly waited the rising of the sun: the water of the canal was low and during the night we had exchanged the steam tug for 5 or 6 horses, which carried us along at the rate of about 4 miles an hour. The chiefs of the boat appeared to be Frenchmen the subordinates were natives; two or three of these sat on the bow of the boat on the look out, and all the night added to the dismalness of the entertainment by a continual shouting addressed to the drivers of the horses, the conductors of the other vessels on the canal, or the steersman of our own boat. Two of these men were deficient in the last two joints of the forefinger of the right hand, an intentional amputation to disqualify them from being taken as soldiers. We subsequently observed that many of the boys in Egypt had lost and eye, in many cases I was told this also was done intentionally with the same object.
The rising sun brought us light and more slowly heat, and revealed what was to be observed on the banks of the canal. From the flatness of the country the view was very limited; frequently the banks concealed everything else from our view, occasionally however we caught glimpses of the corn fields. Every now and then we passed natives walking along the banks apparently on their way to their labours. Not very long after day had commenced we passed some objects on the banks which attracted my attention, and the nature of which I did not at once make out. They appeared to be erections composed of dried mud, of somewhat circular form and flat on the top; it was observed that there were generally one or two small openings in each of them, and then the fact dawned upon me that they were dwelling places for the inhabitants. As we proceeded and day advanced we passed more of these, and had evidence of what they were, by observing men, women and children, as well as dogs and cattle loitering about them or going in and out of them...
...About midday we arrived at a place in which the canal passed down an avenue of graceful trees for some distance, at the termination of which was a lock, which we passed through and found ourselves on the Nile. A number of boats of various sizes were lying there alongside of one of the largest of which ours was brought, and into which the passengers with their carpet bags were immediately transferred. The remainder of the luggage had, I believe, been carried by camels to the canal where we started from and conveyed to the Nile in another boat; it was all transferred to the Nile boat here and deposited in the hold or upon desk. This vessel was a steamer of very considerably larger size than that we had left, but the accommodation similar though not quite so confined. We immediately proceeded at a pretty rapid rate up the river, there being a pretty strong breeze blowing which kept down the temperature...
...Meals were provided on board in rather better style than the canal boat, and thus the passengers passed the afternoon mostly on deck, till a beautifully clear starry evening replaced the day, inducing many to remain on deck as long as possible- till late at night. Feeling chilly at length I descended to the saloon and there attempted to sleep away the feeling of discomfort, until about 2 o’clock in the morning I heard the welcome intelligence that we were approaching Boulaq, the port of Cairo.
The full journal will soon be published by Annet House Museum, Linlithgow. Waldie's journey to India forms key feature of the museum's Waldie exhibition.
No comments:
Post a Comment