Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile/Volume 1/Book 1/Chapter 2

by James Bruce

 

 

CHAP. II.

 

Author's Reception at Cairo—Procures Letters from the Bey and the Greek Patriarch—Visits the Pyramids—Observations on their Construction.

 

It was in the beginning of July we arrived at Cairo, recommended to the very hospitable house of Julian and Bertran, to whom I imparted my resolution of pursuing my journey into Abyssinia.

 

The wildness of the intention seemed to strike them greatly, on which account they endeavoured all they could to persuade me against it, but, upon seeing me resolved, offered kindly their most effectual services.

 

As the government of Cairo hath always been jealous of this enterprise I had undertaken, and a regular prohibition had been often made by the Porte, among indifferent people, I pretended that my destination was to India, and no one conceived any thing wrong in that.

 

This intention was not long kept secret, (nothing can be concealed at Cairo:) All nations, Jews, Turks, Moors, Cophts, and Franks, are constantly upon the inquiry, as much after things that concern other people's business as their own.

 

The plan I adopted was to appear in public as seldom as possible, unless disguised; and I soon was considered as a Fakir, or Dervich, moderately skilled in magic, and who cared for nothing but study and books.

 

This reputation opened me, privately, a channel for purchasing many Arabic manuscripts, which the knowledge of the language enabled me to chuse, free from the load of trash that is generally imposed upon Christian purchasers.

 

The part of Cairo where the French are settled is exceedingly commodious, and fit for retirement. It consists of one long street, where all the merchants of that nation live together. It is shut at one end, by large gates, where there is a guard, and these are kept constantly close in the time of the plague.

 

At the other end is a large garden tolerably kept, in which there are several pleasant walks, and seats; all the enjoyment that Christians can hope for, among this vile people, reduces itself to peace, and quiet; nobody seeks for more. There are, however, wicked emissaries who are constantly employed, by threats, lies, and extravagant demands, to torment them, and keep them from enjoying that repose, which would content them instead of freedom, and more solid happiness, in their own country.

 

I have always considered the French at Cairo, as a number of honest, polished, and industrious men, by some fatality condemned to the gallies; and I must own, never did a set of people bear their continual vexations with more fortitude and manliness.

 

Their own affairs they keep to themselves, and, notwithstanding the bad prospect always before them, they never fail to put on a chearful face to a stranger, and protect and help him to the utmost of their power; as if his little concerns, often ridiculous, always very troublesome ones, were the only charge they had in hand.

 

But a more brutal, unjust, tyrannical, oppressive, avaricious set of infernal miscreants, there is not on earth, than are the members of the government of Cairo.

 

There is also at Cairo a Venetian consul, and a house of that nation called Pini, all excellent people.

 

The government of Cairo is much praised by some. It may perhaps have merit when explained, but I never could understand it, and therefore cannot explain it.

 

It is said to consist of twenty-four Beys; yet its admirers could never fix upon one year in which there was that number. There were but seven when I was at Cairo, and one who commanded the whole.

 

The Beys are understood to be vested with the sovereign power of the country; yet sometimes a Kaya commands absolutely, and, though of an inferior rank, he makes his servants, Beys or Sovereigns.

 

At a time of peace, when Beys are contented to be on an equality, and no ambitious one attempts to govern the whole, there is a number of inferior officers depending upon each of the Beys, such as Kayas, Schourbatchies, and the like, who are but subjects in respect to the Beys yet exercise unlimited jurisdiction over the people in the city, and appoint others to do the same over villages in the country.

 

There are perhaps four hundred inhabitants in Cairo, who have absolute power, and administer what they call justice, in their own way, and according to their own views.

 

Fortunately in my time this many-headed monster was no more, there was but one Ali Bey, and there was neither inferior nor superior jurisdiction exercised, but by his officers only. This happy state did not last long. In order to be a Bey, the person must have been a slave, and bought for money, at a market. Every Bey has a great number of servants, slaves to him, as he was to others before; these are his guards, and these he promotes to places in his household, according as they are qualified.

 

The first of these domestic charges is that of hasnadar, or treasurer, who governs his whole household; and whenever his master the Bey dies, whatever number of children he may have, they never succeed him; but this man marries his wife, and inherits his dignity and fortune.

 

The Bey is old, the wife is young, so is the hasnadar, upon whom she depends for every thing, and whom she must look upon as the presumptive husband; and those people who conceal, or confine their women, and are jealous, upon the most remote occasion, never feel any jealousy for the probable consequences of this passion, from the existence of such connection.

 

It is very extraordinary, to find a race of men in power, all agree to leave their succession to strangers, in preference to their own children, for a number of ages; and that no one should ever have attempted to make his son succeed him, either in dignity or estate, in preference to a slave, whom he has bought for money like a beast.

 

The Beys themselves have seldom children, and those they have, seldom live. I have heard it as a common observation, that Cairo is very unwholesome for young children in general; the prostitution of the Beys from early youth probably give their progeny a worse chance than those of others.

 

The instant that I arrived at Cairo was perhaps the only one in which I ever could have been allowed, single and unprotected as I was, to have made my intended journey.

 

Ali Bey, lately known in Europe by various narratives of the last transactions of his life, after having undergone many changes of fortune, and been banished by his rivals from his capital, at last had enjoyed the satisfaction of a return, and of making himself absolute in Cairo.

 

The Port had constantly been adverse to him, and he cherished the strongest resentment in his heart. He wished nothing so much as to contribute his part to rend the Ottoman empire to pieces.

 

A favourable opportunity presented itself in the Russian war, and Ali Bey was prepared to go all lengths in support of that power. But never was there an expedition so successful and so distant, where the officers were less instructed from the cabinet, more ignorant of the countries, more given to useless parade, or more intoxicated with pleasure, than the Russians on the Mediterranean then were.

 

After the defeat, and burning of the Turkish squadron, upon the coast of Asia Minor, there was not a sail appeared that did not do them homage. They were prope ly and advantageously situated at Paros, or rather, I mean, a squadron of ships of one half their number, would have been properly placed there.

 

The number of Bashas and Governors in Caramania, very seldom in their allegiance to the Port, were then in actual rebellion; great part of Syria was in the same situation, down to Tripoli and Sidon; and thence Shekh Daher, from Acre to the plains of Esdraelon, and to the very frontiers of Egypt.

 

With circumstances so favourable, and a force so triumphant, Egypt and Syria would probably have fallen dismembered from the Ottoman empire. But it was very plain, that the Russian commanders were not provided with instructions, and had no idea how far their victory might have carried them, or how to manage those they had conquered.

 

They had no confidential correspondence with Ali Bey, though they might have safely trusted him as he would have trusted them; but neither of them were provided with proper negotiators, nor did they ever understand one another till it was too late, and till their enemies, taking advantage of their tardiness, had rendered the first and great scheme impossible.

 

Carlo Rozetti, a Venetian merchant, a young man of capacity and intrigue, had for some years governed the Bey absolutely. Had such a man been on board the fleet with a commission, after receiving instructions from Petersburgh, the Ottoman empire in Egypt was at an end.

 

The Bey, with all his good sense and understanding, was still a mamaluke, and had the principles of a slave. Three men of different religions possessed his confidence and governed his councils all at a time. The one was a Greek, the other a Jew, and the third an Egyptian Copht, his secretary. It would have required a great deal of discernment and penetration to have determined which of these was the most worthless, or most likely to betray him.

 

The secretary, whose name was Risk, had the address to supplant the other two at the time they thought themselves at the pinnacle of their glory; over-awing every Turk, and robbing every Christian, the Greek was banished from Egypt, and the Jew bastinadoed to death. Such is the tenure of Egyptian ministers.

 

Risk professed astrology, and the Bey, like all other Turks, believed in it implicitely, and to this folly he sacrificed his own good understanding; and Risk, probably in pay to Constantinople, led him from one wild scheme to another, till he undid him—by the stars.

 

The apparatus of instruments that were opened at the custom-house of Alexandria, prepossessed Risk in favour of my superior knowledge in astrology.

 

The Jew, who was master of the custom-house, was not only ordered to refrain from touching or taking them out of their places (a great mortification to a Turkish custom-house, where every thing is handed about and shewn) but an order from the Bey also arrived that they should be sent to me without duty or fees, because they were not merchandise.

 

I was very thankful for that favour, not for the sake of saving the dues at the custom-house, but because I was excused from having them taken out of their cases by rough and violent hands, which certainly would have broken something.

 

Risk waited upon me next day, and let me know from whom the favour came; on which we all thought this was a hint for a present; and accordingly, as I had other business with the Bey, I had prepared a very handsome one.

 

But I was exceedingly astonished when desiring to know the time when it was to be offered; it not only was refused, but some few trifles were sent as a present from the secretary with this message: "That, when I had reposed, he would visit me, desire to see me make use of these instruments; and, in the mean time, that I might rest confident, that nobody durst any way molest me while in Cairo, for I was under the immediate protection of the Bey."

 

He added also, "That if I wanted any thing I should send my Armenian servant, Arab Keer, to him, without troubling myself to communicate my necessities to the French, or trust my concerns to their Dragomen."

 

Although I had lived for many years in friendship and in constant good understanding with both Turks and Moors, there was something more polite and considerate in this than I could account for.

 

I had not seen the Bey, it was not therefore any particular address, or any prepossession in my favour, with which these people are very apt to be taken at first sight, that could account for this; I was an absolute stranger; I therefore opened myself entirely to my landlord, Mr Bertran.

 

I told him my apprehension of too much fair weather in the beginning, which, in these climates, generally leads to a storm in the end; on which account, I suspected some design; Mr Bertran kindly promised to sound Risk for me.

 

At the same time, he cautioned me equally against offending him, or trusting myself in his hands, as being a man capable of the blackest designs, and merciless in the execution of them.

 

It was not long before Risk's curiosity gave him a fair opportunity. He inquired of Bertran as to my knowledge of the stars; and my friend, who then saw perfectly the drift of all his conduct, so prepossessed him in favour of my superior science, that he communicated to him in the instant the great expectations he had formed, to be enabled by me, to foresee the destiny of the Bey; the success of the war; and, in particular, whether or not he should make himself master of Mecca; to conquer which place, he was about to dispatch his slave and son-in-law, Mahomet Bey Abou Dahab, at the head of an army conducting the pilgrims.

 

Bertran communicated this to me with great tokens of joy: for my own part, I did not greatly like the profession of fortune-telling, where bastinado or impaling might be the reward of being mistaken.

 

But I was told I had most credulous people to deal with, and that there was nothing for it but escaping as long as possible, before the issue of any of my prophecies arrived, and as soon as I had done my own business.

 

This was my own idea likewise; I never saw a place I liked worse, or which afforded less pleasure or instruction than Cairo, or antiquities which less answered their descriptions.

 

In a few days I received a letter from Risk, desiring me to go out to the Convent of St George, about three miles from Cairo, where the Greek patriarch had ordered an apartment for me; that I should pretend to the French merchants that it was for the sake of health, and that there I should receive the Bey's orders.

 

Providence seemed to teach me the way I was to go. I went accordingly to St George, a very solitary mansion, but large and quiet, very proper for study, and still more for executing a plan which I thought most necessary for my undertaking,

 

During my stay at Algiers, the Rev. Mr Tonyn, the king's chaplain to that factory, was absent upon leave. The bigotted catholic priests there neither marry, baptize, nor bury the dead of those that are Protestants.

 

There was a Greek priest,^[1] Father Christopher, who constantly had offered gratuitously to perform these functions. The civility, humanity, and good character of the man, led me to take him to reside at my country house, where I lived the greatest part of the year; besides that he was of a chearful disposition, I had practised much with him both in speaking and reading Greek with the accent, not in use in our schools, but without which that language, in the mouth of a stranger, is perfectly unintelligible all over the Archipelago.

 

Upon my leaving Algiers to go on my voyage to Barbary, being tired of the place, he embarked on board a vessel, and landed at Alexandria, from which soon after he was called to Cairo by the Greek patriarch Mark, and made Archimandrites, which is the second dignity in the Greek church under the patriarch. He too was well acquainted in the house of Ali Bey, where all were Georgian and Greek slaves; and it was at his solicitation that Risk had desired the patriarch to furnish me with an apartment in the Convent of St George.

 

The next day after my arrival I was surprised by the visit of my old friend Father Christopher; and, not to detain the reader with useless circumstances, the intelligence of many visits, which I shall comprehend in one, was, that there were many Greeks then in Abyssinia, all of them in great power, and some of them in the first places of the empire; that they corresponded with the patriarch when occasion offered, and, at all times, held him in such respect, that his will, when signified to them, was of the greatest authority, and that obedience was paid to it as to holy writ.

 

Father Christopher took upon him, with the greatest readiness, to manage the letters, and we digested the plan of them; three copies were made to send separate ways, and an admonitory letter to the whole of the Greeks then in Abyssinia, in form of a bull.

 

By this the patriarch enjoined them as a penance, upon which a kind of jubilee was to follow, that, laying aside their pride and vanity, great sins with which he knew them much infected, and, instead of pretending to put themselves on a footing with me when I should arrive at the court of Abyssinia, they should concur, heart and hand, in serving me; and that, before it could be supposed they had received instructions from me, they should make a declaration before the king, that they were not in condition equal to me, that I was a free citizen of a powerful nation, and servant of a great king; that they were born slaves of the Turk, and, at best, ranked but as would my servants; and that, in fact, one of their countrymen was in that station then with me.

 

After having made that declaration publicly, and bona fide, in presence of their priest, he thereupon declared to them, that all their past sins were forgiven.

 

All this the patriarch most willingly and chearfully performed. I saw him frequently when I was in Cairo; and we had already commenced a great friendship and intimacy.

 

In the mean while, Risk sent to me, one night about nine o'clock, to come to the Bey. I saw him then for the first time. He was a much younger man than I conceived him to be; he was sitting upon a large sofa, covered with crimson-cloth of gold; his turban, his girdle, and the head of his dagger, all thick covered with fine brilliants; one in his turban, that served to support a sprig of brilliants also, was among the largest I had ever seen.

 

He entered abruptly into discourse upon the war between Russia and the Turk, and asked me if I had calculated what would be the consequence of that war? I said, the Turks would be beaten by sea and land wherever they presented themselves.

 

Again, Whether Constantinople would be burned or taken?—I said, Neither; but peace would be made, after much bloodshed, with little advantage to either party.

 

He clapped his hands together, and swore an oath in Turkish, then turned to Risk, who stood before him, and said, That will be sad indeed! but truth is truth, and God is merciful.

 

He offered me coffee and sweatmeats, promised me his protection, bade me fear nothing, but, if any body wronged me, to acquaint him by Risk.

 

Two or three nights afterwards the Bey sent for me again. It was near eleven o'clock before I got admittance to him.

 

I met the janissary Aga going out from him, and a number of soldiers at the door. As I did not know him, I passed him without ceremony, which is not usual for any person to do. Whenever he mounts on horseback, as he was then just going to do, he has absolute power of life and death, without appeal, all over Cairo and its neighbourhood.

 

He stopt me just at the threshold, and asked one of the Bey's people who I was? and was answered, "It is Hakim Englese," the English philosopher, or physician.

 

He asked me in Turkish, in a very polite manner, if I would come and see him, for he was not well? I answered him in Arabic, "Yes, whenever he pleased, but could not then stay, as I had received a message that the Bey was waiting." He replied in Arabic, "No, no; go, for God's sake go; any time will do for me."

 

The Bey was sitting, leaning forward, with a wax taper in one hand, and reading a small slip of paper, which he held close to his face. He seemed to have little light or weak eyes; nobody was near him: his people had been all dismissed, or were following the janissary Aga out.

 

He did not seem to observe me till I was close upon him, and started when I said, "Salam." I told him I came upon his message. He said, I thank you, did I send for you? and without giving me leave to reply, went on, "O true, I did so," and fell to reading his paper again.

 

After this was over, he complained that he had been ill, that he vomited immediately after dinner, though he eat moderately; that his stomach was not yet settled, and was afraid something had been given him to do him mischief.

 

I felt his pulse, which was low, a⟨n⟩d weak; but very little feverish. I desired he would order his people to look if his meat was dressed in copper properly tinned; I assured him he was in no danger, and insinuated that I thought he had been guilty of some excess before dinner; at which he smiled, and said to Risk, who was standing by, "Afrite! Afrite"! he is a devil! he is a devil! I said, If your stomach is really uneasy from what you may have ate, warm some water, and, if you please, put a little green tea into it, and drink it till it makes you vomit gently, and that will give you ease; after which you may take a dish of strong coffee, and go to bed, or a glass of spirits, if you have any that are good.

 

He looked surprised at this proposal, and said very calmly, "Spirits! do you know I am a Mussulman?" But I, Sir, said I, am none. I tell you what is good for your body, and have nothing to do with your religion, or your soul. He seemed vastly diverted, and pleased with my frankness, and only said, "He speaks like a man." There was no word of the war, nor of the Russians that night. I went home desperately tired, and peevish at being dragged out, on so foolish an errand.

 

Next morning, his secretary Risk came to me to the convent. The Bey was not yet well; and the idea still remained that he had been poisoned. Risk told me the Bey had great confidence in me. I asked him how the water had operated? He said he had not yet taken any of it, that he did not know how to make it, therefore he was come at the desire of the Bey, to see how it was made.

 

I immediately shewed him this, by infusing some green tea in some warm water. But this was not all, he modesty insinuated that I was to drink it, and so vomit myself, in order to shew him how to do with the Bey.

 

I excused myself from being patient and physician at the same time, and told him, I would vomit him, which would answer the same purpose of instruction; neither was this proposal accepted.

 

The old Greek priest, Father Christopher, coming at the same time, we both agreed to vomit the Father, who would not consent, but produced a Caloyeros, or young monk, and we forced him to take the water whether he would or not.

 

As my favour with the Bey was now established by my midnight interviews, I thought of leaving my solitary mansion at the convent. I desired Mr Risk to procure me peremptory letters of recommendation to Shekh Haman, to the governor of Syene, Ibrim, and Deir, in Upper Egypt. I procured also the same from the janissaries, to these three last places, as their garrisons are from that body at Cairo, which they call their Port. I had also letters from Ali Bey, to the Bey of Suez, to the Sherriffe of Mecca, to the Naybe (so they call the Sovereign) of Masuah, and to the king of Sennaar, and his minister for the time being.

 

Having obtained all my letters and dispatches, as well from the patriarch as from the Bey, I set about preparing for my journey.

 

Cairo is supposed to be the ancient Babylon^[2], at least part of it. It is in lat. 30° 2′ 30″ north, and in long. 31° 16′ east, from Greenwich. I cannot assent to what is said of it, that it is built in form of a crescent. You ride round it, gardens and all, in three hours and a quarter, upon an ass, at an ordinary pace, which will be above three miles an hour.

 

The Calish^[3], or Amnis Trajanus, passes through the length of it, and fills the lake called Birket el Hadje, the first supply of water the pilgrims get in their tiresome journey to Mecca.

 

On the other side of the Nile, from Cairo, is Geeza, so called, as some Arabian authors say, from there having been a bridge there; Geeza signifies the Passage.

 

About eleven miles beyond this are the Pyramids, called the Pyramids of Geeza, the description of which is in every body's hands. Engravings of them had been published in England, with plans of them upon a large scale, two years before I came into Egypt, and were shewn me by Mr Davidson consul of Nice, whose drawings they were.

 

He it was too that discovered the small chamber above the landing-place, after you ascend through the long gallery of the great Pyramid on your left hand, and he left the ladder by which he ascended, for the satisfaction of other travellers. But there is nothing in the chamber further worthy of notice, than its having escaped discovery so many ages.

 

I think it more extraordinary still, that, for such a time as these Pyramids have been known, travellers were content rather to follow the report of the ancients, than to make use of their own eyes.

 

Yet it has been a constant belief, that the stones composing these Pyramids have been brought from the ^[4] Libyan mountains, though any one who will take the pains to remove the sand on the south side, will find the solid rock there hewn into steps.

 

And in the roof of the large chamber, where the Sarcophagus stands, as also in the top of the roof of the gallery, as you go up into that chamber, you see large fragments of the rock, affording an unanswerable proof, that those Pyramids were once huge rocks, standing where they now are; that some of them, the most proper from their form, were chosen for the body of the Pyramid, and the others hewn into steps, to serve for the superstructure, and the exterior parts of them.

 

 

 

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1. Vid. Introduction.
2. Ptol. Geograph. lib. 4 Cap. 5.
3. Shaw's travels p. 294.
4. Herod. lib. 2. cap. 8.