The Far East; or, Letters from Egypt, Palestine, and other lands of the Orient. Illustrated, etc

Front matter

Sbadoos. Date and Dom Palma NILE VIEW. THE Far East; OR, Letters from Egypt, Palestine, and Other Lands of the Orient. ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS, MAPS, ETC. By N. C. BURT, D. D., /£ Author of "Hours Among the Gospels." CINCINNATI : R. W. CARROLL & COMPANY. 1868. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S6", by N. C. BURT, Iu the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Northern District of Ohio. STEREOTYPED AT THE FRANKLIN TYPE FOUNDRY, CINCINNATI.

Preface

. The following Letters trace the wanderings of the writer through the Far East, from the time of leaving Naples for Alexandria until arriving at Vienna by Constantinople and the Danube. They relate chiefly, however, to Egypt, in which he spent most of last winter, and to the Holy Land, which he traversed during the middle of last spring. Except the Holy Land, probably no country so richly rewards the tourist as Egypt. Its many Bible Associations, its Venerable Antiquities, its peculiar Physical Features and its incomparable Winter Climate, constitute a rare combination of attractions. The roots of Hebrew history strike deep in Egyptian soil. The Hebrew nation, indeed, had its very birth in Egypt, amidst many pangs. The Egyptian civilization, modified by that of the Greeks and the Romans, has largely determined our own, so that its an tiquities have for us, in their connection with history, a rare value.

Then how wonderfully unique are the physical features of Egypt. One can hardly think without enthusiasm of that slenderest band of fertile green stretching across a broad zone of earth — the bound less and all-devouring deserts hovering over its entire length on either side, yet their power utterly defied by the faithful care of the mightier Nile ; this bringing forth from the depths of the con tinent, with unvarying annual promptness, such bountiful supplies as thoroughly repair its wastes and renew its freshness, and enable it to continue through the ages its beautiful and laughing life in the grim presence and threatened embrace of desolating death. Of the winter climate of Egypt, enough has probably been written in different letters. — It was a great privilege to be permitted to traverse this land by its river even to the Gates of Syene.

PREFACE.

. High expectations were of course indulged, in prospect of visit ing the Holy Land. These, it is true, were chastened by a natural dread of disenchantment, when long-cherished imaginations should be exchanged for realities. ■ But beyond the highest expectations was the visit a satisfaction, especially when regarded from a Bible point of view. So many sacred places were identified, so much of the sacred history was brought under graphic review, such a sense of reality was imparted to the whole Book of God, that the temporary intense gratification connected with itself many permanent and instructive impressions. These letters, originally communicated to the " Cincinnati Ga zette" were written, as will be seen from their several dates, mainly amidst the scenes to which they relate. Of course little opportunity was had for leisurely and careful writing.

The disadvan tages experienced were probably, however, not without some compensating advantages. The letters have been revised, not with a view to essential alterations, but chiefly for the correction of incidental errors of statement and the supply of a few omissions. The title of the book " The Far East," adopted from that of the letters as they originally appeared, is believed to be not inappro priate. America has an East and a West of her own. The East to which these letters relate is an East beyond ours ; it is the East of Europeans, and to us, if not to them, is the Far East. Euro peans count India and China, Japan and Australia, the Far East. These are beginning to be regarded by us as the Far West. Even the Holy Land must have so seemed to the American mentioned in one of the letters, who had come to Jerusalem from San Fran cisco by way of Yokohama and Hong Kong.

Nearly every portion of the travels is illustrated by an accom panying map. The geographical relations of places are often far more clearly exhibited by the simplest map-sketch, than by whole pages of labored, written description. In consenting to give the Letters to the Public in this new form, it is the Author's hope that they may meet with a no less kind reception than was originally given them. Cincinnati, October 1st, 1867. CONTENTS. I. Leaving Naples — Before Clearing Italy — From Italy to Egypt — Introduction to Orientalism — Alexandria — From Alexandria to Cairo 9 II. Grand Cairo — Situation, Population, etc. — The Mosque of Mohammed Ali — Excursion to the Great Pyramids — Donkey-Boys— " The P. and 0." 22 III. The Nile Excursion — General Remarks — Personal Details — Grand Preliminaries — Dragoman — Boat — Contracts — Delays — Water Carriers — Boulak 41 IV.

Departure from Boulak — Our Vessel — Crew and Attendants — Navigation — The River — My Fellow-Voyagers... 54 V. Up the Nile — Chief Towns Passed — How Runs the River — Interesting Localities — Mountain Ridges — Gusty Promontories — Side Excursion — To Sioot — Diary of a Day's Experience 67 VI. Ancient Thebes — Its Roins and Monuments — Old Gooeneh — The Remesium — Medinet Aboo — Karnak ba* Moonlight and ba' Daylight 81 M VI CONTENTS. VII. Assouan — From Thebes — Notable Localities — Changed Appearances — A Sand and Rain Storm — Esne — Journalistic Extract — Crocodile Ahoy' ! — Coming Home — The Climate of Egypt 94 VIII. Change of Plan — Attractions of Assouan — Ancient Granite Quarries — Elephantine — Philæ — The Cataract — Glimpse into Nubia — The Southern Cross 105 IX. The North Wind on the Nile — Egyptian Conservatism — Radical Attempts — General Characteristics of the People — Kom Ombo — • Edfoo — Erment — Arrival at Thebes 121 X. Thebes Revisited — Tombs — Antiques — A Quandart — Arab Dinner — A Surprise — Hotel Project — Departure from Thebes 134 XI.

Slow Progress — Our Daily* Life — Sights from our Deck — I.mmense Flocks of Birds — Pottery Rafts — Fisheries — Kenneh and Dendera — Egyptian Mythology 147 XII. Principal Crops Raised — Agricultural Processes — Scripture Coincidence — Trees — More About the Climate — Tomp.s of Beni Hassan — Anticipations 162 XIII. Nile Voyage ended — Old Memphis — Our last Nile Day — English Companions — Mohammedanism — Concluding Matters 176 XIV. Leaving Egypt — Egyptian Politics — Character of the CONTENTS. VII Government — American Disturbance — Increase of Slav ery — Public Improvements — English Ritualism — Introduction to the Holy LaiND 192 XV. More About Jaffa — TnE American Colony — The Orange Groves — Dwelling in Tents — First Breaking up of Camp — To Ramleh — Lydda — On to Jerusalem — Entrance into the Holy City 205 XVI.

The Holy City — Topographical Matters — Chief Buildings — Streets — People — Ancient Localities — Going About Zion 216 XVII. Excursion Through Southern Palestine — Bethlehem and its Church of the Nativity— How some People live — Hebron — An Intelligent Guide — Convent of Mar Saba — The Dead Sea — The River Jord.in — Jericho — Return to Jerusalem 231 XVIII. The Jews in Jerusalem — Their Number — Feast of Purim — Wailing-place — Church of the Holy Sepulchre — Rivalry of the Sects — The Greeks Ahead— Pilgrims and Pilgrimage — Conflicting Emotions 249 XIX. Personal Explanation — Mosque of Omar — How to see it — An Afternoon Ride — By the Way — Camping on Olivet — Gethsemane — Church of the Ascension — Bethany — Sunrise on Jerusalem — Last good View 265 XX. Through Northern Palestine^— Preparations — -Leaving Jerusalem — To Bethel — Noonday Rest — The Robbers' Fountain — To Nablous — Mt. Gertzim — Lepers— Personal CONTENTS.

XXI. Personal — From Nablous to Sebustieh — Jenin — Plain of Esdraelon — Sunday Rest — Jezreel — Shunem, Nain and Endor— Ascent of Mount Tabor — Summing up a Day 297 XXII. Personal — Sea of Galilee — The Approach to it — Its General Appearance — Tiberias — Magdala — Gennesaret — Capernaum — Mouth of the Jordan — Eastern Side — Sudden Breeze — Lower End — Last View 313 XXIII. England and Ireland by the way- — Nazareth — To Mount Carmel — Sunday on Carmel — Northward and Coastwise — Acre and Ez-zib 330 XXIV. Phenicia — Tyre — Sarepta — Sidon — Into the Lebanon — Deir el Kamr — Druses and Maronites — To Bey'rout 341 XXV. Leaving Beyrout — Tripoli — Latakia — Alexandretta — Coast of Asia Minor — Rhodes — The Ægean Sea — Orientalism on Ship-board — Smyrna — Syra — Easter and the Greek Church — Athens 359 XXVI.

The Cretan Insurrection — To Constantinople — Situation of the City — View from the Harbor — Our Visit — The Eastern Question — From Constantinople to Vienna 371 XXVII. The World's Postal Arrangements — Practical Hints for Eastern Travelers — Money Expenses— Necessary Preparations — Best Season of the Year — Particulars Concerning Egypt — Concerning Syria — "Improvements'' in Palestine — Conclusion THE FAE EAST. I. Leaving Naples — Before clearing Italy — From Italy to Egypt — Introduction to Orientalism — Alexandria — From Alexandria to Cairo. On the Nile, above Cairo, ) Jan. 3, 1867. J COMMUNICATION between Naples and Alexandria is not so regular that it can be counted on. We found that our best opportunity for making the passage would be afforded by a ship of the Cunard line, plying between Liverpool and the chief ports of the Mediterranean as far as Alexandria, going directly to the latter port from Naples.

After waiting for the " Malta " several days, we embarked late one beautiful afternoon, last month, and at seven o'clock were moving out of the harbor. It was a disappointment to miss the view from the bay by sunlight, yet the lamps of the city, gleaming in a vast semicircle from Portici, under the shadow of Vesuvius, around to the extremity of Pos ilipo, with the dark mass of the Castle of St. Elmo over hanging the centre as a lofty background, afforded a partial compensation. Steering to the east of south, we passed in the course of an hour old Pompeii and Cas tellammare, and stood abreast of that paradise of South- Co era Italy, Sorrento, embosomed in orange groves. A half hour more and we were in the channel between the main land and the precipitous little rocky island of Capri, famous, or rather infamous, of yore, for the residence and the dissolute practices of the Emperor Tibe rius.

Soon we had left in the rear Amain and Salerno and their beautiful bays, and hopeless of seeing, even by the clear light of our half moon, the grand temples of Pæstum, only a little way in shore, we " turned in " for our first night on the great Midland Sea, which was rolling in a manner not discreditable to the Atlantic itself. Early next morning there was a rap on my state-room door and the announcement of " Stromboli." Going on deck as speedily as possible, and looking off to the south west, a small conical island appeared, amid a bank of cloud — island and mountain at one and the same time — and, watching closely, puffs of white smoke were seen issuing from its crater-summit and floating away. It was something to see a live volcano. Vesuvius has long periods of rest ; Stromboli, I believe, is always in mod erate activity.

After a little, the coast of Italy, from which we had receded during the night, reappeared, and for some hours we steamed along the mountainous shore of Cal abria, gazing on the towns nestling by the sea-side, un til, on our starboard bow, the promontories of Sicily were sighted, and we approached the entrance of the Straits of Messina. We were now reaching classic localities ; for the captain gave the name of the farthest town visible ahead on the Italian coast as " Scylla," and hav ing fairly entered the straits we presently passed along BEFORE CLEARING ITALY. the edge of a circling eddy which, from the time of Ulysses, has been celebrated as the dreaded whirlpool of " Charybdis." The straits are two miles wide, and the space between Scylla and Charybdis is at least a mile. Since the beginning of steam navigation, the pas sage has completely lost its terrors; and how it could ever have been regarded as very perilous — except by imaginative poets — I can not understand.

The city of Messina, on the Sicilian side of the straits, looks like the important port which it is. Tall ware houses were partially visible through a thicket of masts. The city, built on the first slopes of the high mountains, and surrounded by a wall which goes creeping over the rocky inequalities above, presented a most picturesque appearance from our deck. As we cleared the land, circling around the toe of the " boot " which constitutes the southern extremity of Italy, the huge bulk of Mount Ætna disclosed itself over our stern starboard quarter. The sight was most impressive, although the distance was great and the vol cano quiet. Thus, in a few hours, our ship's company had been favored with a sight of three of the most celebrated volcanoes in the world. I could not keep out of mind a foolish sentence in one of old Weem's books — the life of Marion, I believe — in which he apostrophizes " Vesuvius, Ætna, and Stromboli," and demands, "What were your fires compared with those which raged in the bosom of Captain James?" etc.

Before entering the Straits of Messina, and while passing through them, we had almost a gale of wind dead ahead, with heavy rains. Once through the straits all was calm, and the sky became clear. This was what our captain had predicted, and what, as I am told, is the usual experience in making narrow sea-passages between high masses of land. Our voyage was between eleven and twelve hundred miles long. It occupied four days and a half. We made fifteen degrees of longitude, or just one hour of time, and about ten degrees of latitude. Most of the way we carried a strong southwest wind, which, although showery, is not tempestuous. Under its influence the weather was summer-like, the thermometer recording from sixty-four to sixty-seven degrees early in the morn ing. The waters of the Mediterranean are not blue by poetic license merely, but are in fact of a hue almost as cerulean as those of Lake Geneva.

I was perpetually reminded, while on this voyage, of our great northern lakes. We seemed to be yachting on Lake Superior. Yet we could not but feel that this was the great historic sea, along whose shores were seated the mighty nations of the ancient world, and whose waters had been traversed by the ships of Tyre, of Car thage and of Rome. The most unpoetic person could hardly have paced the deck of the " Malta," on one of the balmy, moonlight evenings which favored our pass age, and not have felt the manifold influence of a mighty Past becoming a vivid Present by the associations of the old yet ever new Sea. We saw land but once between Italy and Egypt. One misty afternoon the precipitous shores of Candia — old Crete — were dimly seen. We thought not so much of the Past as of the Present, in looking on those shores ; for the fierce struggle between Christian and Moslem is hardly there yet ended.