The Accursed Land; or, First steps on the water-way of Edom

Front matter

THE ACCURSED LAND; OK, FIRST STEPS ON THE WATER-WAY OF EDOM. BY THE SAME AUTHOR With Map and Illustrations, 12s. 6d. A RIDE IN PETTICOATS AND SLIPPERS. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIV1NGTON, CBOWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STEEET. /^Jfl§X THE ACCUBSED LAND; OR, FIRST STEPS ON THE WATER-WAY OF EDOM. ur Lieut.-Colonel H. E. COLVILE, Grenadier Guards. AUTHOR OF " A RIDE IN PETTICOATS AND SLIPPERS." itonBoii : SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 1884. .4" rights reserved.] LONDON: feinted bt gilbebt and bivington, limited, st. John's squabe. PEEFACE. This book was written against time. On the 19th of January I left Port Said for England, on the 30th of January I landed at Plymouth, and on the 15th of February I started for the Soudan campaign, leaving my manuscript in the hands of a friend, who not only volunteered to undertake all the business transactions with my publishers, but that most ungrateful of all tasks, the correction of another man's " proofs."

Perhaps it may be said, under the circumstances, it would have been better to have left the book unwritten; but at the time I undertook my journey there was so little accurate information to be obtained about Preface. VI the Arabah, that I was in hope that my mite would be acceptable even if I had to present it in rather an unpolished state. It will be noticed that I have made some concession to those critics who objected to my phonetic spelling in " A Ride in Petticoats and Slippers ;" I have even gone so far as to meet half-way the gentleman who objected to my spelling of " Wizeer" by representing the Arabic " ya " by ? instead of ee. He would have liked me to write Vizir, but even to please him I cannot represent " waw " by a v, and write about Vadys and Bedvins. By the way, I wonder if the person who is responsible for our pronunciation of Oriental names hailed from Whitechapel ; such words as vizir for wizir, caravan for karawan, and 'Ind for Hind rather suggest it.

I must also refuse to follow in the footsteps of the un fortunate Frenchman, who, havin°- no w in his alphabet, is obliged to write Ouady and Bedouin. In conclusion, let me here offer my best Preface. VII thanks to many kind friends without whose assistance I could never have undertaken the journey, but who will probably accept my thanks the more readily if I do not drag their names into print. With my fellow traveller, Captain Peacocke, the case is different ; his name appears so often in these pages that I need have no hesitation in ex pressing my gratitude to him in this place. Not only did his companionship convert what might have been a tedious journey into a pleasant trip, but his clear head, his ready resource, and his great powers of work, made it possible to make, and make thoroughly, a survey which alone, or with a less competent or energetic companion, might never have been completed at all.

Chapter II

Off — Inquiring minds — " Meeting the sun " — A British protectorate — Vive le Reglement — Najm — Ayoun Musa — Wanted a weight-carrier — Food, water, and impedimenta — A martyr to science — The first pot— Desolation in excelsis .

Chapter III

Curious hills — El Drahah — Camels versus horses — A picturesque scene — Desert shrubs — Water supply — A practical jokist — Chaos — The first casualty — A good citizen — Sketching under difficulties — News of the enemy — Revolver practice — Ras el Barrah — Wine and water

Chapter IV

Sinai — An opposition mountain' — Embarras de richesses — A misnomer — Ain el Arkhdar — Seductive oasis — Longitude in time — Mabrukka a Contents. X PAGE — .Another casualty — An unknown friend — End of the stern chase — The Wady el Ain — The power of steam — A well-conducted establishment . . . . . . .51

Chapter V

Tbe sea again — The little world — The old Eve — The Admiralty chart — Distance lends enchantment — An old friend avenged — Custom walks in — El Kuryeh — An enthusiastic fisherman — Akabah — An unpleasant surprise — A reminder — The orderly-room clerk — Hammid Jad — A pretty pair — The thin end of the wedge — Requirements of a barometer . . . .71

Chapter VII

Plan of action — Start up the Wady — Sheikh Salaam — His weak point — Mekreh Hadid — A bad look-out — Not as bad as it looked — A dromedary-race — Where is Anthonos . — Finding the time — Hammid Jad in a hurry — Anthonos redivivus — " Something to remember you by " — The Bedwin character . . . .128

Chapter VIII

Tawarah versus Alawin — A bad start — Quite an accident — Off at last — The first watershed — A bad day for the instruments — Taking it easy — El Contents. XI PAGE 174 197 Ta'abah— Heavy walking— The Gulf of Galilee — Ain Ghudian — Bad water — Interview with the aborigines — A pleasant ride — " Do you see Richard ? " — Making pictures — A bad day for Mohammedans . . . . . .149

Chapter IX

In doubt — At fault — " I've seen it with my own eyes " — Deceptive ground — Rishi — Wady Ghurundel — The watershed — Wady Houar— Benighted — Aid's gun — Out in the cold — A bivouac — Bedwin hospitality — Beans without bacon — Revolvers — Uses of imagination.

Chapter X

" Stupid people " — The Ma'azy — A breach of etiquette — Boiling-points — A queer instrument — Misappropriation — Wady Jerafeh — A devotee — Najm's adventure — My double — A forlorn hope — Why Mohammoud left his gun — The end of the journey — Levelling and aneroids — A rehearsal — The sheikh and his men

Chapter XI

Thlah and Lehyana — Line for a railway — A difference of opinion — Najm to the fore — Levelling under difficulties — Sporting instincts — A heavy shower — A wonderful change — An impostor exposed — A new governor — An anxious moment — Advantages of a beautiful mother — Yosif shows fight — Matters look serious — Reconciliation . . . . . . .221 Contents. XII PAGE 263

Chapter XII

An economical executioner — The gulf again — The Admiralty chart — Old friends — A modest governor — Troubled in his mind — A bad day — A painful leave-taking — A little geology — El Kantera — The postman — A warning to travellers — The Houiat — Sheikh Louefeh — Abumazarik — The cairn .... 243

Chapter XIII

The story of Imri the devil of Abumazarik — A Narcotic — The watershed — Bir Abasseyeh — A good mount — An offer of help — A valuable life

Chapter XIV

Nakh'l — Man and nature — A smart man — Sheikh Suliman — Lively camels — A very superior person — Off the plateau — Wady el Haj — Our stowaways — A fit ending — Sheikh Aid — Africa again ........ 285 Itineraries ....... ■ hotliinn Snm/isnn 1 <>w , Murytiitl , Srnrlf ,V lilvingt'Orv THE ACCUESED LAND; OB, FIRST STEPS ON THE WATER-WAY TO EDOM.

Chapter I

Introduction. I had been nearly six weeks in England, and was getting rather bored with myself. Even an early parade in the park had failed to raise my spirits. Parade over, I changed and strolled towards the Guards' Club. " Some letters for you, sir." Of course ! Why had not I gone to the Travellers', where no one ever wrote to me ? " Bunion and Sons are surprised — " " Lady Jones at home." " Dear sir, I am directed by the Palestine Channel Syndicate " — " The Palestine Chan nel Syndicate," I muttered ; " how on earth can I owe them anything? Well, I SUp- IS ; or, 2 pose I may as well read it" — " Dear sir, I am requested by the Palestine Channel Syndicate ... to write and ask if you would feel disposed to undertake the preliminary examination of the proposed line of canal from the south end of the Dead Sea, to the head of the Gulf of Akabah."

A very few minutes had elapsed before "offer accepted" was whizzing through the wires. A few days afterwards I attended a meeting of the board of directors, and, for the first time, heard some details about the scheme in which I had so suddenly become interested. In the year 1855 the late Captain Wil liam Allen, R.N., published a book called "The Dead Sea, a New Route to India;" and laid before the government a project for a ship-canal through the Jordan Valley. The project was not accepted, nor, as far as I can gather, even seriously entertained, and for some twenty-five years no thought appears to have been given to the subject. Captain Allen's idea of a ship-canal to the East was, however, carried out, by M. de Lesseps, in the Isthmus of Suez, and for some 37ears we had remained contented with that rather uncertain means of communica tion with our Indian possessions.

In 1882 events occurred which proved how easily that route might be stopped, while the fast-increasing traffic, and consequent in creasing blocks, combined with the rapacity of the French company, were beginning to disgust British shipowners. Under these circumstances it was proposed to make a second canal through the isthmus, with British capital, and under British control. Political reasons, however, interfering with the scheme, it had to be abandoned.1 Just then somebody remembered Captain Allen and his long-forgotten scheme for a canal through the Dead Sea, and the Palestine Channel Syndicate was formed for the purpose of ascertaining whether it was practicable, and I had the honour of being chosen to carry out the investigation. Captain Allen's scheme, based on the 1 I am, of course, speaking of the state of the case in the summer of 1883.

B ; or, 4 known depression, below the sea-level, of the Jordan Valley, had only one weak point — the uncertainty as to the level of the Wady el Arabah. Many travellers had traversed this valley, all claiming to have made careful surveys yet none of them coidd agree as to the height of the watershed. Burckhardt, who traversed the Wady in 1812, described the watershed as being 1000 feet lower than the eastern desert, and declared his belief that the valley was the ancient course of the Jordan. Laborde, 1830, also marks it in his map " ancien cours dit Jordain," and gives no indication whatever of a watershed. The Comte de Birtou gives it at 528 feet, but unfortunately his thermometer having been broken, he had to base his calculations on some rough boiling-point observation. Dr. Schubert, again, who appears to have been a careful observer, gives 465 Paris feet as the height of his encampment, at a distance of a day and a half from Akabah, and this point in Captain Allen's time was usually received as the watershed, yet there was not a particle of evidence to prove it; on the contrary Schubert's own statements appeared to prove that this was a regular halting place of the caravans, placed high up on the hill-side on account of the pasturage which could be obtained there.

Then came the Due de Luynes and Lieutenant de Vignes, who, following the well-established custom, proceeded to prove that all their predecessors were at fault, and assigned a height of 240 metres, or 787 feet, to the watershed. Thus of the five scientific travellers who had traversed this valley no two could agree as to the height of the water-parting, and some of them even ignored its existence. It followed, therefore, that four of them must be wrong, and the odds were four to one against any one of them being right. , On being asked what sort of party I should like to take with me, I said that I should like a naval officer, a Royal Engineer officer, and six sappers, or sailors ; and this being agreed to, I was told to make my own arrangements, collect my men, and buy the necessary instruments.

It was decided, how ever, that before making the survey it would ; or, 6 be necessary to obtain the permission of the Porte, and a distinguished member of the board of directors consented to go himself to Constantinople to obtain the concession. Until the consent was obtained nothing could be done, and I was quietly resting on my oars, when I happened one evening to take up the Globe, and read that the Porte had refused permission for the survey to be made. I dare say it was very wrong of me, but I felt rather pleased. If the Sultan had agreed to the survey he would probably have thought it necessary to send an escort, and I knew that would mean travelling about ten miles a day, and sitting up all night talking to the officer in command, and doing no work. Now I was free of all official worry and assistance, and was free to do things my own way ; rather more free than I had bargained for.

Having asked leave to make the survey, and having had that leave refused, the syndicate felt that they could not now very well send an ex pedition in direct opposition to the Sultan's wishes. I fortunately, having asked nobody's leave, was untroubled by scruples of this sort, and thought that having made all my arrange ments for the journey I might as well carry them out. This I was better enabled to do by the handsome solatium which was voted to soothe my disappointment at the collapse of the expedition. Of course things had to be begun again on a much smaller scale. To begin with, the party had necessarily to be very much reduced. The Porte, I was told, had not only refused leave for the survey to be made, but had taken precautions to prevent it. A smart man had been sent to Hebron to look out for any party which might turn up, and the Governor of Jerusalem was also on the look-out.

Under these circumstances I thought that the smaller the party the better. Another good reason for reducing the size of the party lay in the fact that hardly any one cared to join it. Getting well paid for making a survey, with plenty of assistance and all comforts, was one thing, but sneak- ; or, 8 inoover the ground, doing double work, and getting no pay, was another. I was fortunate enough to find, in Captain Peacocke of the Royal Engineers, a man whom these condi tions suited, and it was at last arranged that the party should consist of Peacocke and myself, and Cash, my servant. I then put myself in the hands of Mr. Cook, of excursion fame, asking him to order transport for Mr. Cash at Suez, and for Colonel Colvile in Palestine. The Palestine order being of course only intended to put the Turks on the wrong scent.

Our party arranged, and the transport in Cook's hands, I had nothing more to think of but the instruments. The glorious uncer tainty which existed as to my reception in the Wady el Arabah made this a matter of some difficulty. My original intention had been to run a chain of levels up the valley, make a careful survey, and take frequent observations for latitude and longitude, get ting my time from Akabah by heliograph for the latter. With such a reduced party it would obviously be impossible now to estab- Water-Way to Edom. 9 lish a chain of heliograph stations, but I had still some hopes of being able to carry on the levelling. Even that, however, seemed very doubtful ; it seemed doubtful even whether I should be able to do more than make a flying survey with an aneroid and a pocket sextant.

" The nearest telegraph station is at Hebron," wrote a gentleman from Syria, " and it will take fourteen days for any news of the expedition to reach the Sultan; in these fourteen days the survey can be made." I therefore settled to take instruments to meet three contingencies. 1st. For the event of my meeting with no opposition : a theodolite and levelling staves, a plane table, and an 8" sextant and artificial horizon. 2nd. In case I was allowed up the valley without opposition, but should find it im possible to make a regular survey : two cavalry sketching-boards, a boiling-point apparatus, three 4" aneroids, an eye-level, and a mercurial barometer to leave at Aka bah. The sextant and artificial horizon ; or, 10 would also have been used at night in this contingency. 3rd. In the event of my not being allowed up the valley at all, and being forced to make a dash for the watershed : a pocket sextant, a Captain George's artificial horizon, and a 2-§-" aneroid.

I also took one of Brock's "ex plorers'watches," an instrument which lean thoroughly recommend for this sort of work. The presents were the next things to be thought of, and I had some difficulty in de ciding on what to buy for this purpose. My chief experiences hitherto had been amongst Moors and Zulus ; they both like presents, though of course not the same kind, but I did not know whether the Bedwin of Syria might not have been brought too much in contact with civilization to care about any thing but money. Remembering, however, that people in civilized England are not yet above taking presents in kind, I thought that there would be no harm in buying a few things for the Bedwin, especially as presents generally go farther than their value in money. I once had the good fortune to find myself in a place where Tdndstickor match boxes were more valued than half-crowns, and even in Morocco many people who would not say thank-you for a sovereign, would do a good deal for a sixpenny tobacco pouch.

Watches, clocks, purses, tobacco pouches, and knives, and musical boxes, I had found most useful in Morocco, and thinking that the Bedwin would probably like much the same class of things I bought a number of these articles, but, as it turned out, with the exception of the knives and tobacco pouches, they were not much appreciated. As far as my experience goes, the Bedwin only care for three things : money, weapons, and tobacco ; and they seem to appreciate all three simply with regard to quantity. Three five-franc pieces are more acceptable than a sovereign, a big pistol which will not go off is more prized than a small one which will, and a pound of anything which will burn in a pipe, than an ounce of the best tobacco which one can buy. Having made my arrangements, there was nothing to be done but sit still and pretend ; or, 12 that I was not going.

If the Turks really intended to stop me, it would have added immensely to my difficulties if any notice of my intentions had got into the papers. Of course a certain number of people had to be let into the secret, and very well they kept it, for which I hope they will accept my best thanks. A few days before I started I saw in the papers that a geological expedition, under Professor Hull, had started for the Arabah, and were to be accompanied by an Egyptian escort. After the distinct refusal which the Porte had given to the request of the Syndi cate, this seemed strange news, but it was none the less good. If Professor Hull could go up the Arabah, I felt quite certain that I could do the same, and if Professor Hull were pre vented from going, I hoped that in the excitement which his large party would cause I might slip by unobserved.

Chapter II

Off — Inquiring minds — " Meeting the sun " — A British protectorate — Vive le reglement — Najm — Ayoun Musa — Wanted a weight-carrier — Food, water, and impedimenta — A martyr to science — The first pot — Desolation in excelsis. At 10 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 8th, 1883, I left Victoria Station, accompanied by my servant, Cash, and burdened with a truck load of instruments. Stopping a night in Milan, I found myself on the evening of the 11th on board the P. and 0. SS. Mongolia, at Brindisi. "Any news?" I heard out of the darkness. " No," I said, and found that the question had come from Peacocke, who had joined the ship at Venice. " Lost any of the instruments ? " next came out simultaneously from both of us, ; or, 14 and having satisfied ourselves on this point, we began to congratulate ourselves on the fact that he had found no old friends on board, and that I had brought none with me in the train.

Next morning proved that my self-congratulations had been rather prema ture, but I managed to keep my secret, at the expense, I fear, of being thought singularly churlish and uncommunicative. I found strangers, however, quite as eager for in formation about my movements as friends. Why, I am sure I cannot tell. I did not care where they had come from, where they were going to, or what their grandmother's maiden name was ; and why an unobtrusive sort of person like myself, with long hair and a five-days' beard should have excited so much curiosity, is a mystery only known to the inquirers. Having hitherto lead a simple sort of life, with but little to conceal, the extraordinary thirst for information of my fellow-creatures had so far never been brought prominently before my notice ; now it made my life a burden to me.

The bolder spirits would Water-Way to Edom. 15 come out with their " What are you going to do?" without the slightest provocation or prelude. The more timid ones would pro logue the agony by confidences about their prospects at Bunkumpore ; but the result was always the same. I found that giving the conversation some such turn as this generally concentrated the inquirer's thoughts inwards : — Passenger : " Good morning." Author : " Morning." Passenger : " Nice breeze here." Author: "Yes." Passenger : " It will be different when we get the other side." Author: "Yes." Passenger: "You are going on, I suppose?" Author : " No, I. am not." Passenger : " Indeed ! I'm going to Wak purnuggar." Author : " Wakpurnuggar ! are you ? Ever been there before ? " Passenger : " No." Author (thoughtfully) : " Wakpurnuggar ! ; or, 16 why that is the place where poor Brown died of fever.

Wonderfully strong fellow, Brown ; just your build." The conversation turns on the advantages and disadvantages of quinine, tobacco, al cohol and mosquito curtains. It had struck me that " meeting the sun," would have been an appropriate and poetical title for this chapter. Its appropriateness was rather marred by the fact that I had left murky London in bright sunshine, carried sunshine with me during the whole journey, aud only lost it in a thick fog off Port Said. " Can you direct me to any of Mr. Cash's party?" I heard at my elbow soon after we took up our moorings. The speaker was Mr. Pagnol, Cook's agent, and to him I in troduced myself as a member of that dis tinguished band. The camels, he said, were at Ayoun Musa, on the Asiatic shore of the Gulf of Suez, and everything was ready for a start whenever and for wherever I wished.

I had intended to go to Suez by P. and 0., but the captain of the Hydaspes, which was going on, refused the honour of our company on the ground that his ship was full (as a mere matter of fact it was not), so I had to content myself with send ing on my baggage, in charge of Cash, to whom they would only give a deck passage. I had to pass the rest of the day and night at Port Said, and go on to Ismailia in the Canal Company's launch in the morning — seven hours between mudbanks. On the voyage we had a touching instance of the confidence which the unsophisticated native places in British honour and man hood. Peacocke and I had been watching for some time, from the roof of the deck house, a pretty little romp between an amorous Frenchman, assisted by the man at the wheel, and a fat Arab girl.

Suddenly the fun seemed to get a little too fast for the young lady's taste, for, breaking away from her playmate, she "flopped" dow7n between us, and seizing us, in turn, con vulsively by the legs, began to cry. " For goodness' sake, remember that you are a scientific explorer," I said to Peacocke ; " and do not let Pagnol see you like that." >3J ; or, " I wonder if Cleopatra for whom Antony risked his soul was anything like this," he mournfully replied, as the mass of blubber fondled him more lovingly than ever. Exhortations and moralizings were equally useless, for until we stopped at the Kantara Buffet that fat girl maintained that Egypt and the Egyptians were (or ought to be) under a British protectorate, and steadily held her position, to the great delight of the amorous Frenchman, assisted by the man at the wheel.

Egyptian trains are not noted for their punctuality, but we had the good luck to travel with the traffic inspector, who kept things up to the mark, and we arrived at Suez really within a few minutes of our proper time. Here I found that the Eydaspes with my luggage had not yet arrived, having been stopped by a homeward-bound steamer, which had been allowed to enter the canal at the last moment. It is by this strict attention to the letter of the reglement that the French authorities are making themselves and their canal so unpopular. Here was a case in which a little relaxation of the strict letter of the law might surely have been allowed. Within half an hour of sunset the Hydaspes and another mail steamer find themselves within easy reach of Suez, yet because a homeward-bound steamer happens to arrive at the Suez station perhaps a minute before the Hydaspes reaches the next one, the homeward-bounder is let in, although she cannot possibly pro ceed more than two miles on her way, and the mail steamers are delayed till next morning ; entailing not only great loss of time and money to the companies, but incon venience to the public.

I was on board the Hydaspes early next morning, and sent off my baggage and in struments direct to my camp on the Asiatic shore, thus avoiding all observation and comment at Suez, where I passed for a simple young gentleman on a visit to the sacred localities of Mount Sinai. There was com ment and observation enough on board, however, and my friends of the Mongolia c ; or. 20 seemed much puzzled to see their long haired fellow-passenger now sporting the neatest of Newgate clips, and handing over the side sextants, levelling staves and such like to a formidable-looking old Syrian in long boots and a big whip ; and noticing that the boat with the said instruments instead of going to Suez sailed off towards the uninhabited south-east. I knew that they were not going to land, however, so they were at liberty to think what they pleased.

The big-booted old Syrian was my drago man, Najm abu Kathir (the Star, the Father of Much), who, in spite of the bigness of his whip, his boots, and his nose, was a most amiible old thing, with a fixed idea that the European stomach requires replenishing every two hours, and is incapable of assimi lating any nourishment which has not been served on a white tablecloth and eaten with a silver fork. He was a very intelligent, well educated man, and when I say that he had not only written a book, but actually got somebody to buy it, the reader will, I know, at once concede that he must have been a very superior person. Two hours' sail in a small boat brought us opposite the quarantine station at Ayoun Musa (Moses' Wells), and a bump which sent us all on to our noses announced that the sea voyage was over.

The tide was falling fast, and the boatmen were anxious to get rid of us as soon as possible, before the boat stuck for good, so overboard they jumped the moment she struck, and, whipping us on to their shoulders, waded off towards the shore. I say "us," and so far as Cash, Najm, and myself were concerned, this is strictly correct, but Peacocke was not quite so easy to flick about, walking as he did 14 st. 7 lbs., and looking it, and there was some little debate among the men as to which of them should have the honour of carrying him. I was the first ashore, and so had a chance of enjoying the sight. First came Najm and his fiery steed. Two bare legs splashing through the water and two big boots sticking out at right angles to them ; one big blue body with one bearded, ; or, 22 rugged, be-fezzed head, and one funny old wizened face, peeping out of a yellow kaff eyeh, growing somewhere out of the shoulders of the blue body, a Remington carbine sticking up above everything, and the big rhinoceroshide whip hanging down at the side.