72

ROAD TO ROSETTA.

fasted hastily, and set out. The portion of the desert upon which we now entered seemed still more wild and desolate than that which we had traversed on the preceding evening. Our route still lay close along the edge of the sea, where alone the sand was hard enough to support the weight of our beasts, which frequently moved through the waves, from whose crests the wind snatched away the foam, and wafted it over the desert, while our garments were almost drenched by the spray. A few miles beyond the caravanserai, we saw a part of the hull of an English ship, which had recently been cast on shore, and wrecked there; the planks had been nearly all stripped off, and the waves were now running like sluices through the ribs. Various parties of Arabs, some on foot, others mounted, like ourselves, on asses, passed us, in the course of the morning, on their way to Alexandria. Our attendants, consisting of two men and three lads, were exceedingly cheerful and merry, laughing and singing snatches of Arab songs all the way. From time to time we discovered on the right the date groves of Edko, and about ten o'clock the lofty minarets and palm trees of Rosetta became visible; shortly after which a black pillar, about eight or ten feet in height, informed us that we were to strike off from the shore; and similar columns, erected at regular distances, marked the track across the desert, the city itself being discernible at a distance only in very clear days. On the way we came up to a well, furnished with a small metal basin for the use of the traveller. Our attendants, desirous of

APPROACH TO ROSETTA.

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keeping all the water for themselves, pretended it was dry, and would have persuaded us not to alight; but, being thirsty, we thought it best to examine for ourselves, and found that the well contained much more than the whole company needed.

XXXVI. The approach to Rosetta from the desert is singularly striking and agreeable. The imagination, which, for many hours, has been dwelling, though not without pleasure, upon ideas of barrenness, aridity, desolation, feels suddenly an influx of delightful images, arising partly from contrast, partly from the view of luxuriant verdure, exhibiting, in spite of winter, all the glossy freshness of spring. Though the first date palms at which we arrived stood in the midst of dry shifting sands, where it is wonderful that they should find any moisture, they were loaded with noble clusters of ripe fruit, which our donkey-boys thinned, as they went along, with stones and brickbats. It appears to be generally believed that these noble trees naturally spring up with tall columnar trunks, bare of branches to the summit; but, in fact, this nakedness is the work of man, for the young palm of two or three years' growth is covered with branches from the earth upwards, like a huge flag or water-lily; and a plantation of them, in this unpruned state, is peculiarly verdant and beautiful. Were the sap, however, allowed to distribute itself through these superfluous branches, the tree would never acquire that towering height which it now reaches, nor would the fruit

74

FIRST VIEW OF THE NILE.

attain the size or flavour which it possesses in its cultivated state; and for this reason the lower branches are annually lopped off, both in the date and doum trees. The city of Rosetta, properly Rashid, is surrounded by low walls, and at a short distance wears the appearance of a European town; but this resemblance vanishes when you enter, though its long streets, lofty brick houses with projecting latticed windows, numerous mosques, and large open spaces, like squares, give it an original and important air, far superior to the Turkish portion of Alexandria. Many of the houses are five stories high, and have several tiers of projecting windows, in the form of small Gothic turrets, with curious open work. The mosques, though all, I believe, built of brick, are spacious and lofty, and adorned with tall slender minarets surrounded by three or four narrow galleries, placed, the one above the other, at various heights. From the size of the place, it must formerly, I imagine, have contained at least thirty thousand inhabitants, which have now dwindled down to about half that number; its decline being justly attributed to the formation of the Mahmoodiyah, which has almost wholly turned into another channel the trade between Cairo and Alexandria, and is daily enriching Fouah at the expense of Rosetta.

XXXVII. There is at Rosetta an inn, kept by an Italian; a wretched place, but, being the only one in the town, it is resorted to by almost all European travellers. Here we put up, and, while dinner was

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preparing, walked out to view the city and its environs. The first object of my curiosity was the Nile. Having travelled so many thousand miles principally for the purpose of beholding this renowned river, with the land which it has created, I will not pretend to dissemble the delight with which I first saw it, flowing between its rich palm-clad banks towards the sea. Its waters, holding a large quantity of earth in solution, were now of a reddish hue, and presented to the eye a magnificent surface, not less than six hundred yards in breadth; while the luxuriant vegetation on both its shores seemed to dispute with it the right to command our admiration. Volney, whose imagination appears to have been sick during his stay in Egypt, though he does justice to the environs of Rosetta, disparages the Nile by comparing it with the Seine between Auteuil and Passy; exactly as Tavernier discovered the Ganges to be very much like the same river opposite the Louvre. Between the city of Rosetta and the river, there is a large open space of ground, where all those boats which drop so far down the stream land their cargoes. Here, likewise, the inhabitants enjoy the air in the cool of the evening; for, if the Orientals do not walk so much as Europeans, they are no less fond of promenades, where they may lounge at their ease, and build castles in the air. Continuing our ramble along the banks of the stream, we soon reached the celebrated gardens, which chiefly lie to the south of the city, on the way to the convent of Abou-Mandoor. Properly speaking, they are large walled plantations of pomegra

76

VIEW OF THE DELTA.

nate, banana, lemon, citron, and orange trees, intermingled irregularly; luxuriant, unpruned, a verdant wilderness of every variety of tint, with fruit, glowing like spheres of gold, clustering thick among the leaves, weighing down the boughs, and tempting the hand at every turn. Here and there, among this almost matted undergrowth, a palm tree towers aloft, and waves in the wind its graceful feathery branches; while, near it, the Egyptian sycamore, or Pharaoh's fig tree, the growth of a thousand years, stretches forth its vast tortuous boughs, and affords, even when the sun is hottest, a grateful refreshing shade. Were these enclosures a little larger, and their woods of lovely fruit trees separated from each other by open spaces of greensward, they might without impropriety be compared with those paradises of the Persian kings, described by Xenophon; and with this advantage on their side, that no Persian garden ever beheld so majestic a river as that which rolls beneath their walls.

XXXVIII. From the gardens we proceeded along the Nile to the convent of Abou-Mandoor, situated on a sharp promontory projecting into the river; and there turning a little to the right, ascended to an old tower standing on the summit of the highest eminence in the neighbourhood, where Mohammed Ali has lately erected a telegraph. The low hills, which here border the stream on the west, appear to have been formed by the winds of the desert, and are in many places sprinkled with a few hardy plants,