DESPOTISM OF THE PASHA. 191 eyes, and others break their arms, or otherwise maim themselves; thus laying us under the necessity of sending back the greater part, and causing the deficiency in the report of the war department which I always perceive. Make up those deficiencies, by sending immediately all the men who are wanting, all fit for service, able-bodied, and healthy; and this you must do in concert with the sheïkhs. And when you forward them, let them know that they must not maim themselves, because I will take from the family of every such offender men in his place; and he who has maimed himself shall be sent to the galleys for life. I have already, on my part, issued written orders on this subject to the sheïkhs; and do thou, also, take care, in concert with them, to levy the consripts demanded, and send them immediately; informing me at the same time, and with the least possible delay, of the number of men who remain in your department. This is what I demand." These circulars were all sealed with the signet of Mohammed Ali, and duly distributed. † * These circulars were printed, to the number of thirty. His Highness, who, no doubt, laments the necessity of having recourse to measures of this rigorous description, understanding the characters of the persons with whom he has to deal, adopts a language suitable to the occasion. With Europeans, or in his diplomatic character, he would be very far from employing these "swelling and gigantic words:" but, beset by difficulties, forced to overcome, at all hazards, the aversion of the Arabs for distant wars, and knowing, moreover, that with such a people, accustomed, unfortunately, to harshness, gentler means would be of none effect, he may, perhaps, be excused for clothing his mandates in so unamiable a costume. Two other circulars, still more remarkable for their style, were, during the spring of this year, forwarded from the divan of Alexandria to the municipal authorities; and these, also, will be introduced in a future chapter. CXXIV. But we must do justice to the Pasha's government. Twenty years ago, the villages in this neighbourhood were so many nests of robbers, so that no stranger could with safety visit them. At present, though the race is far from being extinct, thieves are becoming more rare; the constant levies for his Highness's "victorious armies" draining them away, to exercise their ingenuity in other quarters. I have heard the Swiss defend their mercenary practice of selling the blood of their fellow citizens to foreign nations, by dwelling on the public advantages of getting rid, in distant wars, of the turbulent and unprincipled part of their population; peace, which to all other nations is a blessing, being a curse to them, since it brings home all their thieves and highwaymen, to infest the roads, brawl in the taverns, and fill the gaols. If caitiffs of this description alone were kidnapped by the Pasha's Italians for the army, the Egyptian peasantry would have but little cause for complaint; but, numerous as rogues are in Egypt, I fear that Ibrahim would hardly have achieved his Syrian victories, had no honest man been admitted into the ranks. CXXV. We moored for the night a little to the south of El Wuddi, and the jackals, which seem to grow more numerous as we advance, again, immediately after nightfall, entertained us with their howlings, which greatly resemble the screams of a set of hired mourners wailing for the dead. The village dogs also show their vigilance, by incessant barking. Except these, however, no sounds were heard, save the ripple of the water and the creaking of the kandjia, as it swung to and fro in the current of the Nile. I now began to think my little cabin quite comfortable, with my divan, my books, my pipe, my coffee, and my cheerful lamp; more especially when, returning late in the evening, tired after a long walk, I beheld a light gleaming from the cabin door across the water, awakening something analogous to the feelings of home; though, being greeted, on entering, by none of those young faces which I was wont to see clustering round my hearth on the banks of Lake Leman, this feeling soon gave way to a sense of utter solitude. We had no rain this day (though the sky still continued to be overcast), and the cold was less severe than the day before. 194 A DAY OF ACCIDENTS. CHAPTER IX. DANGEROUS AVALANCHES IN THE NILE MY KANDJIA NEARLY APPEARANCE - OF Friday, Dec. 4. Kafr el Zarateen. CXXVI. This morning seemed, at sunrise,—there being little wind, -to promise a better day than yesterday. But it soon began to blow as strong as ever from the south; and, as there was no path for the trackers on the eastern bank, we put up a sail, and made for the opposite shore, where we had much difficulty in keeping the kandjia from striking every moment against the land. Several villages are here seen on the Arabian side of the Nile; and, directly over against the place where we moored, there is a small low island, Geziret el Zarateen. CXXVII. This was a day of accidents, one of which nearly proved fatal to me and my boat. The wind, as usual, was southerly when we set out, and, soon after our departure, began, as I have said, to blow ADVENTURE ON THE NILE. 195 with great violence. Of course, there were no means of proceeding but by tracking; and, for this purpose, three men were sent on shore. Monro had left his boat early, while I had remained on board to write. At length, however, I observed that the current, aided by the wind, was becoming exceedingly violent; that the three men on shore were unequal to the task of tugging us along; and that, owing to the loftiness and steepness of the bank, there was no possibility of adding to their number. About ten o'clock in the morning, we came to a bend in the river, where the bank was at least twenty feet high, and worn away at the base by the action of the stream; and, in consequence, extremely liable to those avalanches (as they are justly denominated by Bishop Heber) which often sink boats in the Ganges. Round this point the Nile rushed along with fearful noise and velocity, forming many whirpools, and eddying vortexes covered with foam; and it required extraordinary force to drag forward the kandjia through this "hell of waters." By great good fortune, Monro's boat turned the promontory in safety; but when mine came up, either the wind had increased, and the fury of the eddying current along with it, or my Arabs, already fatigued and exhausted, made an untimely pause; thus giving the water a purchase, as it were, by which to cast us back. Our reis, a highly active but not a strong man, knowing wherein the danger of our position consisted, endeavoured, by the most strenuous exertions with the pole, to keep away the boat from the overhanging bank, |