1
Alexandria, Egypt. September 13,
1859
Tuesday.
My dearest Frances,
The sun was just rising on Sunday morning when
I gained the deck of the steamer in the port of
Alexandria, and for the first time looked down upon
the Land of Egypt. It was indeed looking down
for the shore as far as I could see it was
scarcely as high as the wooden walled castle
in which I stood. The port is unprepossessing and
the town unimposing, But all w is strange and new to
me. The with its display of shipping is
about equal to Albany, Here and there was an Austrian
flag, and a Greek one, but the Crescent Moon
with its inclosed star flaunts from ^almost^ every mast,
The European costume had disappeared, and
every body official unofficial high and of mean
degree appeared in cap red ^close^ cap or turban
with tunic and trousers these of various colors
and gay if not strung with embroidered silk
or gold. What was strange after so long a sojourn
through Italian ports was that th every body seemed
neat and clean, I landed at eight, passed
the custom house at once and immediately re-
passed through the city to the Station of the

2
rail road
for Suez by the
way of Grand Cairo
The only rail road in
Egypt, perhaps the only one
in Africa.There is a palace of the
[ Pacha ] , and some merchants and officials
have some respectable dwellings but the best
of them are without any claim to superiority, while
the average of dwellings is vulgar and indeed mean
The streets are unpaved sand – the shops shabby, and
small – the whole aspect is that ba of a very common pro-
vincial town – But here as in Italy and even more every body was
in the streets, There are no side walks, Pedestrians fill the
streets, and as I drew through them the Coachman gave loud notice
to the people while he himself made way for ^between^ other carriages as he
could – Coaches and horses however are rare, the ass and the
camel are the beasts of draught – The minaret and tower of
the Turkish mosques are very mean compared with our
Grecian Italian and Gothic structures, The children seem like
young aligaters here with capacity t o and responsibility to
take care of themselves. Few very few women are seen at all
and then are disguised so as to make one wish there were not
so many. The face is concealed by a close ^thick^ vail white or black
with holes to see and breathe through. All concern for
concealment is confined however to the face – arms and
bosoms are recklessly and disrepectingly exposed
When a Turkish lady is seen even in
the waiting room at the rail
road she sits cross
legged. The Bloomer
fashion is univer
sal here

3
The rail road is an European innovation. The managers
French and English. The first class cars French,
the machinery English and American.
At nine o,clock we were on the way to Grand
Cairo. The trail at first runs through a windy way
between Lake Marcotis on sea Marsh on the right and
the Canal which connects the port with the Nile on the
left. When I had passed the lake, Egypt disclosed itself
fully before me. It is as you Know the ^next^ Eastern part
of Africa and adjoins Asia. It is the valley of
the Nile and no more – about three hundred miles wide
parting in the Mediterranean and hundred lying between the
Libyan Desert on the West and the Arabian Desert and
the Red sea on the East, about six or seven hundred
miles longer and stretches from the Mediterranean
see to Arabia. East of it is Arabia under two
Suez onto the Turkish army, South of it and
West of it the th there is only the division of the
African savage Kings or chiefs Egypt probably always was
under the sway of the Asiatic races and chiefly
peopled by them as it is now – from Arabia, the
religion is exclusively Mahometan the civilization Turkish
or Arabian, the people tall, erect graceful, with
very dark complexions, straight hair and regular
features, But the Nubian Libyan and even the Algerian

4
enters on equal terms with the Arab into the social state
and notwithstanding his curled hair and peculiar
features is gentleman, soldier cubjec or subject ap-
parently independent of all ^such^ prejudices as even
known among us. Egypt is as near as possible a
dead plain, with just descent enough to draw
into the Mediterranean sea the floods which the Nile
annually brings down from the mountains in the interior
of the continent, Just here on the shore of the Mediter-
rean there is rain once in many months, But
in the interim, practically speaking it never rains,
at all. In fourteen months past it has rained ^ever^ here
only twice. The cultivated or of tillable land is
only that which is watered either naturally or
artificially by the flood of the Nile. Land that
is inaccessible to water cultivate irrigation is for
that reason a desert. There are no mountains no
natural woods, no groves, Entirely so unprepossessing
a country as I saw on my journey never before
met my eyes, It is now the flood time of the Nile,
Re but but the waters have begun already to abate
All around me on either side before or behind me
was either land covered with dirty red ^dirt^ water or
land that was just emerging from this flood with
occasional green fields which had been saved

5
complete inundation by dykes. If at any time I could
see beyond this monotous scene my eye was not
gladdened with green forests or rocky terraces but
by heaps of sand the border of the desert,
Where the water had put ^ recee ^ receded only recently the
earth was mud yet wet or dry and baked, in
either case not a tuft of grass much less tree or
was to be seen – Palace, Castle, villa, cottage, garden
or meadow, willow bank rising bank, or sedgy
bank, there was none. Whether of natural or of artificial
vegetation the rising flood had found in its way it
had utterly destroyed so that neither camel sheep
or goat could feed on the recovered soil. Yet ^meek^
and scanty as the country was I Knew at a glance
and I had a third endeavor to confirm the belief
that it is the richest and most productive land
on the face of the whole earth. At distances of
a half mile or mile in all directions are
sp small spots which just rise either naturally
or by artificial formation above the highest flood of
the great river, Each of these spots is seized upon
for the site of a village, and the population is
gathered into these villages with their flocks and
herds, But you must not let the American memory of villages
mislead you. The little island is all covered with

6
habitations ^in so^ close contact, as not to allow of gardens, trees, flowers
roads or streets, and the habitations so rude as not to
merit the name of dwellings. A wall is raised some six or
seven feet high, Eight ten or twelve feet square with outer
walls forms an outer court open to the skies, and bearing
only a single entrance, This entrance may or may not have
a door, From that courtyard a door enters into a room
perhaps as large but generally small, one story high,
with the modest fire place, Has only The room has only one
door – and no windows. Its roof is made flat and
is composed of reeds or Hay and straw. The walls
are built of mud bricks sun dried. The dwelling is
the home of the Egyptian farmer with his wife, his children,
his cattle and his poultry. It has no furniture
except occasionally for the better sort, a ^small^ piece of matting
which is unrolled and spread out, The bed if there is
any is a pallet which he can like the sick man
^described^ in the scripture history always take up when he walks
rises to walk. Generally there is none – As it never rains
the ground is never wet, but when washed. The family
sleep equally in the Court, or in the dwelling, or in the
door way or any where around – always sleeping with out
change of ^their^ clothing or other preparation – and the traveler sleeps
at night or by day in the road with his ass or his
camel. The poultry seem to live by day as well
as night on the roof of the homes. Between these villages
there are roads, sand above the floods of the

7
River, they are wide enough for the passage of loaded
camels. The bridges are very wide and are changed
from time to time according to the necessities of cultiva-
tion. I saw hundreds of these roads on my way
to and from Cairo. and they were literally filled
with passengers, yet not one wheeled vehicle
of any Kind, either chariot or cart or wheelbar-
row, The horse & the ox is continually seen, the
ass however is the favored animal for small burdens
while trains of camels sometimes four sometimes
twenty some times forty in number carry the heaviest
freight which the camel and ^the^ river receive for
or make dubious transportation. The
country is rich in these animals as well as in
the cow, the sheep, and the goat. All of the
animals are domesticated, every and men women
and children ride them into the water or elsewhere
at pleasure. This early and complete familiarity with
the human family makes them much more intelligent
and useful than such beasts are in other countries.
As there is no furniture in the dwellings, so there are no
walls, no gardens fruits or flowers, and thus, nothing
but the dry dusty dirty earth, with occasionally a
palm tree or a dozen tall, branched, its sharp
leaves at the top in a cluster, at the base of
which hangs the ripening fruit. I said it was

8
is a productive country. Every village has its threshing floor,
and the chief towns open stores for grain, which here is never
put into barns or inclosed granaries. The quantities of
wheat and rye and rice that I saw in the villages
and towns the produce of lands within the present
year of lands now overflowed would be regarded
an ample staple in any country. Other fields now
submerged have furnished the clover to feed the
animals during the summer. Besides, these provided
large tracts fenced against the inundation and
now covered with Indian Corn, Cotton, sugar
and rice, giving most luxuriantly. Indeed one
need only to see the teeming healthy vigorous
population with their multitudes of flocks and
herds to see that so rich a country exists no
where else. The What great inhibition in Egypt is the
well to supply water when the Nile is low, the
people seem however not to know that the water in
the river is dirty. They bathe, ^&^ water themselves and
wash their cattle in it every where and drink
out of it at the same place – One does not easily
see how they can make linen, or rather cotton
clean ^by washing^ in such water, but I am bound to confess
that they always appear particularly clean, though
they run about in the mud like so many of a
lower kind of animal–
You will naturally ask if there are no excep-

9
tions of persons or families in this general description
of society, Yes there are rich and poor, high and
low here as elsewhere – Richness of dress The quality
of dress distinguishes them, Occasionally stone or brick
walls rise around the rich man’s dwelling in the
village, but still, the sheik or the greatest man
in one of these towns enjoys an estate and a dwelling
less comfortable and elegant than those of the lowest
laboring man in America –
About fifty or sixty miles above the plain
I met and crossed the Nile, with all its widened
flood it is still not a very great river, Perhaps
it may be compared to the Hudson at Catskill.
It was four o, clock when I reached Cairo, and
took a room at the Hotel of England. I lost no
time in making arrangements for a visit to the Pyramids.
I started at half past five on my journey, and
with only a moderate retinue. First there was the
dragomen, mounted on an ass, then myself on
another, which from his popularity among the Ameri-
cans is named Yankee Doodle, a nice gray
sure footed beast, then my courier (or servant)
a boy ^then^ An Arab boy to attend him, then my
courier, similarly mounted with another Arab
lad to attend his ass, It was just in the

10
cool of sunset. The whole population was in the
streets, and gardens, Cairo is a city of 300,000
people, with a very few respectable edifices
but none approaching elegance or munificence, The
narrowest streets are seen, and the homes generally
two stories high with balconies projecting so as ^often^ to
exclude the sunlight, A ^portable^ dry good store relatively
like Stewarts in New York occupies in Cairo
about eight feet square having no windows, and
altogether open in front. I rubbed against a Pacha
and his tail mounted on an ass, not to speak
of multitudes of Plebian people persons in pushing
my way through the Modern Cairo, and the
Ancient Cairo which adjoins it – Of architecture
or of antiquities neither there nor on the
did I see any thing except occasionally
a hill of mingled red brick and earth
I saw the Pachas army in part there, in part
here. The horses are strong and fine animals,
^squadron^ of cavalry, hor has horses all of
one color, bay, white, or black, All of
the troops I saw are Nubians, black,
negroes, a very strong athletic looking men
Their uniform is adapted to the Turkish costume,
I saw there as well as here a Palace of

11
Bey of Egypt. But it is without architectural grace
or beauty or magnificence. I saw gardens, but
they are only gardens of five trees, chiefly two
Acacia, three sycamore and the palm, in May
fields ditched so as to shut out the river,
I saw the Beys seraglio, and from an eminence
which enabled me to look into within the
enclave. It is a very plain brick home of
two stories with some verandahs and inclo-
sured covered with trees, All the poetry about
the Harem which you read is I think wasted,
There is no Lady, resembling a Moderns wife
in the United States, who has not more luxuries
around her than the thirty wives of the Bey who
dwell in the Harem at Cairo – I saw
mosque, upon mosque at Cairo, they are
mean structures compared with our village
churches, at old Cairo, we disembarked and
went with our beasts aboard a small ferry
boat, and were rowed by two Arabs and a
boy across the Nile to the tune of an Arab
night song, We landed at Giza which is
opposite to old Cairo, and is a modern
town, the chief port of the Modern Cairo
Here I got coffee at a Turkish cafe, and

12
then remasting my boat I wound my way carefully
through the heaps of wheat rye, rice, beans, and other
earthen ware and other stores which were spread out
on the earth, for sale, without roof, walls or even
streets, a woman was generally the merchant
and sat in the midst of her merchandize, with
face covered and screened from observation, The harsh
ungrateful guttural of the Arabian language ^when^ spoken
by hundreds and or thousands of excited, noisy
persons, confounds me –When I had inquired at
Cairo abo the way to reach the Pyramids, I asked
why I could not go with a carriage. I soon found out
that I could not make my way with wheels even
through the port of the Capital of Egypt, much less
over the dykes of the arms of the Nile – Carriages are
used only in the two great cities – The Pyramids are distances
from Cairo by an air line eight miles, but by the
winding road necessary to avoid the swollen
waters of the Nile it is for now fourteen miles,
We escaped the towns, with the crowds of soldiers
merchants market men and boys camels asses
and dogs at last and thenceforth by encountered
only men and then a solitary mounted or pedestrian
traveler, or occasionally a party, and going past far
South of the Pyramids then following the bank of a
flooded stream far North of them then going towards them

13
then going away from them, making our way over a
second ferry and three or four bridges we reached
at last the border western border of Egypt the Plane
of the Libyan Desert, on which stands there the most
ancient monuments of the Human Race, It was the
very night of the full moon – a repeating North
wind was blowing and light blocking clouds oc-
casionally threw a shadow on the ground, but generally
it was so clear that the brightness of the moon
paled the fires of the stars, A Seen from the
bank of the Nile at Cairo, the pyramids
looked low and Mean, in from is suggesting
the idea of stacks of hay, All the way along
the water all notwithstanding the clear bright
sky around and above me there seemed to
be a mist rising up near the base of the Pyramids
and I feared that a fog would swallow
them up, or at least would stave off all
prospect from them when once reached. I can
hardly say that they seemed to grow as we
advanced, but that was because while ^though^ advancing
we hardly at any time approached them
The absence of all society and people on the way
the dark night association of night, the tedious
journey prepared me to appreciate them but

14
still they seemed only as haystacks until at last
I saw from the dead level of the Egyptian plain with
its dyked fields and villages and its patches
of maize rice and cotton to a level where
there was no longer river nor stream nor dyke
nor field but a white sloping mountain of
dry sand. The We moved forward on this sandy
shore the pyramids, while the animals
with difficulty lifted ^up^ their feet for two miles,
and the pyramids at every step seemed
to swell at the base and turn higher up toward
the sky. For some distance then I noticed what
little mounds in the sand like an an ant heaps,
which I thought were rocks when I saw that
they had irregular forms. but I found that
they were tufts of grass which had started
up after an unprecedently high flood of the Nile,
and had been since buried up in the sand,
leaving, There were the tracks of the cattle in the
sand wh the animals had come to open the
sand hills when the rising flood this year had
made their provinder scarce. P After a mile
all signs of life around us disappeared – There
was only on our right the Pyramids, and beyond
the built on the declivity of a high walking

15
terrace, and beyond and behind that the sands
of the De Lybian Desert resting upon that town
not a leaf was to be seen, nor that which could
feed or sustain animal life, Here the dragomen
said a sharp shrill Arabic ejaculation
to awaken the shiek who has authority there
But failing in this the two lads wait in greeting
him at the hamlet on the shore of the sand.
While I dismounted to rest and bathed in
the moonlight, when presently I heard a
shout and saw what seemed a troop
making towards us on the sand, It was
the returned messengers now in case of with the
sheik and three ^four^ of his attendants. We moved
on, I might have imagined myself a man
of some consequence as I s while I looked
upon my guard for our party for the party
was now swollen to ten. The precaution
is not mine for the Bedouins have sometimes
waylaid the accesses to the Pyramids at
night. We approached the terrace, and I saw
at once a solution of the m half the mystery
that hangs over the Pyramids. Memphis the
ancient Capitol of Egypt and other towns were built
on the Nile, Graves for the dead are not easily

16
found in the loose earth so often inundated by
the river, The rocky face of the Dessert furnished
ground ^a place^ high enough to protect the dead tomb
from inundation and the rocks were strong
enough to defend them against wild beasts.
The entire face of the rock was pierced a cuts
into vaults and in the vaults the embalm-
ed bodies of the dead were placed, and
then secured by solid masonry closing the
apertures. I stood in the midst of a cemetery that
had been made and filled three or more thousand
years ago, But the great and the rich were not
content with so simple a burial, They built monuments
and the pyramids were their tombs. The grandness
of ancient Egypt passed away with its religion
its cultures and its cities and a new or rather
another Egypt came into its place. The country was
left to its repose, The winds of the desert blew around
it and buried the rocks with their cata[ com ] bs
covering even all but one of th and that the largest
of the Pyramids from the human sight. The Romans
came here and conquered. They removed the sands
from the great pyramids to ascertain its form
and stature, they opened it and the embalmed
bodies disappeared. Successors of the Romans

17
have followed, actuated by a curiosity that the
lesson of time only sharpens, they have opened
the catacombs in the rocks and uncovered
eight other and opened eight other pyramids
The generations of the dead who were buried here
are now no longer sleeping where pride or affection
deposited them but they stand and stare upon
stronger nations in the museums and galleries
every where throughout Europe and our own countries
the very existence of which was unknown to them
alth and unsuspected by them although they had
all ^the^ human knowledge of their time. I entered tomb
after tomb, carefully chiselled, but they were
Advancing along the one civils of the covered aisles
of this strange cemetery I came to confront a
tomb or monument all Egyptian and without imitation
It was a human head neck and chest and
shoulders, in short a bust of ^with^ fair proportions
but its size was more than coloss gigantic or
colossal, although it has been executed only to
the part of the heart it stands full thirty or
forty feet in height, the sculpture is less more
natural than the Egyptian statues generally are and
the figure has therefore what I must call a
natural expression and manner. Who does

18
it , No one Knows. Where does it hold
the embalmed remains assigned to its cave?
No one They have searched its head and its
sides but found no chamber, chamber or sarcopha-
gus. How strange and unnerving this survivor of
his age and country seems to us, sitting here in solitude
and in the desert. Yet if he were ^re^ animated how
much more strange and wonderful would we
our times our laws and manners seem to him,
Parting with the statue with something of awe as
well as with regret, I repaired now to the
base of the Pyramids, and then at Eleven Ten oclock
at night sitting on the side of the olde ruins
town my Cipher was is dinner was spread
on a clean linen cloth and I ate heartily
while I did not forget ^could not but^ to muse upon the
strangeness of the scene of the feast, I was between
the two great pyramids, The shadow of one fell upon me
while my passing shadow rested on the other. Be-
hind me was the Desert, with me are men of
European descention my ^other eight^ attendants eight were
Mongolian Arabs, aliens by both lineage
language and religion. Beneath my feet the sands
of Lybia, before me the fertile lands of Egypt,
and turned by the Nile, overlooking that land

19
and that mighty river, with its crowded capitol
and marts, my eye rested on the white sands
of the Desert of Arabia. Here was the scene
of ancient learning, philosophy and religion
at one time scene exclusively of human civilization
Here was the scene of the captivity of the Jewish nation
and of their sufferings, and of their marvelous deliveran-
ces. My meal deliberately ended, I rose
and followed the guides up the side of the
Pyramid, which step by step as if it were a
a bridal stair case, but each step requiring
the use of hands and feet to ascend it, until
I had gained half way to the pointed mount,
Here an aperture appeared, which was constructed
with ancient masonry and therefore was Knthe
identified as the proper entrance, I stooped
so as almost to be in a sitting position and in
that attitude advanced until I was quite
within the body of the structure. Then ascended
a graded floor between granite walls, and
when this had become impossible I climbed
up on the side walls of the passage and
at length found myself in a chamber twenty
or thirty feet high, and thirty feet square –
In the center of this stood, an empty violated

20
sarcophagus, rifled sarcophagus, I leaned
upon its side, I looked down into it, I directed
the guides to hold their torches near the
walls of the saloon, and high up – The floor
the arched roof, the walls, on the sides
all of were polished granite. I was indeed
in the Court of a Pharaoh. But He was
^a^ dead ^Pharaoh^ and even his ashes were scattered
over the earth. I lifted up my voice, loud
echoes reverberated, I stomped and hollow
chambers ^beneath assured that they were^ equally robbed and equally desolate
The air was hot and dry without moisture
all the pores of my skin gave up moisture to
maintain the equilibrium of life – The Arabs strong
dark vigorous men now deman gave me
notice that they were entitled here to a gift
over and above the fees charged for their services
by the Sheik who was left outside, and
began to menace me. I found reasoning with them
vain, and yet was unwilling to concede
to their intimidation. I refused all arms and
required to be conducted out. They abated, and
excused their concession by saying they knew I
was a good man, and that I would give
them something, I hardly Know how I got

21
back through these dark and fearful passages
sometimes they supported the Arabs supported,
sometimes carried me, and so at last I was in
the open air, with a genial North wind and
that most magnificent moon light playing recovering
and cheering me – It was ten minutes before
my system regained its proper time – I refused
to climb the pyramid, as I had declined
to descend or ascend into other chambers,
and making my way carefully down the
Pyramid, I was once more on the ground, looking
up at the stupendous mount. I have no books
and therefore no reliable measurement of the
Pyramid. But I think that all the ground we
dwell upon is hardly large enough for the
base of such a structure, at One o clock
we set out on our return to Cairo. The people
of Egypt were asleep, except the weary travelers
who like us used the night, to sleep by day
In the villages and the towns men lay sleeping singly
and in groups in the market, on the wheat
and rye heaps, in the streets, their asses and
camels sleeping by their side. All the equally

22
masses that were in our way or going out now
^were^ sleeping where we had encountered them before
but they took no notice of us, only the dogs
were watchful. Every Arab seemed to have
his watchman and that watchman was faith-
ful. The dogs here are of all races, Even the
St. Bernard dog sleeps away his life under
the summer sky. The shepherd dogs seemed
to be less suspicious of us than others, and
the fiercest animal we had to encounter
was a little black fellow with tanned
legs that had taken up his post between
the legs of a camel and on the top of
the camels load – My donkey travelled the
whole twenty eight miles without tripping over
or ^and only^ once betraying his Asiatic origin, just as we
were coming through old Cairo, an ass that was
lying behind a door way in a dark street
sent up a long loud braying complaint about
the grievances of his life. All the ^other^ animals of
our party expressed no sympathy, but Yankee
Doodle was moved beyond endurance and
he returned gave attention to his sympathies
in a manner which proved him to be as

23
truly Arabian as if he had not been naturalized 2 4 3
into the American family.
They do things differently here from us. Instead
of wagons drawn by horses to water the streets, the
work is done by men who gather the water
into woolcovered sheepskins. Instead of lighting
the streets with stationary lamps for the sake
of the traveler, they oblige any man who
goes abroad at night in the cities to carry
a lantern. I had one hours sleep
at Cairo, at nine took the return here
for this city, meaning to take the French
Steamer to Beyrut, B At four, But the
Bey had advised the train to be detained
for some special procession. I arrived half an
hour too late, and I am now waiting
here I know not how long for a conveyance
if possible to Jaffa – the nearest port to
Jerusalem –
I find it entirely healthy here and the
constant northerly winds make the climate quite
endurable. Your own Henry.