Thoughtfully curated historical journalism
In our last we left the homeward bound travellers at the Grand Hotel upon the Desert of Suez, from whence we are now to trace their progress to Marseilles, which port they will, in all probability, have reached simultaneously with the publication of this article.
Continuing the route across the Desert, as indicated by the stations established by Mr. Waghorn, we arrive at the close of the second day from Suez, at Cairo, the modern capital of Egypt. At this celebrated city, and in its immediate vicinity, there is so much to arrest attention that the traveller will, in all probability, feel disposed to delay his further progress homewards while he visits the Pyramids of Gizeh, about 10 miles to the south-west; the citadel, situated to the east of the town, and remarkable as having been the scene of the slaughter of the Mamelukes—completely commands the city, but is itself covered by a high range of mountains in the rear, where & square fort, erected by the Pacha, is garrisoned by 400 men; the obelisk at Matarea (the site of the ancient Heliopolis); the tombs of the Mamelukes; the forests of agate in the rocky hollows of the Desert; and the summer palace of the Pacha. Within the walls of the citadel the chief objects of interest are the new palace of the Pacha, the mint, Joseph’s well, and the magnificent view from the ramparts, extending over the whole city, the land of Goshen, the Pyramids, &c., and bounded only by the eternal Desert. Hill’s family hotel at Cairo, will afford the traveller every possible comfort during his sojourn, and nothing requisite to his enjoyment or further convenience on the route, will be asked for there in vain. Houses, furnished or unfurnished, may also be had by those who prefer such accommodation; and for the satisfaction of invalids, there are English medical men in regular practice to be met with.
On Saturday intelligence of the loss by fire of the ship Georgia, of Newcastle, an Indiaman, Captain Mitchell, bound to London, was received by the underwriters at Lloyd’s, attended with a deplorable sacrifice of human life. This ship was between 800 and 900 tons burden, and was valued at 7000£, being splendidly fitted up for the accommodation of passengers. She had a rich cargo on board, consisting of jewellery, merchandise, and other valuable property, which perished with the vessel; a loss in total of nearly 20,000£.
The unfortunate event occurred on the morning of the 1st of last month, while on her passage to England from Calcutta, which place she left in the early part of February. From the accounts brought over by the ship Thomas Sparks, from China, which arrived off Dartmouth on Friday morning, it appears, that early on the morning mentioned, the “watch” on deck, when the vessel was in latitude 30 south and longitude 36 cast, off Madagascar, discovered a strong smell of burning about the ship; he aroused the commander, Captain Mitchell, and the rest of the ship’s crew, and a strict search was determined upon.
CONSTANTINOPLE, MAY 5.—A Turkish steamer is daily expected from Beyrout with eight Druse chieftains, recently arrested by order of the Seraskier, at Beteddin, near Deir el Kamr. The cause of their arrest is thus accounted for.
In order to insure the tranquillity of the Lebanon, and to prevent a renewal of the sanguinary struggles that have so repeatedly broken out between the Maronites and Druses, and, above all, to check the audacity and unprovoked aggressions of the latter upon the Christians, it has been held advisable by the Porte to disarm both tribes, as far as such disarmament was practicable. But the people, encouraged by their sheiks, refused to comply, and these sheiks, especially those arrested, menaced the Turkish authorities with a general revolt of all their clans, should forcible measures be adopted to produce submission.
We are enabled, through the courtesy of Mr. Waghorn, to present our readers with a detail of his route from India to England; and as the subject involves considerations of vast importance to this country as well as to Europe generally, we have selected it for illustration in our present number. This gentleman has now long been known to the world as the indefatigable and persevering author of the overland route to India. Brought up from an early age in the pilot service of the East India Company, and having distinguished himself in the Arracan expedition, he was in the year 1827 recommended by Lord Combermere to the Court of Directors, as a proper person to open steam intercourse between this country and India. To this he devoted himself; and in 1829 his views had attracted so much public attention, that he was selected by the Company to take out despatches, and report upon the route by the Red Sea. For his successful accomplishment of this duty, he received, on his arrival at Bombay, the thanks of the Governor General in council; and the circumstance of his having proceeded down the Red Sea in an open boat, when disappointed of his steamer, the Enterprise, at Suez, was particularly adverted to, as indicating the zeal with which he had applied himself to the service of the public. Since the year 1831, the endeavours of this gentleman to accomplish his object, by the formation of establishments in Egypt, for the passage of mails and passengers, have been unceasing, and are at length crowned with perfect success. Upon one occasion, in the year 1836, it is recollected that he succeeded in getting a mail from Bombay to London within 60 days, and the rapidity of his method so impressed the public, the Government, and the Board of Directors, with the advantages to be derived from his line of route, that steamers were forthwith placed at his disposal for facilitating his plans; and so successfully had he availed himself of the resources opened to him, as well by the patronage of the Government at home, as by his personal intimacy with Mehemet Ali, that the Indian mail of July 1841 passed from the post-office of London to the post-office of Bombay in 30 days and 10 hours. There can be no question that this gentleman is eminently entitled to the gratitude of his country, or, we may justly say, of all Europe, for the genius, zeal, and self-devotion by which he has so materially shortened the distance between two points of the globe, so important and so essential to the welfare of each other.