DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0078
** TRAVELS IN EGYPT
D
bassiaW of Cairo is appointed to colled it, and to tranfmit it, under the inspeo
tion of a bey os Cairo, who accompanies it quite to Conftantinople.
There was likewife at Alexandria, about the time I was there, a Turkish
squadron; which came thither in order to transport the three thoufand men,
that Egypt surnimed, for its quota, during the war between the Port and the
Emperor os Germany. The half os this quota consided os janissaries; the other
hals os aflass. Thefe two corps behaved fo ill, during the two months that
they remained at Alexandria, that no one could come thither from Cairo in
fasety. They pillaged every where about; and, amongst other roberries, took
away a thoufand sequinsd, that a French merchant fent to be embarked and
transmitted into Europe. He imagined, that his money ran no rifk, because
he had trufted it to fome janiffaries, who are maintained by that nation; but
thefe were attacked by an enemy superior in number, and one of them being
dangeroufly wounded, they delivered up the money to the conquerors. The
consul employed all his power to get this money reftored ; but notwithstanding
all the fteps he took \ notwithstanding all he could offer to the commanders of
these troops, he obtained nothing; and, at my departure from Alexandria,
thev considered thofe thoufand fequins as irrecoverably loft.
T ii e disorders got to fuch an height asterwards, even in the city os Alex-
andria itself, that the janiffaries and affafs came to blows. The reservoirs not
being furniQied with a sufficient quantity of water, to fupply the wants of fo
great a number of fupernumerary perfons; the conteft was, who mould make
themfelves matters of them : together with this, the hatred, which always fub-
sifts between thefe two portes, had animated them to fuch a degree, that their
officers had a good deal of dissiculty to hinder them from cutting each others
throats; and would never have fucceeded in it, if they had not taken the me-
thod of haftening their departure. By this means alone, they re-eflablifhed
difcipline among their troops, and delivered the city of Alexandria from an
heavy burthen, that fcarce left it the liberty os minding its mod necessary affairs.
I was not an eye-witness of the sa&s I have been mentioning; but as I arriv-
ed at Alexandria immediately after the departure os these troops, the me-
mory os the riots they had committed there, was srill so recent, that it was not
possible to doubt os the recitals, nor the complaints that every one made of them.
This digreffion, which I thought necessary, has hindered me from fpeaking
os the faicks and vergues, Turkitti vessels, that one sees every day in the port os
Alexandria. The first, as being the largest, go to Damiata, and to divers other
ports os the Levant; and the vergues are ordinarily employed to go to Rosetto.
Thefe vessels bring from Damiata and Rofetto the merchandizes os Europe, de-
posited in thofe two towns; and they carry thither the merchandizes os Cairo,
that are designed to be sent into Europe.
There remains sor me nothing more to say, than that during my continu-
ance at Alexandria sor three weeks, I went, by way of jaunt, to fee fome places,
d That is about 500/. fterling.
that
D
bassiaW of Cairo is appointed to colled it, and to tranfmit it, under the inspeo
tion of a bey os Cairo, who accompanies it quite to Conftantinople.
There was likewife at Alexandria, about the time I was there, a Turkish
squadron; which came thither in order to transport the three thoufand men,
that Egypt surnimed, for its quota, during the war between the Port and the
Emperor os Germany. The half os this quota consided os janissaries; the other
hals os aflass. Thefe two corps behaved fo ill, during the two months that
they remained at Alexandria, that no one could come thither from Cairo in
fasety. They pillaged every where about; and, amongst other roberries, took
away a thoufand sequinsd, that a French merchant fent to be embarked and
transmitted into Europe. He imagined, that his money ran no rifk, because
he had trufted it to fome janiffaries, who are maintained by that nation; but
thefe were attacked by an enemy superior in number, and one of them being
dangeroufly wounded, they delivered up the money to the conquerors. The
consul employed all his power to get this money reftored ; but notwithstanding
all the fteps he took \ notwithstanding all he could offer to the commanders of
these troops, he obtained nothing; and, at my departure from Alexandria,
thev considered thofe thoufand fequins as irrecoverably loft.
T ii e disorders got to fuch an height asterwards, even in the city os Alex-
andria itself, that the janiffaries and affafs came to blows. The reservoirs not
being furniQied with a sufficient quantity of water, to fupply the wants of fo
great a number of fupernumerary perfons; the conteft was, who mould make
themfelves matters of them : together with this, the hatred, which always fub-
sifts between thefe two portes, had animated them to fuch a degree, that their
officers had a good deal of dissiculty to hinder them from cutting each others
throats; and would never have fucceeded in it, if they had not taken the me-
thod of haftening their departure. By this means alone, they re-eflablifhed
difcipline among their troops, and delivered the city of Alexandria from an
heavy burthen, that fcarce left it the liberty os minding its mod necessary affairs.
I was not an eye-witness of the sa&s I have been mentioning; but as I arriv-
ed at Alexandria immediately after the departure os these troops, the me-
mory os the riots they had committed there, was srill so recent, that it was not
possible to doubt os the recitals, nor the complaints that every one made of them.
This digreffion, which I thought necessary, has hindered me from fpeaking
os the faicks and vergues, Turkitti vessels, that one sees every day in the port os
Alexandria. The first, as being the largest, go to Damiata, and to divers other
ports os the Levant; and the vergues are ordinarily employed to go to Rosetto.
Thefe vessels bring from Damiata and Rofetto the merchandizes os Europe, de-
posited in thofe two towns; and they carry thither the merchandizes os Cairo,
that are designed to be sent into Europe.
There remains sor me nothing more to say, than that during my continu-
ance at Alexandria sor three weeks, I went, by way of jaunt, to fee fome places,
d That is about 500/. fterling.
that