DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0079
72
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
own men were very obedient, but they could not
control the wind. 1 had a written contract with
my rais, drawn up by a Copt in Cairo, in pretty
Arabic characters, and signed by both of us, al-
though neither knew a word of its contents. The
captain's manner of signing, I remember, was very
primitive ; he dipped the end of his finger in the
ink, and pressed it on the paper, and in .so doing
seemed to consider that he had sold himself to me
almost body and soul. " I know I am obliged to
go if Wowega says so," was his invariable answer ;
but though perfectly ready to go whenever there
was a chance, it was easy enough to see that they
were all quite as contented when there was none-
Several times I was on the point of turning back,
the wind drew down the river so invitingly; but
if I returned it was too early to go into Syria, and
Thebes, " Thebes with her hundred gates," beck-
oned me on. On the seventh I had not made
much more than fifty miles, and the wind was still
ahead, and blowing stronger than ever ; indeed, it
seemed as if this morning, for the first time, it had
really commenced in earnest. I became desper-
ate, and went ashore, resolved to wear it out. We
were lying along the bank, on the Libyan side, in
company with fifteen or twenty boats wind-bound
like ourselves. It was near a little mud village, of
which I forget the name, and several Bedouin
tents were on the bank, in one of which I was
sitting smoking a pipe. The wind was blowing
down with a fury I have never seen surpassed in a
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
own men were very obedient, but they could not
control the wind. 1 had a written contract with
my rais, drawn up by a Copt in Cairo, in pretty
Arabic characters, and signed by both of us, al-
though neither knew a word of its contents. The
captain's manner of signing, I remember, was very
primitive ; he dipped the end of his finger in the
ink, and pressed it on the paper, and in .so doing
seemed to consider that he had sold himself to me
almost body and soul. " I know I am obliged to
go if Wowega says so," was his invariable answer ;
but though perfectly ready to go whenever there
was a chance, it was easy enough to see that they
were all quite as contented when there was none-
Several times I was on the point of turning back,
the wind drew down the river so invitingly; but
if I returned it was too early to go into Syria, and
Thebes, " Thebes with her hundred gates," beck-
oned me on. On the seventh I had not made
much more than fifty miles, and the wind was still
ahead, and blowing stronger than ever ; indeed, it
seemed as if this morning, for the first time, it had
really commenced in earnest. I became desper-
ate, and went ashore, resolved to wear it out. We
were lying along the bank, on the Libyan side, in
company with fifteen or twenty boats wind-bound
like ourselves. It was near a little mud village, of
which I forget the name, and several Bedouin
tents were on the bank, in one of which I was
sitting smoking a pipe. The wind was blowing
down with a fury I have never seen surpassed in a