DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0239
228
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
a mighty change will soon be made in this partic-
ular. A railroad is about to be constructed across
the desert, over the track followed by the children
of Israel to the Red Sea. The pacha had already
ordered iron from England for the purpose when
I was in Egypt, and there is no doubt of its prac-
ticability, being only a distance of eighty miles
over a dead level; but whether it will ever be fin-
ished, or whether, if finished, it will pay the ex-
pense, is much more questionable. Indeed, the
better opinion is, that the pacha does it merely to
bolster up his reputation in Europe as a reformer;
that he has begun without calculating the costs; and
that he will get tired and abandon it before it is
half completed. It may be, however, that the read-
er will one day be hurried by a steam-engine over
the route which I was now crossing at the slow
pace of a camel; and when that day comes, all the
excitement and wonder of a journey in the desert
will be over. There will be no more pitching of
tents, or sleeping under the starry firmament, sur-
rounded by Arabs and camels ; no more carrying
provisions, and no danger of dying of thirst; all will
be reduced to the systematic tameness of a cotton-
factory, and the wild Arab will retire farther into
the heart of the desert, shunning, like our native
Indians, the faces of strangers, and following for
ever the footsteps of his wandering ancestors.
Blessed be my fortune, improvement had not yet
actually begun its march.
In the course of the night I was suddenly awa-
kened by a loud noise like the flapping of sails. A
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
a mighty change will soon be made in this partic-
ular. A railroad is about to be constructed across
the desert, over the track followed by the children
of Israel to the Red Sea. The pacha had already
ordered iron from England for the purpose when
I was in Egypt, and there is no doubt of its prac-
ticability, being only a distance of eighty miles
over a dead level; but whether it will ever be fin-
ished, or whether, if finished, it will pay the ex-
pense, is much more questionable. Indeed, the
better opinion is, that the pacha does it merely to
bolster up his reputation in Europe as a reformer;
that he has begun without calculating the costs; and
that he will get tired and abandon it before it is
half completed. It may be, however, that the read-
er will one day be hurried by a steam-engine over
the route which I was now crossing at the slow
pace of a camel; and when that day comes, all the
excitement and wonder of a journey in the desert
will be over. There will be no more pitching of
tents, or sleeping under the starry firmament, sur-
rounded by Arabs and camels ; no more carrying
provisions, and no danger of dying of thirst; all will
be reduced to the systematic tameness of a cotton-
factory, and the wild Arab will retire farther into
the heart of the desert, shunning, like our native
Indians, the faces of strangers, and following for
ever the footsteps of his wandering ancestors.
Blessed be my fortune, improvement had not yet
actually begun its march.
In the course of the night I was suddenly awa-
kened by a loud noise like the flapping of sails. A