five months of paris life is again spent, and with it winter has gone by. winter takes away and deadens the energies of a gay man, but the spring time comes, and with it the awakening of man from his lethargy, and like old sol from the bed of the sea, in his majesty he shakes himself in all his rising glory, and puts a fiery garb between himself and all the rest of creation, to scorch the temptation that would impede his bright and manly career. did you ever stand by the shore of a bed of water, reader, and see old sol, like a mighty giant, rise up from his wet pillow, and seem to shake his shaggy locks, as they loosened from the abode of neptune for more etherial spheres, and when at his journey’s end, fall again on his pillow of the watery down? if you have, see me alike pulling away from the festal abode of paris’ comfort, and loosening the tie of familiar smiles, for a hard journey over a rough sea, dead lands, and a treacherous people. will i not be willing, as old sol when he fell on the western sea, to rest my mortal part on the flinty base of great pompey’s pillar, ere the work be “did and done?” i think i will! i have passed marseilles, malta in the sea, and here i am in sight of land. well, mr. captain, what are you looking after in the distance with as much anxiety as the passengers, have you not been here before? “yes sir, but every body wants to see pompey’s pillar.” “that’s a fact, captain, is that his pillar?” at this stage of the enquiry, the captain of the great steamer ripon, laid his telescope down, and took hold of the ladies and gentlemen by the arm and shoulders, and requested that they would not be so partial to only one side of the boat, as it might dry one side of her boiler, endangering his life, as well as theirs. “now,” said the captain, “do you all see that tall, monumental pillar, reaching upwards to the right of those barracks,” when answered in the affirmative, he said, “that is pompey’s pillar, to the left is the pacha’s palace.” this was indeed the great city of alexandria. here it was diogenes built the great temple of diana; and over it suspended her in the air, by attractive and non-attractive metals, such as loadstone and others. we are coming near, and the camel boys and donkey drivers are more numerous than any other class. having gone a quarter of a mile through mud, i am at the hotel, but i would as soon be any where else, for the accommodation is sickening. a man and camel is standing at the door, with a bullock skin full of butter for the landlord. the landlord requested him to uncamel it, and bring it in, after which he plated some of it for dinner. i enquired where this butter was made, and the bedouin told me it was made in the desert, and in recommending it, he said it was good because he made it himself. but the most disgusting information i got of the origin of this butter, was, that it was made from camel’s milk, and this very camel was one of the milch camels. the landlord came to know how we liked our dinner, and the rev. levi tucker, of boston, mass., enquired about this butter, and mine host stuck his finger in the butter, and tasted thereof. i was eating a piece of roast beef at the time, but i could not refrain from turning it over to ask myself, “might it not be camel’s meat,” though i could get no answer. after dinner, four of us americans, headed by the rev. levi tucker, called to see his most serene highness, the pacha of egypt. we stood before his palace in the court, about an hour, after which the dragoman returned from the interior of the palace and inquired of us if we were the president, i told him not quite. he then told us that his serene highness had no complaint to make of us for calling on him, and furthermore, that he had no objection to our looking over the gardens, and at the walls of the palace, and the stable doors. mr. fellowes, of new orleans, lit a cigar, mr. elliot, of south carolina, threw a quid of tobacco among the flowers, and i plucked a rose, and the rev. levi tucker, so far descended from his gravity, to joke by saying, “you will all be fined, look sharp!”
this city was built by alexander the great, more than three hundred years before christ. it is on the nile where it flows into the mediterranean sea, but hardly any of its ancient splendor remains to point its site, save pompey’s pillar, which is an immense stone column. some parts of its walls are traced, and a few gates of granite marble are left to mark its spaciousness. here used to pass the treasures of the indies, but since the discovery of the route, via the cape of good hope, only the mails traverse the red sea, the desert, and the nile. alexandria is the sea-port of egypt, and egypt is a province of turkey. the pacha pays the sultan millions of treasure to rule this land himself, and also binds himself to furnish so many men in time of war, and is bound to lead them on the field if required. the present pacha is said to be a foreign prince, who fought his way to the throne. he lives here one part of the year, and the other at cairo, the capitol of egypt. cairo is about 275 miles from alexandria, and as the english mail from the indies comes there from towards the red sea to this place, they are now building railroads here, to facilitate conveying it to and from england and india.
