Amedee Baillot de Guerville - New Egypt

New Egypt

AMEDEE BAILLOT DE GUERVILLE

New Egypt, A. Baillot de Guerville

Jazzybee Verlag Jrgen Beck

86450 Altenmnster, Loschberg 9

Deutschland

ISBN: 9783849650292

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

admin@jazzybee-verlag.de

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IN the autumn of last year, whilst spending a few days at Caux, that ideal resort overlooking Territet with its lovely bay on Lac Leman, I chanced to meet an old friend of mine, a diplomatist, who had passed some ten years or so of his life in Egypt.

I have just been reading Au Japon, he said to me, and my mind is now made up. I can resist no longer. I am off for a trip to the land of the Chrysanthemum. Won't you come and have another peep at your old loves?

No, my dear fellow, I replied. I am going to flirt with yours. You are bound for the land of the Mousm, I am bound for the land of mummies.

Egypt?

A far off look came into his eyes, a sigh escaped his lips, whilst he added:

I envy you. It is an ideal winter spot. But you will find yourself greatly mistaken if you expect to meet only mummies there. As to the fair sex, I can tell you But what's the good? You will have the pleasure of discovering for yourself all the treasures which Egypt offers in winter to those who have eyes to see and the wisdom to understand. I have half a mind to come with you, but Japan is too seductive. Go, my dear chap. Not your first visit, is it? Ah! you will find the proverb says truly: He who has once tasted of the waters of the Nile will surely return to drink thereof. But tell me, what are you going foramusement?

To amuse myself? Rather not. I'm going to write another book.

What! on Egypt? Poor fellow!

It would be impossible to describe the expression of pity, half surprised, half amused, of my friend the diplomatist.

I envy you no longer, he said. I only pity you, The most terrible, brain-splitting Chinese puzzle is simple as A, B, C, compared with the Egyptian question.

But I don't intend to have anything to do with the Egyptian question. It is the country, its inhabitants, their customs, which

Yes, but that's the rub. I defy you to write of all that without touching on the thousand and one financial and political questions in which Egypt is to-day head over ears. Listen! I have passed years there, and behind the scenes, as you know. Very well. I tell you frankly I cannot say that I know Egypt a whit better now than before I went; in fact, I believe the longer one lives there the less one sees clear. We no more understand the Egyptians than we understand the Japanese; and, besides, there is this difference that, whereas the latter understand themselves, the former do not, any more than we do. Ah! It is a pretty mess, as you will see for yourself.

There is no mistake; my friend was right. I had no idea as to the difficult task I had undertaken.

To understand Egypt, to describe in a single volume its past glorious but in ruins, its present full of energy and work, its future of hope and promise, is humanly impossible. New Egypt has not been written for my Egyptian friends, for those who know thoroughly this lovely land. Herein will be found only impressions, such as may strike the traveller as he makes his way from Alexandria to Fashoda, with here and there some remarks on matters political, financial and religious, which I have been able to obtain from good sources. These sources are the highly placed personages in the Egyptian world, English, French, native and others; these men, keen and talented, who, in palaces, ministries, legations, schools, hospitals, banks or large industrial concerns, are working without ceasing for the regeneration of Egypt. I have knocked at all doors, rich and poor, high and low, and everywhere a warm welcome has awaited me. Enter, observe, criticise. Here are our attempts, and, alas! here also are our failures.

And to-day an easy task would await me if, instead of twenty chapters, I could write twenty volumes. On each subject, on each page, the fear is always with me that I may not have written enough to give a clear idea of Egypt to those who know it not, and yet I fear also to overstep the limits I have set myself in this small book.

To all those who have aided me, in Egypt and in the Soudan, I now express my most sincere gratitude and thanks. I give no names: they are modest folk, and, besides, have no need of my little advertisement.

Amongst the illustrations are a certain number of photographs taken either by myself or by friends, and others kindly placed at my disposal by Messrs. Dittrich and Lekgian of Cairo, M. Bato of Luxor, M. Fiorillo of Assouan, M. Veniris of Khartoum, and Herr Turstig of Omdurman.

There are very few good photographers in Egypt, and I should advise those amateurs who do not develop their own work to be very careful. I have had many plates and films absolutely ruined by ignoramuses calling themselves prize photographers. To those in Cairo I can thoroughly recommend either M. Lekgian or M. Dittrich, photographer to the Court. The latter has a wonderful collection of portraits, admirably done, of all the more important persons. His rooms are a real museum of all the celebrities, masculine and feminine, whom Cairo has known in the last five-and-twenty years. As to M. Lekgian, he has, besides some remarkable portraits, a unique collection of views and native types both in large prints and in post-cards.

And finally, amongst the other illustrations, will be found many photographs, veritable little gems, signed by Mr. David Gardiner, of New York, an amateur whom I do not hesitate to call a real artist.

My only regret is my inability to make use of all the negatives kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. Gardiner. However, I trust that some day he will take my advice and publish an album of Egypt Illustrated, unless, indeed, I can avail myself of them in a future work. In fact, in the present volume I find that I have not been able to include all that I could have wished, and therefore I hope at some future date to supplement the present book with another entitled Egypt Intime, which I hope will not be without interest to my readers.

At present my object will be attained if those who read these pages, and who have not already seen the Nile, will feel a desire to pass a few months in the land which, without doubt, for a winter holiday is one of the most charming, agreeable, and interesting.

First impressionsEast and WestPoverty and richesThe Stock ExchangeEvery man a speculatorRolling in money Wild extravaganceWomen's hearts and men's purses Place Mohamed AliThe statue of a great manHow he founded his dynastyEnglish soldiersHere since 1882The bombardment of AlexandriaThe rle of FranceDid Admiral Seymour exceed his orders?Kitchener's presence An admiral's fearsThe decline of French influence.