Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

292
TRAVELS IN ASIATIC TURKEY,
for fuel. Perceiving that we were English, the natives brought to
the germs fowls, geese, wild ducks, pigeons, eggs, and bread of
a good quality,
all of which articles were purchased at moderate
prices.
The hindmost germ came up at five in the afternoon, and we
instantly bore away with a fine breeze from the north-west. The
wind still becoming more favourable towards the
evening, we
steered a steady course, and reached Rosetta in safety about eleven
at night.
On the morning of the 23d I went on shore, and waited on Co-
lonel Barlow, commandant at Rosetta, who informed me that a
Serjeant had recently died there of the plague, having survived the
attack only 24 hours. Several fatal cases of this disease having re-
cently occurred among the ,
Arabs, Greeks, and other inhabitants,
the Colonel was preparing
to fix his residence without the town,
the more to secure himself from
effectually
infection. I was in-
formed that sa sudden had been the attacks of the plague among
the troops at Rosetta some little time before, and their fatal termi-
nation so speedy, that several of the pestiferous subjects had died
on their wav from the barracks to the hospital, and several others
had fallen down in the ranks. A regiment of Sepoys, three hun-
dred strong, had sustained a loss of an hundred and twenty indivi-
duals, comprehending the women and children, to whom the disease
had been fatal as to
equally
the men.
We were compelled, to
contrary our inclination, to make some
stay at Rosetta, in order to procure germs adapted to our voyage to
Alexandria, those employed on the Nile being of a peculiar con-
struction, which renders them unfit for a passage by sea.
The bogaz, or bar, of Rosetta, at which the Nile forms a junction
with the sea, can be crossed with safety in moderate weather
only, and by vessels of a particular construction. On this account
the trade of Rosetta is much limited. This bar is formed by sand
banks thrown up by the contest maintained between the rapid cur-
rent of the Nile and the waters of the sea; and as these banks, or
shoals, are constantly changing their position, the navigation over
them is rendered extremely hazardous at particular seasons of the
year, more especially to those who are unaccustomed to the passage.
When the wind blows fresh from the northward, with a
high sea, by which it is usually accompanied,
the bar is rendered
impassable by the great number of shoals which are suddenly
thrown up. Many fatal instances of the temerity
of the British